My cousin from San Francisco (who is living in London at the moment) came to visit over the last couple of evenings. I would like to think she came to stay just to spend some time with her favourite cousin, but I know in reality she was after my uber-geek computer skills to help her fiddle with her business website.
It was great having her stay - we have the kind of relationship where you don’t have to try at all. Conversation and company comes easily - which I guess is how it should be.
Last night was our local “pub quiz” and she was as excited as a child at christmas - her first “British Pub Quiz”… I got in from work at 7:30pm, got changed quickly and then we set off for the pub - accompanied also by W’s brother who was using the visit to the pub as an excuse for a night out too (he stayed over at ours too).
On the way down the road we called our good friends who are moving house at the moment, and asked if they were around. We thought they might like to have a break, and they jumped at it.
We had a great evening - catching up on each other’s news, doing the quiz predictably badly, and drinking lots. Probably too much. Enough that I drank two pints of water before going to bed last night…
While sat in the pub dipping in and out of the various conversations, I realised that the group around the table are the last of my close family and friends that don’t have children - and that situation will be changing for us soon too. The chance to meet at the local pub at the drop of a hat will vanish.
I don’t know that I’ll miss going to the pub - because I’ve never been the kind of person that goes out that regularly, but I might miss the freedom. I guess it’s just one of the changes that will come with being a parent. I’ll probably be far too wrapped up in other things to even think about it once we get there.
We had another meeting with the adoption services this morning to go over our views on parenting skills - our past experiences. At the close of the meeting we finally got a prospective date for our review panel - late September. It’s later than we would have liked, but at least we now have a date.