Ma's 90th birthday in Adventures in paradise

Yesterday I went to Pittsworth for my grandma’s 90th birthday celebration. I wasn’t really looking forward to it or the social anxiety of having to see estranged extended family whom I probably only ever see once a year or whenever someone dies, but at least it was for a happy occasion, and I told myself it was only for a few hours and I could deal with it.

I went to my parent’s briefly beforehand, since mum asked me if I was going to. As I was pulling up, I saw my older brother, and his new girlfriend and one of my niece’s (Madeline) getting into their vehicle to go somewhere. Anyway, I just caught them and they wound down the window, so I briefly yet awkwardly met the new girlfriend (Nicole). He was going out for a drive to the farm, which didn’t make a lot of sense considering Ma’s (my grandma) birthday was starting at 1:30pm and it was 12:45pm when I saw them, and the drive out to the old farm is at least 30 minutes each way lol. Go figure.

I went into the house and saw dad first and gave him a hug. He was expecting a handshake with his hand extended, so got a surprise when I hugged him. Things still aren’t absolutely perfect with the homophobic comments he made years ago, as there was never an apology or anything, but I figure I’m going to be myself around him whether he likes it or not, and I’m a hugger. I never added him back as a friend on Facebook but I did unblock him a while ago so he can see things if he really wants to, not that I make anything public.

Anyway, there were about 80 people there! It was at the Pittsworth bowls club and I saw family I hadn’t seen in forever. Pretty much everyone was there except a few. Apparently Sam (my nephew) has gone haywire and moved over to Perth. He’s followed a girlfriend who has family over there and my parents are worried because he doesn’t know anyone at all and has no support network. All his stuff is still at their house too. He’s just upped and left like the girl in Sara Evans “Suds In The Bucket” song. The new girlfriend must be a real catch. Anyway, they said that he’s happy so that’s the main thing. Just a long way to go.

I got to meet my great-niece! Georgia’s little baby is now already 5 months old, and is the cutest wide-eyed thing ever. I never thought I’d see a cute baby. I met the boyfriend/father too and he’s a really nice guy, so that’s good! It’s so cool to see her with a baby, considering she told me many years ago that she thought she might be a lesbian lol, so obviously she didn’t go down that track. It’d be cool to actually be able to have a conversation with her about that one day though. She’s like one of the few family members that I genuinely get along with.

Another one is my cousin Tammy. We grew up together out on the farm, her being a few years younger than myself, but we have so many fond memories, and oh so many laughs. She was hilarious back then as a 13 year old and is just as funny and witty now as a 33 year old.
I’d gone outside at one point to get away from everyone and watch the oldies playing their lawn bowls. They were playing on one green and the other green was filled with kids all running around playing tag and doing what kids do. There wasn’t much else for them to do there tbh. Tammy’s mum was playing ball with some of them but was pretty much the only adult supervising like 30 or so kids whilst everyone else mingled and did speeches inside.
At one point, one of the inflatable balls went over onto the green where the lawn bowls were and hit some of the lawn-bowls, and one oldie took it upon himself to let them know exactly what he thought. He was NOT HAPPY JAN! I thought to myself, “I wonder if I’ll be a grumpy old man one day. Probably.” He was the opposite of my grandma. At 90, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her be angry. It was a big day for her, with so many people around. A big chunk of us only exist in this life all because of her. Pretty amazing to think about.

Tammy was making me laugh though, and telling her husband (Cameron, whom is gorgeous - she definitely married well) after the ball went flying onto the other green, “You know who doesn’t have to worry about this? Matt.”
LOL.
Then there was a lost kid so Tammy went into mum-mode and was trying to find his mum, so it was fun watching Tammy and Cameron talk about “mum-code” (ie - empathy etc) and “dad-code” (ie - meh, “it’ll be right” etc).
She did ask if I had a partner and I said, “No” so that was kind of an abrupt end but it was nice of her to ask. I did mention that I enjoy being single.
I get along well with her eldest sister too and her husband (also named Cameron) but as for the middle sister, not really so much. I saw her briefly and said, “You’re looking well” (which she was!) and she said, “Aww thankyou,” but that was the extent of our whole conversation lol.

My sister Julie was there, so it was good to catch up with her on how she’s doing with all her cancer stuff, the poor darling. She’s grown back some of her real hair and has dyed in purple so it looks really cool. The only direct family member who wasn’t there was my little brother, Craig, but he lives in Mt Isa so it’s pretty far to come down for.
Julie had a funny story about how she was getting worried because her hands were turning purple so she went into emergency. She really dragged it out too and made it a really cool story and then ended up the punchline that what was causing her hands to go purple wasn’t related to the cancer at all, but rather the new jeans that she’d purchased earlier that week LOL.
I was telling them about my experience with my rich friend in Sydney where I got dragged to that really fancy club that time in jeans and a t-shirt and that he’d thrown his Louis Vuitton scarf at me. My nephew Mason (also the day’s official photographer of the photos below) was pretty into the story. He was telling me that he is studying forgotten languages at his uni. He’s always been SUCH an intelligent kid (he’ll probably be a neurosurgeon one day) and now I find out that he’s studying languages that are dying out, like in lost tribes in Asia where the kids are now being taught and speaking English, so he’s really into the idea of keeping these old languages alive. Tell ya what, what a guy my nephew is. He’s my sister’s only child, but wow, my sister has sure raised him right.

I had various older generation people come up to me and say hi but I couldn’t remember who they were. SO embarrassing, but it’s not like I pretty much ever see these people - they are like friends of my parents or friends of kids around my age and TWO of them came up to me and looked me in the eyes and asked, “Do you remember me?”
Cue me staring at them with a blank-stare. LOL.
How the fuck would I know?!
Anyway, thankfully they reintroduced themselves. I tried to save myself with one of them by saying, “Well now that you’ve talked, I remember” but I doubt that worked haha. Ergh. Still, it’s shit on my part for not having the best memory. My mother on the other hand knows everyone! Everyone was coming up to her and saying hi. It’s always been like that though. In small country towns, pretty much everyone knows everyone. It’s not like here in the city where I don’t even know who my immediate neighbours are. I will say that about the country - it’s been cool and much more genuine.

So I saw and spoke to other cousins who I got along with well growing up like Jenna and Ashley (they always had a religious view on me being gay that caused a bit of tension, but what else is new - thankfully they were okay yesterday.) Get this right - they both married a set of brothers on a neighbouring farm. Two sisters married two brothers and took on their surname’s. One of the brothers actually came up to me and had a really long and genuine conversation with me, big smile on his face. Typical down-to-earth farmer who can just chat to anyone at all. Cue me not remembering who HE was either LOL! Fuck. I am a horrible person. Thankfully I clued on after a while of him talking and realized he was Ashlee’s husband.
Then I saw other cousins who I barely ever saw or interacted with like Stephanie, Raquel and Tiana. Raquel in the stunning model who does bodybuilding. You’ll see her stand out in the photos. I was quite lucky in that she’d brought her boyfriend along, who is HAWT as well (I mean, naturally, when you’re dating a model, chances are you’re gonna be hot too.) I actually even met him and shook his hand (which I am never washing again - jokes.) He’s a really cool guy with a nice smile and ^shock-horror^ works as a PT on the Sunshine Coast.
So, yeah.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling and post some photos.

So here we have Maddie, Georgia (my nieces), Julie (my sister), then my grandma ‘Ma’ (holding gorgeous little Ayla - Georgia’s little one), then me in the back lol, then my mum being pretty in pink, then Mason (my nephew) and my dad.

This one has my older brother in the middle

5-generation photo

My cousin Jenna. It also gives you a pic of the cake!

Annnd I may have found a photo of Anthony on the right on his FB profile lol

The drive back home was good. I was meant to catch up with Kristy in Toowoomba but she’d forgotten about me and had planned to babysit instead so I just grabbed some Super Rooster (can only get it in Toowoomba, as it’s not in my city) and went up to Picnic Point to eat it (seems to be a bit of a tradition these days.) The idea was to buy it for myself, Kristy and her son, but obviously that didn’t end up happening so I ordered it myself :D
Chatted to a couple of guys on Grindr but not a lot was happening so just went home. Had work the next day.

Last updated August 11, 2019