Lunching

This lunch-time, following a morning of football practice and our game of darts-and-farts (the winner at darts gets to fart on the loser), Alex was to be collected from home by his uncle (his Dad's brother). I was looking forward to this. In the two hours that he'd be out at lunch with uncle, aunt, and cousins, I'd get to work on the bathroom (DIY blah), whilst listening to Stoke City suffer a cruel defeat at the hands feet of the Manchester City squillionaires.
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On cue, there came the knock at the door: no aunt, but uncle and cousins (inc. one tiny one* that looked like a Yorkshire pudding) - on foot (* with trendy pram-type contraption).
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'Walking - how healthy', I thought.
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'Alright, Shane! Fancy a pint?' spoke uncle.
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Gulp!
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Now, uncle and I get along, we're beyond civil - we're friendly - but we only ever need to be in chunks of, say, two minutes maximum. To push the boundary and take this to the level of having a pint - with three children in tow (not ideal), well that's the sort of thing that I would never have envisaged. Did I fancy a pint? Not really. Was my own lunch in the oven at that very moment? Yes it was. Was I committed to being a useful bathroom-orientated DIY kind of person?
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'Where were you thinking?'
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'Just round the corner'
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'I'll get our coats'
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And so we walked to the pub - boys talking about swapping football cards, men talking about babies. (Link credit) In the hour and a half that we were at the pub, there came a moment when my mind wandered. I was unable to imagine what reaction would splutter forth from a couple of old girlfriends, as I considered that I was in a pub - relaxed, having a pint - the manly thing, you might say - with the brother, nephew, niece and son of Ed - my partner's ex. Immersed in the family of my partner's ex. I think the most pleasing detail - or quality - here, is that (apart from this kind of blog post) the manner in which this non-nuclear family formation has emerged, has been very lo-fi. None of us are inclined to sing, dance or be particularly demonstrative about our set-up. Whilst I am open to expressions of alternative lifestyles and family formations, I am prone to wonder about (be suspicious of) those people for whom such expressions seem to be a core part of their identity - especially where they seem to be emphatically positive. I think this comes from the same perception - or maybe is the same perception - as the one about social liberals simply being different kinds of social conservatives. Mm. Much of this - not the crude social stereotyping bit - is fairly important to me.
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I'll sort the bathroom out next weekend.