The G{ina} Diaries: Barrel of laughs....

Today has been a barrel of laughs...seriously. From the moment I woke up the day has been filled with SO many fun moments.

My early morning flashing red light on my phone brought me my first smile. A photo story from my sister of Fred having his morning brekkie...complete with the requisite commentary....flip it was funny! And each pic was so aptly accompanied with words that I could not help but smile from the heart...it made me feel like singing, 'Daybreak...daaaaaaayyyy-break...daylight comes and I wanna go home'...who remembers that from our good old Zimbo days!

And then it was Skype time with the family...and let me tell you, Skyping with my family is both joyous and nauseating at the same time. I love seeing them and hearing the nattering and the laughter and the lives going on....but hell's bells - when my mother gets hold of that bloody iPad...holy mother of madness...she has no concept of what in fact an iPad is...and therefore, with me gripping the edge of my 'virtual Skype seat' she whips me around madly...I see the floor, down her shirt, the ceiling, in between her knees as she wheels herself about...she has no concept of where the camera actually is and so it is like being whipped about in a washing machine at 20000 rpm. No ruddy wonder I feel sick!! And all the time she is saying..'are you there Geens, are you there...can you hear me?' So yes - I absolutely find myself crying with laughter...and the conversation has not even started yet!

Now conversations in my family are rather riotous. Everyone talks at the same time. We generally talk AT each other. We have half conversations. People wander in and out of the kitchen while food is being cooked, baby is being fed, plugs are being cleaned (my mother is hilarious like that)...and all the while I am propped up...either on the dining table or on the kitchen counter. Everyone talks to me as if I am there. They show me things, they change the baby nappy. Today there was an added surprise...my special 'nephew', Trev and his lovely girlfriend, Amy, were in town visiting. So Fred is being fed and Trev is yabbering away to me at the same time...honestly, it is no wonder I pine for these moments - my family is frenzied, feisty, chaotic and so incredibly wonderful. With each year I get older I recognise the importance they have each had in my life.

And then I got a text...from my 'sister-from-another-mother', Cherolie. She is such an important member of our family. Fred has another Aunty. I have another sister. Blessings abound. Anyway. Cherolie went on honeymoon with my sis and BIL. 8 of them went on a boat in the caribbean swimming with the whales and the dolphins. On the boat were two of my mum's oldest, dearest and wildest mates ever. Drags and Patty Cakes have been in my family's life since Carls and I were born. Pats used to live in the road road the corner from us in Bulawayo. Drags was down the road..the Burnside road to be exact. Neither of them have had kids. One lives in the UK, the other in Harare. And I truly do feel like Carls and I are there adopted children. So naturally Cherolie and Patty Cakes became firm friends on the boat. When you are in a confined space on a boat together and you can hear each other's daily activities you become friendly! Now you need all this context to understand why the next Skype that happened today was SO funny. I haven't spoken to Cherolie since Fred was born. I didn't know she had gone up to Patty Cakes and her hubbie this weekend to visit. A text comes through on my phone this morning from Cherolie asking me to add Pats on Skype so they can test if Pats skype is working. You know - getting these golden oldies onto Skype these days requires patience and a level of technology know-how. Patty had all the equipment so Cherolie set her up. And they rang me. And boy oh boy - the hilarity continued! No video...thanks goodness...as I was still in my pjs and Patty hadn't showered yet. The two of them were sharing one headset...literally sitting with the headset on the table between them yelling into it...flip I was laughing at the image! Only Zimbo's would make a real plan...! Pat's was regaling me with the shenanigans from the local pub last night. She and Dave live in a tiny village...they have been there for years...so Pats is telling me how Cherolie was being hit on by the local janitor of the village school in the pub last night. We are absolutely killing ourselves laughing. Cherolie is telling me how the janitor still lives with his mum. Pat's is screeching with laughter in the background and saying how she would NEVER have let Cherolie go home with him. And I am offering my ten pence telling Pat's how can she possibly deny Cherolie a shag...needless to say she offered up that the house was too small and the walls too thin for that to happen! In between Pats is proclaiming that she needs to go and shower before they take Cherolie to the station. Now Pat's does not move in a hurry. Life is too chilled for that. So I say to her 'go and have a FRENZIED shower Pats before you need to get to the station' and in her best, poshest English accent I hear...'G, we do NOT use the F Word in our house'...well that was me. Tears. Rolling down my cheeks. Seriously - it was like my mom was on the end of Skype.

And both of the above conversations had come off the back of a HILL-arious conversation with my sister on the train last night. I had rung her to say hi on my way to do some browsing for Xmas pressies. We were yakking away and the next minute she is telling me about the box they have for Fred to sleep in. He is in the box so that they do not roll onto him in the night and it makes it easier to feed him, etc etc etc. Well. That was me. Finished. Visions of a 7 day old lightie napping in a cardboard box...I was laughing so hard I was wheezing. In my family they generally pre-warn me if they are about to tell me something that will make me wheeze. It is the only way to ensure I do not cough my lungs out and that I take a big enough breath to get through the wheeze. But this time - no warning Just a wheeze-worthy comment. I was buckled over with laughter and the train full of people was absolutely giving me daggers. She assured me that it was not a cardboard box as I was imagining. But I could not get the image out of my head. My nephew was sleeping in a BOX! I made my sister swear to send me a pic of the 'box'...and so this morning the box pic came through...and I laughed again and again...but it keeps the wee fella happy and safe, so what if he is 'livin in a box, livin in a carboard box' long may his sleep times last!