A Welcome Home, Photo Fun and the Modern Day Jester

To follow the story from the beginning click here.

Saturday morning was a great one. Off I went to Gatwick, no hand luggage in sight. I was delighted to enjoy a drama-free tube journey too! Luckily it was early morning travel time and as I sat in my quiet carriage, I began my Blue Peter style ‘Welcome Home Dad’ sign. (Still awaiting Blue Peter badge).

On Dad’s return from his trip to Canada (with Mum’s brothers), he assumed only Sarah would be there to pick him up. Hannah and I had come along too. SURRRRPPPRIIIISSSSE! Not yet – we couldn’t even see exactly when his flight was coming in. A text from our Uncle Geoff then threw us even more (see video on my Facebook page!). We had many a minute wondering if we were actually at the right airport! Heathrow? Is this a joke? Thankfully Gatwick it was and we welcomed home a jet-lagged, slightly bemused and a very-excited-to-see-us Dad. It was a lovely moment. After the greeting we caught up over coffee and before long the gang were parting – they all headed back to Dorset as I skipped back to London Town.

On the Bank Holiday Monday I met my cousin and her daughter for a spot of lunch before they set off to Paris. Nicola was taking Amber on a girly trip for her 18th Birthday present. Before, during and after lunch with the ladies, I was bombarded with a large volume of pictures on a Whatsapp group named, ‘Funny photos.’ Oh, here we go. Sarah sis had come across some childhood photographs and they were more than a little bit amusing. I have done a little montage below of some that I have found. They make me so happy. My particular fave is the one of myself donning Dad’s balaclava. What the……! Back then folk wore them for cycling but perhaps I have always misunderstood? Cycling is when you borrow stuff from strangers houses without them knowing right?

It made me realise that, especially with my bad memory, I am so glad that we can record the good times – the old times. Going through all of the photographs when Mum died was an extremely difficult task but one that really made me so grateful for my upbringing. Apart from a rare few where I have a face like thunder (this was probably due to the time of the morning that the photo was taken), I noticed that they were all full of grins and fun times. There has been a noticeable change to the amount of snaps I take since Mum passed away. I don’t want to miss a moment. I am almost certain some of my friends on good old Facebook will think that I put far too many albums up. Well I don’t think so. Unfortunately I realise that later on in my world, I have little of Mum and I together. I wish I’d taken so many more, but how was I supposed to know what would happen?! We have some great family shots though. I think this example below gives you a real insight into how serious we are as a family:

Moving from photos to videos again – we are now back to the Monday arvo and meeting Nic and Amber before their Parisian trip ahead. (I can’t lie – I was SO jealous.) We were off through the station when we passed the piano. The piano that sits patiently and awaits a stranger to come and play it. I absolutely love wandering past and seeing a different musical maestro playing for St. Pancras station passers-by each time. The person I heard on Monday made me stop for longer than I ever have. He was not just passionately playing the piano – he was beat-boxing on top of it. I was completely in awe and recorded a video (on my Facebook page again).

I dropped the girls off at The Eurostar departure point and went back so that I could find out who he was – I had to. We only chatted for 30 seconds as I didn’t want to interrupt his flow. ‘Modern Day Jester’ is the name that he goes by and we have since been in touch about him being on here. I think he is even going to take part in Project Inspire which would be great because he really did inspire me.

So there we have it – the importance of capturing moments by camera and video. Lucky that with our world of smart phones, it is just so easy to do. I can’t do anything about not taking enough in the past but I can definitely make sure I don’t miss a trick in the future.

Have a fantastic day – get snap happy.

Rach xxx

Keep your project inspires coming in – 60postcards@gmail.com.

Letters from the kids:

Hi there Ethan! I am chuffed you think that I have a trait of my Mother. I would absolutely love to be like her. It is exciting to hear that you would like to become an author and that you are so keen to develop skills. Go for it! Thank you, Rachael 🙂