Thursday 30 June 2011

With love from sender


I'm from mid-west US.  Pete is from Auckland, NZ.  We live in London, UK.
How do you maintain your relationship with family when its divided between three countries? *

Do you…
a)      Make regular Skype dates and yell at each other while staring at a jumpy picture of your loved ones and the occasional confused cat.
b)      Answer the phone despite it ringing at the most inconvenient times (I mean they have uncanny timing) and let dinner (or partner) go cold because it’s the least you can do since you decided to live halfway around the world.
c)       Dutifully read every piece of news lovingly clipped and sent every few weeks, sometimes with photos, and realize that the clippings are doing the exact opposite of what the grannies/aunties/mums intended.  Instead of enticing you ‘back home’ you realize you have no idea what is going on ‘back home’ and aren’t entirely sure you can go back.  
d)      Regularly do battle with Royal Mail/Parcel Force in order to track down and receive the packages sent by family every month (and vice versa).  Packages which regularly go ‘missing’ or arrive broken to such a degree that they obviously were involved in an impromptu cricket and/or rugby match between RM and PF carriers.  Then gamely attempt to find room for all those coffeetable books (you don’t have a coffeetable), blankets, pillows, framed photos, lamps, flatware, etc…that do make it through unscathed.
e)      All of the above.


*I am stretching the truth here a bit for entertainment purposes.  We love that our families are thinking of us.  We know you love us and miss us.  Rest assured that we are thinking of you just as frequently and love you just as much.  However, we live in a very small rental flat with no storage.  Save yourself the postage.  The amount you are dropping on sending packages and/or newspaper clippings half-way around the world every month could pay for a plane ticket and you could tell us in person.  Seriously.  

No comments:

Post a Comment