An Uneasy Relationship (Part 2)

It wasn't just the destination that had me feeling dread in the pit of my stomach but the journey itself.

For one thing, my husband is a very highly strung man which is something I hadn't realised so much until he started working away from home. I try to avoid driving with him like the plague so yeah, 12 hours was going to be something of a challenge.

Then there's the girls. While they aren't young kids, they are still afflicted by the "are we there yet" syndrome so every time I thought of the journey ahead I wanted to dose up on tranquilisers and sleep through the whole ordeal.


It's funny how sometimes the things we dread the most turn out to be quite different to how we imagined. Maybe it was because we were all united in the fact that we would have preferred to be going to the North Pole with only bikinis in our luggage. Or maybe we had resigned ourselves to our fate so thought we may as well suck it up and make the best of it. Whatever the reason, it turned out to be almost a fun trip.


No-one got stressed out, no-one whinged or complained, we joked around about how horrendous each other's taste in music was and the kids didn't fight once.

I had already decided that instead of focussing on my in laws I was just going to enjoy being away for the weekend. They live in a beautiful little town in the alpine region of Victoria and the mountain range is quite literally in their back yard. It was right at the end of Autumn and the leaves were still turning, the different colours were quite stunning. Apparently we'd missed the best of the display but coming from a place where most of the trees are natives and don't change colour, it was quite breathtaking for us.


We arrived in the early evening and in all honesty were greeted quite warmly. My in laws sleep in separate rooms and we were allocated father's room. He had to sleep with his wife because Craig's brother and his wife had the spare room. You should have heard the grumbling about that from both of them. Kind of ironic when we were there to celebrate 50 years of wedded bloody bliss.


Anyway, as soon as we could decently manage it, the girls and I escaped to bed and left Craig to talk to his parents.


The guests started arriving at lunch time the following day and other than Mick and Linda (Craig's brother and sister in law) the party was to be rounded out by Ruth and Kevin (an Aunt and Uncle) and Rod and Coral (a cousin and his wife). I was expecting it to be the usual quiet, bone achingly, boring affair but I hadn't counted on Coral or my brother in law Mick who was entertaining for all the wrong reasons.


We were all waiting for father to start cooking the meat because he had gone on and on about no-one else touching his "$100 worth of fillet steaks". Well he sat down and started getting stuck into the booze which did not go well with the copious amounts of medication he's on. We waited and we waited and he got drunker and drunker and unfortunately so did everyone else on their empty stomachs.


Meanwhile mother was turning purple with rage and asked Craig and Mick to start the BBQ. Big mistake. The pair of them were ticking over quite well but thought they could handle it ok. Next thing we knew the patio filled with smoke, which blew into the open door of the house and set off the smoke detector. Mother was almost apoplectic by now, the boys were laughing, Father was dozing in the chair and everyone else wasn't quite sure what to do.


Eventually order was restored and the food was served. I thought it tasted fine all things considered but father complained long and hard and repeatedly proclaimed that Craig had ruined his "$100 worth of fillet steaks". By this stage I felt like ramming all 100 dollar's worth down his sanctimonious throat but I digress.

After lunch it was time for speeches and Mick, being the eldest son, was supposed to say a few words. He was absolutely legless by now and was incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together so Craig had to think on his feet and wish the "happy" couple many more blissful years together. I can tell you they looked anything but blissful at this point.


Mick spent the rest of the day trying to goad Craig into a fight which he always does whenever he gets too many bourbons under his belt. I must admit I was unaware of a lot of the undertones at the time because I was busy chatting to Coral who was the only thing that saved the party from degenerating into a free for all family feud.


Coral is loud and vibrant and one of those people who calls a spade a shovel. She had the girls in fits of laughter with some of the things she was coming out with and thank God she was there. Rod and Coral made a fuss of the girls which was nice because up to that point I think they felt a bit invisible and it must have been very boring for them with all these "old" people.


It started getting very cold so we all moved inside and Mick was still being obnoxious. He kept tormenting the dog who was very sweet but eventually the inevitable happened and the dog bit him. More arguments erupted and that pretty much finished off whatever was left of the party. I scarpered off to bed and took the girls with me and everyone else who wasn't staying also beat a hasty retreat.


The atmosphere was very strained the next morning so we went into the town for a couple of hours and stayed there for lunch. We had decided that we would take off when we returned so we could at least get some of our journey over with in daylight hours.


I had to laugh because as we were taking things out of the room to put in the car, father was moving his stuff back in. He really didn't like spending those two nights with his wife and I'm pretty sure he was in the dog house after his performance at the BBQ.


We had an uneventful but tiring trip back and I think more than anything we were just relieved that it was over. We'd done our duty and all in all it wasn't THAT terrible.



Unfortunately my children's grandparents didn't bother to have a single conversation with them while we were there but luckily for the girls they get enough love from my parents to more than make up for it. It's sad but Craig's parents are the losers. Their only other grandchild didn't even go to their party.....Gee I can't imagine why.


I'm afraid there are some people in this world who are only happy when they're unhappy and that pretty much sums up my in laws.