So we spent NYE with the Watney Family and it comes as no surprise that here I am once more typing feverishly, well ok typing, about this wonderful pocket of traditional niceness that exists in Dun’s. I don’t know if it is rare but it is certainly precious. The house was decked out in every conceivable colour shape and style of bauble, tinsel, stocking and heck I counted 3 trees. Thankfully they have not fallen prey to that ‘Jones’s’ thing where everything is co-ordinated and/or themed …. You know the John Lewis tonal lifestyle Xmas, the ‘black tree and black trimmings’ Hello/Footballer home blandness. Nope, this was a triumph of randomness.
Mrs W answered the door complete with piny which I then never saw her without. Serious hostess business, as is her forte. We were whisked indoors and in a click of her kitsch ‘come and get me’ fluff’ laden kitten house mules, de cloaked and propped up with an interpretation of a Kir Royale and enough nibbles to sink a battleship.
The house was filled with the usual suspects, various Aunts, Uncles, close friends and of course Gran, a lady who to me is always the epitome of grace with a razor sharp mind and instinct honed to precision. She makes me feel safe. And as ever made us the ‘outlanders’ welcomed with warmth that feels frankly privileged.
I’m, and I quote, “just doing a few nibbles’ means a kitchen table bowing under the weight of sausage rolls, pigs in blankets, vegetarian pizza’s and a never ending flow of things on sticks, which is always good.
The crowd clinging to the food source are already twitching to some classic 80’s tune, but before a full ‘diva-esk’ dance routine erupted we were all suddenly in the throws of Charades, which turned into the ‘one word’ and nailed game. Making us all feel somewhat smug. My pathetic attempts at a bit of school boy humour didn’t materialise as the hostess cleverly sidestepping the second word got the film about the killer Whale, which I engineered in her direction, in under 3 seconds. No surprise.
Then followed a darling conversation about 2CV’s with the man of the house, a thumbnail painted in some new fangled ‘Magnetic’ nail polish (still can’t make a paper clip stick) and in Cinderella style home for Midnight and a coup of champagne for two.
Before I stepped in the door a text, from the smallest, ‘are you ok?’ a reference to my early departure …… as we had slid out of the door whilst another feverish party game was taking place in the kitchen. No I am not OK, I am blooming marvellous, how so, simple, all of the above.
So to the Watney’s, a triumph, a delight, simply a family, a proper one, my heartfelt thanks, yours, Colleen.
PS the husband exclaimed at 2am "am I the only man in the world who has a wife who drums for 20 minutes before coming to bed...." happen he is.
Happy New Year to all x
