There is no place like home

Fun fact. I managed to spend about a week away from this tiny little town and in that week I caught myself saying things like damn, I left my shoes at home. Shock horror! Could it be that through the many Pick ‘n Pay runs for milk and rusks, or the constant wind rattling the window panes or the unpredictable sunshine on a cloudy day? Could it be that in the midst of all the Grahamstown chaos, I had found another home?

Of course they say that there is no place like home, and that home is where the heart is. And that’s true. As true as it can be when you really start to appreciate the things your mom does for you or the benefits of a fully stocked fridge or the beauty of your own bathroom. It makes sense then, that the people who doubled as my family, my home away from home this year would have the unfortunate ability to make me miss them uncontrollably.

My venture back to Pretoria had its bumps and bruises along the way, a ridiculous 9 hour delay at PE airport managed to plaster my grumpy face on for the remainder of that day and well into the night, as it was 11pm when we finally landed in JHB. This aspect aside the real reason for my venture was not to wait 9 hours and then collect a free ticket for future use, so long as it is within the next 12 months. No, it was to celebrate m old man’s 50^th birthday. And here I got to enjoy an evening with my wild and unruly family.

The family dynamics are confusing, when I try elaborate and explain that my Gran is a year older than my aunt and my other aunt is younger then my cousin people stare and a glazed look washes over their faces. So I stop and commit rather to explaining just how I cannot show them off in public. For one thing, my uncle had barely crossed the threshold when he asked me: “how man times have you been drunk this year? Keeping the family name high?” I could hardly respond positively to this when I was swept up by my other uncle (I have 4) and found myself under a deluge of questions like, “how is Grahamstown” and “how are the studies going” and “when do exams finish.”

Exams, the one subject I was desperate to ignore for my week of bliss, unfortunately, no such luck. But I answered the questions with appropriate answers and managed to save myself from embarrassing retellings of any other previous family gathers.

As devoted as my family is to having a good time this was only reflected in the mess of a dance floor and the two bloody noses that had nothing to do with a fight but rather overexcited geriatrics. No matter, my father’s celebration was going down in the books as one heck of success.

I could barely wipe the sleep out my eyes when I was back, back in Grahamstown, greeted by rain, wind and my second family. Only to remember that I had to get milk and it was raining, but it is Grahamstown, and although it holds someone of the people I care most about on this planet, you can never get to comfortable.