Meeting family for the first time

Over the last few years we've got to know Dad's cousin Lynne and her family very well since they relocated back in the UK from their former home in Perth, Australia. Dad has another cousin though, Paul, who still lives in Perth, but whenever he's been in the UK he's only been able to spend a short time with Dad and it's never worked out that I could meet him too. So when I heard he was over here with his wife Sheridan for a holiday I was looking forward to the chance to finally meet up.

We'd heard that Paul and Sheridan had planned their break in a remote part of the Lakes and that Sunday was a possibility for a get together over lunch, so provisional plans were made to meet up in Ambleside. I've known of them throughout my life, so it was great to be meeting them at last, and the added bonus was that I would be meeting their daughter Sarah (my second cousin). I knew Sarah had been living in London for the last year or so but again we'd never met so it was promising to be an exciting day!

Finalising plans proved a little challenging as Paul found out on arrival late the previous night that there's no mobile signal in Eskdale, but fortunately in the morning an old BT payphone was found in the village and lunch arrangements could be confirmed.

However they hadn't accounted for the winding lakeland roads, a delay due to an orienteering event blocking the lane plus couple of wrong turns too. It all meant we were outside the restaurant wondering if they would make it!

Anyway, the meal was booked for 1pm, and right on cue we heard they'd arrived and so we went to meet them on the car park. Straight away on the walk back I found out that Sarah actually works for the same company as me and Carole, proving that the world isn't as big as we think.

Over an excellent Sunday roast dinner there was plenty of chat as Carole and I began to get to know our new relatives, learning about their holiday plans, their work and finding out too about my other second cousin still in Australia, Michael.

The afternoon passed very quickly, and before long it was time to say goodbye with promises to keep in touch and meet up again. These days with wifi, internet enabled mobiles and the like there's no excuses!