The Outlaws from North Wales

The "Outlaws from North Wales" is how I like to refer to the in-laws and it plays on the Clint Eastwood film name "The Outlaw Josey Wales".

They are, of course, wonderful people and it is a good job because I have to put up with them  (ahem) I mean put them up for the next week.  They have kindly offered to help whilst Kitten is incapacitated by the operation that she is having on her leg this coming Monday.

I didn't meet Kitten's parents until nearly a year and a half after we started dating, which was add odds with the fact that she was introduced to mine very quickly.  In fact when I said that we would be visiting it seemed that the news reverberated around the villages of South Wales because many of them turned up to Cymraes' house to check her out.  OK, so I exaggerate a little and it was in fact the the usual "culprits", but there are plenty of them!

It was only a year after meeting Kitten that I went to Ibiza for the summer on my sabbatical from work.  I went on my own as that was what I had always planned to do but, as I have said before, Kitten and I revised the plans and she came out to join me for the last three months.

We were engaged on our return and so we thought it more than about time that I met the prospective outlaws.

I remember the introduction very well because, having driven for four hours to get there around midnight the opening chit-chat was about our summer.  At this point I guess that I should give Kitten's mum and dad individual names so, how about Jack and Vera.  That will carry some significance for Coronation Street fans.

Whilst we were still milling around on arrival and offers of tea and coffee were being made, Kitten's mother said "Did you both come back on the ferry?". This was a reasonable question as I had driven out there but Kitten and I had flown out together after I had come back for the weekend for the Boxer's wedding.

I told her that we had and her next question was "Did you have a berth?".

I replied without any prior thought (as is my normal way) "No, it's OK we used contraception".

This is, perhaps, not a line you should use when meeting your fiancee's parents but her dad "Jack" quickly covered me by saying "You asked for that".

There was a huge irony behind this exchange because, unbeknown to Kitten and I she was already pregnant with the Boogle and we only found out a month later.

The tone was set for my relationship with the in-laws and the fact is that we have always got on very well.  They are very accommodating and have the appropriate measure of tolerance to deal with me.  I believe that they have also very much enjoyed the addition of two grandchildren to their family and the stability that Kitten and my relationship has afforded.

So, they are here for a week.  Yes a whole bloody week :-)

Both their visits to us and our visits to them are normally accompanied by large quantities of vino tinto consumption, but that has been off the menu for me for quite some time now.  It was their Christmas visit of last year that finally drove me to the doctor's.  It wasn't the company, rather it was that after just one or two glasses of wine each night I was suffering from restless legs and feeling tired by 8-9pm.  We now know that was caused by the anaemia and was one of the key symptoms in getting me to diagnosis.

So they will have to glug the odd glass themselves, but their help in ferrying the children around and generally in the house will be very much appreciated for the next week.

Kitten's mum has been poorly herself recently, so we also need to make sure that she doesn't overdo it.  If you knew her then you would know that is easier said than done.