Because my baby is sleeping so I can't finish my unpacking... Woo, way to make excuses, no one suspects >.>

The first couple of days weren't that eventful. The SIL and her new boyfriend came by on the first day to meet Isis/ see Obi, and that was nice. Owlet wasn't at her best after the long flight and car trip, but she was hanging in there and any bad first impressions I'm sure were forgiven but the reason I mention this is because while she was crying Paul (The new guy - that's not actually his name, but no one can pronounce his real name so Paul it is) goes "Oh that's a level 5 accelerating cry blah blah" Like he's some expert on babies. Of course, I didn't sleep on the plane either and I'm never in my best humour when my baby is upset. He went on with some other shit too, analyzing why my baby was crying. And it was just... Listen mate shut up, alright. I know why my baby is crying by the sound she makes and my instinctive response. I don't need your opinion, and if you're going to talk like you know more than I do about my brat, you better walk the walk rather than dictating to me from the corner. But I let it go. And other than that he seemed fairly nice... I was expecting two heads or something seeming the stir this bloke has caused in the family.

We spent a lot of time in the first two days shopping actually, picking up a bunch of things we had waited eagerly for. Got some mad bargains! Including my little essential oil humidifier thinget that's puffing away beside me. My house smells pretty. Anyway then we were off to the desert on Friday to spend the weekend with Obi's grandparents on mum's side.

The night before we left Obi and I were in the hall getting ready for a shower and we overheard mum and dad talking in their room, discussing when to leave the following day and mum goes to dad "It'll only take three hours, and if we leave late you'll just have to speed some..." I'm like "Excuse me, were you just suggesting breaking the law with my baby in your vehicle?" and I told her that it's not going to happen. There was laughing and I assumed she was joking. She wasn't.

Anyway, dad always drives if the two of them go somewhere. I kept an eye on him. He didn't once go over the limit, and he took all the corners carefully in sympathy for my motion sickness which was lovely. It was a bad drive for the baby because the car seat was too upright and she couldn't relax or she'd slump forward against the restraint, so we ended up stopping about a hundred times too, but nothing phases him. Anyway, I'll come back to this.

So, we're visiting with his Grandparents... and you know what Obi's family do for fun? They play cards or board games. And they love it. And they don't even get drunk before they do it. They even play domino's. Well I figure I've been on the scene long enough to not have to join in, because cards bore the shit out of me. If we're not snowed in, or even if we are, chances are I can find something better to do. So I grab a book. Paul has also joined us for this family gathering, his first time out there for one of these events, and he bows out of playing too saying he has to study. So we're both in the lounge room and I'm trying to read but he wont stop talking to me. Told me about his childhood and his opinions on stuff and he was reasonably entertaining to talk to. He also went on about how anti-social he is - hard to believe seeming he was talking my face off - and that he doesn't really like the big family things this family does. He mentioned he'd told SIL that he was ready to leave as soon as she was, that they could leave first thing in the morning if she liked. Which was weird, it was supposed to be a three-day weekend thing and this was the Friday. Not everybody had even arrived yet! But I was a little sympathetic, Obi's family can be very full-on and there are many of them.

There were several weird incidents with this guy. Like, it's 30 degrees and he's wearing 3/4 pants and a hoodie with nothing under it. As the day progresses, he just unzips the hoodie more and more, his freakishly long chest hair bubbling out like lava hitting sea-foam, until he finally just discards it entirely. He's going on and on about how he doesn't burn (pretty sure the sun can't get to him through the hair honestly) and how he doesn't need sunblock because skin cancer is just ugly it can't really hurt you (moron) and that he doesn't mind if he gets it. He also tells me in great detail about how he "can't" eat anything other than meat because he gets sick and bloated and that you should always be an organ donor because the ambulance people will help you faster in the event of an accident.
Anyway, Obi nearly popped a vein when this guy is waltzing around his very polite, strict, grandparent's house, helping himself to their fridge and not wearing a shirt. With his shoes on even, oh the sin! (You never wear your shoes inside, it's like, illegal or something )

That afternoon the five more people who I'd never met arrived. SIL, Paul and I are hanging out on the back deck, and I got up to go greet everyone as is proper. I said "We better go be nice and introduce ourselves" and he goes "You can be doubly nice for me" and just stayed there. And I though what a rude prick! Anyway, he just avoided everyone the entire time, moving rooms to make sure he was never required to interact with the family and they left that night. People were pretty surprised by that... and no one seemed sure why. One person said they left because SIL had to work, but we knew that wasn't true. Someone else said it was because they had a function early the next morning and dad believed it was because they couldn't breathe with the smoke (there was a forest fire sending smoke into the valley). I suspect it was simply that Paul was sick of being there.

I met Obi's cousin Jenny who I've been talking with on fb, and she was lovely! I think we're going to be good mates. I couldn't stop staring at her tattoos either, can't wait to get my own. We hung out a lot and Jenny taught us some poi and did a little show for us, it was great. I gave it a good go (and smacked myself in the head a few times!) and I loved it. I wanted to learn poi years ago when another mate was into it but I never actually tried it, and didn't bother to pursue it. Apparently I did really well for a beginner, everyone was telling me they were really impressed, though I didn't feel particularly talented.
But yes, so much fun! New hobby potential? I think so!

There was lots of food, family (even more cam on the Sunday! Crazy) and fun. We were due to leave on the Sunday. I was coming back from downstairs (checking the sleeping beauty) and I was walking back to the main room/kitchen down the long hallway. At the end of which I see mum talking earnestly to Obi like she didn't want to be overheard. Their backs were to me. I could pass them without interrupting so I smiled and mum has this horrified look on her face like she's been busted doing something. So I'm like "what's going on?"
Well she starts talking to me like I'm a small child that might have a tantrum and set your hair on fire and it didn't take me long to understand why she was using that tone. She tells me that for our safety we absolutely must speed "just a little" to keep the other drivers on the road happy because someone tailgated us a bit on the way up and she thought we were going to be run off the road. I tried to remain calm and reminded her that I'm not in any way ok with her risking my child's life, but she's just pushing the issue going on about how speeding will make us all safer. Now, Canadians can't drive at the best of times. Every Canadian I know has a "the time I was hit by a car" story or "the time I ran over someone" story if not both, it's alarming. Everyone goes 10km over the speed limit at all times, it's fairly rare to encounter someone who isn't speeding and isn't on their Learner's permit. Jenny pipes up with "It's ok Miriam everyone speeds over here" and I'm like "I don't care what everyone else does!" At this point I get fed up and I'm like "I'm going for a walk" and I storm out the door.

It's totally not my style. I don't make dramatic exits or any of that. I'm a talk-it-out-calmly type of girl, but honest to God I was either going to deck my mother in law or cry, possibly both. So I got out of there. I heard Obi trying to patch things up as I left. So I went for a walk to cool off. I just wanted to scream. You know what smart people do if they are being tailgated? They pull over and let the other car pass them. They don't think "Oh for my safety I should obviously drive just as badly as the wanker who's riding my arse".

Not long after I'm nearly back to the house and I see Obi head out to look for me. If he'd have looked the other way he'd have seen I was right there but he didn't, he knows how I think and where I'd go so he headed that way. So I moved off to intercept him as I couldn't run after him due to a lack of shoes. I was a bit surprised when he caught me up because he was actually on my side. There was a time where that wouldn't have happened. He told me that Jenny had come up with the apparently fantastic idea that we should pull over and let cars pass us and that mum agreed to this and at that point I probably slapped myself in the face. Rocket science much?

Anyway his dad drove home. Before we left mum wasn't around and dad asked Obi what the fight was about, Obi told him and dad rolled his eyes. He's like "I wouldn't have done it [speeding] anyway".

So there you go. You all know I'm a road-prude. Miriam doesn't speed and Tanja doesn't pirate movies, what's your prude habit?

Ok, that'll do. Going to wake owl up and take her ou... never mind she just started crying Nice timing kid!