"Okay, now say something!"

Last night I got a call from Meg's Dad who at the time was standing in the backyard of the family house in Vancouver celebrating the fact that he was visiting with his cousins from Spain who he has not seen in 50 years. Civil wars have the tendency to do that kind of thing to people. Tragic, but there they were nonetheless, in a place they could not have imaged they would ever met, and at a time in their lives that at one time they may not have thought they would see. There was probably a dozen people out there, eating, drinking, and enjoying the summer evening in the little courtyard that Meg's parents have created over the years. Meg's Mom, her aunt Lynne and uncle Pedro, and family friends Sharon and Paco, and a few others, I am not sure exactly, but it sounded like there was a hundred people partying up at storm! And of course, without so much as a proper introduction, Meg's Dad shouts into the phone "okay, I am gonna pass the phone... now say something in Spanish!" And the next thing you know I am on the phone with Primo Marcelino from Madrid, who I have never spoken a word to in my life (for some reason unbeknownst to me, when never had a chance to meet when I was in Madrid) and he is asking me in the most perfect posh Madrileno accent "so, like, what do you think about Madrid man?" As I struggled through my best Vallecano Spanish to answer him, I could hear Meg's uncle Pedro in the background yelling over and over again "la comida aqui es de puta madre!" Which basically means "the food here is the phookin' best!" Anyway, complete and total "family chaos" and I miss it terribly! Good thing I am on the way home!!!