Aw!

First, thanks for all the kind emails yesterday! You kids are just too nice!

It's a bit of a weird one, because while I obviously loved my Grandfather very much, I didn't see him as often as I would have liked. Also knowing that he had cancer I also knew that his days were numbered, so I'm not hugely bereaved if that makes sense. That sounds awful. Obviously when something like this happens you feel a little sad, but the old guy had a good life and was lucky to be with family and some of his friends during his last days.

Anyway, the funeral is next Thursday afternoon and my housemate has kindly lent me the use of her little VW Golf to drive back to Bath in (British Rail - London to Bath = £55.00!!!)

While the funeral will be sad, I'm looking forward to seeing all of my family in the same room - a very rare occasion. After the cremation we're having a knees-up at The Mill in Rode, which is one of my favourite pubs. (Incidentally, when Mum told me that the knees-up would incorporate a finger buffet I was reminded of that Victoria Wood sketch in which she verbally illustrates the differences between English funeral proceedings and those of other cultures. For example, in a country such as India a widow will throw herself onto her husband's funeral pyre in a display of profound grief. In England we'll have a very British "wake" and the bereaved widow will tap her best friend on the shoulder and say, "22 baps Connie. You slice, I'll spread.")

So it'll probably be a bittersweet kind of day. But yesterday afternoon I made the stupid mistake of telling Mum about that Gibran passage that I posted up here yesterday and she was all like "You should read that out at the service!" Normally I would jump at the chance to grandstand, but usually in the context of a friend's birthday party ("Look what I can do with this fish fork everyone!") or something. A) I don't know how serious I can be and B) I don't know if my voice will be up to expressing the emotive qualities of Gibran's words.

Also, I have the feeling that certain members of my family will be all like, "What dreaming beneath the what?"