Tylo and Yaz a beautiful couple of young ladies

Being back in Blackpool, my birthplace and where I grew up before moving to Cape Town, this was an extra special visit on our global trip. My mum and dad pushing on well into their seventh decade, still have a vibrant sense of humour and a fighting spirit, which was probably instilled in me and my sisters and visiting them brought me back to where it all began and my crazy ideas started to grow.

Chico the guard dog

We stayed with April, my younger sister and Wow! what a truly funny, exciting, intelligent, gracious and humble person she is, the fun part she gets from her older brother. Meeting her cool, funky and down to earth, straight talking boyfriend, Martin and to be honest, I had no idea what to expect, it is ‘intothestrange’ afterall, but I am so pleased to have a brother-in-law like him, no pressure on a wedding date sis!

sorry girls just had to use this pic as a reference of when you were cute

Meanwhile, April’s daughter Yasmine, the upwardly mobile, smart and driven young lady, just goes from strength to strength, with kindness that has no bounds and it was extra special to spend some quality time together.

lovebirds happily engaged, Queenie and Mountain bike

However, I must change tact and explain that Sharki3 and I introduced Yasmine, April and Martin to our card game; Supreme Snap. In a nutshell, the objective is to get rid of your cards first, and to play you must guess the number of the card before you place it down on the pack, if the number you called is correct, the last player to smack their hand firmly down on the pack has to pick up the whole amount of cards, if you are incorrect with your guess, the round just keeps going, with tension mounting and anxious hands hovering above the deck.

my cool folks with the only pic I have, or perhaps allowed to publish

After a few glasses of wine, the rules were changed by Yasmine, I suspect, who was sober, and we had to rhyme the card number rather than say the number, this just slowed us down even more and even the sober one, Yasmine, struggled with this version.

The superhero nicknames came after several glasses of wine, I think…..

‘Queenie’ is April due to her incessant need to guess ‘Queen’ every turn.

‘Flipper’ is Yasmine due to the lame manner she slaps her cards down.

‘Mountain bike’ is Martin due to ‘Queenie’ being drunk and getting her words all muddled up.

‘Skully’ is Sharki3 thanks to Martin’s ability to ply her with his strongest whiskey in a glass shaped like a skull.

‘Uncle Fungible’ is Fin, thanks to Yasmine and April combining with some strange interchangeable currencies.

Tylo, Yaz, Fin & Sharki3

After these many years of visiting my side of the family in Blackpool, it never gets any easier saying farewell and it was no different this time around, looking forward to seeing them all again!!

Big hugs and kisses, miss you much!!!