Meet the Parents – Part One!

As regular readers will know, I’m very recently not-single. I began dating the Rugby Boy in October, and made things official when I returned from Australia at the start of last month.  The last few weeks have already been rather comic in a number of ways, but I still wasn’t prepared for the hilarity of taking the Rugby Boy back home for the first time.

When I decided to go out with the Rugby Boy, I was worried that I would no longer have any funny dating stories to tell.  Turns out that’s not so much the case – they’re just funny for different reasons.

Last weekend I headed back to Reading for a friend’s 30th birthday.  I wasn’t meant to return with the Rugby Boy as he already had plans, but when he cancelled them at the last minute, I asked if he wanted to come back with me.  Much to my adopted mum’s excitement, he agreed.  However, it was only when I was back on home turf that I realised how odd a weekend it might be.

As I haven’t been back for several months, I had lots of catching up to do.  Most of my close friends who still live in Reading are more settled than my city friends.  And so these days catching up involves babies.  Lots and lots of babies!  Less than twenty minutes after the Rugby Boy touched down in Reading, baby after baby arrived at my adoptive family home.  One crawled around the carpet, as another plunked up and down on the piano.  All credit to him, he took it in his stride, but I couldn’t help feeling it looked as if I’d set up some odd test!

On Saturday evening we headed to my friend’s 30th birthday.  Understandably it was the first time The Rugby Boy had met anyone attending, and as most of the people there were friends I’ve only made in the last few years, it was the first time anyone there had ever seen me with a boyfriend in tow.  It’s a group of friends with whom I’ve always been the only ‘singleton’, and an extended circle who really only know me as the girl who did 30 Dates.  Which meant The Rugby Boy spent almost the entire evening answering the same question.  “What did you do that was so special to impress Charly?”

The irony is that our first date was one of the worst I’d been on in ages! (At least the first part, anyway).  And our second date was equally cringey!  And so The Rugby Boy spent Saturday evening recounting our awkward first and second date stories.

At least Sunday should have been normal … All we had planned was a family roast, and my adoptive family had got most of their questions out of the way on Saturday afternoon.  I headed off into town to get my hair done, leaving The Rugby Boy in bed.  I returned, to find him debating wedding cakes and flowers with my adoptive Mum and aunt! (Yet another phase of the boyfriend test apparently????)  It wasn’t completely out of left-field as my brother gets married in August and they are making the cake and doing the flowers, but still ….!

Turns out Sunday was anything but normal.  I missed Christmas while I was over in Australia, and so my lovely family were throwing Christmas Day again for me.  Crackers, music, Christmas pudding, presents …. you name it, we had it.  It was brilliant!  But it was also February!  If the Rugby Boy didn’t think I was at least slightly eccentric before last weekend, he must do now.

My favourite moments of last weekend though, were when the Rugby Boy met my two adoptive aunties!  Within 30 seconds, Great Aunt Shirley had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, gobsmacked by how tall he is (6’8″), and asking questions about every aspect of his family life.  Meanwhile, as I left to get the train back to London, Auntie Christine whispered in my ear … “He’s lovely …. and doesn’t he look like Mr Darcy?!”

There I was thinking ‘meeting the parents’ would be less complicated, because mine had passed away!  And that’s just half of it … because in two week’s time, it’s my turn!  Though the good news, is despite the odd impromptu tests, constant questions, and February Christmas, the Rugby Boy doesn’t seem to have been too put off.

I’ll let you know how my half of Meet the Parents goes in a couple of weeks time.  Though I can almost guarantee it will be a funny one … after all, his Mum has already heard me talking about online dating and my own love life, live on Woman’s Hour!!!

Miss Twenty-Nine xxx