Nicholas Quirke was excited to be traveling to Sutton Coldfield for a family reunion and seeing everyone from his fathers side of the family, Uncles , Aunts, Cousins, Brothers, Sisters, Mothers, nephews nieces, 2nd cousins and those twice, thrice removed. He was driving up with Harvey, Grace and Cole and though the start of their journey was a trifle tardy, due to the celebrations of England’s success in getting through to the semi-final of the world cup, they managed to get to the venue for 12.30. He had to endure some teasing about his dips and the dirt he appeared to be  feeding them but he had generated that particular thread and needed to suffer the consequences. It was a really enjoyable day and he was able to catch up with his cousin’s Clive, Jenny, Elinor, Damien, Stuart and Greg, as well as Uncles and Aunts, Tony and Angela, Marilyn and Graham, Cyd and John, Morris. He felt the absence of his Aunt Doreen and of course, his own Father, despite the 40 years since his demise. It was also good to spend some quality time with his brother Michael and Sister Kate their children and his Mother. He was able to congratulate his niece Megan on her Degree and learnt of his Nephew Dominic’s year long sojourn in Israel, he now had an excellent reason to get to the promised land. The drive home was longer and more torturous in his leg as there was standstill traffic on the motorways 40 and 25 and the constant lifting of his foot on and off the pedal caused him some anguish. He was reminded of his own father,who when suffering from sciatica due to a cancer he was fighting, insisted on driving him and Michael to a party in Knaresborough, a 20 minute bus ride. So intense was the pain he had to keep stopping the car and making Nicholas, in bad humor, huffing and puffing,  get out of the back seat so he could lie down and get some pain relief. The ungrateful brothers finally demanded that he let them get the bus and they sent him back home. From his current perspective it was evident that their Father desperately wanted to do something for his sons, demonstrate his love and at the time they couldn’t see what it cost  to want to do this for them but in the here and now Nicholas was moved by the memory. After dropping his offspring at their home, he returned to his own and exhausted retired to bed,