Blood and water, how do you define your family?

THERE are times when we live in Mallorca when we feel far away from our families, and celebrate that we are: far away from the crazy politics, from the silly arguments, and from the ongoing feuds.

But then there are times when we’re not near enough. As I write this my friend is on a mad dash trip back to the UK to try to get to her mother’s bedside as she is seriously ill.

Meanwhile, here I am with new visitors, my mum and her fella, they’ve been here 24 hours and they’ve already cleaned my house from top to bottom and taken La Gidg (my daughter) on a pedalo.

All without a fuss, and they’re supposed to be on their holidays! We’ve got a trip to Son Amar Dinner Show planned, and a little jolly to Palma to check out the big boats. I’m hoping to even out the favours before they leave!

They’re here because it’s my little girl’s birthday this weekend; she’s going to turn six. La Gidg has rather an eccentric do planned as it hangs on the inspiration which sprang from the purchase of a glittery rabbit mask that she chose a few weeks ago in the Palma sales with her hard earned pocket money.

So, if you go down to the woods on Saturday you might find a gang of children dressed up as rabbits chasing my husband (dressed as a carrot, no, really) on a treasure hunt.

Well, if you can’t have an insane birthday party when you’re six, then when can you? (don’t answer that, I know about Magalluf!). But if my husband turns up on Mallorca’s Most Wanted on Sunday, you’ll know why.

There has been meticulous planning: many, many sausage rolls have been bought, there will be rabbit shaped sandwiches (not rabbit sandwiches that’s an entirely different party), and a carrot shaped carrot birthday cake (my mum is I.C. that).

And in amongst all of that will be my family: my mum, my dad and people that I am not related to by blood, but who would be there in the blink of an eye to help me and mine if we needed them, every single one of them I have met since I’ve lived here in Mallorca.

That is the extraordinary thing about this place; you do make lifelong connections, unexpected ones. Sometimes these people bring you joy, and sometimes they bring disaster: (also this week a person I know has been let down badly by people she thought were her friends).  But in the end of it all, you have to celebrate don’t you?

When the world is full of terrible stories about economic disaster, and there’s a red bill that you haven’t paid, and there’s someone telling you about how we won’t have enough food to feed the world in 2050, well, what do you do?

Well here’s my answer, you gather your family (whether you have the same DNA or not) and have a party that no one (especially your daughter and possibly the parents of her friends) will ever forget.

www.familymattersmallorca.com