Over the next two days my aunt V, uncle L, and I would chat and ruminate on life. I also assisted my aunt in learning how to use cloud storage to document share, which is important as an executive for her quilting group.
My uncle showed me his HO railway layout, including handmade structures. He has expanded what he has done, since I last saw it, and is a very accomplished modeller. Making many of his buildings specifically for family, friends, and nods to historical buildings that no longer exist is a skill of foresight and patience. Just like quilting is for my aunt. In particular, my uncle has made an HO scale quilting shop with elaborate surroundings with my aunt and her friends as tiny figures. I definitely need to work more on my terrain and up my skillset.
A more recent hobby of his started with LEGO trains and buildings. It was originally done to draw kids into the hobby of trains. It has since expanded to pirate and castle sets for his own amusement. He picks and chooses carefully which ones to build and has even made custom ones based on historical castles and ships. It was nice to see and made me think of my own LEGO sets, from the 90’s, that are sitting in plastic bins…all alone in the dark (cue solo violin music that fades away gracefully).
Uncle L also showed me the layouts, at the model railroad club he is a member of, near St.George street. There are many scales represented around the basement rooms. The HO layout is HUGE and members can use an app, or connected laptop, to control individual lines. Model train layouts have come a long way since I briefly got involved in my teens.
On the evening of the 27th, they took me to Cafe Leo in Shediac, a long-standing seafood fry restaurant. I may have been here during my youth, but I don't remember for sure. The bridge and stream nearby look familiar though. What I do know is that the fried seafood here is delicious! I chose a mix of fried clams and scallops with fries. Yum!
On the 28th, in the morning, I repacked everything for my flight the next day. It was a challenge for some of the items and with enough bubble wrap and large ziplock bags it was achieved in style. My aunt gave me a bonus gift…a HUGE bag of dulse (dried seaweed) from Grand Manan Island. It was premium stuff and was washed very well with no barnacles or other stuff attached to it. I’ve been having it as a snack to quell my hunger at night or mid-afternoon. Brings back memories.
In the afternoon we went to the building where my uncle C and aunt R, on my father’s side, live. I thought it was mainly for uncle C’s birthday, but I have since been informed it was for me with uncle C’s birthday being a bonus. Regardless it was an opportunity to reacquaint with my father’s side of the family. It was great to see them all and catch up on what everyone was doing. Memories were relived and laughter was had, as well as sadness for those who had passed. Family reunions, in our later years, have more of the sadness. Yet the fun times also crawl up from the depths of memory to balance these feelings. Life, and our brains, are a complicated thing.
Once back at my aunt and uncle’s place we chatted, relaxed, and watched the Netflix film “The Grey Man”, which had slightly over the top action sequences but was good fun. My aunt might read the books the film was based on. 2.6km and 10 flights over the two days.
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