They say that you can choose your friends but you cannot choose your family.

But I’m glad that someone chose my family for me because they are the quirkiest bunch of characters I could ever dream of being related to.

My family is very small – it essentially consists of my mother, father, sister Julie, nephew Max and the perennial enigma that is Uncle Stephen. And not forgetting the long-suffering husband, of course.

Still, there is enough material there to give Signund Freud a headache: my father’s peculiar obsession with maps, my parents’ aversion to banks and cash cards, Uncle Stephen’s insistence of wearing slippers wherever he goes, my mother’s steadfast belief that half the population are complete simpletons. It all makes for some wry analysis, some of which I hope to cover in this blog.

So please read, enjoy and most of all count yourself lucky that you’re not related to My Family… and Other Oddities.