juststuff: breaking news on the busiest brother.....

well those of you that know me well know that i have a much younger - 17 years younger brother - david. when the news of david's imminent arrival was announced bestest sister and i received the news with absolute horror. i thought i was pretty "cool" at "that school" on the main road and here i had a 36 year old mother making a very noticable and public announcement that she was pregnant. BS and i were so nasty that as soon as you could see that she was pregnant we told her in no uncertain terms that she was to stay in the car when fetching us. in the past she was known to come flying into the school because we had kept her waiting in the car for 5 minutes (the eccentric mother has never had patience at the top of her list). once the announcement was made we made sure that we were waiting for her. it was one thing being 17 years old, falling in and out of love with many boys and being very aware of your awakening sexuality to be told that your mother at the grand old age of 36 was still having sex!! our expressions of horror on this topic came back to haunt the BS when she proceeded to only have her children at the same grand old age.

once this dreaded child arrived things changed overnight. BS and i would for the first time in our lives fight over who was going to bath him, feed him, dress him, watch him sleeping. to top this we also had our overprotective darling grandmother enid living with us. this boy child was pampered and spoilt beyond words. suddenly it was fine to show him off to everyone. my best was to be asked "how old is your baby?" i would never deny it. the fact that a stranger thought it was ok for someone my age to be having sex, be a mother and look that grown up was the ultimate compliment.

he started school and when in standard one in mrs ciolli's class he announced to the class that he was "an uncle". years later when mrs ciolli taught gareth she confessed to me that she never really believed david as he had always had a vivid imagination.

busiest brother moved to england after studies and there he perfected the art of busyness (and business). BB became the fairy (in the spoiling sense of the word) godfather to his nephews. we have got used to his comings and goings and the frantic trips to the airport - that fact that he has never missed a flight is a miracle in itself. all three boys have been spoilt by BB while they have been in the UK - they have played in rugby tournaments that BB has organised, been to batchelor parties in scotland, watched rugby in ireland and gone travelling in france with him. his 30th birthday in 2005 was his chance to spoil the EM, BS and myself. we were sent tickets to come to the UK for his birthday and a holiday. what an amazing time that was - gareth was working in london at the time and matthew was having his gap year at clifton college in bristol. (the fact that he had a major work problem on his birthday and that we missed out on our barging experience was besides the point).

bs, em, matt, gareth, me, bb and alistair (should have asked him to take the picture!!)

for champagne cocktails on the top of the highest building in london (sorry forgot the name)

we managed to do and see so much and the highlight being a roadtrip through wales and down to the south of england. i will have to tell you all about that sometime (this was the trip that nicky joined up with me and we did our trip to ireland). getting sidetracked...

a couple of days before we arrived in london 2 pretty blonde girls arrived on the scene.

aimee and lucie rutherford

gareth and BB had met them a couple of times before BB's birthday. there are many stories to tell about getting them confused and one (that i hope i don't get into trouble for repeating) happened after the first night. after many drinks BB asked gareth how he managed to know the difference between the twin sisters. gareth has a way of get his point across and basically told BB to stop looking so deeply into their eyes and to cast his eyes down to the chest area!! this was remembered by me and was a great tip to use when they were together but did not help things when you bumped into one of them on their own (sorry girls if you wondered why my eyes always drifted to your top half).

this was all nearly six years ago and there have been many holidays and travels backwards and forwards. BB has opened an office in cape town so he flies in and out of cape town all the time. (he has homes in both places so only travels with hand luggage - this saves on packing time but he still manages to leave everything to the last minute and have to drop off beach buggies and motor bikes at various spots on his way to the airport). over the last 18 months or so aimee had been living and working on and off in cape town and then later lucie has been able to work from here as well. this has all been great and in february the rest of the rutherfords (dad, mom and younger sister) came to visit from glascow. this was going to be it. a month long holiday but no announcement. BB had his sister's speculating. friend lesley added to the speculation when it was announced that wayne was going to be taking the boat out with the family. this was definitely going to be it!! but nothing. rest of the rutherfords left, aimee left, lucie left...........

BB went back to london for easter and guess what???

http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/engagements/132788/mr-d.j.-barber-and-miss-l.m.-rutherford

how great is this? a family wedding probably in cape town in early november (no time to waste, taken him this long, so now lets do it!!).