“It’s in your honour, Tao,” said Grandad when we arrived, which was a bit scary. I had met most of Mimi’s uncles and aunts and cousins already, but Kate had to be introduced to them all so there was another big round of hugs. Aunt M (whose real name is Marigold) arrived with her husband Nicholas. No one called him Uncle Nicholas. Maybe he was too young. She was pregnant, but she still arrived on the back of Nicholas’s motorbike and Granny flew into a rage about that. “That is the most irresponsible thing that I have ever heard of,” she told Aunt M, who completely ignored her and walked straight over to Kate and gave her a big hug. “You’ll find that we’re not all as hysterical as my mother,” she said to Kate. Granny looked fit to burst. Nicholas just stood there looking at the floor. “Hi, Tao,” Aunt M said to me and ruffled my hair. “Are you surviving in that mad house?” “Hi, Aunt M,” I said shyly. Aunt M is a very pretty lady and I never know what to say to her.
