Or well, I can't know that they actually got the idea right then ... but late in October is when an envelope with an invitation to a bowling and dinner for all Murrays between 18 and 35 years old fell down my mail drop. I was quite interested, even more so when I saw that two of my cousins names stood at the end of the message. After asking to make sure it was them - Usually the name and second name is quite unique but when almost everyone shares the second name it's not as guaranteed. - I decided that I would absolutely go unless something really important came up, which it didn't.
The twenty of us that attended started off with a bit of mingle and predrinks, it was fun trying to find out how we were all related, I know for a fact that it was more than fve generations back in some cases. After the mingle we played bowling. I am quite good at multiple sports and games that you can find combined with dinner, table tennis and air hockey for example, but bowling is not one of them. I managed to get one strike and three spares in two rounds. Not horrible but certainly far behind most people. Oh well, practise makes perfect, in a few centuries I might be good. When my cousin that organised it said that he'd be announcing different winners during dinner (most strikes, most points etc) I jokingly told him that he would get a beer if he said I got 300 points (very good). Being bad doesn't mean that I didn't have fun tho, don't get me wrong. I had fun.
After the bowling we mingled a bit more, then it was dinner time. I ended up next to a cousin and two far distant relatives at the table, which was great mixed company. Add an excellent buffet, a great beer and that the family fund paid for it all to that and you have a truly perfect evening. I also got a bit of a surprise during the reveal of the winners. In the middle of all the many creative things people won he revealed that there was a price for best cheat, and the winner was - me. At first I was quite confused but I realised why soon enough, no 300 points for me. Oh well, applause is always nice and I don't mind being made a fool occasionally. All in all a really great evening that I hope can be repeated, meeting more than every fourth year would be nice. I meet my cousins quite often but second cousins and further away, not so much.
I'll meet my cousins with parents again in just three weeks, Christmas. We meet for it yearly and have a good time but more details than that will have to wait for the next blog post.
I'll finish with a must watch mini-musical for every Swedish speaking reader I have. It's half an hour of top notch satire by the humour group Grotesco. I can't recall the last time I saw something as funny on Swedish tv but it sure was long ago. It is about a big political fight in 2015 about immigration principles but manages to make fun of literally every part and opinion equally while still finishing with a thoughtworthy last minute. Nyckelharpans bröl might just be my new favourite song.
https://www.svtplay.se/video/15723684/grotesco/grotescos-sju-masterverk-sasong-3-flyktingkrisen-en-musikal