Meet the Parent

I met The Peruvian’s family this weekend, mostly the female side. I met her mother (impeccably glamorous with a delightfully sharp sense of humour) and various sisters and cousins. It was at a family barbeque held somewhere in South London. It’s a rare occasion for me to go South of the river so I felt like a fearless explorer going to this event, thinking about it I really should have been in a pith helmet and some sort of beige number with lots of pockets.

The locals were terribly friendly and I had an extremely nice time learning more about Peru while eating cow hearts and all sorts of exciting things with chilli in. Most of the conversation was in Spanish so it was more than a little lost on me but I managed to catch enough to get by, and the good stories were translated for me by T.P. (The Peruvian).

I was quizzed on the usual stuff, family, job background etc. Meeting the family is always a bit of an interview but this was a very pleasant one with lots of laugher and slightly burnt food.

When it started to get a bit cool the party moved indoors where a large space was cleared in the living room and extremely loud Salsa music was put on the stereo. Then everyone started dancing. I can’t imagine many English parties where after a Veinetta the hosts put on a bit of Chris deBerg and have a jolly good mosh to The Lady in Red, the Peruvians are definitely on to something.

After quite a bit of very impressive jiggering about I was encouraged to dance. I had warned them that I was yet to get my first dance lesson from T.P., which is outrageous, considering she is lounging on my bed right now reading Calvin and Hobbes. Anyway, some male relative of T.P. invited me on the dance floor, I thought this was a good time to show the British Resolve (as apposed to the British Reserve) and so accepted his invite.

I had my first ever Salsa lesson in front of T.P.’s mum and extended family, luckly three years learning drill in the Air Training Corps stood me in good stead that I picked up enough of the steps to impress all, and after my dancing was over. I returned to an extremely impressed T.P. who said she didn’t think any other chap would have dared do that and commented that I’ve got some ‘cojones’.

I don’t really know what ‘cojones’ are but having them is apparently a good thing.

I have also discovered a love of Salsa, I’m going to start learning soon, the moment I get some suitable clothes. I was thinking dressing like something out of Flashdance would be good, although I’m not sure about the leggings.