Today was interesting.

My kids met an Aunt and Uncle, and my favourite Aunt for the first time in their lives. They live in Palmerston North and New Plymouth respectively.

My favourite Aunt (73) is a strongly independent woman. She’d spent years of her life in Cleveland, Ohio where amongst other things she played cello professionally for the orchestra.

It was my job today to lead her (driving) from my parents place in Torbay to my sisters place in Dairy Flat. This of course shouldn’t have been too hard as she’d made the drive from New Plymouth to Auckland with no particular difficulty.

We made it to Oteha Valley Road and were heading West. I was diligently watching her in my rear-view mirror (as you do) when for no discernible reason, she moved from behind me to take the on-ramp South.

WHAT THE HELL????

I slowed to see what was going on.

She started up the on-ramp, then stopped. Then proceeded to do a U-turn, drive back down the on-ramp in the wrong direction, then turned left to get back on the correct road.

“Oh God Oh God Oh God She’s going to die on my watch”…

Once we were back on track, my 8 yr old asked in her small ‘matter of fact’ voice: “So… is she still your favourite aunt then?”

Ya gotta love kids.