He's My Cousin

I was very lucky growing up as I had lots of cousins around.  A lot of my cousins lived really close to us, and we could walk to each other's houses and spent a lot of time together. Other cousins lived in 'town' which meant they were about an hour away, but we still saw them quite often.

My cousin Tim is my Auntie Wanda's son. He was one of my cousins who lived in town.   He is younger than me, but when Aaron and I were first married we used to spend a lot of time with him. Aaron and Tim used to love playing tennis together, and we used to love having Tim around at our house a lot.  I remember when Aaron passed away that I was worried about how Tim would take it. 

Tim has reminded me that at Aaron's funeral I gave Tim a hug and said 'Aaron loved you so much'.  Aaron not only loved Tim so much, but we all do.  Tim is one of the kindest people you will ever meet.  He is always so thoughtful and does lovely things for people all the time. His beautiful wife is Helene, who is just as lovely as Tim. They're a beautiful couple.

Tim is one of those people who is never grumpy, and if he is you wouldn't really know it.  He's lots of fun to be around and always makes us laugh.  He's always busy and keen to do things.  I often get texts from Tim asking if we want to go do something together.

This photo was taken by my friend Chelsea, just after I was awarded Tasmanian Mother of the Year. I have no idea what we were laughing about, but it was so nice to have my good friends there, including Tim and Helene. Tim always lightens the mood - especially when I'm nervous and overwhelmed!

Over the last year, it's been lovely to spend more time with him on my days off work, as he does shift work and often has the same day off that I do. 

We had been having regular lunch dates this year, and it's been lots of fun catching up with him, telling him all my dramas and having lots of laughs together.  Because we were having lunch at the same place all the time, I would often see people I knew there.  I started to get paranoid that people may think that I had a man, so I would always introduce Tim to them as my cousin.  He started to joke that I was ashamed of hanging out with him, but I told him I just don't want people talking and wondering who I'm always out with! :) This was a photo I posted on Instagram a while back. We were having a great laugh about him being my new man.

Last week on one of our days off work, we decided to go strawberry picking. They were half price for the day, so even though it was raining (a lot!) we decided to still go.  We were the only crazy ones there but we had a great time, and thought it was actually more fun picking in the rain.  Nice pose Tim!

I said we should take a selfie to put on Instagram, but said I was going to hashtag it as #hesmycousin just to make sure everyone was clear.  Since then he's been saying 'hashtag he's my cousin' whenever we are together.

During the week I got a text from him asking if we were keen for a swim at the Gorge (as soon as it hits 20 degrees and is sunny Tim is keen for a swim).  We met him and his kids there after school and two of my students were also there swimming.  One of them was so cute and kept calling out to me yelling 'Mrs King! Mrs King'. She then came over to chat and said 'is that your man Mrs King!?'. We cracked up and I told her he was my cousin and asked her if she understood what cousin meant. She did and Tim cracked me up and said 'hashtag he's my cousin'. 

Tim and Helene have even convinced me to give the Parkrun a go (5 km).  I absolutely hate running, but anything is fun with them, so Harri and I have started doing the Parkrun on Saturdays with them.  I'm very slow, but it's been fun now that the weather is warmer. Tim, Helene and their kids are awesome runners and have been doing it for a long time, so they put us to shame.

Today Tim and I had lunch and I told him I wanted to do a blog post about him. This was his reaction! He made me laugh today as I told him I wasn't feeling very well and he said 'oh yeah, that time of the month'. I had to laugh as there aren't many guys who would feel comfortable talking about that kind of thing with a woman. I laughed and told him it was just end of term tiredness, and feeling run down. 

Thanks for all the lunches, laughs, swims, walks, runs and chats Tim.   I'm lucky to have a cousin who will put up with me and all my dramas, and I'm proud to call you my cousin.