Yesterday was a particularly amazing day. I'm in Oxford at the moment, and yesterday afternoon I organised two things for my Gran, both of which were awesome (not really my doing, but still):
1. The New
Mmmm technology. It's hard to find people these days who aren't amazingly acquainted with the internet an all its trimmings. Until I have my own kids, it will be a rare opportunity to introduce people to new technology. Luckily for me, my granny is one such awesomely techno-naïve person, and yesterday I introduced her to Skype. She got to see my mom's face for the first time in years, and she also spoke to Adam and wished him happy birthday. It's cool to be a useful young person sometimes - all my techno addiction going to some sort of good use :)
2. The Old
Back when my Gran moved to England in 2000 to live near my Dad (she's Scottish but lived in Cape Town and Boksburg for a long time), she had to put a lot of her old stuff in boxes in my dad's attic. Yesterday afternoon she sent Tash and I up there to look for some of her parent's stuff (my great-grandparents). We didn't find exactly what she was looking for, but we did find some AMAZING things.
There were all these old photos of my dad when he was a baby and ones that his grandpa took when he was a medic in the Middle East in the first world (yeah, the FIRST ONE). We also found his (my great-grandpa's) old army rank badges. Included in the treasures were some ancient newspapers - one that announced the marriage of my great-grandparents in 1918, and the ones announcing the births of my Gran and her sister (in 1921 and 22 respectively). THEN we found one ACTUALLY ANNOUNCING THE END OF WORLD WAR 2. The headline on the 8th of May 1945 literally reads "End of the War in Europe". Insane. So amazing to hold such a fragile piece of history in my hands!
So I spent a lovely day with my Gran. It was super special - hoping to go through some more amazing mystery boxes from the attic when I'm back here at the end of the month. I might even get her to sign up for twitter. How cool would that be? @JudysGranny. Or @ScottishBabe1922...
