About Uncle Mary and Auntie Leon

• Collectively known as the dudes, Mary and Leon are our best mates and live in the West Country with their new baby Kate (born only 3 days before Felix) and their two dogs Millie and Tiki
  
• They are the ones to blame for introducing silly words that stick, like boyfried, girlfried and welding and saying tee hee hee instead of laughing, and are totally fun and childlike all the time

• Uncle Mary, aka Mairy Fairy, aka Pooh, is one of my bestest bestest friends from school who I have known for about one hundred and forty years

• Through her I met her boyfried Auntie Leon, aka Leonberger, who is a very silly man but is no longer her boyfried, he is now her husband and he is also a pillar of the community, though its hard to believe, being a teacher and all that in his spare time
  
• And through him I met his bestest bestest mate from school, who is also a very silly man, but is hopelessly attractive, and he became my boyfried and he is still my boyfried and the father of our children and also a pillar of the community, though its hard to believe, being a doctor and all that
• when they got wed, boyfried was best man, and i was bridesmaid so it was all very Fred and Wilma and Barney and Betty but in a totally non-cheesy way
  
• Got that?

Auntie Mary:

• Loves mountains and high places and canoes and outdoorsy type pursuits
• Knows how to build a dry stone wall
  
• Listens to other people. Man how I wish I could be a genuinely interested in other people in the way Mairy Fairy is
• Knows herself inside and out, and has done since the age of seven
• Has a totally bonkers family including of 3 elder brothers which explains why she rarely lets any kind of shit get to her
• Owns lots of really really large and heavy pieces of furniture
  
• Is very very silly
  

Uncle Leon:

• Loves mountain climbing but hates heights (paradoxical, but true)
• Has a PhD in DIY. His present to us when Jam-beans was born was to decorate her nursery and turn our shit heap of a house into something halfway decent and try and undercharge us for it. What a cool guy
• Is brilliant at inventing games out of nothing and anything
• Is the kind of guy who always gives his seat up for other people, and thinks of others first
  
• Leaves nothing sacred. And I mean nothing in the "yup I really have just made a joke about your mother" kind of way. But gets away with it because he's always totally funny
  
• Cannot face a camera without gurning
• Chose the best nuns outfits for him and the boyfried when they went on a stag to the munich beer fest together (which they wore, together with a sign that said "will f*** for crack") but that i also got to try on and thought i looked super cool too
• Is very very silly