soulstar | That twin thing again

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That twin thing again

It was Mum's birthday yesterday. My Aunt Alex (Mum's sister) and Bob('s)-my-uncle (her husband) came down and we all had dinner, which was nice. We don't usually see them on birthdays, cos they're Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, several of my family - my cousins on Dad's side who live locally - came round to see Mum, and brought flowers and cards and stuff. I'm very pleased with them! :-)

Anyway, when I got round to Mum's, she had a visitor - her friend Jenny. Martin was best friends with Jenny's son all through primary school, so as such she's known us for about 20 years now. I let myself in, walked into the living room to say hi, and...
Jenny: Goodness! You and Martin are so alike!
Mum: I still don't see it...
Jenny: He was down here just before you came in, and it's the way you stand and speak as well. But really - you could be twins!

Bzuh? I mean, maybe I should be used to this by now - it's been happening since I was 18 and he was 13, when the obvious age-gap between us must have .... stopped being obvious? But if it's that we appear to be about the same age, surely it would make more sense for people to assume that we're brother and sister who are a year apart in age, or something? Why always the twin thing? We get it more now than ever, together and separately. When M started his new job, he was "recognised" by a girl who I went to school with. I can't see where we look so apparantly alike, and neither can he, or Mum. Funny thing is, there are photos of Dad when he was about Martin's age now that could be M with a dark wig on, and photos of Mum when she was little that look exactly like me as a child. Come to think of it, when I was home from uni one time (so, when I was about 20), I opened the door to Jenny, and she did a double take, thinking Mum had gone blonde. But then again, I've had people tell me I looked just like Dad, too. It's all very strange!

Do I look that much like Martin, though? Perhaps I should stick up some photos and post a poll. Any excuse for some tickyboxes!

Plus,

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well.... it's obvious that you're siblings. something about teh eyes and mouth. Mind you, a lot of the resemblance is expressions and body language.

People who've known me and Matt for a bit tell us we look alike, but strangers don't. It's all expressions. Same eyes, hair and hands, but that's about it.

That's quite interesting, really - it makes you realise that you must learn and retain things like body language quite early on. After all, Martin and I haven't lived in the same place for something like 10 years, and we only saw each other a few days a year for a lot of that.

We do get the twin thing from strangers as well as people who know one or both of us, though. Sooooooooooooo weird.

Try having a sister who really does look like you, to the point that your own mother calls you J-Clare. (Me sisters called Jane).

Judge for yourself - yes I've found a modern photo! (I'll probably only keep this link up for a day as I'm funny about photos!).

This was taken at my sisters graduation in November 2005. She's three years older, and my Mum is in the middle.

My family (minus brother)

I'm the one without the cap and gown (obviously!!!)

Ooo, I see your point! If she wasn't taller, you'd be almost identical. (Good picture, that!)

(Of course, my Mum does sometimes call me and M by the wrong names, but I like to think that's more absent-mindedness than her actually confusing the two of us!!!)

And of course I got the hair straighteners out - so my hair didn't look like a hedge!

Now my Mum has never called me Stephen!

Heehee - think yourself lucky, then!

(it's some kind of weird family trait that she caught from my Dad... my mad aunts do it too. I have to just know that when one of them asks after "young Malcolm", they're (usually) talking about my brother and not my cousin Malcolm at all!)

Families do that though. I think it's a familiar thing, they don't have to put the thinking effort in - if you get what I mean. Hey - I have two mad aunties! One who is completely loopy and lives in Spain.

My nuttiest aunt went to live in Spain, too! There must be some kind of crazy-aunt attraction to it. Only, mine came back.

Oh I like the idea of Spain being a crazy-auntie magnet! I wonder if they ever met?

Now that *is* a frightening thought!

Oooh - I can just see it now. They meet at some sort of mad auntie conference in Spain. What kind of mad is your aunt? Mine use to be a hippie, took loads of drugs, had man after man after man, believes in anything to do with psychics, paranormal, angels, magic etc, and had a child called Blaise. Blaise is now coming up for 12, she wants to change her name to Blaise-Victoria, and is very sensible! It's just like Absolutely Fabulous!

Hmm. Mine wasn't a hippie, but she was pretty lively in her younger days (she's 83 now). She has a daughter, Jacqui, but they don't always get on. I'm not sure if she had man after man or not, but she did leave her husband & daughter. And.... she believes in anything to do with psychics, paranormal, angels, magic etc! Oh, and she thinks animals are better than people (or is that her twin sister? maybe it's both of them). Also, she comes up with the most bizarre ideas about things.

Yep - that's a proper mad aunt!

And just think - there really are two of her! Plus the other one, who is five years younger than the twins, but very nearly as bad.

Oh dear! Three of them?

Ohhh yes. Dad also had an elder brother, but he was fun. Sadly, he now has altzeimers, and doesn't even know Dad's gone. However, his wife adds to the madness by being part of the bizarre chinese-whispers-style telephone network they have going.
My Mum has a sister too, so I have four aunts (plus the one by marriage) in total, but she's not mad in a bad way.

Sounds like you have quite a colourful family. My branch of the family (me, my sister, my Mum and my brother) tend to keep away from the rest of our family, because they are just odd. Sort of out of touch in reality - not in wacky way (like the wacky aunt in Spain), but just quite odd - if that makes sense!

Well, they're certainly confusing! I can never keep track of which of them aren't talking to which at any particular moment, either.
Sounds like your lot might be even odder than mine, though... I think our lot keep at least some kind of tenuous hold on reality. Mostly! *g*

Yep - they are, and were odd. I'm quite open about this (although my Mum thinks its shameful), but my Dad's parents were first cousins, which made his parents his second cousins, and means I was related to them in a weird cousiny type way as well. The weirdest that they ever were at my Dad funeral. They just ignored my Mum and my Grandma acted like some grieving widow. It was just awful. Guess that's what it's like in rural Durham!

Oh, this is getting spooky now, what with the crazy Aunties in Spain, and now this... cos I have a similar thing in my family. Not quite so close at hand - it was cousins of my Gran, and the result was another cousin who became known as "poor Rose"! They lived on the Isle of Wight... maybe that explains it. ;-)
My Mum did also used to go out with her cousin Geoff (except they're something like second cousins twice removed, so it's not quite the same) when they were about sixteen.

Sounds like your lot are a bit odd in general. It does sound awful about your Dad's funeral. Your poor Mum!

God, relations are confusing!!

Oh yes - bloody confusing!

Well at least my family unit is quite close, we've been through some crap, but we are all still together.

Oh, that's good :-) Your immediate family are the more important ones, anyway.

Yep - much as they annoy the hell out of me, to the point where I can't live with them, I still need them, and would do anything for them. I'm sure it's the same for you.

Absolutely. Especially the not living with them part ;-)

I've been told at at last count I look like my mum's sister (but not my mum), my dad, my grandad's mother and my dad's sister.

My sister and I dont look that alike but we sound EXACTLY the same, voice, mannerisms etc so whenever someone rings round there's always a startled pause while they figure out which one it is. Its usually wrong. :)

Hee, spooky! I wonder why it is that people are so embarrassed to just ask who they're talking to?

I think you definitely look enough alike to instantly recognise you as brother (I'd just typed "bother"! *laughs*) and sister. But apart from that... the twins thing I don't get. I mean, even if you looked more alike, there'd still be the apparent difference in height, which shouldn't be so significant if you were twins, right?

*cuddles!*

Hee - bother and sister is more like it ;-) No, not really... not since he was 11, anyway. *g*
Yeah, you would think the height would make a difference. Although, if we *were* twins, we'd have to be fraternal anyway, so perhaps that doesn't count. But see, that's another reason why it makes no sense: if people think we're twins because we "look so alike", we still couldn't be identical because, duh, then we'd have to be the same gender. So. Bzuh?!

*huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggles*

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That twin thing again

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