The Fear The holiday with my brother's family is looming large. →[More:] I have been living in the UK for two years now. So far, three people from America have come to visit us here (which isn't surprising since it's far away and expensive).

My mother and her most recent husband (I'm a bit long in the tooth for a new stepdad, thanks) came over last year for a bit, and they had a really good time. I won't say that they were NO TROUBLE, but it went pretty smoothly. They mostly had fun becuase my mom had a week or so where she didn't have to wait on three people hand and foot (the long story about her silly situation is another post), so she was in a great mood.

My best friend and one-time musical partner from the states came over last June. We had a really good time; he loved it, and we went to Stonehenge on the Solstice. Here's a video. It was 110% fun, and a little too quick, tbh.

On August 8th, my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew are coming to visit... and I'm apprehensive. They've never been out of the states, they don't really like to do the same sort of things that we like to do: he said they were up for anything as long as it didn't involve a lot of walking. Newsflash: we live on the Malvern Hills... people come here from far and wide to, um, WALK. *sigh*

They're not exactly 'proactive' in the parenting department (we are), so my nephew tends to be a little rowdy. He is also sadly addicted to crap food and x-box (neither of which we have) and has a really terrible sleep cycle. I'm hoping that jetlag and being around his older (very upbeat, fun) cousins will sort him out whilst he's visiting.

My brother and SIL tend to bicker, drink too much, use foul language in front of the kids (as if they were invisible) and watch really inappropriate stuff on TV (constantly). They tend to be really negative people, and the atmosphere around them kind of oppressive and sarcastic. It's really rubbed off on my poor nephew, but I hope he can get past it around the girls... he has gotten into some trouble at school for saying and doing inappropriate things (gee, I wonder where he learned that).

In the states, we would run into them now and again (for one or two days) and always breathe a sigh of relief as we drove home. The sigh of relief which says "we may be fucked up, but we're nowhere near as fucked up as those people."

They're comfortable in their rut, and very uncomfortable out of it. They're also very, very unreconstructed Americans, in that they have an ignorant, ingrained (illogical, uninformed, silly) belief that America is the Greatest Country In The World. I imagine that they are going to spend most of their time complaining about England.

I really don't think they're going to have fun here, and ten days of my precious annual leave (I get 25, but I've already used a bit of it) will be wasted. There wasn't much I could do when he announced that they were coming over. I couldn't say "we don't want you to visit..."

We're a little stuck for things to do. We tend to do really kid-oriented stuff or National Trust days out. We normally hit the Safari Park... Sea Life Centre... Zoos... Farm Parks... The Welsh Show Caves... we could do a day out in London... Welsh Beaches. We're up for doing all sorts of stuff, but I think they're just going to want to sit around, get drunk, and be lazy.

Fuck if know what to do about it. Should I just grit my teeth for ten days? I probably won't see them again for years.