Easter with Mum

Mum flew up to spend Easter with me. We got on pretty well most of the time. She's more accepting and supportive of me than she used to be. She understands my depression a lot better now (John Kirwan's book possibly had a hand in that) and seems to understand me a lot better, so it's no surprise we get on better. She's come to accept that I'm not going to become CEO of a multinational company any time soon, and is hopeful that my puzzle business does take off, improbable though that might be. I'm certainly impressed by her improved level of understanding - to be honest I never expected it. Perhaps everything that's happened to my brother has taken the spotlight off me. She now has just two main worries when it comes to me. The first is money, and I suppose when you take an enormous pay cut you can hardly blame her. The only slightly annoying thing is that she now thinks I'm incapable of paying for anything. The second is relationships. That's understandable too (it's not as if it doesn't bother me) but mentioning it over and over is unlikely to make a girlfriend magically appear. I wish it would.

Mum helped to zazz up my flat a bit. She bought (and shipped up here) two nice woodcut prints which are now hanging on my wall. She also painted my dining chairs, which currently have no table to go with them, and helped screw in the seats. Naturally she did some washing and ironing but I made sure I had no surplus unironed shirts this time. We didn't do much except go on a couple of long walks, go out for two inexpensive meals and generally chat. One of our meals was at a Malaysian restaurant on Manners Street. Even though it was relatively early, we managed to get sandwiched between two tables full of noisy drunk people. I was relieved when we were able to escape. A shame because I enjoyed the food. We did very little shopping over the weekend, which is always nice. (Of course very few shops are open anyway on Friday and Sunday, and long may it remain that way.)

It's amazing to think that Mum will be eligible for a gold card in little more than a year. She's still remarkably fit and healthy. She eats and exercises well but most of her good health is simply the result of good genes (Dad isn't quite so lucky). Yesterday (Easter Sunday) she went to church. In Geraldine the congregation at her Catholic church is dominated by the cauliflower brigade, so called on account of their hair. It's a dreary business most of the time, and it sounds like Mum often goes through the motions. Mum found yesterday's service here in Wellington to be quite uplifting (as it's meant to be), to the point that I wished I'd gone. It was a multicultural affair involving young people with guitars.

I took Mum to the airport at about 5pm yesterday. I was sad to see her go. By the way I was miles off with those sideburn odds. She mentioned them within seconds.