Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day in Australia - I had a lovely day because we had good solid soaking rain all day, and I spent a few hours poking around the shops. I got a box of chocolates and a "Best Mum" teatowel (when the boys eventually woke up at 10.30) which suits me just fine. I don't like to make a fuss about Mother's Day for three very good reasons:

1. I'm not a bad mother, but I don't put a lot of effort in, and I don't think it's very fair to give me extra appreciation for something that - to any objective measurement - would barely rate a pass grade.

2. My mother died 15 years ago, and Mother's Day makes me sad.

3. I cannot be bothered organising the children to do anything special for Father's Day, so I keep the bar low to avoid mutual raising of expectations.

Having said that, they are very good chocolates and I am enjoying them very much. And the rain is still going today, which is even better than chocolates, it was so dry and brown. Here is a photo of our back yard on Saturday - number one son had a few friends over to film some movie they're doing. I think it might be a school project, but I'm not entirely sure. They had some good equipment and I stayed out of the way (the dog didn't, she wanted to help and I think they might have written a part for her. No-one else volunteered, that bottle on the step is fake blood, I don't think it was a romantic comedy).

And at 9 am this morning both Houses of Parliament were dissolved in preparation for the 2 July election. I've never cared about this particularly before, but it is very interesting to see from the inside. The proclamation is displayed down in the Members' Hall so I might go and have a look on my way to lunch.