God Save The Queen - Good Old Liz turns 60!

Well, I did have a good time last weekend. Firstly, it was a 4 day weekend which, if you've ever lived in the UK for any length of time, you'll understand is a rare event! We get 8 public holidays a year. Oh how I think back fondly to the time when I got what seemed to be about 50 public holidays a year in Oman. It only took someone tenuously connected to the Sultan to pop his clogs for us all to get 3 days off in mourning! I did most of my grieving at the beach.

Back to this past holiday weekend - a Jubilee Weekend, no less! Good old Liz turned 60 on the throne. Of course, she's much more ancient than that. I think she is 86 years old and what a good old bird she is. Stomping around the festivities with that "old woman grumpy face". It was great. We love her to bits! If her Mum's anything to go by, we'll have another 4 day holiday weekend in 10 years time for the Platinum Jubilee and perhaps one after that. I'm not even sure what you'd call an 80th Jubilee - a Geriatric Jubilee?

All of this makes poor old Qaboos seem like a bit of an upstart for only being sat upon his throne for a mere 42 years. Get a move on mate! :-)

Mother's Day

In the past, Mother's Day was always one of those days which turned out to be more of an inconvenience than a day to look forward to. As a child, I was oblivious to it. As an adult, I always seemed to have better things to do and would only get round to preparing for Mother's Day at the very last moment. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mum and have always thought the world of her. It was more the "Hallmark Holiday" tag that Mother's Day has which rubbed me up the wrong way.

This year, it is different.

My Mum 's health has declined rapidly over the last 9 months. In that time she has fallen and broken her leg badly, but has had to live with it being broken as an operation to fix it would likely kill her due to a very weak heart. As a result, she's been forced to move out of her home and enter a Care Home. All of this is in addition to the deteriorating state of her mind due to Alzheimer's disease. All in all, a very stressful time tinged with more than a hint of sadness.

Like I said, this year is different.

As the old saying goes....you never know how much you miss someone until they're gone. Well my Mum hasn't gone yet and I, for one, am determined to enjoy more time with her whilst she is still here so I do not regret later that I didn't do as much as possible to make this time in her life as happy as possible. With that in mind, for this Mother's Day I have put aside any issues I may have with the day itself and transformed Mother's Day into Mother's Weekend!

The weekend will be full of family visits, an outing for lunch on the Sunday itself, a visit to the beauty salon on the Saturday to get pampered and preened and a wheel around the shops for some retail therapy tomorrow (Friday). All transportation is going to be via the best limousine service I can find (as well as the prestige, limos are wheelchair friendly!). For someone who's almost 89 and in failing health, its a mammoth weekend!

Mother's Day may be a fabricated holiday designed to make you spend money, but the idea of honouring the woman who brought you into this world and, as likely as not, brought you up for more years than you can remember, is something not just to grudgingly acknowledge but something to take hold of and celebrate.

Your Mum will not be around forever - a hard fact which crashed into my consciousness this past year. Don't miss the opportunity to say Thank you Mum. I love you.