Happy Mother's Day

To all the wonderful, hardworking, beautiful mothers I know - Happy Mother's Day. I hope yours has been as wonderful as mine. I've enjoyed breakfast with my own beautiful mother, my sisters, who are also mothers, my husband and my children. We then all came back here to drink tea while we straightened my sister's unruly, afro hair with a hair straightener heated to 4000 degrees because that was the only way to get those curls to lose their bounce.

Afterwards is when the real treat came. My husband went out and bought me two dozen of the biggest, freshest pacific oysters he could find and french champagne to go with it. Right now he's cooking me up a prawn curry and I'm salivating at the thought of it.

All this caring and loving leaves me wanting to remind everyone of how important it is to care for even those we don't know very well.

Yesterday I attended the wedding of Maya's half sister. The bride was beautiful, the weather was perfect and the whole thing went off without a hitch. Perfectly planned and executed. After the ceremony we all met up at a nearby cafe for drinks, meals and a little bit of partying. A work colleague of the bride, someone who I had never previously met, was seated at my table for dinner. This woman was such a happy, beautiful person that I warmed to her instantly. She imbibed a little too much on the free flowing champagne and very quickly found herself a little under the weather. She left the table between courses to have a cigarette. When she hadn't returned after the rest of us had finished our meals I got a little worried.

I went to look for her but could not find her. I asked some others, people I thought were her friends, to help me look for her. Their responses shocked me. They were all like "well she's probably gone for a sleep in the park, she was pretty drunk you know. She'll be right. She'll sleep it off and get home some how". I was horrified that they could care so little. We were after all in a cafe, located in an inner city park, a place where one certainly would not want to be left alone under a tree to sleep it off. Who knows what might have happened to her. I continued to search for her but to no avail. I again asked some others to help me find her. I was worried. People who knew her said she didn't normally drink but she was stupid for drinking so much so quickly. It was like they were inviting her to attract trouble. If it were my teenage daughter and her friends were so callous I would lock her up and never let her near them ever again.

Eventually she was found. She had been just across the road, waiting for the effects to wear off a little. She was ok. A little sick but otherwise fine.