Happy Mother's Day

We both had an early night last night, poor Mr G still frozen so he wore his fleecy pyjamas. We mused on whether we would still be quite so exhausted when life went back to normal. It was unheard of for either of us to be in bed before 11. Over the last few weeks we've been in bed at 9, 10, even 8 o clock some nights. Whether it's solely to do with the amount of activity we've been doing, our age or just feeling beaten down and fed up of lockdown. Or maybe it's because subconsciously we know that life is going to start picking up again soon; school is starting back, Mr G will be back in work soon enough too, and so we are trying to get some energy back in reserve. 

So this morning, I was up quite early. Sat with a coffee and was treated to a beautiful sunrise and red sky. 

I had some lovely cards, flowers and a bottle of the most gorgeous wine I have ever had. Kylie Minogue Rose wine. When I had a promo email with her wines, I was a bit sceptical - although I do love her perfumes. I looked at the price of the cases, and rolled my eyes. They weren't super expensive, but a lot of money to risk on a case of celebrity wine that might not be great. Just before Valentines Day, I found the rose and the white in Morrisons for £7 a bottle, and so I bought a bottle for my gift cupboard. Of course, Friday night, I decided I wanted a drink for the Zoom party, so it vanished. The children replaced it for me ;-) 

Went down to see my mother for an hour, to give her her cards. I didn't know what to buy her as a gift, so I gave her money. I am terrible at buying gifts for people, unless they come out and tell me what they want or need. I know she used her birthday money to buy some new ornaments for her garden, some cute statues, so hopefully there's something else that took her fancy that she can buy.

Mr G bought a corker of a card for my mother. She is notoriously bad at having her photograph taken. No word of a lie, we have to take about seventeen of each shot. Where other people will keep quiet and pose for the few seconds it takes for a photo, she keeps on talking and blinking. Subsquently, most photographs of her, she is snarling, or gurning or has her eyes closed. Mr G had taken a photograph of her once while we were out for a meal, and when she saw it, she said 'You had better delete that, I wasn't ready!'. She looked absolutely furious in it, like she was about to dish out a bollocking to someone.

Needless to say, he didn't delete it, and this year it has taken pride of place slap bang in the middle of a Moonpig card, surrounded by photographs of him and her together - from her favourite son in law. Her only son in law, but still. Her reaction? Not quite as disturbed as it was the year she received a calendar solely comprised of pictures of him, but still. Amusing enough. 

The plan was to go from my mother's for a walk, but it was pouring with rain, so we came home instead. Hopefully it will be drier tomorrow. He likes looking for his painted rocks (there's a group on Facebook called Anglesey Rocks, I believe, where members paint rocks and hide them around Anglesey. When you find one, you snap it, hashtag it on Facebook and hide the rock elsewhere) and I like catching my Pokemon. We truly would ruin another couple. We spoke about this yesterday, not that we would ruin another couple specifically, although we really would... but how we are so aligned and so alike in the things that matter, for example - our views on any kind of intolerance and bigotry, the fact that neither of us are animal lovers (not animal haters - just, pets aren't for us), we're politically aligned. And then how completely polar opposite we are in other ways, and we just balance each other out. He is up in the sky floating away, but he is tethered to my Taurean energy, firmly grounded in reality, so he can't go too far. He is calm in a crisis, I am usually #fewmin so he stops me from killing someone. He can't use a computer, despite his job being reliant on it, I can. He is the funniest person I've ever met, and we just bounce off each other. There's a lot to be said for your man being able to make you cry every day, if it's with laughter.   

Last night, for example, in bed, he started to laugh. Story told with permission (for once. He doesn't usually get a choice).

Drifting off to sleep, bed starts shaking. He's either laughing or crying. Hold my breath and remain silent until I can figure it out. Bed shakes again. Genuinely can't tell if he is upset or laughing.

Me: You ok, babe?

*Bed shakes again and he starts hooting with laughter*

Him: Just thinking about something from the past. I've probably told you this before (he hadn't) 

Me: Ok. 

Him: Before I met you, when I was living at home, single. I was home alone one night, reading the local paper, and I came across the lonely hearts ads. I saw one, single woman, likes rugby league, WLTM, so I thought ooh. Ok. 

Me: Right.

Him: So, I got the phone, dialled the number and I heard this booming voice. 'Ello. My name's Fred'. I said 'Fookinell' and slammed the phone down. 

Me:  Jesus wept.

Him: I must have got a digit wrong or something.

Me: Or maybe you didn't? Maybe Fred was your single, rugby league loving woman? 

Him: This is my new girlfriend Fred. She loves rugby league and she used to be a hooker. For Wigan.

*Both giggling*

Him: That's not the best part of it. A few weeks later the phone bill arrived. And my mum was going through it and all of a sudden I hear 'what the bloody hell is this?'. She read the number out and it was the number from the advert. Bloody premium rate number, wasn't it?

Me: Oh my God, what did you do?

Him: I thought quickly and told her that it was hers from when she had voted for something on television. She said 'Oh yeah, that'll be it'.

Me: You're going to hell. 

We had a lovely afternoon together on the couch and we watched a film called National Security before Mr G cooked me a lovely tea, Pinch of Nom's Dirty Macaroni with cheesy garlic bread. 

And he washed up for me too. Keeper. Not sure what's on the agenda for tonight, but the way I'm feeling right now, another early night sounds good. The boy is back in school tomorrow, and has been told that he is only to attend for lessons, so he only has to go in after lunch. The school is only minutes away from our house, so it's no hardship. 

I hope you've all had a lovely day, I know it's not always a happy day for everyone, bittersweet for some, heartbreaking for others. For me, it's nice to be appreciated. And when your son writes that you're the best mum in the world, there's no gift that can top that. I'm not altogether convinced that I am - it's probably something to do with the fact that I bought him Fifa 21 and an online Playstation subscription when we went into lockdown - but I'll take it. There's worse than me out there.