mothers on the verge

As the world continues to mourn for Michael Jackson (an event on which I am decidedly neutral despite having bopped along to Thriller at numerous school discos in my heyday) I am sitting on my front porch enveloped in a humidity blanket, sipping a fortifying glass of red wine and attempting to sit with the correct posture to alleviate the annoying pain in my neck. No, Alpha is nowhere to be seen, this is a literal pain in the neck brought on by a strain in my shoulder girdle - and no, I didn't know I had one of those either until I strained it. The pain was in my right arm but has now shifted to my neck, a bit of a relief as it means I can now type and drive again without too much wincing. Firstborn reaches the grand old age of seven tomorrow so today was her birthday party, foolishly held at home (under the mistaken belief that having enough space for birthday shenanigans would make the whole affair easier). 15 small girls consumed huge quantities of sugar, Firstborn had an emotio

I seem to have managed to delete all the comments we got from my last post. Due to my rage of crossness upon finding ridiculous spam posts (Natasha, I DO NOT want to see you naked), I deleted the lot by mistake. Oops. Genuine posters, keep 'em coming. Spammers, b*gger off. Anyway, I've started painting again and am in a frenzy. Here's one I've almost completed and another I've just started. You don't have to like them - I just wanted to express how proud of myself I am for having put a paintbrush to canvas again after so many years... it's something I've been talking about for a long time. Onwards and upwards.

Some of the choice quotes I've heard in the past week: "I have to rush or I'll be late for my personal trainer." "I was so upset last night when I heard that you'd been saying that my daughter was being mean to your child that I couldn't make my husband his dinner." "You just won't believe the trouble I've been through with my maid recently. I am beyond annoyed." "You're flying Economy? Really? I told Colin that if he books me and the kids into anything less than Business Class for our trip home this summer then I'd rather stay here in Dubai. I just can't bear it otherwise." "And I said to her, Honey, if you're going to do it then you'll have to go to the Lebanon. The doctors there do the best breasts in the world. It's not something you want to take a chance on, is it?" MAD!