Mother's Day, a time to appreciate the gift of mothers. Many times we don't realize hoe special these ladies are. My mum has been an incredible inspiration to me, and despite not always seeing eye to eye on some things, I'm ever so thankful for having her as my mum. Her and my dad definately had their work cut out for them raising my siblings and me. It's one of those holidays that have two dates, depending on in which country you're in. In the US Mother's Day is the second Sunday in May, whilst in the UK it's the fourth Sunday in lent, so in other words, yesterday. Sadly, this year I wasn't able to celebrate with my gorgeous mother. Leaving a card with my great aunt wasn't exactly the same as being able to be with her. She and my dad are in the Netherlands at the moment and will be traveling back to South Africa with in the next few days. It's strange being in England and not having been able to see them.
I spent most of Friday morning with a very good friend of the family who lives near where I've been staying. Mum delivered this lady's son twenty-five odd years ago (before my parents met and were married) and they stayed in touch. Her husband was away at a medical conference, but it was really nice seeing this lady. On Friday morning, I was also able to get my hands on a PINsentry card reader, which I didn't get when my bank card arrived. So now banking online is a whole lot easer than without one. I think one was sent to my great aunt's, which can serve as a back up one, which would be ever so handy. Personally I think it was a very good thing that I was able to get it when I did because that particular card reader the last that the Ramsgate branch had there. A miracle!
The journey to Dunstable, where my cousins, Taz, Alastair and Lindsey, live was dramatic as it sometimes gets. I arrived at the station in Broadstairs early and that I had already printed my tickets out, which was fortunate as my train arrived two minutes. When I got to St. Pancras International I had no idea which direction I needed to go to get the train to Luton. So after after asking a few people I was able to find the right platform. A train to Bedford (I think it was) was just pulling into the station when I got there. I vaguely saw that one of the stations it was calling at was Luton, so I lept on. I then wasn't sure because there wasn't any announcements or displays saying which stations the train was calling at. So I asked someone and they said the train should be stopping at Luton, so I spent half an hour or so worried I was on the wrong train and that I'd be in trouble. The conductor didn't say anything when he saw my ticket and Railcard, which didn't really help me with the nerves. However, thankfully I was on the right train. Then there was bus journey. I had no idea which side of the concourse I needed to be on, so I asked again and was directed to the other side. I was fortunate here too. Through out this journey my mind kept bringing up memories of Brazil, of traveling there, the second train somehow reminded me of the train journeys in São Paulo and the bus was a bit like travelling by bus in Belo Horizonte, though travelling in Brazil is good deal more chaotic than British traveling.
Saturday morning, I walked around Dunstable whilst Taz and Lindsey had a cake decoration class for Mother's Day. We then dropped Lindsey at her dance and drama class before doing a spot of shopping. We then went to collect Lindsey, and took the dogs with us. Ellie was trained as a hunting dog but was dumped because she wasn't doing what she was supposed to do, so Taz sent her running after her ball so that she'd burn some energy. Rocco had to stay on the lead because once he'd be let off, he'd been off and wouldn't come back. Rocco had been locked in a garage for five years, on his own, with irregular food and water, so he's still learning how to behave when around other dogs. He used to be ever so protective about his food, and though he isn't so bad, he still doesn't like people going anywhere near his food.
Then on Mother's Day (yesterday), the clocks all changed by an hour, as the European summer time has begun, so we all got an hour less of sleep. It's funny, last year the clocks changed over Easter weekend, so we got an hour less of sleep on Easter Sunday. I remember being in Latvia over that time. Funny. Anyway, poor Lindsey was yawning quite a bit towards the end of the day. It was actually nice that we stayed at home and didn't go anywhere. Taz is a trained chef and made us a lovely roast dinner. It was absolutely delicious. Alastair has two beared dragons, Norman and Norma, and Lindsey also has a pet lizard, named Lenard. I jumped at the opportunity to feed Norma and Norman their locusts. I guess growing up in Africa means that I'm used to locusts and grasshoppers as we see a lot of them there. It was actually a lot of fun feeding them. They're lovely, good tempered creatures. I forgot to take a photo of the guinia pig, who is another of Lindsey's pets.
I've just gotten back to Broadstairs, safely. The bus and train journeys both were relatively uneventful. I did loose my beanie and gloves on the bus and realized I'd done this when I was already on the train to St. Pancras International. They hadn't costed much but it was still rather frustrating that I hadn't been more careful with my things. I was also fortunate to be able to get a coffee whilst I was waiting for my second train, as I had been able to get on an earlier train at Luton and there wasn't an earlier train to Broadstairs, so my journey took a bit longer than I would have thought. However, that coffee I bought was from Starbucks Coffee. It's the first one I've had in a very long time, believe it or not, so the wait was worth it.
The photograph captions, from the top: Rocco, the Siberian husky; Ellie and Lindsey, Ellie's a spaniel; Lenard, Lindsey's lizard; Norma, the female bearded dragon; Lindsey, and the last photograph is of Norman, the male bearded dragon.