Mina Lobo's Resurrection II & a NaNo update

Here I was, all ready to prepare my first "proper" NaNo '13 update, and suddenly I saw a link to another blogger's post for Mina Lobo's Resurrection II blogfest. Which I signed up for. So ummm, yeah, I forgot it was on, and for some reason I wrote the date down as having been yesterday (November 6th), but over at Mina's blog it very clearly says November 7th. So I guess I get to participate still! Phew, that was lucky!

Anyway, the thing about my blog is that I don't really write awesome posts that are meant to be recyclable. I just come here and puke out (sorry for the visual) whatever I'm thinking at the time. Or else I slap something on the page that is related to some blogfest or blog hop topic that somebody else came up with. Or I do my own self-imposed regular posts like my Globetrotters posts, my "Out & About Me" posts, etc.. Now, because it's NaNo time right now and I'm madly participating (well, not so madly, but definitely participating), I was gonna just link back to some old post about NaNo (like, from last year, 'cause I participated then too). But then I went back to my November posts and I saw one that I thought was very worth re-sharing. It's this one.

Lately I've talked more about my dad because of my travel posts - Dad took me on an 8-stop world trip when I was 17. But my mum just happens to be totally, completely awesome, and November is not only the month of NaNo, it's the month of my Saggi Mum's birthday. So I figured last year's post about Mum was a very fitting choice for resurrection. :)

Right, now that most of the post has been taken up with pure rambling which passes for participation in the very super awesome Mina Lobo's super-fun blogfest, I will spare a few lines to actually update you on NaNo, as originally intended:

I'm at 18,495 words.

I haven't been writing much, generally around 2-2.5k a day. For me, this isn't a lot.

I'm okay with not writing a lot, 'cause you know, I've been busy at work with huge due-by-year's-end projects, and also I have other stuff to do. Sometimes.

I am really loving my story, even if much of it is crap right now. The story itself is good, I think, so eventually the writing will become good to match the story.

For now, I spew forth and writing comes out.

I LOVE NANO.

Today is my mummy's birthday!

Little mummy.

Today we are celebrating my mum's 58th birthday, though she is currently away from home at her DIDO (drive in-drive out) job. She will be here for the weekend and we're gathering on Sunday to celebrate. But enough about that - I want to just talk about my mother.

70s (I think) mummy.

She is one of the best mothers the planet has ever seen. In high school all my friends were envious that I had such a cool mum (no curfew, no rules at all really, and definitely never any smacking). People say that kids need corporal discipline to stay on the straight and narrow. I say different, at least when I'm taking my bro and myself as evidence of how well un-spanked kids can behave. ;)

Mum was a single parent for much of my young life, and times were often tough, but we were pretty much always happy. As a small business owner, Mum worked from home, and she worked damn hard. I've heard it said that people who have lots of money work really hard. Well, my mum was proof that people who have no money work just as hard or even harder.

Me and mummy - I think I was in my teens here.

My mum grew up in a very happy family, and I always remember her saying that she was shocked to realise as she grew up that her family was abnormal rather than normal, because of how happy they were. She's the youngest of four kids, the baby, and growing up she found it hard to get a word in edgewise. Sometimes that's still the case today when we're hanging with her raucous sisters (who just happen to be awesome aunties as well)! The only boy in the family is definitely the most placid. :)

Me and mummy on my 25th b'day (7.5 years ago).

I got my mother's green eyes and it's possible I got her curly hair too, though it's equally possible I got my dad's curly hair (they both have similar-looking hair, even down to having the same type of curl). Some people say I look very like Dad, and others say I look very like Mum. I think I look a fair bit like both at particular moments (though I am basically an identical twin to my dad's little sister, but that's a story for another time).

I guess what I really wanted to say was happy birthday Mummy!

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P.S. Don't forget to check out my Baby Faces Blogfest and sign up if you want! :)

Day 5...slash 7

It's day 7 of NaBloWriMo for me, but so far I only see up to prompt 5 on the official blog, so... Here goes!

What is your favourite way to spend time with your family?

I love going over to my mum's house and sitting out on her backyard deck with a beer. Or a gin and tonic. Or a glass of wine. Or some other kind of...alcoholic drink. Yes, fun times with the family tend to involve at least some kind of alcohol. No doubt that's a bad, unhealthy thing, but it's not like we get trashed. We just enjoy a nice drink to unwind.

Speaking of alcohol, I was reading an article in the newspaper this morning about how some doctor guy in Perth has recommended that Australia follow Norway's lead in locking up alcoholic pregnant women until they've given birth, to stop them drinking. I think this is a viable idea, but it also smacks of deprivation of liberty or something, right? And yet it isn't mostly about the mothers, it's about the unborn children who are being damaged because the mothers can't control their drinking. But maybe they should lock the drinking fathers up too?

I'll leave you with a picture taken in a place called Hamlin Bay, which until I went down south recently I'd never heard of. This, my friends, is a winter's day in Western Australia:

Happy Mother's Day!

It's that special day when we spend more money on our mums than usual and act as if they aren't awesome EVERY single day of the year! Just kidding, it's more a celebration of how awesome our mothers are all year round!

First off, a BIG happy Mother's Day to all my blogging friends who are mums! I honestly truly do not know how you do it! You are an inspiration, though I must admit just hearing about your lives and how you juggle kids with all your other commitments makes me tired. LOL. I hope you all have a great day and get pampered like crazy!

Secondly (but not least...ly), happy Mother's Day to my awesome mum who helped make me the awesome person I am today. *clears throat* Okay, moving on... lol. For a lot of my life my mum was a single parent and she did an amazing job raising my lil brother and I (he's not so little now, at 6'4") with pretty much no help! She is my best friend and my friends have always been envious of me for my mum. Today I'm going over to her house with a bunch of books for her to choose from (she asked me for some on Facebook. hehe). I am also taking my DVD copy of North & South (the Richard Armitage version) for us to watch (we're giving ourselves 4-5 hours to get through it, including breaks :D). Then we'll go out for dinner at a nearby Thai place.

In closing, meet my mum (the last one is of me and her in 2005):