As you can see, I am blogging again, after a four month break—but now using a new platform, with a fresh address/URL. This platform has new features, including the facility to sign-up to receive posts directly into your in-box, as well as the opportunity to feature three posts on the home page.

My first set of ‘featured posts’ focuses on pieces that I’ve written about my mother, Gwen, over the years. This is because mum died on 1st October. A week or so after the service, I was typing away and my finger slipped on the keyboard. I intended to write ‘generosity’, but on the screen I saw ‘gwenerosity’ instead—with the ‘w’ sitting next to the ‘e’!… How appropriate! For those who knew her well, mum was so selfless, so hospitable, so other-centered, so positive, so self-deprecating—and so generous.

As one more way to remember and give thanks for my mummy, ‘generous Gwen’, I’ve trawled through all my photos, selecting a favourite fifty—and then whittling it down to a ‘first eleven’. Given my enjoyment of cricket, ‘first elevens’ work better than ‘top tens’—plus it gives me an additional photo!

nice chatting

Paul

PS. While a cricket team plays ‘a first eleven’, there is always an extra player available as a substitute fielder (or ‘twelfth man’ in old English), so that means I can choose one more photo. I’ve always regretted that I don’t have a memorable photo with my Dad in his final years—but not so with my Mum.

I was rushing back from Hyderabad to sneak into having the final hours of a 60th birthday at home with the family in Palmerston North. I had a short transit at Auckland Airport and my mum, gwenerous as ever, came out to wish me a Happy 60th Birthday…