My mum and I

My mum is just awesome although she drives me nuts like you would not believe. Packing my handbag for me is too much. She's also extremely embarrassing. Like the time we were out having a pub lunch. I arrived and my brother who as mentioned is stuck in about age 11 roared at the top of his voice "She's here!". Then we sat down and she was bringing me up to date with this old guy she'd been dating and was complaining he kissed using his teeth. "I'd dread to think what he'd do if I gave him my nipple." she said and I felt the woman in the family sharing the table with us jump. She likes to tell people about the stretch marks which I got when I went to live in Poland and got fat. She likes to tell complete strangers her complete life story. She's always been very proud of my achievements and it was weird as a teen turning up to the newsagents and being congratulated by the shop owner on my exam results.

When she came to this country the second job she got was as a welder making car parts. Just realised the irony of that with my main usability client being a seller of car parts! When pregnant with my brother she was welding and got caught drinking Mackinsons for the iron in her break. She and her friend Kazia gossiped all the time but had the highest productivity level - no one could understand it as they hardly stopped for breath. She was absolutely stunning and when she arrived to work in a little ensemble she had sewn up herself of fake leopard print hotpants and waistcoat she would literally stop the traffic on the factory floor as they all watched her walk through. She had learnt to be a seamstress because my very conservative very religious grandfather had not wanted her to have a job where she worked with men. Of course the first job she got when she got to England aged 19 with no English was working for the RAF measuring pilot's inside legs so that kind of backfired big time on granddad.

My family were very poor in Poland. They lived in the best house in the village because it had wooden floors and that was because granny was their housekeeper. Mum had one dress and she had to stay in bed all Saturday so that gran could wash n dry it ready to be clean for church on Sunday. She had one pair of shoes so could not wear them in summer months and went barefoot not to wear them out. Her fav thing to do was to sit in a tree and read books with her nanny goat waiting below and if she climbed too high such that the goat could not see her the goat would make a right old fuss. The neighbours boy was in love with mum and tried to get her attention by dropping a load of stinging nettles on top of her while she slept one night through the open window. Boys! She met my dad because he was from the neighbouring village and she always had time to get ready for his arrival because grandmother would spot him skiing down the hills towards the house. Isn't that quaint? My mum saw her grandmother in a dream the night she died. My grandmother did the same. We're all witches of a sort.

I read today about a cable car tower coming loose stranding people in Whistler - it reminded me of when I was in the Slovakian mountains for a New Year shin dig with a bunch of people I didn't know and one friend. We went for a walk and did the cable car part way up all fine. The adventurous were going to head down through deep snow and I decided to join the lot going down more casually in the cable car. Except I was suddenly struck with fear, shaking and crying. They could not get me off that mountain and people were no doubt asking "Who the hell brought that mad woman along?" So all but my friend went down. She tried to ply me with alcohol and after an hour in the cafe at the top I was persuaded to make an exit in a cable car. A couple of days later one of those cable cars dropped and killed 4 people! I can't explain where some of my feelings / knowledge derives from but I wish it would help me pick better lottery numbers.

Mum has always had gumption - she once stopped a nasty fight on Aylesbury High Street while the attacker just threw other men aside who were trying to stop him from kicking this guy lying on the floor. Even as a girl she was the one that walked the school teachers back to their houses at night because they were scared. When the boys in the village climbed out from under the bridge dressed as the devil as mum made her own way back in the silvery moonlight, she stamped hard on the devil's hand and he screamed "Maria - why do you have to ruin everything?". I can see how a lot of me comes from my mum.