MNers who have made policywonk cry today:

[policywonk]

JeremyVile, Threadwworm, IorekByrnison, KayHarker, Swedes, Habbibu, Desiderata, MonkeyTrousers and OBM.

What a load of bitches bloody lovely women you are.

barf

oh lordy lord, PW. that is revoltissimo.

Ah, aitch, no, but Mam did read us 'My Family and Other Animals' before taking us to Greece (Corfu in fact) for the first time (this was back in the 70s before the riff-raff got there ). I remember crying with laughter at the bit in which the glamorous sister finds out that there's no toilet paper.

Awww. Zippi. I have visions of two standard olive trees with ickle scarves wrapped around their trunks

you can get horticultural fleece everywhere these days. Lets the light and moisture in. Dear god I'm talking about gardening again.........

Twas a low day for my mum yesterday. It was 7 years to the day that she lost her mum. It does get easier but you dont forget (she tells me). What a lovely way to remember your mum as you go in and out every day

What a lovely poem, policy. I've just looked at it online. I can imagine that it was a very moving poem at the funeral.

i read all those books when i was a kid, loved them. although at 10 i was a bit freaked when he went abroad as an adult and ate monkey stew. what was it called again? i bet you know. it had a special name. want to say tiffin but i know that's wrong.

Surely nothing survives in retsina?

Or is it ouzo?

We went on holiday to Crete precisely becausae DS1 had enjoyed reading My Family and Other Animals so much. And then remembered that was Corfu not Crete.

God, I love that book. Mrs Kralefsky's hair, Margot's acne, Bootlebumtrinket.
I bet your mum was a lot like the indefatigable Mrs D, policy, I am so sorry she died

LOL threadworm, that must have been a shock
I hope you were not in Halkidiki

both my [parents are dead my dad was run over crossing the road when i was 17.. i still cry over him

it is hard.. so hugs to you pw

Sorry, no idea re. monkey stew.

LOL at Corfu/Crete cock-up Threadie. Yes, the Cavafy was good (in that it made me cry even more), esp. the last verse.

It didn't really matter in the end because DS2 had a bit of a thing about the Minotaur, a native of Crete.

LOL at Crete/Corfu mix-up!

God zippi, how awful, I didn't know.

I was talking to OBM about this on Sunday and we were saying (neither of us being religious) that for us, grief is a lot to do with just existing alongside the knowledge of the sadness. Watching milestones go by, things that you would have liked them to know or see or hear about.

Thanks marina. I have struggled heroically with my inner pedant, but can't stop myself pointing out that Halkidiki is on the mainland... (been there also. Did I mention that my mother loved Greece?)

Thessalonika - there's a town.

I've just remembered something that I intended to put in the OP (which might have made it less confrontational): the delivery man was quite tasty

He he he! All hail the Pedant

Yes, we ordered him especially ..

we had to pay extra for that.

... was he oily?

DEFINITELY should have got the Vaseline out ready then

Halkidiki is lovely.

Goes by the name of Popeye.

Glad to provide you with a pedantry opportunity policy
I am an armchair traveller apart from France and it is lives well lived like your mum's that make one realise one should seize the day and stop mithering
I am thinking of Faliraki I have just concluded!

He was sorta swarthy and manly.

and he DEFINITELY gave me the glad-eye

To be fair marina, Mam just took a lot of holidays. She wasn't much of a back-packer (well she did buy backpacks once, but Dad had to carry both of them )