Andrew Dickens Afternoons

What a strange and surreal and wonderful weekend that I had full of magic moments and ironies.Not least of which was the fact that I buried my mother on Saturday. A year after her death.She’s been sitting around all that time probably tutting as her family took their time to lay her to rest. But what with her estate, the incredibly stuffed flat that took months to clear, the engraving on headstone and the 300 bucks it cost to get the Waikato District Council to dig a little hole in the ground our family already owned, meant that time ticked by.And so on Saturday, my brother and my families gathered in Tuakau. Said some words. Had some silence as rain skudded by and the wind whipped through the manuka, and then we laid Mum to rest. It was moody, sad, funny and touching.Sunday was spent listening to the rain which came and came and came. With perfect timing. Why does it pour whenever there is a king tide? It’s like Mother Nature wants to flood us away.In a rare break in the weather we walked the dog down at the