When I was in Thailand with Ann in December last, I sought out a cheap, digital bedside clock with a backlight. I turn my phone off in evening and like to know the time when I wake during the night. I thought I'd found the perfect clock at Mr DYI, one entirely fit-for-purpose. Alas, a few weeks later, back in Hazelbrook, it gave up the ghost.

Since then I have tried to find another like it - there are many similar examples about - but the whole process, from January until the present, has been a fiasco. I have bought and returned at least three clocks that didn't work out of the box, another that stopped within a few days and currently have a wretchedly poor performer next to my bed. It is so fragile that if I pick it up, the digital display fades under the strain. If you hit the backlight switch, it collapses entirely and has to be reset.

I don't know why it is so hard to find something that works and keeps working. I have another on order but we are close to being outside the postal range for delivery. Perhaps it will never arrive. Am I fated never to own another?

Today is Mothers Day in Australia. People are busy gathering in families and catching up, all in honour of the mothers of our nation. Yesterday at mass Father John gave a lovely blessing to all the mothers present, many of whom were grandmothers too.

I went to my mum's memorial garden at Matraville on Thursday last to wish her a Happy Mothers Day. It's long way from Hazelbrook to the northern shoreline of Botany Bay - two trains and a bus - but its certainly worth it. In the same garden are my grandparents on my mother's side, my mother's aunt and a friend of the family. All came here as ten pound poms and all now lay at rest close to where Cook first landed in 1770. But that's a controversial issue these days.

I read a couple of poems to her, said a prayer, placed a potted pansy and then began the long journey home.

Keep you mum close, while you can.

 The release of new documents from the Pentagon at the behest of the Trump Administration (which is surely no distraction from the Iranian fiasco) will doubtless excite those certain that we have been visited by aliens.

In as much as grainy, blurred or otherwise unconvincing images of UFO's (more accurately called UAPs - Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) exist, and they do, there are many more reasons why these are not of alien origin at all.

As best we know, and until it is proven otherwise, the speed of light is the maximum speed limit for our universe. Most interstellar objects are so far away that travel between one star system and another is totally impractical. Even within our own galaxy, which is but one of billions, the distance across is about 150,000 light years. We are about 27,000 light years from the galactic centre alone. Even if an alien civilisation (which has to develop from a primitive society to a technological society far in advance of our own) were to develop the means to travel at a speed approaching the speed of light ( which comes with its own set of very difficult to solve problems), the sheer distances and the time to travel them (thousands, tens of thousands or millions of years) would present an intractable problem. It is just too difficult, and for what return?

That is just one of many reasons why an alien civilisation would reject travelling much beyond their own solar system. I suppose robotic probes travelling over vast time-scales is a possibility, but what are the chances of happening upon the Earth, and why play a strange game of hide and seek? I think if you bought a single ticket in the biggest lottery on the planet, your odds would be vastly better.

 It's probably fair to say that all historical periods have their mix of good and bad. There have assuredly, always been famines, plagues, wars, earthquakes and so forth. There can be no doubt that human perfidy has been a feature of daily life since humanity began. 

When the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians that 'the days are evil' (5:16) he certainly would have been aware of the human propensity for wrongdoing, but he doubtless also meant that the times he was in had an especial flavour of wickedness. Roman rule was violent and oppressive, corruption was widespread, the gap between the rich and the poor was enormous and much else besides. It was a very cruel period too - witness the crucifixion of the innocent Jesus. Human life had next to no value at all.

I am wondering whether the present time is also a candidate for the moniker 'especially evil.' The geo-political situation is worse than at any time since WW2. The gap between haves and have nots is rising. Climate change threatens to wreak chaos on civilisations across the globe, with large numbers of folks in denial or simply not caring. Political leaders (who cannot govern themselves) have arisen who are manifestly unsuited to governing anything at all, not unlike many of the Roman Caesars or medieval monarchs. All of this is backgrounded by a contestation about what is true, what is factual or even real. Added to this is my assertion that public manners and discourse are at such a low that it's hard to see how much further they can fall.

I could be wrong and I hope that I am.