We all have mum-stories that stand out. This one I only tell to my close friends… when my mum is not around of course.

The story starts with me as a young adult art school graduate, just back from India. Man, that trip totally spun my young conservative Hawke’s Bay head right around... I absolutely loved the colours, the smells, the chaos, and the love for life in Rajasthan.

And then here I was back in Auckland on K-Road, reminiscing the great glory of India. I had purchased a few gems with my sister while I was there (the beginnings of my business adventures) and we thought “hey, let’s try to recreate a little shop from India on K-Road.”

We had not *quite* made it into a shop just yet; we had set up on the footpath. My sister and a few friends were juggling, there was footpath chess being played, and we were selling our goods - looking a wee bit like a circus.

Out of the blue a woman came walking right towards us, fully clad in leather and donning a bike helmet. She removed her helmet, and... what? It was our mother?! In leather??

She promptly said, in all seriousness, “look how you girls have turned out!" and stormed off.

We had never seen our mother in leather. Never.  We’d never seen her hopping on or off a motorbike - and here she was with her young lover’s Harley Davidson! Our mother has always been a little outrageous, but this was taking it to the next level!

As she rode off we were in hysterics... laughing at the massive irony of being told off in the street by our mum in her leathers!!

Good on you mum, and your awesome leathers!