Its's official, my Dad is finally a grown up. Not that he actually ever acts like it. You know when you are little and everyone over 23 seems like a dinosaur??? Well, I remember asking my Nona (my maternal Grandmother) once if she used to wear crinolines in the the Victorian times - and I really did think I was being nice. She was slightly ruffled and soon put me right. Bless her.Well, Dad turned 70 today, and I just can't quite get my head round it. He's one of those people who's as healthy as a horse (well,
he's as healthy as my horse by direct comparison anyway) - he's always been young to me, and he still is. Everyone thinks they have the best Dad in the world I guess, but I know for a fact mine is. When I think back to my childhood, my memories of my Dad always involve with him playing with my brothers and I - he couldn't wait to get home at the end of the day so he could be out in the garden with us - and he was always, always making stuff for us - I can remember him finding us old bikes that no-one else in the world would have wanted and him stripping them down and repainting and them being the coolest thing in the world, I can remember him making me a riding whip right down to the last detail - he made it out of dowelling and wrapped it with all sorts of coloured string, it looked great, though the dowelling was its design flaw because it broke as soon as I stuffed it down my boot - we'd learned a design lesson I guess. He'd always be the one making and doing and proving to us all that we could probably make it better than we could buy it. Time was and still is the biggest gift he gave us. I think as a direct result of being his children, all of us kids are now makers and do-ers and we all either work in creative jobs or we own our own businesses. Even to this day, he's still the one that we will ring up when the big end goes on our cars, when the house needs re-wiring or we need a rabbit looked after. I hope this doesn't sound like we take advantage, but I think the thing that most makes my Dad happy is that we need him. Happy birthday Dad, love you lots xx
