Dads day number 1

Forgive me friends, for I have sinned. It has been frigging ages since my last blog post.
I promise to kneel for no apparent reason and chant some crazy mantra 4 times in succession in order to seek remission.

So that's that then . Hey you? Whats up? Nowt? Good.

We have been back in the land of Snow and Mosquitoes for 42 days now and its been a continuation of life as parents to a growing maniac. Here's a quick summary up to last weekend.

Got back from Costa Rica, went back to work, got ill, worked one day and took 4 days off sick. Went back to work, still felt shit, eventually got better after 2 1/2 weeks.

Buffy stayed at home, Hannah slept, cried, grew and slept again. Buffy worked.

Susan and Jon went to Europe. We borrowed their car to to to Merica'. To Minneapolis, to see Eddie Izzard do a comedy show. That was a good weekend - Hannah stayed awake for 11 hours on the way and fell asleep as we arrived. We saw some of the city, stayed in a nice hotel. I had my first beer in 25 days and we played a number of pianos on the street and after sneaking into a conference room in said nice hotel. We also played a street harp...

Here are some digitally remastered pixels, stuck together in order, that tell a small story, in pictorial form, to visually explain and titillate the readers interest in the few hours we spent on our journey to and from the city of Minneapolis.....

Baby feed on the way

Penis shaped lamp

Happy

Music

After our jaunt, back in Winnipeg we went to Kidfest. Which is a fest for a kid. Hannah played some pots and pans and got lost in some wave noodles....in the rain.

The suddenly and without any notice at all it was last weekend and we found ourselves packing for a 2 year jaunt around South and Central Asia for us and at least 20 families. However, this wasn't the case, as we were in fact packing for the 3 of us, for a weekend camping in Birds Hill park - Just 30 minutes drive from the city. I still have no idea why we took so much stuff!!!

It was a great weekend though and made even better by the fact it was Fathers day weekend and as my sperm did their job a couple of years back, I am the proud owner of an 11 month old crazy pants wearing, watermelon eating fiend.

Once we got unpacked, built the tent, started the fire and started drinking, I really enjoyed the weekend. Hannah and Buffy were amazing and even presented me with a lovely memento of my first dads day...

We were joined on the weekend by Joel and Byron and Adam and Alena with Jack. They too were celebrating their first fathers day. Here, once again are some pictorial representations of what we did when we were there....

She stole my chair and likes fire!

No shame squirrely bugar

We had a lovely afternoon down on the beach by the lake, enjoyed a huge bbq dinner and sat chatting round the camp fire whilst the kids slept. A wonderful way to spend the weekend and hopefully the first of many fathers day camping trips!

Fathers day made me start to think though. Its five years this month since dad died and was cremated and it makes me a little sad that Hannah will never know her Groovy Granny and Gardening Granddad from little old Skegness in England. 

I will tell her all my dads old stories when she grows up and all about mums sense of humour and generosity. But I wondered which bits of my dad and other dads I think I would like to pass onto Hannah. Dad would do anything for us kids, especially lending us a car or picking us up from somewhere - even if it was hundreds of miles away. There are lots of photos of dad when we were little kids, with his big sideburns and one of us kids in his arms. I hope I am as close to Hannah. 

Here are a few old photos, taken from old albums, of the family. Including a few great ones of mum and dad with us kids. 

For me, trying to emulate what my dad taught me and my brothers is about a good target to being a dad. If I can get close to that I would be happy. But I remember as a kid in 1970's and 1980's UK there were at least two other father figures that regularly popped into many children's lives. I would love to be able to bring a tiny bit of the influence of these people into my fatherhood and maybe some of the excitement I used to feel when these giants of children's TV appeared and made their way into the hearts and minds of the 40 somethings who now look back on the magic of TV as they grew up. The two superstars I remember watching as I grew up - Johnny Ball and Brian Cant.

Johnny Ball was and is the main reason I love numbers, spreadsheets and all things counting. While some kids were watching ITV and stupid shows like Tiswas, I was hooked on Think of a number, Think Again and Johnny Ball reveals all. Johnny spoke to kids like they were little adults, never patronizing and never too silly. Funny, honest and interesting stories were told about how things worked, how maths could be fun and how the more you knew the more you wanted to learn. It was a special day when Johnny was on TV and he is still one of my boyhood heroes now. Here's an entire episode of one of his shows from the 80's. Take a quick look and you will see how good it was. Even if you don't watch it all, read the comments. You can see what an influence he had on everyone who watched. 

  

The second father like figure was Brian Cant. He appeared in numerous kids TV shows from Play Away, Play School and voiced the amazing stop motion shows Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley. Brian has a softly spoken demeanour ad like Johnny Ball never talk to kids as kids, but like little adults. I have many amazing memories as a kids crossing paths with these two legends as they appeared on our screens as we grew up and they seemingly never aged. Here's a quote from Brian I found online....

When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. When I became a man I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, and they paid me for it...!

Here's a clip from Play School. Brian Cant comes on at 2 minutes...

and here's a full episode of Chigley - voiced by Brian. I am definitely going to introduce Hannah to all 3 of these classic series. 

I think I could do a lot worse than taking these 3 giants of men and trying to take just a little of each in my quest to be a good dad. I think I am doing OK so far - Hannah is crazy but clever, tiny but strong and shy but forthcoming. She has an amazing mum and thanks to them both I had an amazing fathers day.