My Dad

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there, hope you’re having a brilliant day!

I am taking the old man out tomorrow to Yo-Sushi tomorrow, to celebrate. Unfortunately I’ve caught a stinky cold and so won’t be giving him any hugs or kisses as I’m sure he doesn’t want this as a present. Isn’t it just sod’s law that I get a cold (in summer) right now? Not last weekend, not next week but this week. Just typical!

So my dad – what is there to say about him? He is a quiet man who prefers giving over receiving. One of my fondest memories as a child was coming home from school and finding the video of Disney’s Peter Pan left on the TV. It hadn’t been my birthday or anything he just bought me this video and left it for me to find without saying a thing. I hadn’t even known who it was from until I asked. And that’s just who he is and it really is something I have always remembered because it was just a gift. There was no ceremonious handover as usual when you buy someone something. He hadn’t even really wanted thanks, he just wanted to give. It’s remained a fond memory for me, I don’t think I ever forgot that whenever I watched Peter Pan. Sometimes it is just the little things that really count – not the big generous offerings other people think is so kind that become a sort of obligation to be thankful for – just a little unexpected thing.

Dad is also a reader, he likes anything from classics to non-fiction. He is also the bloke who got me into Harry Potter bizarrely, thanks Dad! One of his favourite books is The Piano Tuner by Daniel mason.

 

Goodreads Description: On a misty London afternoon in 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the War Office: he must leave his wife, and his quiet life in London, to travel to the jungles of Burma to tune a rare Erard grand piano. The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, an enigmatic British officer, whose success at making peace in the war-torn Shan States is legendary, but whose unorthodox methods have begun to attract suspicion. So begins the journey of the soft-spoken Edgar across Europe, the Red Sea, India, Burma, and at last into the remote highlands of the Shan States.

 

This particularly interested him (and myself) because he was born and brought up in Burma, and his mother was from the Shan states.It is told from a slightly dreamy point of view – of a naive Englishman who has never had much of an adventure and he becomes caught up in a strange, beautiful and intoxicating world he knows so little about. It is beautifully written and very visually descriptive.

This was my random gift to him one day quite a few years ago after I found it in the supermarket. I only read it myself just over a year ago. Since then my aunt has read it and also my mum so it’s been around the family for a bit!

At the moment he is reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society recommended by that same aunt – myself and my mum who has also read it. I love it when books get passed around between us.

So Happy Father’s Day dearest Dad! I’m looking forward to tomorrow and just hope this cold clears up soon so we can enjoy our meal.