Mental rambles

My eldest daughter recently competed in the District Athletics Championships.
She was entered for the ‘Long jump’ and the ‘Hundred metres’.
She did well in the running but won the ‘Long jump’ with a distance of 4.44m.
I couldn’t believe it. I could never have jumped that far.
Even more incredibly, she jumped 4.52m. a week later in her school sports day!

I took my three children to see a live performance of the Gruffalo on Saturday at St Albans arena.
My wife dropped us off and went shopping.
The play was a musical based on a popular children's book. It had several catchy, fun tunes but only three actors. They overcame this by two of them taking multiple rolls.
It was hilarious and at only an hour long, perfect for the children.
"I'm the snake that dances in the night. Mostly though, they call me Waceem, because when I enter a room, people say 'It's that snake, Whack 'im!'"

As I’ve said before, I hate rubbish. If I see it in parks or green fields I feel the need to pick it up. I still resent it though. Why should good people tidy up after bad?
Months ago, while walking my dog in the local woods, I’d managed to fill two plastic bags with assorted glass bottles, cans and junk food wrappers and put them into a litter bin.
Then I saw a piece of paper caught under a bush. ‘Sod it!’ I thought. ‘I’ve done enough’.
I managed to take two steps before I was compelled to walk back and pick it up.
It wasn’t a piece of paper though. It was a £20 note!
Mother Nature obviously felt that I'd earned it.
Would it be greedy to expect another one about now?

Our anniversary was on Friday and so I bought my wife a bouquet of flowers and took her out for a romantic meal.
My parents came to look after the children. Both groups equally happy.
We went to a local Italian restaurant. The food was lovely, the wine good and we had a great time.
The restaurant was walking distance, which was lucky, as my wife got a little tipsy.
She couldn’t resist the Tia Maria coffee!

My six-year-old daughter taught me.

My fifteen-year-old daughter has recently developed a liking for athletics.
Considering her age, this can only be a good thing. Most girls discard all sporting activities at this age to concentrate on boys.
She asked me to run with her on Saturday and although I had to be coerced into it, I dug out my ancient trainers and found an unused tracksuit.
We only ran about half a mile but I was glad to have done it. It's nice that my daughter wants to run with me at all.

I say ‘run’ but it’d be more truthful to say that she ran as I trundled along a fair bit behind her.

My six-year-old daughter is a phenomenally good gymnast. She’s amazingly physically able.
She goes to a gym club for an hour once a week but is getting a bit reticent because all the girls in her group are about two years older than her.
She missed two weeks due to birthday parties and we turned up unprepared and unaware that they were doing the assessments.
My daughter giggled through her set and had to be reminded to do some of the set pieces.
We were both amazed when she won the bronze medal.

I suppose it’s quite normal for a Father to want to see his own Father on Fathers day.
My parents came around and I cooked for the whole family. Nothing clever: Salmon, new potatoes, various greens and a choice of desserts.
Not bad considering I was cooking for seven.
As the weather was nice, we ate outside on the raised patio behind the house.
Aside from a few domestic upsets it was a perfect day.

There was a climbing wall at my boy’s school fete. My six-year-old daughter loves to climb and asked if could have a go.
‘Sure’, I said, ‘but I’d better come with you’.
After passing over the money and all harnessed up, we approached the wall.
As it was set up at a children’s school, I assumed it would be easy.
I made it up OK and pressed a red button at the top that let out a claxon to show you’d succeeded. Unfortunately my daughter fell off and I was very grateful for her harness.
The session was timed so we both had another go.
‘Can my daughter go up the easiest route?’ I asked the man in charge.
After finding out that my first attempt had been on the easiest route, I was a bit worried when I was put on a more difficult one. You had to go on whichever were available.
My daughter beside me, we ascended again. She got about halfway up before falling and I found myself stuck about three feet from the top.
Unable to grip the tiny, uncomplying handholds, I was forced to leap for the red button.
I managed to get it but at the expense of falling back immediately.
Without the rope I would have died for sure.
For my daughters last turn, I stood beneath her and gave her encouragement.
She nearly got to the top but couldn’t quite finish.
She was disappointed but she shouldn’t have been. It was really hard, even for me. My hands ached for about a day afterwards.