Father & Son. Easter Piece.
He looks With round face and clear Dark eyes, Smiling with a gummy grin.
Read moreJames Black. Cabinet Maker. Titanic 1911
My Grandfather is listed in the 1911 census of Northern Ireland as a Cabinet Maker. James Black. A Catholic. From Ballycastle. When the R. M. S. Titanic was being built he, like thousands of others went and found work at Harland and Wolff.
Read more'And I Won't Turn Out Like My Dad' said The Proclaimers.
Take 70 p 3s and p 4s. Dress them up like teenagers. Pack them into a big dark hot and sweaty space. Continually shine bright coloured, flashy lights in their little faces. Shout indecipherable messages at them through a horrendously loud and fuzzy P.A system like a North Korean Dictator.
Read moreLet Your Child Have You For A Day.
In the midst of a recent conversation at a parenting event I was attending I heard the phrase, "Sometimes I feel like I am just a taxi for my children!" It was said with a humorous grumpiness. How many of us have thought and felt the same, especially when you get the feeling that you are living your whole week at the local Leisure Centre and your children's times for their various classes are all higgledy piggledy and a logistical nightmare.
Read moreHow Fragile We Are.
I grew up in small town, rural Ireland in the Sixties. Television was relatively new and I recall only black and white in our home. Then colour came into our home and a bizarre and rather psychedelic show from America called ‘The Monkees.’ Davy Jones and Mike Naismith (whose mother, I once heard, had invented Tippex but since that might have only been a rumour, maybe I had better Tippex it out?)
Read moreLove Actually.
It's Valentine's day. Hype? A bumper season for florists? There are articles every where about love, from The Guardian Family Section on Saturday where we read about 5 couples who fell in love at first sight and seemed to buck the trend, 'Marry in haste, repent at leisure,' to 'Sense' the RBS Magazine which has emblazoned on the front, 'The Love Issue - The Chemistry of Falling in Love.'
Read morePlaying Catch-Up.
Ok. Now let me get this right. Monday is music lesson for..........then Beavers. Tuesday is swimming for two, which two?......then music for one straight after.............and Wednesday is swimming for one, then Cubs for two straight after..............
Read moreMe and Danny Alexander.
I went to bed last night and he was on the TV explaining what a good deal the public sector pensions are and how hard the Govt is working to make things fair. I got up this morning and he was on the Radio explaining what a good deal the public sector pensions are and how hard the Govt is working to make things fair. It must be thoroughly dull having to cover the same ground over and over again in interview after interview after interview.
Read moreMy Father's Bicycle
Against the back fence In the pouring rain My Father’s bike. The ‘Raleigh All-Steel’ Two flat tyres.
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When White Lies Won't Work
“Daddy?” “Yes, love?” Story time is over, and the lights are out - but I’ve noticed my six-year-old son often uses his last waking moments to bowl me the kind of question that might stump a philosophy graduate.
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