My Dad...

This is my Mum and Dad on their wedding day March 30, 1962.  My dad doesn't live here on earth anymore, he died in October 2004 but I like to think he's around in many ways.

I love looking at old photos of my family.  In most photos it's guaranteed that my dad is pulling a funny face or doing something strange.  I don't think he liked having his photo taken but made fun of it anyway.

I have many memories of going fishing with the family, we always had a boat, and our holidays consisted of heading up to Hervey Bay and taking the boat out.  Or weekends spent taking the boat out at Wynnum Manly.  We had to get up early to catch the right tide and to be out while the fish were feeding and be back in by early afternoon before we got frazzled by the sun.  The picture below is my dad (Ken) my sister Gabby and then me, this photo might have been taken by Desley my Dad's sister back in 1977 or 76, not sure exactly.

I remember a while ago (May 1989) when I was about 19 and I was living in London, my dad came to visit me.  I had been there for about 4 months and was missing my family.  My dad was on a business trip in Germany so he stopped in London to see me, we hired a car and travelled to Stonehenge, Cheddar Gorge and Bath.  He drove while I navigated our way out of London, I'd pretty much walked everywhere in London so I figured I'd be able to drive us out.  I feel so lucky to have spent a little time with my dad, just him and me checking out the countryside.  

In June the next year (I was still living in London) he came back again, this time we met up in France and walked the streets of Paris.  Later we met up in Germany where I accompanied him on a few work ventures, Food Processing Machinery events in Frankfurt etc.  Met some very hospitable Germans and ate in a few German restaurants.

We then travelled by train (I think) to Austria.  My dad succumbed to my wish of going on the Sound of Music tour around Salzburg (he secretly wanted to see it too) and we loved it.  It's still one of my favourite movies.  We spent a rainy couple of days in Salzburg enjoying schnitzles and spatzle and wandering the old town.  Such a beautiful old city with so much history.

My Dad has always been around for me.  He may not have verbalized his love for me so much, but he showed it by going to pretty much every sporting event I competed in all through school, unless he was at Gabby's hockey game at the same time.  He and my mum drove me out to Goondiwindi from Brisbane to my first job as a nanny, I guess they wanted to check out the family I was going to be living with.  

He didn't get mad at me when I called him at work from the side of the road to tell him the Gemini (my parents car) was a total wreck (not my fault a crazyman drove right across in front of me).  My dad made it through the peak hour traffic that had slowed down due to the accident, to where I had crashed and he saw me into the ambulance.  He waited and waited at the hospital while I had x-rays to see that nothing was broken and drove me back home late that night, not an angry word was spoken, just concern. 

I love my dad, I do miss him, but I always hear his laugh and remember the silly stuff that he did, like shoving peas up my nose because I didn't want to eat them, or how he used to short sheet our beds at night and put tennis balls under the sheets.  He didn't really like it when Gabby and I sewed up the sleeves on his pyjamas.  But the traditions must go on........

Ken (my dad), Desley (my aunt) & Mel (my uncle) Sept 2004