Golden

Did the early church this morning, fancied a bit of time on my own before lunch and arrival of old and precious friends from Uni days "Vo Slatvia".

Today my dad would have been 81. He passed 27 years ago and on mornings like today it seems like yesterday. As one of the eldest of 21 kids he left grammar school aged 15, before exams to work down the coal mine to help feed the family. It's only now I realised how that sacrifice for family and others remained a recurring theme for him.
Sunderland played at Stoke yesterday and it reminded me of him taking me there for that match in 1975 and nearly getting us removed from the ground, lets just say his passionate sense of justice, ability to assess someone's visual acuity intuitively and booming voice weren't appreciated by the linesman or police. Big Steve as he was known, had a big heart too, I'm stopped in the street sometimes when I'm up north by folks who tell me of some outrageous act of kindness that he'd shown them that still moves them years later.

Larkin has a certain take on parents, i cant say that this is my own experience though, I just hope that I've picked up some of what was so great about him, but manage to behave respectfully at football matches(unlike those overpaid, diving, acting, spoilt, fascist,racist,sexist, self centred, conceited players).