Lad's night

I think I’m in need of a break. I was so excited that it was the weekend and that I didn’t have to work.

With The Eldest off on an adventure with her mother for the next couple of weeks, it was just the wee ones and I who ventured into town to get their feet measured up and some new trainers bought for The Youngest. In a startlingly good piece of parenting, I was able to convince her to get some nice white trainers, which didn’t have wheels in the heels and crucially weren’t all black. She was delighted with them.

After lunch and after a couple of wrong turns, Matty was dropped off at a friend’s party, which was quite literally in the middle of no-where. Two parents looking after eight excited girls. Overnight. In a tent. Godspeed to them. I can’t wait to see the state of them tomorrow!

So, with the girls away, that just left me and m’boy together for some quality father/son time. We headed to the driving range first to give some golf balls a good whacking and he patiently listened to me as I gave him a couple of pointers. Foolishly, I then said that if he could get three golf balls in the circle around the flag at 75 yards, he would win a prize. Guess where the next three shots went?

Following the golf, we freshened up at home and then wandered into town to get him his prize - the pre-season issue of Four Four Two (football magazine), which we discussed over a pint at the Barrel House, who also had a pizza van outside! I sat with my son in the intermittent sunshine, talking football, drinking beer (me) and a J20 (him) and eating pizza. Perfection.

We meandered home and like the boys we were, stopped at the garage for some sweets. We spent the rest of the evening munching away whilst watching the second half of the Chelsea match and then playing computer games.

I asked him at one point if he was having a nice evening. Grinning, his reply word-for-word was:

“I’m sitting here eating sweets, playing Mario Kart whilst the football team I support is playing in the background. What do you think?”

Fair point.