Spoilt

I believe this is Christmas 1974. The most precious present there was the tape recorder, subsequently used to record the Top Thirty for many years. The recorded cassette is Music Explosion, the Now That’s What I Call Music of its day - Kung Fu Fighting, Seasons In The Sun, This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both of Us. Those were the days.

The reason I’ve dug this out is that I’ve had some news from my dad - he has kidney cancer and needs an operation but he’s 89 and the doctors have said if they operate they will not resuscitate him if anything goes wrong. He’s therefore refusing the operation. It’s a dilemma and I don’t really know what to say to him.

I’ve had a complicated relationship with him - it’s a long old story, a lesson in how NOT to get divorced if you have children. It’s never going to be painless but you can certainly make it much worse with your behaviour. Lots of water has passed under the bridge and mostly we are absolutely fine, but things like this are a cause for reflection, on wasted time and negative emotions. I don’t suppose we ever really learn from it, as much as we may like to.