My Daddy

 Today is father's day. I was tortured about whether or not to do my beloved hubby and father to our 2 divine children, or my own father. Since on mother's day, I featured my mummy, and since this is my blog, I decided I would share a little love for my own daddy, especially since last year, I already raved about Ben as a father. My father is one of those people who has a true joie de vivre. It is in his bones. He genuinely believes that first and foremost, life is about having fun. I remember the advice he gave us growing up was to do something we loved, no matter the financial gain, as we would spend a good portion of our life doing it so it better be good. Probably why both my sister, Amanda, and I ended up as photographers - doing what we love - being artists. My father followed his heart too, and after bringing waterskiing to the UK and barefoot skiing on the Thames, he settled down and became a Master of Wine - the youngest ever at the time I believe! And he was also a scientist inside, though didn't follow that area of study, which freed his mind up to believe that anything was possible. And thus was born an inventor, be it the amazingly popular iceless wine cooler, which my dad originally coined the Vinicool! There are a million knock offs now but my childhood memories are filled with his mad experiments with gluey fingerprints appearing on the inside of the cooler as he built his proto types at home. And for too many years to count, long before the technology had caught up with his genius idea, my father spent thousands of hours creating double strung tennis rackets. His early models were wooden frames and all buckled under the pressure until the graphite materials proved strong enough to allow the idea to become a reality and the Blackburne Double Strung racquet was born. Today, my father is nearly 80, yet plays tennis and croquet every week with great passion and energy, and goes about his latests passion for improvements on the internet of all unlikely places. He has come up with numerous search engines and is constantly coming up with the next great idea that will make life a little easier, and of course, more fun, for everyone. He always jokes that he introduced himself to my sister and me when we were about six, not being one for "getting" very young children, and now that Oslo and Indigo are that much older, I am starting to see what he means as he is increasingly becoming a bigger part of their lives. This makes me more happy that I can say, for of course they are my world now, and as he gets to know them better and starts to spend more time with them, then he once again is becoming a bigger part of my life too and so I am in heaven.

So thank you Daddy for being such a fascinating man, always looking to share the next adventure, for being such an inspiration when it comes to showing me how to live life to the fullest, for becoming an even more involved grandfather, and of course, for having been such am incredible father to me. Happy Father's Day - love you oodles xxxxx