Another day in paradise

Anyone with teenagers will immediately relate to this.

To those without teenagers - welcome to my private hell.

However apparently it only lasts until they’re 24.

Our twins turned 8 years yesterday.

So needless to say we were up with the sparrows unwrapping weapons of mass destruction.

Skateboards, painting sets, felt pens and a big trampoline.

You just know where this is all going to end up. 

Oh joy.

But they loved it and you know what? “We’re going to be 9 next year!’

Isn’t funny how kids are always 8 3/4 or 7 and 2 months

I’m trying to count backwards and they’re adding years by the hour!

While Tee and Josh climbed bridges, Molls, the twins and I skated around Centennial Park - (A bit like The Meadows in Edinburgh)

Everyone stopped and stared at my prowess.

Actually everyone was staring at why a 45 year old man was on a skateboard to be honest.

But I had a blast!

And so did the rest of my posse.

Tee, Josh and his mate took a trip up the bridge this weekend for Easter.

Considering that both of them would rather have their toenails removed than climb a ladder I was astounded that they took the challenge.

It took them 4 hours to walk the distance and me most of the night to get them off the ceiling.

We arrived in Kawana, Queensland, on Friday night in anticipation of the Head of River Race on Saturday morning full of nerves and excitement.

Up bright and early on Saturday morning and off we went to the lake.

When we got here, it was like a scene from Harry Potter Quidditch Grand Final with families and kids in uniform, flags and megaphones, and lots and lots of nervous looking rowers huddled in little groups under their team tents being given pep talks.

We found Josh and the crew polishing their boat looking very serious and ever so slightly apprehensive.

At 10.00am they took to the water and headed off up the course to compete in their final along side Brisbanes best rowing schools and we took to the drink.

(Well actually we went and bought a coffee from a stall and tried to look calm.)

At 10.15 and 2 kilometres away, the gun went and we waited to hear the commentator give us the heads up. 

The race was being televised and we watched the helicopter slowly move towards us along the course.

And then we heard it.

“BBC in front!”

I almost fell in the water, Tee started crying and the BBC school crowd went ballistic.

Two minutes later they came into view and we could see our boys and they definately heard us as we roared them down the course.

They went motoring past us, with the cox screaming at them to keep going and the sheer concentration and power of them charging towards the line leaving all their competitors well in their wake.

All we had to pray for was  that they didn’t break a seat or pull an oar that would snatch victory from them.

And it didn’t.

They crossed the line miles in front and formed a perfect strike!

(When they pull the oars from the water, sit back and hold themselves in a perfect formation instead of falling over the side looking exhausted- it’s a big psychological blow for the other teams apparently!) 

All the parents were jumping up and down, hugging each other, crying and shouting!

The only school team of the season not to have lost a race and they had just won their Head of the River!

How proud were we? How delighted that our boys had shown that they could stick together and pull this off?

When we saw them at the waters edge, their maturity at the outcome and humility towards their competitors was amazing and as pulled their boat out and started packing it all up.

Personally I would have preferred jumping up and down shouting “get it up ye!” but then I’m from Musselburgh and the closest I ever got to a boat was oil cans tied together going down the Esk so what would I know…

That night we had a formal dinner and celebration at a hotel for the boys which ended at 3.30am at a friends house with all the boys and some friends talking until the sun came up.

Naturaly we were exhausted, with no voices left, when we arrived back in Sydney last night having left our boy to go back to his boarding house and to brag with his mates about every stroke.

We’re just so proud of him - He’s got his mates, his independence and a fantastic positive attitude to life.

He honestly thinks he can achieve anything if he works hard.

And why shouldn’t he-he’s sixteen?.

Sometimes it’s just great being a dad.

If you’ve never watched a rowing race, never been involved in a rowing community, never watched a team of young men pull together in the rowing crew, you may not understand the beauty of their co-ordination, the passion they have for their crew and the pride as a parent. you feel when you watch your boy participate in the final race of a long season.

3 mornings a week, Josh gets up at 4.30am to row on the river to train for this day.

They train at nights, they compete every weekend and they keep this up for half the year.

And this weekend is the culmination of all their effort.

And it’ll last less than 2.00mins.

To watch the sheer power and energy of 8 young guys working as a single unit - is the closest you’ll get to boxing without the blood.

And as lead stroke, it’s Josh’s job to pull them all together.

So tomorrow, Tee and I fly to Brisbane to watch the final and support our boy.

And I’m shitting myself.

I wish I was in the boat with him.

I wish I could shout loud enough over the 5000 other parents so he could hear me barracking for him.

Instead, we’ll stand at the side, with our hearts in our mouth and a sickness in our stomach and watch through shaded eyes, just praying that he does well and they do themselves proud.

I found this and sent it to him today.

Have a look and hopefully you’ll get a sense of how we feel as parents.

I don’t even care if they win, I’m just so proud that he’s stuck in at a sport that is physically and emotionally draining and, built fantastic friendships.

He just wants to win.

So when the goosebumps go down, think of our wee boy sitting out in the water before the gun goes and imagine how he must feel.

They haven’t lost a race this season.

Gulp.

I forgot to post this a while back!

Late last year, during an awards ceremony celebrating quality journalism, a presenter, who was a publisher of a trade website, (which is really a gossip column for the industry), was interrupted by a fellow journalist who had decided to take a moment, live on National television to give him a piece of his mind.

To think back to the many a time when our media in Scotland had to suffer silently at awards nights - frankly the annual Drum awards would have gone up a notch in my book if this had happened! Even more so if it had happened on prime time ITV!

But to top it all, Mr Milne was a political journalist for News!

And he’s still there - oh how we love a larikin over here!

Every week I come home to find Sam has either broken a limb, scraped his knees and face, fallen over and smashed a tooth or like today got a stonking black eye from falling off a skateboard.

He reminds me of the character in the fast show - Jesses Diets

Except he doesn’t announce his diet, he announces what he’s going to break.

“This week dad, I will be mostly jumping from the garage onto that glass in attempt to land on my skateboard, blindfolded!”

I need to start saving big time.

We’ve just booked a two week holiday in the Whitsundays for September!

1 week sailing in a Bavaria42 yacht and 1 week in a resort.

I can’t wait to show the kids the Great Barrier Reef, go diving, whale watching and generally having a relaxing time.

Although the thought of being out in the ocean with Sam is waking me up in sweats…I’ll just have to tie him up in the hold.

I went to Brisbane on Wednesday to do bits and pieces and managed to fit in a dinner with Josh.

So there we were sitting in a bar eating steak and chips, this old guy and his grown up son chatting away - It only seemed like yesterday I was pushing him around the meadows in his pram!

Anyway, he’d asked if he could bring his friend with him.

“Of course!” I said.

And then he turned up with his latest squeeze.

He’s apparently bonkers about her, his mum tells me.

First I knew about it.

All I kept thinking was how uncannily similar she was to Mollie…..