Simon’s Big Day Out

Last week, we took my dad for a day out in London for his birthday.

It wasn’t an especially important number (next year however is a mucky treat) but he deserves to feel important. Without telling him where we were going, my brother and I picked him up, rushed him onto a train and took him out for the day. The last time we did anything like this was his memorable stag to Amsterdam. By memorable, I couldn’t tell you much.

This time around, I was lucid and relatively sober. After a quick snack at Mercato, we went to the Imperial War Museum. Dad loves war. If unchallenged, the History Channel was always on at home. Black and white documentaries, usually about WWII, that we would groan about until Cartoon Network was rightfully restored. Little did I realise that those docs were wheedling away at my subconscious and I now almost exclusively write about the past-os.

To be honest, the IWM was a treat for me too. I could see Robb struggling though, tipping his head to the side as he stared at some monumental piece of history in the way a puppy might to new instructions. Adorable.

We then went to YORI for dinner. As a father of three, I thought dad would love the opportunity to man a tiny barbecue but Robb saved the day, chucking everything on the tabletop grill. We ate well and then rushed to the theatre.

It was Robb’s idea to take dad to see Fawlty Towers. It’s one of a string of comedies we watched in secret (from mum) when we were kids, along with Men Behaving Badly and Bottom, that became the touchstone of our senses of humour. Dad would let us stay up, eating bags of crisps and copious bowls of sugary cereal while BBC2 did its thing. Then, we would run for it when we heard mum’s car on the drive.

The show was fantastic, even if it was a bastard amalgamation of three existing episodes. Also, the audience were a bit gammony but I had prepared for that. The cast were spot on and the pacing and gags hold after all this time.

Late train home and got dad to bed before one am. I love being able to spend that time with my old man. He’s the reason I am here as well as becoming the man I am today. He’s the best of all three of us. Kind, patient, the “hear me out” to many of my female friends. What a great man who deserved a little treat.