papa don't preach

Something you should know about me:


I am a Daddy's girl.  Everyone who knows me, will pick up on the fact, very soon into conversation that I hold my Pops in very high esteem.  Everything I know, I owe to my Dad.  He emphasised the importance of learning and equipped me will the skills to find and critically analyse information.  Because he did shift work, my Dad was the parent that came on school trips in primary school (where everyone thought he was my older brother - but his secret stash of youth fountain water is another story entirely).  I once really upset my Mum, by declaring that "Daddy's are the best because they do things with you" and to this day she hasn't let me forget it!  


He is also my physical inspiration.  Blessed with good genes that convert excess food to heat not fat, he finds it near impossible to put on weight, but he isn't lazy.  His upper body strength even when he isn't training is phenomenal.


He can do this:

Yeah watch it - and feel the burden of inadequacy (and reluctant admiration and grudging inspiration) that comes from having a father that is physically fitter at forty-*ahem* than you will ever be!  He can fix pretty much anything, occasionally he reads instruction manuals, but not often.  I remember the slug-like keloid scar on his arm that he earned putting together the fitted kitchen in the house I grew up in.  To be completely honest, he is probably the reason most guys don't live up to my expectations - they definitely broke the mould when they made him.


Is he perfect?  Ha! Far from it, but who in life is?  The two flaws that I believe destroyed our relationship when I was a teenager, controlling and patronising behaviour, are funnily enough two flaws that I see in myself today.  They say you become your parents but I guess I was expecting my Mother's influence to weigh-in a little more.  I find his well worn parenting phrases in my mouth often (some of which I am sure he stole from Furious Styles - but apparently this wasn't intentional).  He is also solider for Patriarchy which, as I am an intern for Feminism, leads us to disagree...