{"id":164,"date":"2015-03-28T23:52:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T23:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/solosurvior.com\/?p=164"},"modified":"2015-03-29T03:49:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T03:49:27","slug":"dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/?p=164","title":{"rendered":"Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today would have been my dad’s 96th birthday – he passed away 18 months ago. He became my dad when I was 7 and made it legal when I was 12 with our adoption. I miss him, his laugh, his advice. He, along with my brother, was one of the most influential men in my life. A giant of a man, good-looking and charismatic, he had a keen sense of humour and knew how to make me laugh. He lived a full and interesting life.<\/p>\n

Some of my earliest memories of him were how he would read to us and make the stories come alive with his character voices and sound affects – he never lost his story-telling ability – or sitting around the radio listening to mystery stories or comedies such as the Goon show. As a kid I love being with him and would spend my school holidays following him around – he worked in rural areas building irrigation schemes and teaching people how to grow their own food. I developed my love of nature from him. Some nights we would sit outside with a pair of binoculars and star gaze.<\/p>\n

We spent many happy hours watching sport – I use that term lightly as he was mostly blind and could not see the action – we supported the same cricket and rugby teams and loved to watch together.<\/p>\n

In my twenties and thirties he became my advisor- we would talk about things like whether or not to buy that new car or change jobs. When I was offered a job in Australia I did not make the decision without first talking to him and mum first. He urged me go even though he knew what that meant.<\/p>\n

Some of the things I learnt from my dad<\/p>\n