Finding the middle ground – In the name of Thiago – Day 142

Some battles will be won and some will undoubtedly be lost in the coming days trying to get my Dad to move into his new place but as long as progress is made, then I hope I’ll feel relatively relaxed about it all. The truth is that helping Dad move into his bungalow is the biggest threat to my new-found positivity there has been yet.

The trick will be in keeping Dad positive and to that end, he has been relatively upbeat of late, so it’s a case of maintaining the momentum. I’m not back at work until Thursday so I’m hoping to see things continue to move along, albeit it will inevitably be much slower than desired I’m sure. Pickfords are delivering Dad’s stuff from Australia tomorrow morning so there’ll be more socially distanced fun and games tomorrow moving that little lot in.

We had planned to plant the sapling that we hope one day will be a mighty oak tree today. This was a gift from my sister Holly around the turn of the year; something to remember my little man. What we know about planting trees could be printed on the back of a postage stamp though, so luckily we decided to check in with my sister first on the wisdom of doing this now and she said we would be better waiting until late autumn.

So we went up to the local tennis courts instead and had a little knockabout, something quite a few other folk clearly thought would be a good idea too. It’s fantastic to see so many people taking advantage of the fabulous weather at the municipal courts at the end of my street – though it’s a pity that it’s taken a lockdown situation to encourage people to see the benefits. I hope they’ll still be playing in two months’ time.

I had a chat with an old broadcasting friend of mine Hawesy today. He seemed relatively chipper I was pleased to note. The last time I saw him was at Thiago’s funeral so it was nice to have a different conversation today. He seemed quite keen to get involved with the walk and kindly offered to share my story so I felt pretty pleased about that.

Hawesy and I both worked at BBC Southern Counties Radio about two decades ago now. He was on the staff, while I was feeding off scraps just trying to get by as a freelancer. I must be honest and say that if I’d had the same dedication as my old mate, who knows where I might have gone but at that time in my life I was simply enjoying the ride a little too much.

I’ve also been in touch with two other former colleagues from those times Helen Bailey and Nick Metcalfe, who both now ply their trades in journalism. There’s a part of me that kind of hopes we could all maybe get together for a stage in the autumn. It’s quite an enticing prospect!

I’m going to end on that note tonight as the chaps have been briefed to get the barbie started. I realise there’s been nothing particularly remarkable in today’s offering but them’s the breaks sometimes folks.

Enjoy your Bank Holiday evening and if you are feeling either generous or inspired in some way, a donation to the two remarkable hospitals that looked after my son Thiago in his short life, would be a marvellous thing. Gawd bless you all.