I hope you’ve found this web site interesting.

I hope that you have learnt a little about what I’m doing, and I’m glad that you now know how to contact me if you want to.  I would LOVE to hear from you SO MUCH.  Whatever happens, each of you has a very special place in my life and it keeps getting better.  I just know, from a distance, how proud I am of all of you.

I love you all.

Dad.

By the way …….

Sean – a spider is not an insect.

Rosie – my favourite PowerPuff Girl is still the one who frowns.

Maria – I remember all the stories I used to tell you about Claude the French mouse, and Big Fat Cat.

I often think of things I wish could happen. Some are big things, some are little things. Here are some of the most common little things for each of you:

Sean – to take you to an England rugby game overseas; to watch an Arnie film with you; to play cricket with you; to play you at chess

Rosie – I’d like you to put my cuff-links in like you used to when you were little: every time I do that I think of you

Maria – to hear you laugh!!!

All of you – to take you to Auntie Paola and Uncle Mark’s cottage in Canada, to go out on the lake in their speed-boat, to watch you with Finn and Amelia your cousins, to take you Christmas shopping in Toronto in the snow (all wrapped up), to see you smile, to hear the most beautiful sound in the world – you saying the word “Dad”

Oh, and I still have “the milk” in the same jam jar we sealed in the summer of 2001.  Now it looks really weird and I don’t think it’s a good idea to take the lid off.

And here’s the end of “The Last Basselope” story I used to read to you when you came to stay with me in Sheffield:

“A trail of dandelion wisps danced in the last glow of sunlight as Rosebud drifted gracefully toward a deeper, more distant part of the forest.  He hoped that ahead might be a quieter place, certainly a less ferocious place.

He looked back at the tiny figure still waving far below, and he smiled.  He smiled because it occurred to him that after a very, terribly long time, the World’s Last Basselope was actually the World’s First Basselope With Friends.”