I have too many shoes

Jimmy Valentine Today marks the fourth anniversary of my dad's death from lung cancer.  I can't believe its been four years and I miss him terribly especially at this time of the year.  There's many a time I'd finish work and sit in the back garden having a cold beer while discussing how the day had been.  Sometimes you don't realise what joy the simple things in life can be. I inherited his car and I drive it every day with a pair of his glasses on the dashboard.  We've even managed to inherit his dog! Harvey has become our unofficial lodger over the past few years.  It's not hard to remember the good times whether it was watching Hammer Horror films on a Friday night after the pub or the year we decided to make homemade red wine and spent a night bottling the wine while enjoying numerous amounts of the stuff or the last family holiday we had together and spent the afternoon in the pool where it felt like we were kids again. He was well liked, worke...

Technology is amazing these days, even the simplest thing can give great joy to people.  My older sister Kelly has now got a scanner and she's been busy scanning in some of our childhood pictures and its been great to share the memories. Here's Kelly and me (I'm in the on-trend stripes) with my dad sometime in the seventies. My dad - Jimmy Valentine (such a great name) - had the most gorgeous hair.  We've got some Italian roots in our family so he inherited some of those traits of an Italian man - great olive skin and hair.  He had a great sense of style and really walked to the beat of his own drum. When my nephew saw this picture he said that my dad looked like a rock star and I totally agree.

Dad as popeye at a party in the mid nineties Today was my dad's birthday, our birthdays are exactly a week apart so often we shared a joint celebration. Any excuse to have a family get together.  He died seven months before his 60th birthday and regardless of the years that have passed he is still greatly missed.  His name was Jimmy Valentine, he was the kind of person that everyone liked, not a bad word was said about him. Every year we ensure that we are together on his birthday, that we visit and say a little prayer and tell him how much he is missed.  His final resting place is really pretty by a pond and today it snowed so everywhere was beautiful with that first touch of snow.  He loved nature and the fact that around 20 ducks followed us to his graveside, like they were paying their respects rather than looking for bread, seemed like a sign. Our grandmother, my mum, two of dad's sisters, me and my sisters went to put flowers on the grave.  My gra...