Hi Simon,

How’s things going up there? Did you have a beer with your Dad for Father’s Dad?

We blatantly ignored the day here. Just pretended it wasn’t happening.

We still think about you every day. I didn’t post anything on Facebook because it seems a bit of a killjoy to be mentioning Dads who aren’t here on a day when others are taking their Dads to the Club for a chicken parma.

The girls feel sad that you will never meet the men they eventually marry, I feel sad that your grandkids will never know their Pop. Do you think that’s what they would have called you? You would have been a great Poppy. We all lost so much when you left us.

In the meantime, did you get the message from Princess Child? On the day her HSC trials started I told her to say a little prayer to you to give her hand on passing the bloody things. Well I actually said “say a prayer to your Dad, he can drag himself away from eternal f****** happiness for five minutes to pay attention to the s***fight he left behind for once”. I may have been a little stressed. She did pass everything so maybe you did notice. Just for the HSC can you give it your undivided attention please, the two of us are crawling to the end of this year, we just want the whole thing OVER.

Hippie Child is almost done with her degree too, I’m feeling more nervous about her finishing uni than when she finished school. Now it’s serious, she has to get a job. A job with an illustration degree. Yes, I know I was the one who found the course. I was the one who encouraged her to do it. But she does love it! Every young person I’ve spoken to recently, no matter what their degree, has told me it took them years to find a full-time permanent job.  So frankly, you need to put that on your to-do list as well. Find Hippie Child a job. Pull whatever strings you have to!

There’s been some changes here. We are onto our third Prime Minister in the four years since you left. Yep third. Tony Abbott was in charge when you bowed out, Malcolm Turnbull rolled him, now Scott Morrison has deposed old Mal. It was a massive week in politics. Apparently paramedics have long given up asking “whose the prime minister” to ascertain cognitive function – while the Canberra press gallery are suggesting we use the changing of prime minister as a signal it’s time to change the batteries in our smoke alarms, it’s happening that frequently.

Meanwhile, one very astute business woman manged to create a business overnight turning her witty meme into canvas bags which netted her over $40,000.

Oh yes I should explain the supermarkets have banned single use plastic bags recently, we now pay for reusable bags, it’s better for the environment. That’s what makes this so very clever. Now if you could just help me come up with an idea that can net me $40,000 in a week Simon we’ll be sweet.

In other news, remember that dude I was in love with before you? Well, we might be back in touch. Well, OK we are back in touch. Just how much can you see from up there?

Anyhow, now you are all up to date. Have a great day.

Look, I think you would be OK with it.

For a start, you did meet him back in the day so you know he’s not some crazy axe murderer.

Secondly, he’s been amazingly respectful of our situation. The girls were worried about me talking about you to him, it was a bit late by that stage, I’d already told him how much  I was missing you. Yeah, possibly I was a little out-of-practice on pick-up convos. When I asked him about whether it freaked him out me talking about my dead husband he replied “no, that was the last 25 years of your life, you can’t just stop talking about half of your life”.

Thirdly, he was very kind to your daughters when he met them and I know that would matter most to you.

So, that’s what going on down here, it’s busy, confusing, complicated and a bit chaotic, like always.

Happy father’s day for yesterday.

love

Janine