I promised my daughter that we would take her and some of her mates to Doncaster Dome for her birthday to ice skate and then swim. The day was fine and passed without incident, but it made me think of the difference between our generations. These are the things that made me see that we are poles apart, and getting wider.
1. I told them to get ready by 0915 because we would be leaving in time to get on the first skating session. They all did nothing about it until we were five minutes from departure, when they scurried around trying to get ready on time. Ten minutes after we should have left my youngest was still looking for her swimming costume and goggles.
2. Despite telling her friend to bring all the stuff from her sleepover in the car because we would be dropping her off on the way home, her friend totally ignored me and we had to call and get her stuff on the way home. Best of all it was my fault for not telling her well enough and I shouldn’t be nasty moaning at her when she didn’t hear……..oh sorry!
3. On the way there the radio in my ancient car faded a bit as we got out of range. I could have put a tape in the tape deck, ha ha, but instead the kids played some boom boom rap crap from their mobile….grrrrreat..!
4. We had agreed that we would have some lunch from somewhere, possibly the Scottish Restaurant (MacDonald’s), but my lad got out a bit earlier than the girls from the pool and asked if he could have something nice from the pool cafe. He explained the last meal he had from the Scottish Restaurant had made him feel sick and the food wasn’t all that good anyway. I gave him a fiver and 10 minutes later he came back with a giant hotdog in a bag saying ‘the World’s Best Hot Dog’ on the paper bag and a blue and red slush puppy. I pointed out that I wasn’t sure he had done any better than he might have at the Scottish Restaurant; however, he assured me it was top quality and they wouldn’t be allowed to say it was the best in the world if it wasn’t. Brilliant, he is a Marketing Manager’s dream customer.
5. On the return I got to listen to the same music and had the pleasure of driving round my daughters friend’s houses whilst they took most of their stuff with them.
The day will last in my memory forever or until I remove all the empty sweet papers from the car, whichever comes first