Today is Fathers’ Day in Australia and New Zealand, the day where we take time to appreciate our relationship with our fathers and what they mean to us.
I caught the travel bug from my parents. While I was growing up, we spent our weekends going on drives, hiking through national parks and visiting historical landmarks. School holidays saw our family travelling around Australia, and my parents supported both my brother and I when we had the opportunity to live in Germany as part of our school’s student exchange program.
My parents showed me that it was possible to take long overseas trips and still have a day job. Together they’ve travelled to every continent, and spend their free time improving their photography skills.
Ever since he got online in 1997, Dad’s met and kept in touch with people from all over the world. He likes numbers and statistics and lodges my tax for me. He has an affinity for emus: when he talks to them, the emus respond (it’s a kind of a weird glounk sound). Dad loves trying new beers on his travels, quotes lines from The Castle and gets a little bit too distracted by Farm Town. He’s also an avid coin and stamp collector, which makes buying souvenirs for him really easy!
Dad has always supported me in everything I’ve done. He helped me with programming logic during my IT degree and over the years he’s saved the discarded drafts of my short stories and writing projects. He’s always a Skype call away if anything goes wrong while I’m travelling. He pretends to understand when I speak to him in German. He is always the first to read any of the posts on this blog and actively promotes Castlephile Travels and my writing whenever he can.
Without my Dad being the person he is, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.
So thankyou for everything, Dad. Happy Father’s Day!