Martin’s Blog: A weekend in the life of…
MONDAY to Friday contains that 35 hours of chargeable time that earns the wherewithal in terms of ready cash to fund the family lifestyle and interests. Monday mornings are tough but soon the week picks up speed and suddenly the weekend is upon us.
For the Healy family it is the usual checklist: have i done my horse racing selections for the weekend, who are the Arsenal playing, is there a Thurrock u9 football match, is the child taxi needed for Girls u12 football at LTD, will young man get to play a rugby match at Oakfield, will we be able to watch the T-birds, fit in a hockey match at Palmers College. Which mass will we get to on a Sunday. Have we recorded all the important Autumn rugby internationals on sky plus? Make sure we keep up to date with local thurrock based football team results via yourthurrock.com. Also, my friend is a daggers fan, so i need to keep up to date with events at london borough of Barking and Dagenham stadium.
Years ago, weekends used to be more leisurely affairs. Have a few pints with colleagues after work on a Friday evening, take the drunk train home, fall in the door at midnight. Sleep it off on Saturday, do some light housework and a grocery shop (one basket is enough!) do something gentle like meet some London Irish friends for party on a Saturday evening, sleep it off on Sunday. Square the weekend off with big fat read of every section of the Sunday Times just to keep myself up to date with all the contemporary issues of the day.
Mind you, I am glad those feckless days of misspent youth are long gone, Friends paired off and we all got married. London’s Big bang and my Ireland’s Celtic Tiger came and went. I have known Yuppies and Puppies. As i grew up, I dabbled in politics. Was it a dabble or was politics a 20 year obsession? I was so disgusted with Neil Kinnock, at that Sheffield rally, when he grabbed electoral defeat out of the jaws of victory that i joined the Labour party. Unfortunately or fortunately, i was never interested in politics as a career. I am more a loyal follower than a leader. Luckily, i left politics relatively unscathed and i have met some amazing and devoted people in Thurrock along the way, whose friendship i will always treasure.
In the round then, weekend child taxi driver is my particular lot, something i am privileged to do and something lots of us parents are devoted to. It is our children’s time now. I am afraid that is part of the cycle of life!
