Dads Taxi...

So its christmas eve, its 10pm, and I'm sober and trying to get interested in "Bridget Jones' Diary" again.


I'm on Dads taxi duty again tonight so no alcohol for me, have just been into Leeds to pick up my 17 year old daughter and her boyfriend from the cinema where they have sat through three hours of "King Kong", they are now back at our house and i'm waiting for them to decide that its time for him to go home so that I can get the car out again.

This is what happens when you're a father of daughters.

You start of in the maternity hospital proud as punch at becoming the father of a baby girl, you have big plans for you both, you'll be her protector for the rest of her life, no boy will ever be good enough for your little girl, anything she wants you'll bust a gut to get for her, your life now exists to provide only for her and to be the dad that she will look up to and say to her friends "thats my dad" - and when another one comes along three years later, you'll have the same hopes and expectations.

17 years later you're sat in the kitchen waiting for her command, and like all weekends for the last two years and for the rest of your life, you're thinking "Stick a broom up my arse and I'll sweep the floor on the way out as well".

It also explains why I've currently spent nearly £300 on driving lessons for her so far, as soon as she can drive herself I can look forward to boozy weekends again, and maybe she'll start giving me lifts everywhere, theres method in my madness you see.

All of this could be different of course if only we had a reliable public transport system in this city, Leeds is the fourth largest city in the UK, the city centre is ram-packed full of bars and nightclubs, we have hotels on every streetcorner to cater for the young people that travel from all over the North of England for a clubbing night in Leeds - and yet tonight, Christmas Eve, the bus company has declared that their services will stop at 6pm, and here's me thinking they are supposed to be providing a public service.

I've just got the call, I'm booked for the lift home in 8 minutes, then the rest of the night is my own.

Merry Christmas everyone.