My Day 2008!

Apart from Australia and New Zealand, I do not know of any other country that celebrates Father’s Day in September, and on the first Sunday of the month at that.

I do not know if it is for commercial reasons (to bump up retail sales in the first quarter of the Australian financial year) or social reasons (September seems to be lacking in any “holidays”). It’s just interesting to know that Australia (and New Zealand) is not in sync with the rest of the world on this one. If you know of any other countries not celebrating in June please do not hesitate to comment.

This year Father’s Day was on the same day as the Bridge to Brisbane marathon. It just meant that I was a bit tired to get into the spirit of it all. But thanks to a dose of Redbull I managed to last the day!

The marathon started at around 7am that day. Before 9am I was already home ready for “my day”. The kids we’re all so excited. They were even more excited than me.

Yes, it was a full day! Straight after the run we went to our favourite Pancakes at the Manor for breakfast (I’ll write more about this pancake place in a future post)

Next, we headed to Brisbane’s West End for a satisfying Vietnamese lunch. My favourite is Trang’s at 59 Hardgrave Road. Unfortunately they have no website. They are too busy making great tasting Vietnamese food to be bothered with anything else.

For dinner we had Domino’s Puff Pizzas. They brought back their pizzas using puff pastry as the base. Talk about decadent!

Apart from the yummy food, I've received gifts as well (one still in raincheck).

My son made a bookmark (because I love reading) that says Best Dad Ever (idea from a song Best Day Ever by Spongebob). On it he drew coffee and tea (two of my favourite beverages). It’s a bit weird though that he put “To: Elmer (Dad)”. Well, he’s 10 years old now. We might be calling each other on a first name basis soon…NOT! But thank you very much Kiko! You know your dad so well!



My older daughter had prepared a supposedly “secret gift” for me from school. But like her dad, who couldn’t keep a secret gift a secret for too long, she told me a few days before Father’s day what it was. I did ask her what her secret was (jokingly, of course) and she blurted it out without any hesitation. When her siblings teased her about not knowing how to keep secrets she cried and then blamed me for asking her. Bad daddy! Oh…the innocence of childhood. Thanks a lot Chichay!



My youngest (to date) is not in school yet. So instead of making me something she picked out something from the shops. She asked mom to buy her favourite chocolate for me. Thank you so much Yaya!

And her other contribution? She picked out the card they were to give me. Why did she pick that particular card? No, not because I look like an athlete (I loke more like an Iron Chef rather than an Iron Man). And no, it’s got nothing to do with the Olympics at all. It’s all about the song that plays when you open the card. And it goes something like this:”You’re the world’s greatest dad, yes you really really are. The best dad that there has ever been…You’re the world’s best dad, indeed!”

I hope I don’t disappoint. You kids really made dad’s day!

Now, start planning my birthday!