The oldest Son....

I was working today and chatting with my colleagues over lunch about my older son Karl. Affectionately known as podlet, until he got too big to be a 'let at all! He has a distinguishing feature caused in a fight in The Countryman when a Cardiff p***k who professed to be a boxer couldn't stand to be restrained by Karl after inappropriately touching his fiancee bit off half his left ear. Known to his mates in the RAF as nibbles (previously eighteen months..I did not get this either for a long time but with a Welsh accent.....ear and half). Karl has always been the sporty daredevil of the family, cliff jumping, night surfing, motorbike riding, water skiing, anything for a dare including eating a sand eel !!! YUK, revolting boy. Karl was always the gentle child who animals and babies adored at first sight (still is) I have an old photo somewhere of Karl with a butterfly just sitting on his hand, the wild ponies would let him pet them and dogs would, with a few psychotic exceptions not attack him on his paper round. His own dog an Alsatian cross called Sabre (affectionately known as 'bapu') was totally devoted to him and the pair were inseparable. Sabre adopted a friend of ours at a music festival and came home with him. He asked us to look after him while he was away travelling for several months and by the time he returned over a year later the bond between the gammy legged dog and Karl was unbreakable and no one was going to split them up. The next summer while on the beach with a group of his friends they were ferrying each other across the river as the tide was rising quickly. One kid lost the paddles and the dinghy started to be washed out towards the sea with Karl and two others in it. Sabre jumped in and took the front rope between his teeth and with the boys hand paddling towed them to the shore.....no one told him to he just did it. Karl was the only boy babysitter on Sandy Lane for ages and all the little ones loved him. He now is married with children of his own and he is a wonderful Daddy, full of love, hugs and fun. He is a handsome and genuinely lovely guy who I am proud to call my son and the joy he and his family bring to us is immeasurable.