Dog days

Mark Steed said...
God Bless Dan and all who drank with himYears ago Dan and I were asked by Nick Ritchie to take Nick’s two eldest sons for a weeks holiday in Tuscany. Dan and I were the kids respective Godfathers and Nina Ritchie was pregnant with Lucy and so neither Nick nor Nina could go.In the first fee days of the holiday Dan’s Godson Edward (aged about 10) asked Dan – “What would you like to be if you were not a human”. Dan thought for a moment and replied “I would like to be a Labrador dog”. “Why” asked Edward”. “So I could stick my nose up a girl’ skirt without anyone objecting”. Dan suddenly realised that he had said the wrong thing so tried to correct it by saying – “NO!! I would want to be a Labrador because it has such a good life and a waggy tail”.From then on, everyday Edward would ask Dan the same question – “Why do you want to be a Labrador”. Every time Dan would come up with some new and plausible reason.On returning the kids to their parents,, the first thing Edward said to his mother was “Dan wants to be a Labrador so he can put his nose up a girl’s skirt”Oh the joy of kids.I will try to leave some pictures of Dan at Chris Golden’s 50th birthday party in France. Chris had flown Dan over especially so he could do the barbecue. The reason why Dan has a newspaper in front of him is so that I had proof he still existed as he had been on the “missing list” for some time.