A Nothing Day. Involving A Belated Sausage and Chips, A Harry Potter Mystery And My Women's Football Dilemma

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's Tuesday evening I have a plan for yesterday. Wasn't going to be at work so suggested waking my daughter up early and we'd go out and visit somewhere.

"No" says my daughter. Who as a teenager craves the late nights and uninterrupted sleep that the summer holidays provides. And as a teenager no longer follows the rulings of Dad as sacred pronouncements on high but as the start of a debate.

"No" says my wife. For reasons I don't understand.

So I'm outvoted. Also I'm out of ideas as what to what to do when she does decide to wake up. The record so far for this summer holiday has been 11:30.

Come the early morning I wait. Nothing I can do. So watch a bit of TV. Can't do any housework as don't want to disturb her. That's my excuse anyway.

The morning moves to 10am. It's late enough. Going to have a bath. The podcast listened to whilst having a soak is The Football Ramble which I've only just discovered. Tend to go through a podcast from the very beginning. So if I tell you that Roy Hodgson is Fulham manager as they embark on a Europa League campaign and one of the presenters suggests he should be England manager tells you how old it is and how things have changed now.

It's 10:30. Daughter has at last emerged from slumber and asks what's for breakfast. Respond by saying that when I'm out of the bath will call an ambulance as obviously she's unable to walk downstairs and pour milk onto cereal. A teenage laugh, as if to say dad's trying to be funny. But the hint is taken and she goes downstairs.

The phone rings. Daughter answers it. I can tell from the conversation that it's my wife.

"Dad" She asks "What's for lunch?"

Lunch? She's only just started having breakfast and she's talking about lunch?

However I've an answer.

"Sausage and chips".

Last week I'd refused to get her sausage and chips from the chippy because I'd understood that she couldn't have chips because of her newly installed braces. Apparently though this was just for the first few weeks. I'd misunderstood. This was to make things up.

This is met with approval. Still got it.

As the day goes on it appears that she has planned this day by finishing off watching the Harry Potter movies. This disappointed her mother who wanted to watch it with her but I was happy enough she was doing it. After all I wasn't interested. However a mini disaster occurred. One of the discs turned out not to be Harry Potter but the Tom Hanks animated film The Polar Express. A movie seen before when she was younger and I had to feign interest. For the record, though obviously I'm not it's target audience, it was dull.

So where was this missing film? The DVDs hadn't been moved until fairly recently when this Potter viewathon started. It wasn't clear what had happened. I suggested it had disappeared into thin air....like magic. That didn't go down well.

Daughter just ignored the existence of the missing movie and proceeded to watch the rest. So every time I came into the living room during the afternoon I saw hairy wizards.big and hairy wizards,bald wizards,normal looking wizards, child wizards, female wizards, matriarch wizards and Harry Potter and the other two (told you I wasn't interested) turning bigger and older. Was happy enough. That's six less DVDs to fall asleep in front of the TV to.

No idea what to do today (Thursday) but had an idea for Friday evening.Wales women's B team have a friendly against the Republic of Ireland at Rodney Parade in Newport. Had fancied the idea of going with daughter. She however is not interested ("It's Wales.It's women playing" Neither worked.) as she's hoping to arrange something with her friends.

I quite fancy going myself (I'm working Saturday) but the thing that's putting me off is that if people see me, lone man watching a female  football game, they will put two and two together and make x rated. Daughter would have shielded me from that. I know I could tell them the truth and say I'm just like watching football including the women's game. But suspect no one will believe me.

Of course female fans have had this problem as well with regard to male games and for longer. But with the rise of the women's football I reckon I'm not the only man bothered by this. Real equality you might think.

Until the next time