Found out early this afternoon that my grandad on my fathers side passed away back home in Dublin lastnight

Me and my dad haven't talked for a couple of years and today I had to call him....it was tough. My grandad always treated my brother and I well but we'd not seen him for a few years and there is a lot of bad history between my dad and my brother and I. When I plucked up the courage to call him he was in the undetakers sorting things out so he couldn't talk and asked could I call him back. Rang my brothers house but he'd just left gloucester to travel to Bradford for work tomorrow so I couldn't get hold of him till this evening.

Then I tried to call my dad only I couldn't get a connection to his mobile so it took 3 hours before I could get hold of him again. After not speaking for 2 years and on such a horrible day to say it was uncomfortable and awkward is an understatement. Asking me if I was single, married, did I have kids etc and all I want to know was what happened/what are the details of the funeral.

I feel numb I don't think I'm going to sleep a wink tonight. Spent the last 40 minutes on airline sites trying to get flights sorted for the funeral on Tuesday. Finally got one sorted.

Well hope I haven't depressed you too much but it feels good to write this down its been a long day and its still only 9pm!

Sorry to hear it pal - my condolences to you and your family.

I too haven't spoken to my farther in years - I can appreciate it must have been tough...

If you need a hand with anyhting, give me a shout buddy - I'm just down the road....

Hey - sorry to hear your sad news - hope it goes ok and that this event can be a catylst to sorting things out between you all.

Sorry to hear about your loss, mate. Hopefully you can patch things up with your dad in the next days, and have a good talk to get things off your chest....

RX-Men-8

Really sorry to hear this.
Thoughts are with you.

Sorry to hear your sad loss.....

Remember blood is thicker than water and it always takes something like this (unfortunate as it is)to bring you both back together,im sure you will both shake each others hand when you meet and talk as though nothing has happened,you both have a lot to learn from this.

I wish you both well and condolances to your family.

Im sorry to hear this, my deepest condolences to you and your family.

Sorry to hear of your loss

I too did not speak to my dad for a while 30 years infact .Get on fine now .Keep your chin up .

My deepest sympathy to you and your family.

I too haven't seen or spoken to my father in over 2 years, I think its time the Lex was pulled out of the garage and off to Llandudno to see him.

Thanks guys for all your kind words. Nice to know other people understand the position I'm in.

Sorry to hear the bad news. Condolences to all of you.

Sorry to here about your sad news, hope something good ultimately comes
out of it for you ............

Sorry to hear your sad news, my thoughts are with you. I hope this leads to something more positive with you and your dad.

Im sorry to hear this Mark, my deepest condolences to you and your family.

I hope you get an opportunity to talk to your father and build your 'friendship' up again.

twotone - sorry to hear about your loss

Zee - give the old man a call - lifes too short

Please accept my deepest condolences to you and your family at this time..

And the only thing i want to say is please patch things up with your dad, i was unfortunate enough to see my father die suddenly when i was 18, and now i crave the thigs we should be doing together like buying cars and going to the pub.
You still have that chance to be with him, even if its just a drink, i can never experience that.
Nobody knows how much their fathers mean to them till they loose them and by that time its just too late.

I hope things go well and that you can both use this sadness to make your bond stronger

I know that words don't help but you have my deepest sympathies for your sad loss.

Hope it all goes ok with your Dad. I wish I still had my Dad.

you have my full condolences matey, take care....

Sincere condolences to you and your family and I hope you work it out with your Dad.

So sorry to hear of your loss. Lets hope its brings about good things for you and your dad.

All those who aren't speaking to their dads, why not just call em and make peace, you'll fell better for it in the morning!

[quote name='kev dood' date='Feb 3 2004, 05:35 PM']So sorry to hear of your loss.  Lets hope its brings about good things for you and your dad.

All those who aren't speaking to their dads, why not just call em and make peace, you'll fell better for it in the morning![/quote]
Sometimes it's not as easy as just picking up the phone. I guess there are many reasons why people fall out with their parents. You only need to listen to the news or pick up a newspaper to hear about family problems

I hope Mark has had the opportunity to patch up his differences with his father.

Thank you all for the kind words you added above...really means a lot to me.

warning: this is long

Got home last night and what started as a bad day last Sunday has ended up one of the worst weeks in my life!

Met my dad Tuesday morning at my grandads, family and friends together to set off to the church for mass. Did the whole funeral business and then back to my grandads local for soup and sandwichs and of course the Guinness started flowing then. It was nice to talk to cousins and my father ask me to give him my phone numbers and address so we could "try and give this father son relationship a go" I said "no problem but it has to work both ways and that means putting your hands up and taking responsibility for things in the past" he said "no problem I know you've got a chip on your shoulder or should I say a boulder!". What could I say to that....anyway I was the mature one during the coversation and he was like the child. Anyways we did exchange and I insisted that whenever we do sit down its not in a pub and no drink is involved. But at the end of the night him and my brother had a heated discussion and unfortunately ended up ith my brother telling him to rip up the paper with his address and numbers that he never wants to hear from him again

I had a chat with dad to try and get him to understand why my brother was mad and upset but sometimes I'd get more reaction from a wall as opposed my dad!

Anyways woke up yesterday with a nightmare of a hangover and packed up our gear in the hotel and headed to grandads to spend the afternoon with gran before we went to the airport. That was nice and great to see her and everyone else.

Later got on the plane in Dublin tired, hungover but more so emotionally drained and suddenly thought where are my car keys Thinking at the funeral I had them in my pocket all day and praying on the plane that they where in my suit trousers in the suitcase. Got to the airport over here and emptied my case looking for my keys but to no avail. Rang the hotel and they said they had them and would post them over. So you'd think ok get the girlfriend to drive up with the spare key....nope the spare key needs a new battery(I know I'm a plonker ) so my bro and I decided to hire a car. I hate hiring cars and they gave us a 1.4 diesel fiesta cost us £80, it had 'no damge', went up 11 floors to the car and found lots of damage! Had to call them and sort that before could drive home. Got on the motorway ended up going in the wrong direction took ages to get off and get back on the right side. Got back to find my girl sitting in the freezing cold seemingly the boiler packed up yesterday, so no heating and no hot water. Back to the car story...I put my DISLOK on the car and intended today to go Lexus and get a new battery in the spare key but thought where is my spare Dislok key? Pulled the house apart at 12:30am last night but can't find it. So I have to wait till the keys in Dublin arrive over here. At the same time the car is clocking up a bill in the airport car park. Couldn't sleep last night thinking about it all and how it could be next week before the keys et here. So got up on the PC and went on the Irish post office site to see waht type of fast or special delivery they have. Found a international fast delivery service which should only cost me EUR39. Rang the hotel this morning and asked them to do that and bill my card of course the receptionist almost hung-up before I finished and then did I had to call her back to say make sure you call when its done and give me the internet tracking number. So can't sleep now because I'm waiting for British Gas to turn up between 8am and 1pm and after that I had to drop the hire car at my local AVIS and they are renowned for trying screw you for damage that you didn't cause. So rang AVIS at the airport to confirm they updated their system with the damage I reported last night before I go anywhere near my local Avis.

On a lighter note when I parked in the airport Monday night I saw Lexi everywhere and got out of my car and realised I'd parked beside a IS200 LE. So my brother laughed at me as we walked through the car park and I left my business card sized LOC flyers on about 5 or 6 lexi....see I'm always thinking of you LOC


Once again thanks for all your support and kind words, your all a great bunch of people

you have had some bad luck ,still you seem to be over the worst .As regards to your dad when i met mine i decided to bury the past as i knew we could never get along if it kept comming up time and time again ,perhaps you and your broth and old man should do the same before it is to late

Hell - remind me not to travel with you
On a more serious note I do hope you do get to talk again in better circumstances ...

A truly bad day

Remember, no matter how bad things are for you - there is always someone MUCH worse off somewhere.

Mark- sorry to hear your sad news. Marion and I send our condolences.

Thanks Jim.
-----------------------------------
[b]UPDATE[/b]

[u]Yesterday[/u]
Central heating needed a new pump yesterday so thats sorted. Luckily we signed up to British Gas Home Care last week £14.50 a month so didn't have to fork out a penny yesterday for call out, parts or labour.
Dropped the hire car back no problem.
Went to Lexus yesterday got battery fitted to spare key fob.
Still not found spare Dislok key
So car still in airport car park

[u]Today[/u]
Car keys arrived from Dublin
Rang girlfriend to let her know as she is driving me to the airport so I can get my car.
Girlfriend calls back 2 minutes later to tell me a colleague has rang her to say something is leaking out from underneath her Civic Type-R
She took it to our local Honda dealer and called me to say a stone has gone through the radiator and they can't get one till tomorrow

I thought things where starting to turn round and now this.
Fortunately my neighbour has come to the rescue and volunteered to take me to the airport to save me trying to get there by trains.

Please let the rest of today go smoothly and let me get my lovely car home where it belongs safe and sound. I'll let you know how much the car park cost when I get back

what airport is this,, i live up the road from heathrow if i can help at all.

Cheers Fargo:) But its up north. Very good of you to offer!

There is nothing really anyone can do now, its up to me to get to the car with the keys now:) After this week I hope I can look back on this mess with the car and the keys and laugh at what a wally I've been!

I'm printing off some of my LOC business card sized flyers for the car park as I'm sure I'll pass a few Lexi as I walk to mine!


[b]UPDATE 2 @ 19:00HRS[/b]

Finally got to Manchester today and picked my car up the car park wasn't too bad £33 for Monday evening through to Friday afternoon.

Also slapped a a couple of flyers on a some lexi

Well thats it for me I'm going to hibernate till next New Year

Once again thank you all for your support through what has been one hell of a week.