morning bigmoose chums,
i didn't really wanna write anything today, as my mood is pretty melancholic, as this week we lost my father in law, my wife's dad, and my children's grandad.
superdave, as he was known to me, was 88, and had the big c pretty much everywhere in the end, but man he fought it hard to the end.
so among the tears and heartache this week, there has also been a lot of remembering the great times, and eulogising about his life.
and oh what a life.
an s.a.s. soldier, a skydiver, a published artist, and a great humanitarian, and a nicer geezer you could not wish to meet.
superdave seemed to trust me quite early on in my courtship of his eldest daughter, and i remember vividly him taking me for a 'boys dinner' at a grand house in london, which he informed me was an army safehouse, which as we entered was vast in size with super high ceilings, and a massive winding staircase with pictures of past s.a.s. hierarchy including the founder david stirling.
i didn't know too much about the s.a.s. but discovered that the idea had come about after stirling, a 6ft 6in scottish aristocrat, mountaineer and cowboy quit cambridge university to be an artist in paris and later joined the scots guards.
he was training to climb mount everest when the second world war broke out and volunteered for a commando unit in the middle east.
while recovering in hospital from partial paralysis of his legs after an unofficial parachute jump went wrong, he hatched a cunning plan to launch surprise attacks using small teams of crack soldiers.
he scribbled down his plans for small raiding groups, independent of the traditional military.
they would operate deep behind enemy lines, destroying aircraft and supply links before melting away before their opponents had time to respond.
the special air service was born and dave was to become one of these elite soldiers, revered the world over, a very special soldier indeed.
as we ate dinner, dave regaled stories of the 'mob' and told me of how when the iranian embassy siege took place, the perfectly executed armed raid by his regiment rescuing all the hostages, the members of the unit involved, all came back to the house where we were and celebrated long into the night, and dave and other london based members of the regiment ate, drank and made merry as the guns used in the raid were stacked up near the front door like umbrellas.
dave was an accomplished skydiver, and as such when i decided to go to florida to do my accelerated free fall course, i invited him along, and he won everybody at the drop zone over with his stories and zest for life, dave was quite the raconteur, and one night whilst in a local bar, i left him to go to the washroom, to return to find a group of girls surrounding him, and laughing loudly at his tales.
i couldn't get close to get his attention, and as i watched him hold court, i smiled as he seemed to be having such fun, until eventually he saw me and gave me a huge theatrical wink and a smile, classic superdave.
his passing was painful to watch, as everybody within his solar system watched his light fade, and the pain we all felt as he ended his days here on earth was palpable.
but as someone who loved him i am glad he is out of pain, and has left us for what he always said was the next chapter.
wednesday will be his funeral, and in true superdave fashion he has left instructions for everyone to wear bright colours, and his playlist of songs should be clapped along to, such was his passion for life, and i for one will forever be inspired by this man who definitely left this world better than he found it.
r.i.p. david jenner and may the place where you are now be full of blue skies