Paul Cornell, who wrote the excellent Father’s Day episode of Doctor Who, has a blog, and remarks that Rose’s father Pete was based on his own dad.

The piece is really about me appreciating the sacrifices he made, and how I know he’d do what the Dad in ‘Father’s Day’ does. I think most Dads would.

Yup.

Paul goes on to say that he’s recently discovered his dad had a terrifying, chaotic time in WW2 in the Far East, including a spot of treasure hunting, and he now thinks of him in the same vein as Bobby Shaftoe, the character in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.

I can’t help thinking that for most of us, there’s way more about our parents than we know about.

Every couple of weeks, often on a Friday, I have a hankering for a burger and chips. I know it’s not good for me, but sometimes, just sometimes, you need to indulge your tastebuds.

So I go along to the local Hungry Jacks, incorrectly choose the queue which looks like it’s going to move the fastest, but which in fact has at its head the little old lady who has never been to Hungry Jacks before and is asking the counter staff what each item on the menu is. Eventually I get to the head of the queue and order a Bacon Deluxe Value Meal, but with an OJ instead of a Coke. (Occasionally it’s something else, but that’s the usual one. Yes, they have allegedly healthy salad-oriented meals now. Would I order one of those? Hell no. If I want a salad, I don’t go to Hungry Jacks.)

The counter person will ask me if I want to upsize, and I will say no. They’ll ask if I wish to eat in, and I’ll say yes. With attention and skill they prepare and bring my meal, and I go and get a strawer. Then I’ll try and grab a napkin.

Is it just me that has trouble grabbing the napkins out of the napkin dispensers at Hungry Jacks? It’s like they’ve been specially set up to resist giving you anything. They’re wired up so tightly that if you try and grasp just one napkin, all you get is a tiny bit of torn paper. Thus you have to try and get a grip on three or four napkins, and you end up with too many.

I find a seat, eat my meal, ponder why fast food is so often just a little bit disappointing in terms of taste and general satisfaction, ponder the napkin dispensers, and try and calculate how many K’s walking I should do to work off the burger. I use one napkin to wipe my mouth and hands, and take the rest back to work with me to use on another occasion.