Our dad, the man with the biggest heart and always got the biggest laughs. 

Our dad We have to thank for our love of dressing up and not being afraid to use our imagination. From making up bed time stories, to telling us tales of his younger years. We clearly got our slightly rebellious side from him as well.

Our dad taught us a lot over the years like how to do DIY tasks, cut the grass, build boats out of bottles, straws and plastic bags and race them across a swimming pool but most importantly how not to annoy mum. 

Our dad would take us to Colgate every Saturday, but of course he would not leave without a cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch expertly made by mum. Even though some days we didn’t want to go, the treat for getting through the day was worth it...Lardy cake from the bakery at the end of Swindon Road.

Our dad, along with the whole family, would all go to Tesco’s on Friday nights for the weekly shop. Mum would go off and get what we actually needed whilst Dad would encourage us to try and sneak things in without her noticing. But we were always rewarded with a can of pop of our choice for being so good. The main highlight of these trips though was all jumping on the trolly (apart from mum who didn’t want to be seen with such hooligans) and Dad pushing it and jumping on as well to see how far we could drift on it. This is why we always parked at the back of the car park. 

Our dad had a limited tape/CD Collection in the car. On our trips up to Croydon to see Nana and Grandad and the rest of the Croydon Moynihan’s, we would always listen to the Proclaimers album, learning how to sing in a very questionable Scottish accent and mispronouncing every lyric. There was the odd occasion we would mix it up with a bit of Paul Simon, but for the whole month of December it was always the 1 and only Christmas carol tape he had. 

Our dad, despite being in the Cubs, scouts and being a leader too, his directional skills were awful. Dad would constantly rely on his co-driver mum for directions and arguments were sure to follow when a wrong turn was accidentally made.....or parking on a beach and getting stuck. Dad would also rely on our memory to point out all of the speed cameras too.

Our dad, didn’t really understand the concept of a healthy diet. 2 chocolate bars for breakfast, skipped lunch (unless his work colleagues bought him something), then had a delightful dinner cooked by chef mum....followed by a dessert of course. His idea of cooking was stick it in the microwave for 3 minutes. At Nana and Grandad’s for Tea time we would always ask how many cakes are we allowed and dad would always reply as many as slices of bread you have.......fat Nicky saw this as a challenge and accepted it on many occasions.

Our dad was infamous for many things, whistling with his fingers, his poems and for smoking a pipe. Friends would comment when they came round what was that tall metal stand next to the arm chair, which was dad’s ashtray. I like how dad smoked constantly in the house when we were growing up, but as soon as Katy was pregnant he then started to ‘read the paper’ as he called it outside instead. 

Our dad always had a Ford mondeo estate when we were growing up. His main reason was so that he could always help people out moving stuff, like taking my bass amp to gigs, for anyone moving house (I.e. Michael ten million times)...even putting a teenage mutant ninja turtles arcade machine on the roof rack and bringing it back from Nottingham. Back in the 90s when it wasn’t frowned upon, all 6 of us would squeeze into the mondeo, everyone taking their turn to have me sit on their lap, but our favourite part would be how fast we went over the railway tracks in Horsham....not sure it did the car any good.

Our Dad’s stubbornness was well known, he would not stop until a job was finished, even if it meant missing lunch, which frustrated us as kids but it would always get stuff done. Well dad your job on this earth is now done so you can finally rest......but don’t think we won’t still be asking you for favours! 

We love you, we miss you and you will forever be, our dad.

P.s. we still don’t know what you actually did in your job.