A week or so ago, Otis was telling me about a magic trick he saw at school.
He was amazed by it.
Apparently some magicians came in to assembly and showed the school a book that was in black and white and then – at the flick of a wand – turned into colour.
So I said to him, was it something like this …
He watched transfixed before shouting with sheer joy …
“Yes Daddy, that’s it. THAT’S IT!”
So I said to him …
“Well if you like that, you may like this from a long time ago” …
He laughed and laughed and laughed, then asked me what it was.
So I told him that years ago, in 2007 in fact, a group of people did this thing called iPod Singing, which was the latest wonderfully bonkers ideas from Marcus Brown.
He looked at me for a second and said,
“Were those videos Marcus Brown?”
“No” …” I replied, “… they were of me”.
Silence.
Bit more silence.
Look of confusion and amazement on his face.
“But it didn’t look like you or sound like you Daddy”.
I looked at Jill.
“Well your voice has changed over they years”, she said.
Jesus Christ …
And while I would like to think this means I could be James Bond, the reality is I now understand why tax departments in every country I’ve lived give me shit. Because every year, it appears they think the person who has to pay their bill isn’t the person who is stood in front of them saying, “I’ve paid, I’ve paid”.
So thank you Marcus for revealing how my son only recognises me from 2014 … which is handy given all the shit I want him not to see when he’s older.