Who was I to know? I certainly didn’t. But had it not been for McHappy Day, I would never have suspected that my 10-year-old Jackson had a “thing” about clowns.

We pulled into McDonald’s on McHappy Day on the way back from swimming training. Jackson was in the passenger seat, the rest of the kids were in the back.

As I entered the drive–thru he spotted a clown handing out stickers and balloons in the yellow parking bay ahead.

Young Jackson stunned us all by turning pale, locking his door and quickly winding up his window, holding it shut with his tiny little hand. And then yelling: “Lock your doors, shut your windows, there’s a … a … a … clown!”

As the face-painted, curly haired clown beast approached, Jackson returned to the foetal position he had in the womb.

He did, however, summon enough courage to wind his window down one quarter of an inch to allow a happy face sticker to pass through. There was no way he was going to lower it enough to get the balloon.

Close to his chest

There was a letter to the editor this week which said: “I’m surprised by all that your columnist Jamie Dunn has to say and what was not said about his heart scare. A scare implies to me and maybe others that this was a near-miss or a minor event.”

The writer also went on to say that there must have been a better angle to the story. And I do take your point, “Name supplied – Buddina”.

I do have a tendency to minimise where my health is concerned and there is one thing I have learned from my cardiac event and that is: No matter how slight the pain you feel in your chest is, you must get to a doctor immediately if not sooner.

Thanks for your letter.

Sick of pollies

By the time you get to read this today I will have voted. I am so sick of electoral ads and political commentary that I have decided to be the first person at the voting booth this morning, so I can finally put it behind me.

No longer will I have to sit through that horrible ad with the sound of a bell for the things Kevin Rudd will do and the sound of a buzzer for the things Kevin Rudd says John Howard won’t do.

I’m at the stage where I don’t care who wins, I just want it all to stop!

Mooloolaba TAFE

Congratulations to Mooloolaba TAFE for their Wednesday night Music Showcase.

A function that highlighted the graduating students from Nambour TAFE music industry course and was catered by apprentices and students of Mooloolaba hospitality course.

The young chefs’ meals were exceptional, the trainee waiters’ service was faultless, the beginner bar staff were polite and noticeably generous with their wine pouring.

All in all a credit to everyone involved and a valuable learning experience for anyone about to enter the workforce on the Sunshine Coast.

Women on same page

Are all you women the same? Do you all work from the same script?

There’s only one show that I really enjoy on television and that show, as daggy as you may think that it is, is Time-Team on Tuesday nights at 6pm on the ABC.

It’s a show about digging up backyards and parks in Britain and finding Roman and bronze-age archaeology. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

I enjoy the show so much that every Tuesday night I hide away in the bedroom and watch it by myself.

Without fail, every Tuesday night while I’m in the middle of “my show” Kym finds a family emergency that needs my immediate attention.

I suspect that you women sense when a man is actually enjoying himself and invent a chain of events to bring him to heel.

b>No park rehab

Went to Buderim Hospital to start my eight-week cardiac rehabilitation course. Couldn’t find a park, got road rage, had another heart attack and went home.

It’s going to be a long road back, particularly if there’s no parks on the highway of life.