Go-Carting back to a simpler time.

Hello All,

My previous comeback into blogging was about as successful as Lance Armstrongs cycling comeback (minus the drugs, lies and bribes). Anyway, it fell firmly on its backside and never took off.

So this is now comeback Part II, and this time it will be for good.

This blog will still follow the old format, how to live a life that inspires, pushes boundaries and challenges the status quo, and also a glimpse into how we are doing this ourselves down in glorious Devon. I’ll try and post a blog each week, sometimes it will be more, sometimes less, as I’m sure you can appreciate life is busy.

Much has happened in the Daly Life since i last regularly blogged, we've had births, marriages, deaths, new careers and travelling Europe in a van with the 4 little children, but more about that another time.

Most important of all, is that this week has we made a go cart!! This isn't your usual, run of the mill, off the shelf, self assembly kit. This is the real deal. no new parts, no health and safety notices or instructions. Everything was salvaged from the collossal pile of crap that is slowly taking over the barn.

The discovery of an old Silvercross pram provided the inspiration, along with the chassis and wheels. The rest has been lashed together, i mean lovingly crafted out of mostly wood. The wheel arches are made from an old set of shelves, the floor an old pallet, the steering column a piece of 2x2 salvaged from the bathroom refurb, and a steering mechanism so clever that Enzo Ferrari himself would have been proud of its creation.

It is a tribute to any man who has filled his shed with things that to anyone else look useless, but he just knows, somewhere deep inside his soul that they will fulfill an important purpose one day. I knew i couldn't explain it at the time, but hanging on to that old rusty childs bike wasn't just a way of procrastinating a trip to the tip, it was a calling, something told me that its components would one day find their destiny. And sure enough, the front wheel is now the proud steering wheel of a magnificent machine.

And as a dad, when we see these parts together, the old, timed stained wood, rusty bolts, frayed rope, tarnished hinges, we just know that something fantastic can be created, suddenly we are an inventor, a mechanic, an engineer and a technician. Suddenly we are Einstein with a rusty screwdriver and a workmate.

This was it for me, a tick off my bucket list, a real, proper dad project. It may seem funny to those who aren't parents themselves, but it really gave me a sense of purpose as a father, it fulfilled something deep inside. The children were absolutely engrossed in every second of the project, and the happiness on their face when it was their turn to drill a hole, or screw in a screw, was completely priceless.

It really took me back to what's important, none of the skills involved were learnt at school, i didn't have a GCSE in wooden steering columns and silvercross turning circles. It was all skills learnt from my father, from watching him build things when i was a child, and it took creativity,


it took thinking outside the box, using what you've got not letting obstacles stop you from achieving your goal, things that are now being lost in childhood to iPads, TV's and smartphones.

I knew as soon as it was finished that it would create memories that would never be forgotten, memories that our children will call upon when they are parents, when they lose a sense of direction and family life gets on top of them, they can think back, and remember that feeling of riding down the farm track on a go cart they had built with dad, from bits discarded as junk, and remember that it's those times that make it all worth while.

It's amazing what can be created from a pile of old junk.