Beckham And Me

Today was a  special day anyway due to the fact that it was my mum and dads 40th wedding anniversary. We had arranged to take them to a restaurant called Smiths in Ongor, which to be fair to us and our budget, was like eating at the Ritz. We are not poor people just more Pizza Hut and Beefeater than Ritz and Ramsay's.

We all arrived at their house, me and my wife, my sister and her husband, as we had arranged a Limo as a surprise as neither of my parents had ever been in one. There were a few tears from mum when she saw it ,and we all piled in after having our photos taken outside of it and off we went.

There was lots of laughing and joking on the way and they both felt very special when the Limo arrived at the restaurant and the driver opened the door for them. So job done we thought. Not quite actually the day took on another special and quite bizarre twist to it.

As we were sat down I noticed a tall man with a beard walking towards me with three boys. I didn't take much  notice at first and then I looked again and froze.

Sitting down at the table next to me so close I could touch him was David Beckham. Not only him though Victoria Beckham as well and their three boys.

The shock must have shown on my face as he smiled and said hello. I lent over to my wife and the conversation went like this.

"Beckham has just sat at the table next to us"
"No he hasn't don't be silly"
"Yes he has look"
"Oh my god its Beckham" she then turned to my sister and said "Its Beckham look"

My sister then started to hyperventilate bless her went blood red and started to sweat. As we were trying to calm her down I then heard.

"David, David I just want to shake your hand mate"

To my utter embarrassment my Dad was leaning towards him with his hand thrust out saying Hi. I nearly died with shock and embarrassment. To put this into perspective my Dad has never been star struck. Ever. When I met the players at Dagenham this year and got my photo taken with my hero Tony Roberts the goalkeeper he took the mick out of me for days. Yet here he was calling at David Beckham.

To his eternal credit Beckham came over and shook his hand and said hello. When he went my Dad was beaming from ear to ear and then what he had done struck him and he became very apologetic to all of us which made us laugh even more.

We watched as his family arrived and they all sat around the table. The matrade came over to take our order and we asked if he would ask them if they would be kind enough to have a photo with us. He explained probably not as it was his nan's 80th birthday. We respected that and said no more.

We ate our meal taking sly looks at them as we ate, you know as you do, then we all raised our glasses to wish my mum and dad a happy anniversary. At this stage we were getting ready to leave when, yep you've guessed it, Beckham came over and said he had heard what he had said about the anniversary and just wanted to congratulate them both.

My sister started to hyperventilate again, my wife had a hot flush, me and the brother-in-law sat there grinning like idiot's whilst my mum and dad talked to him. It was so surreal.

David Beckham and especially Victoria get a lot of stick from jealous people. Watching them today with their family and their kids they have got it all. The kids were so well behaved and they are both so tactile with them all. They all sang Happy Birthday to their nan as well. It was a pleasure to watch. It broke down the myth and you could see the people they truly are. No fakeness, no don't you know who I am, no please don't talk to me. Top class people. David also explained that the reason he didn't want to have a photo was because he had promised his boys today was for them.

For all the time he gets bugged when hes out by people like me and my family to see him then put his family first, (Jordan you old slapper, Kerry Katona as well take note your kids are not there to make money off), made me realise that he has it all and I don't begrudge him any of it.

He made my day today as well as my families. He took 5 minutes out of his day to say Hi as did Victoria as well. I am just another face in the crowd to them, but to me they are truly special and a role model I would be proud for all of my kids to look up to. They wont remember us, that's fine, but watching them today I will never ever forget them, the way there were with their kids, with their family and remember always the day I met David and Victoria Beckham.

Truly special people who have worked hard to get what they have and I for one don't begrudge them any of it.

Thanks for the memories and making my Dad's day.