Sam was a sweet kid.

Most blokes wouldn’t want that said of them, but it was true of him, certainly in his younger years. Generous, kind and sensitive, a kid who never wanted to impose on you in any way.

One of the things we did well as a family was ‘holidays’. And its from there that so many of our best memories are drawn. On every holiday we gave the kids ‘holiday money’, a usually pretty generous amount that would allow them to buy something cool as well as the usual lollies and ice creams.

We began this practice when we did our first lap of Oz in 2009, but every holiday from there on would begin with one of them asking, ‘Hey dad?… Are we gonna get any holiday money on this trip?’ (Just in case I’d forgotten…)

Then one year I thought I’d make it interesting…

‘Of course, how much would you like?’ I responded.

‘What do you mean?’ Sam asked.

‘Well you tell me – how much do you want?’

‘Really?…’ chipped in Ellie – just checking… She knew me well enough to know it could be a ruse.

‘Yep – how much?’ I asked.

‘Well…’ Sam began, ‘I don’t really need that much. And you guys are paying for the fuel and for the whole holiday… So I dunno… $10 maybe?’

This was Sam. Meanwhile true Ellie is glaring at him like he’s insane. This is the opportunity to fleece the oldies and Sam is royally screwing it up!

‘How about you Ellie? How much would you like?’

I could see her face in the rear view mirror trying to work out if this was a trick question, or if I was serious… Eventually she decided to roll with it. ‘$300 I reckon.’ Said confidently and like we were getting off light.

‘Well here’s the deal guys’, I said. ‘You two need to go away and agree on a figure – then come back and tell us what it is and that will be the amount.’

And so the argy bargey began! And no matter how much was agreed on Sam would always take the money apologetically as if he was robbing us.

Even in his Uni years when he was living out of home and the cost of living started to get out of control, we sat with him and offered him another $100/week to pay for things. His response? Yep the same