‘Karen, Do a Pedro’: Dad’s constant refrain during lockdown
Whenever Dad doesn’t want to comply with one of my requests, I am told to ‘do a Pedro’. When he finally forgets Pedro, I’ll know things are really bad.
My parents spent many a rainy British winter month in Spain. Pedro owned their favourite bar; he was a great guy who loved Dad and was perpetually having problems with ‘your lot’, in other words the English. Of what nature, I’m not quite sure, but I can imagine! Some English visitors to Spain are not always a credit to our nation!
My father, a man who very rarely swears, insisted Pedro take a no-nonsense approach and just tell them to ‘bugger off’. Whether Pedro took this on board, I don’t know, but from this point onwards, he always called Dad ‘Mr B off’ and so the swearword itself morphed into ‘Do a Pedro’ every time Dad decided that he didn’t want to take any notice of us!
Let’s return to the present for a moment!
Asking Dad if he wouldn’t mind:
• getting up so I can dress him;
• standing well over the toilet;
• going to bed before midnight so that I can help him undress and put him to bed without feeling knackered the next morning as my working day begins …
… all elicit a ‘Karen, do a Pedro’, said with a broad smile on his face.
It’s something that he’s so far held on to.
When ‘Karen, do a Pedro’ goes, we will have reached another stage.
