Video killed the radio star

Round 16: May 2025

Deacon Burrows is 60, Stella Harris is 61, Minka is 7 and Nick is 5.

(Liv is 27, Dawn is 21, Finn is 20 and Shea is 5.)

Narrated by Deacon.

One of the best things I know nowadays is being greeted at the gate to our house by Minka when I come home from work. "Daddy, you're home!" she shouts and throws her arms around my neck. It took months before she started calling me Daddy so it's like winning the lottery every time I hear it.

Seeing Minka and Nick bring home friends from school and hearing their laughter makes me really happy. I'm glad Stella talked me into adopting these children. I haven't regretted it even once since they became a part of our family.

I still work full-time but at the end of the day I leave my work at the office. There were times when I would get home and then bury myself in papers in the study but I've learnt to delegate. After all, what's the point of having employees if you can't trust them to do their job without constantly watching over them? I'm not nearly as stressed as I used to be and I enjoy my life so much more.

We try to see our older kids more often too. Finn and Dawn are very busy with their studies but they drive to Wellington to visit us and Dawn's parents quite often. It warms my heart to see how good they are together and such good parents for Shea. They usually take over the kitchen when we get together and it's so interesting to watch them move around and work together like a well-oiled machine.

We invited the whole gang over the other night and were pleasantly surprised when Liv asked if she could bring a friend with her. We know she's been seeing someone but apparently it's gotten more serious if she's willing to introduce him to us.

I'm the first to admit that I never really liked Liv's ex-boyfriend Niall. God knows Stella chewed my head off more than once for treating him not-so-welcoming so I'm trying to keep an open mind meeting the new guy. His name is Jamie and he's an art restorer. Probably about Liv's age, maybe a year or two older. And I like him. He seems genuine and nice and he clearly likes Liv. Liv seems to like him too. She can be loud and brass - even mean sometimes - but she seems softer somehow when she's with him.

The kids seem to like Jamie too. At some point I saw Shea and Liv sitting on the couch and heard Shea telling Liv that she likes Jamie better than Niall. And that's saying a lot because Niall was pretty much her hero for a while because she used to love sports more than anything at one time. Liv smiled this wide bright smile and said that she does too. Later that night we said goodbye and as we watched Liv and Jamie walk out of the house hand in hand Stella took my hand and sighed happily.

"Liv looks happy" she said.

Stella is in between productions so she and Elissa Cooper have been going over some of their ideas for a new project after they finish the trilogy that they've been working on. The sequel to "Moon over Southwest" and "November Song" will start filming soon so it'll be a while before they'd start working on a completely new project though. It's going to be an indie movie instead of a big studio production and I've promised to help them gather funding once they have a working script. Or as Liv puts it I'm going to "use my power for good instead of evil for once".

Minka and Nick have been asking about Stella's job a lot because they've started to realise that she's a bit different than everyone else's mom. They've already seen my work place and since it's just an ordinary office building there really wasn't much to see. They're really excited about the prospect of being able to visit a movie set though.

At first we tried to stay away from public places as much as possible because the media was really interested after learning that we were adopting two children. Nowadays we like to go out on weekends and take the kids to play in a park or to see a movie at the cinema in Exmoor or just stroll around the town. The paparazzi sometimes follow us and take pictures but the kids have gotten use to it by now and at least they don't harass us they way to do to some celebrities. The initial interest has faded so it's not that often that someone bothers to take our picture anyway. It's nice to go out and show the kids around, there's so much to see in our home town.

Notes:

• Title reference: Video killed the radio star by The Buggles.
• I've been sick with a flu for over a week or so and my brain has turned into mush so if I've made any huge errors in the text please let me know.
• Liv is now officially dating Jamie due to rolling so many wants for him when I popped into changing her clothes.