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The last major jaunt away of the tour today with a trip to Gloucester followed by Barnard Castle (classic tour booker jape) and two gigs in Newcastle and then a long drive home on Monday. There will be a night away in Bristol next week, but apart from that no more nights away from the family. It is getting either tougher to be away as it gets closer to being over.
I’d had a disturbed night of sleep, but was still happy to sort out the kids’ breakfasts whilst my wife had a well-deserved lie-in. It’s a tough job getting two kids up and dressed and fed on your own, especially when one of them is very mobile and not keen to change out of her pyjamas. But I had fun with the multi-tasking and the risk of leaving a baby in a high chair alone whilst I took my daughter to the loo. It was unlikely that a wolf would break into he kitchen and spirit my son away, but I kept going back to check.
It’s magical to do these mundane tasks at the moment. but as I will doubtless find out in July and August it loses its gloss if you’re doing it every day. My son’s smile is the cure for any depression (I might try and bottle it and see if I can sell it to hospitals) and chatting with a three year old is just about the best conversation you can have.
We were taking Phoebe to the dentist this morning, whilst getting our own check ups and I was pretty sure I’d be getting more fillings, but we all got away with a clean bill of health (though I had been the most lackadaisical at teeth cleaning). There was excitement in Hitchin as a large plume of black smoke was emerging into the sky from somewhere near the train station.
After the check up and being warned about hidden sugar in food, we took Phoebe for a bun as a treat. Because we have learned nothing. I shared my bun with Phoebe but she wouldn’t give me any of her doughnut. I was fairly confident it would defeat her and I’d get some anyway, but she is her father’s daughter and polished it off. She seemed to think it was fair that I shared mine with her, but that she didn’t have to share hers with mine. Even though I’d actually paid for her fucking doughnut and everything else she’s ever had. I admired her confidence. She fronted it out like Trump and she won.
We walked back to the car, passing the place where only yesterday I had failed to help an old man who was already being helped. Perhaps not getting some doughnut was karma.
Then I was ripped from this family idyll to go to Gloucester. I had a sleep on the sofa in the green room before the show and felt a bit disorientated, but it was pretty much full and I had riled the audience up by saying I usually played Cheltenham which was clearly classier!
The evening felt like a dream and to be fair I might still have been asleep on the sofa, dreaming it all.
We then drove to Warrington to get us halfway to the next gig.
Tired to my bones. But tonight, I hoped, I would sleep.
