Warming Up

Today I wrote a sketch for a character that I haven’t written for for 25 years. It came out quite easily and I think it’s funny. With a bit of luck it will debut on Twitch of Fun on Thursday (or maybe next week depending on logistics). Twitch of Fun is expanding to fill a bigger portion of my week each week. I think it’s worth it. Slowly I am moulding this ball of Play Dough into something interesting and new. And occasionally old. But second chances are fun.

Quite a few acting roles coming up, both self-penned and otherwise. I’ve got a home taping for something coming up that I’d really like to do and have been practising a lot. It galls me to say it (and you’ll see why if I get it) but I think I might be perfect for this one. Be nice to do more acting. It’s all I really wanted to do at the start of my career, but I lost my nerve and didn’t chase after it.

The swimming noodle lightsaber battles are still going on on a nightly basis. I made my 3 year old son promise that he’d never stop doing these however old he got and he readily agreed. He can’t see a time where he won’t want to do this. And I love the idea of him and his sister meeting up in their forties to carry on the tradition just before bed time. 

But his promise is worthless. I doubt they will still be doing this in a month. So I am cherishing the time, the endless battles between Yoda and Darth Vader and the fact that I am now allowed to join in, albeit with a light sabre made out of a kitchen paper towel roll (but beautifully decorated by my daughter). This pre bed rambunctiousness is my favourite part of the day, even if I get frustrated when they’re too excited to sleep afterwards. The night time routine seems like an endless Groundhog Day that comes around with alarming speed. But one day they will go to bed on their own and one day they will go to bed somewhere else. I already miss it, even as it’s happening and even as I curse the relentlessness of it all.

I improvise a lullaby for my son every night and he doesn’t appreciate my lyrical and musical genius (and usually asks for one from his mum instead/as well). My daughter won’t even countenance a lullaby from me.

My daughter asked how many months it is until she’s 10 and it’s only 50 months. The days fly by so fast. It feels like five minutes since the last bed time. My son won’t always want to cuddle me and cover me in butterfly kisses. They won’t always want to play light-sabres as much as I’d love to see it.

Time is so confusing. It’s practically 18 years since I started writing this blog. It feels that my time with my wife and family is relatively recent, but she came into my life more or less exactly 13 years ago (it’s 14 years since I actually first gigged with her and the felt the first flickers of the flames of love). How did I only have five years of Warming Up before she turned up?

When will I stop being dazzled by this stuff?

I suspect it just gets more confusing the older you get. Hoping that I am not yet halfway through my Warming Up Odyssey, but let’s face it, it seems likely that I am.

In a couple of days my blog can get married without my permission. 

This must be what it’s like having kids…. Oh wait, I have kids.

There’s a new Self-Playing Snooker winter tournament to get us through lockdown 2, involving 40 Mes and tonight saw the first two matches as the worst of the original 32 Mes take on the 8 new Mes in a preliminary round.  Some amazing snooker, but the second frame might take the highlight for being the most surprising and incredible frame of self-playing snooker ever recorded. You won’t want to miss this. It’s out as a podcast, or watch all the incredible action here.