Warming Up

Tuesday is usually a bit of a tough day to get through - or it has been this year at least - due to being exhausted after RHLSTP. But today I felt like I had a bit of get up and go for the first time in ages. I didn't do anything with it really, because I am trying to be kind to myself, but it'd be nice to think that the malaise that has hung over me for pretty much all of 2023 might be passing.

I still spent most of the day playing online poker and UNO though. I just want to be an old age pensioner sitting in my chair playing games and doing puzzles. I have pretty much achieved my ambition.

I did a dog walk though and took my daughter up to football training. I left her there, planning to pick her up in the car in an hour. It was raining a bit, but it all seemed to be going ahead and I trudged through the field of wheat next door to give the dog some exercise. The other day everything had been dry and the wheat was growing on both sides of the path and like a young Theresa May I enjoyed the sensation of the surprisingly soft wheat against my hands. Today the wheat was soaking wet and my trousers got drenched. I crossed over into the next field where some kind of legume is growing. I thought it might be peas, but it could be a broad bean. I picked one to have a look and the smell took me back to shelling peas as a child. I thought about eating the pea/bean but then remembered the time I'd eaten raw beans in Italy and been horribly sick on the train and decided to leave it

I am loving being in amongst nature though. There are wild flowers growing in the other field where I walk Wolfie and they look amazing and i've become slightly obsessed with the beautiful thistles up by the horse fields, They are basically weeds but I guess my Scotch roots mean that I am attracted to these beauties. I've considered trying to dig up a couple of the plants to put in my garden, but I don't think I'd do it well and it might be illegal, so I will just enjoy them from afar (or buy some from the garden centre, as crazy as that seems when nature is just giving them away for free).

I got home sodden and took off my trousers and tried to relax, but I was soon back out into the rain to get Phoebe. It was pelting down now and though I got to the car park at the time the session was meant to close, Phoebe was standing in the rain next to the coach who was getting in his car and everyone else had left. The rain had got too much and they'd ended early and she'd now been standing in the rain waiting for me for five minutes. Of course she'd already been playing football in the rain, but there's an added humiliation to be stood waiting when everyone else has gone home. It was still a little bit funny and she seemed to take it well to begin with, but by the time we'd got home she'd decided she loathed me for leaving her in the rain. It seemed a bit strong, but even her mum had to congratulate her on her vocabulary. We eventually made friends again. But it was forgetting, more than forgiving.

Later Catie had suggested we should go on holiday to Pompeii (and I still owe myself a trip for winning Taskmaster) and Phoebe had asked if that was the place with the volcano and when we confirmed it was she said she didn't want to go. And then she came in for a cuddle with her dad because the idea had scared her. It's still quite unusual for her to show affection to me, but I was glad she turned to me when things seemed frightening.

I don't know why I ever expected my kids to love me and respect me. I was nothing but rude to my lovely dad for at least 30 year from the age of 14 to 44. But for some reason I expect my own kids to think I'm amazing. Well, look I think my dad is amazing and pretty much always have done, but that didn't mean I would ever show him or tell him that. So hopefully underneath it all my daughter likes me too. But as so often having a kid is punishment for being a kid.

The first guests have been announced for the RHLSTP tour:

The gigs selling fastest are Newcastle, Leeds, Chorley, Salford, and Bristol, so I’d recommend booking for those sooner rather than later! But there are 20,000 tickets to sell in total, and we’re a long way off that. So if you can make it to any of the venues, it would be amazing! Once again I confound myself by selling any tickets, but also by not selling loads of tickets. It's not bad given the tour is two months away and tickets have only been on sale for five days, but wouldn't it be nice to be an act that sold out a tour in ten minutes. My PR people might actually have to earn their five per cent!