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With so much going on it’s hard to make sure that there’s enough daddy/daughter time, but I am doing OK and this morning the two of us went to the library for a story-telling and singing session. I am a big supporter of libraries and though I also like electronic books there’s nothing quite like having a place to go to read and work and when your library lays on free events like this then you really see the worth. Because babies need to interact with human beings and you can’t do something like this online. I love watching my daughter interact with the world and with other people. And the way that other babies react to her. It’s human relationships in their raw form and it’s fascinating. Phoebe is very sociable and loves to dash over to try and have fun with other kids, full of laughter as she has no other means of communication. But not all children are as keen to join in and many are a lot more shy. One little boy seemed more than perturbed by the attention and more or less did a “talk to the hand†(even though Phoebe can’t talk) and turned his shoulder away from her. But babies don’t take offence with rejection and just move on to see who else will join in with the basic games that are only just being invented.
I followed Phoebe around as she took books from shelves and showed them and shared them with other kids. She liked one that had a picture of a big-eyed fairy cat on it. She was maybe disappointed that inside it was just full of the squiggles and not enough pictures, but she loved the cover. Which I felt gave an unrealistic expectation of what cats can provide.
I didn’t think Phoebe would sit still for the actual session, but she seemed to get the fact that she had to observe the story and enjoyed watching everyone sing. She couldn’t do all the actions but in the end she got into the middle of the space, sat down and danced as everyone sang. She loves books and she loves music and loves people (I don’t know where she gets that from, because I think you’re scum), which is great to see as a parent, but it means that something like this is perfect for her. She might like to show off a bit too. Again, no idea where that comes from.
Anyway, we had fun and then I fed her and then she fell asleep, so fathering duties achieved today. I am looking forward to spending a few days with her in the West Country as we head to gigs in Bristol and Cheddar and stay with my folks.
Then I was off to Folkestone for tonight’s gig. It’s a long old drive and I felt like having another kip in the dressing room once we were here. But instead I went for a walk into town. Although I’ve played here a few times (though not for a while) I have never looked round the place and was surprised how big it was. But the thing that stuck in my mind was the plastic bottle full of a uriny looking liquid (that was almost certainly urine) that had been left on the pavement near to a weird boulder that was set in the pavement. I declared the bottle of urine to be Folkestone’s premier tourist attraction and form of entertainment during the gig. Not sure the audience enjoyed the extended riffing that much, but I liked it. And that is all that matters.
The theatre was nearly full and I got the feeling that the audience wasn’t made up of Die Hard fans (or more pertinently Richard Herring fans) but after they’d got over my bottle micturition based comments they did seem to warm to me. There hasn’t yet been a gig on this tour that hasn’t felt like it has at least gone well. Someone left at the interval yesterday declaring that it was just a bloke waffling. But most other people seem to have accepted that that was the case and enjoyed it.
Although I am starting to slightly count down to the end of the tour I am still enjoying it and still finding new bits. I nearly managed to come up with an actual punchline to the door mat routine for the first time tonight and then commented on how long that had taken me to get to.
