Warming Up

A slightly fraught morning and I was running out of time to get the kids to school so I just put my coat on over my pyjamas and popped on some shoes and went in like that. As I drove off I realised that my trousers were actually just on the stairs and I could easily have popped them on and wondered what the Hell I’d been thinking. It was an unnecessary bit of drama or maybe just affectation. We actually turned up just as the gates were being unlocked, so I would have had plenty of time to get dressed and get them to school on time. It had felt sort of a funny thing to do as I left the house, but now, with the danger of my bottoms falling down to reveal my bare bum and two-third genitals I was feeling a bit stupid. 

I don’t think anyone noticed to be fair. Everyone is too caught up in their own blurry morning to bother to take note that another parent’s trousers look a bit like nightwear. And I suspect at some point quite a few of them will have delivered kids to school in their nighties. 

Anyway, the bonus was I got to wear my jim-jams for most of the day and had a fairly productive day, making a little more progress with my ball book (at least in my head, though got a bit of it down on virtual paper too) and setting up smart radiator valves in our attic rooms (which almost worked perfectly, though a couple of them won’t calibrate, though not sure that that really matters, they still work).

I also managed to have a nice long pedantic conversation with a man who pointed out that “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is not a poem but a piece of prose from Meditation 17 of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. I argued that a) it appears as a poem on the internet (and in poetry books) and also that the question from the quiz still left it unclear which â€œFWTBT” they were referring to. Who wrote it could still mean Donne as it doesn’t specify the phrase or the novel.

Also it’s a fucking poem.

I then had a discussion with a man on Instagram who wondered why I, as an intelligent person, was raising funds for the NHS when the money would go to the rich, Amazon and Google. I pointed out that it would go to chemotherapy patients and that whilst I wish I lived in a country where the NHS was properly funded, we don’t and so I’d rather attempt to do something about it rather than sitting at home being snarky (and a littel but crazy) about other people trying to help.

I should have just blocked him, which I did eventually when he started being rude to other people. And mentioning Amazon.

I also had time to spot another case of mistaken identity (though not entirely sure that this one wasn’t a joke or someone trying to see if I Reality-check - no vanity in it- my own name). The tweet said "Think I just saw Richard Herring & his gay boyfriend buying a used ex-display mattress from IKEA. I only went in for candles (they don’t sell the ones I like anymore) we were kept hostage in that repellent one way gulag for almost 2 hours, with very little to show for it.”

The mattress is great though. But I had no idea my boyfriend was gay. 

Ernie’s not too well and he spewed quite spectacularly on the kitchen floor and was remarkably blasé about the whole thing afterwards. It’s his nativity show tomorrow, so hoping he’ll be OK for that. Catie and me had to take lateral flow tests to be able to attend, though the new ones we’ve got aren’t quite as gruesome as the other ones we’ve had where you have to collect samples from the back of your throat. These ones are just up the nostril jobs. Still a bit unpleasant, but none of the retching. One of us being sick was enough for today.

The family has been ill for over two months now, though it’s only really hit me in the last couple of weeks, but it’s good to confirm that it’s not Covid, just all the other bugs that have been queuing up to get back into us once we started seeing other people again. I look forward to disease free days ahead and then I check the news…. Maybe in 2027.

The eBay auction for Fist of Fun and podcast rarities ends just after 8pm on Tuesday. RHLSTP notebook has come down a little bit after some drop outs. Stone clearing card  currently twice as expensive as Snooker one. What are you going to do about it ball bags? Bid here. All money goes towards making new content and an equipment upgrade.

I will be live streaming the denouement from 7.45pm on Tuesday on Twitch (sick children allowing). Snooker will follow.