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My wife was going to be away for only the second night since Phoebe was born and I had a full day of baby care with no one around to help me. But given that's two solo nights in 9 months I can't really complain and I am not doing. Apart from the last hour where Phoebe resolutely refused to go to sleep, preferring to roll around in her cot, pull off her bumpers (if you don't know what that means I am not going to tell you, as it's more fun to imagine) and look up at me and laugh about how funny she was being. I was very tired and my dinner was burning in the oven, but if I left the room she would cry. Finally I nearly fell asleep myself and then looked up and somehow she'd conked out. So I could eat my very crispy baked potato. I am glad I have documented this so my daughter can see what a nightmare she once was!
In all seriousness I love having her to myself every now and again (not that it's not lovely when the three of us are together, but I cherish the daddy/daughter times) and we had a cracking day of laughter and trying to catch the eye of women in the coffee shop and make them laugh (her, not me in this case - times have changed). We came home and watched Pointless, which she seems to find very calming and I was surprised to see myself come up as an answer for the second time. They wanted the first names of famous and less famous double acts and Lee and Herring were one of the pairs. Last time there had been a similar question only 2 people had known my name (though to be fair I think they might not have known who Stewart was) and looking at the celebrities: Linda Lusadi and Chico, Louie Spence, Ruth Madoc and Jedward, I was not expecting any of them to know who I was. But amazingly Louie was straight in there (though thinking about it, I think I have been on the Wright Stuff with him, but I am still astonished he would remember me) and more amazingly the answer scored a respectable 11. Last time I'd been an answer I had been a bit depressed that things had turned out so badly for me that I was a 2 (at least there would have been some kudos in being Pointless) but over one in ten people in the country (survey) not only remember Lee and Herring, but can even more impressively give both of our first names. And so can Louis Spence.
My daughter seemed unimpressed that I was on the telly and that Richard Osman described my association with the show was “chequeredâ€. I am glad she is taking my one in ten fame in her stride.
I hadn't bought any sweets for potential trick or treaters, mainly because I feared none would come and I'd end up eating bags of Haribo. So I intended to do the British thing in the face of this American tradition and stay inside and turn out the lights if anyone rang the doorbell. After all the kids next door have already egged my house (or possibly Stuart Goldsmith did it) so they owe me.
I thought I'd got away with it, but at 8.45, just after Phoebe had finally fallen asleep the doorbell rang. Was all my hard work going to be undone? I stayed quiet and then doorbell rang again. I looked at the video monitor and Phoebe was stirring. I was going to have to murder the children at the door and turn them into real ghosts. Then my phone rang (which was pretty spooky - how did these children know my number?) and the person at the door told me that they were delivering something from Amazon. This was incredibly late, obviously and the man looked weary when I answered the door and apologised. But I presume he'd had a whole evening of people hearing the doorbell and pretending to be out and his route had been severely delayed.
Elsewhere it seemed that the country was besieged by trick and treating kids and fancy-dress partying adults, but aside from a few fireworks going off (again just at the point where Phoebe was on the edge of sleep) Shepherd's Bush remained free from marauding ghoulies. Perhaps every day is so frightening here that we need not celebrate All Hallow's Eve.
Before my wife left we did at least dress Phoebe in her first Halloween costume. Combining a teddy bear outfit and a brown T shirt we managed to turn her into a smiling ewok. Though she was quickly a crying ewok. She must have scared herself.
We have one guest confirmed for the 15th November RHLSTP. It's Scroobius Pip. Still a few slots to fill on the last three, but I am aiming for big names, so worth booking ahead and taking a punt. They're all good fun anyway -
