I’m very sorry for the massive length of time since my last blog. My only excuse has been that I came back from Canada at exactly the time when my whole family came down with various forms of flu, chest infections and general colds. Martha, my oldest, was off school for a whole week – something that I spent a lot of time worrying about while no-one else, ie. wife Dawn, seemed to care. I was off school once and missed doing Long Division - a failing that remains with me ’till this very day. Anyway, all is back to normal now and I’ve yet to discover if Martha has missed anything really important at school. Maybe in a few years time when she can’t hold a job down, because she’s never there on time because she can’t tell the bloody time, somebody will realise that I was right to worry that she missed that week.
Anyway, as I said, I’ve been quite busy with the family being out of action and having to do the things that I usually rely on Dawn for – getting kids that are well to school, cleaning up, being nice to the neighbours, postman, milkman etc. It has been particularly shocking to be thrown back into action after the Just For Laughs tour where everything was done for us. We were pre-checked onto flights, we were pre-checked into hotel rooms, transport was sorted to airports, hotels and venues – it was great to be so spoilt and, with those worries gone, we had great performances. Having said that, I find that when worries are taken away from me I soon discover new things to get in a state about. When the immediate stuff is dealt with, I find myself free to really have a good panic about global warming, the economy, how old I’m looking, ‘Am I having a heart attack or is my arm numb because I slept on it all night’ etc etc….
It is strange that once again the whole family has come down with a bug and yet I’ve just had some very minor sniffles (and those were more the result of emotional torment rather than illness). Although I’ve got bad knees – they are chronic and I’ll probably be walking with a stick by my mid-nineties – and a bad back, I’ve actually got a strong constitution. I can only think of about three gigs I’ve pulled in the last twelve years due to illness. It’s strange that I could be so strong when being ill would really suit my personality. I’m great at lying in bed, feeling sorry for myself, trying to smile through the pain when my carer brings up the chicken soup. I really should be more ill.
If you want a good laugh and an interesting insight into the torment of the stand up comic, please press here for a fantastic spoof by Dominic Frisby.
