I had already decided that I wasn’t going to do my radio show this afternoon due to wanting to be fighting fit for a difficult week ahead. Tomorrow lunchtime I’m travelling to Teesside for my nana’s funeral and I really don’t want to be sneezing and sniffling all the way through such an occasion. Today’s date always means a mix of happy and sad as it is my mother’s birthday and the anniversary of the death of my paternal granddad, Granddad Eddie. I always post a nice photo tribute on my personal Facebook profile, this year I chose this.

Given that my nana recently died, I wasn’t sure how to handle my mum’s birthday this year. Of course I didn’t want to ignore it completely but I also knew that she might not be up for me ringing her up in the morning singing ‘Happy Birthday’, not that I’ve ever done that but this would perhaps not be the time to start. We had sent a card that was nice but not overly joyous, and I waited until we were home from lunch before I phoned her.

Waking up this morning was a difficult task as I could barely hear anything going on around me. Last night Nottingham was visited by the best live band this country has at the moment, Eddie and the Hot Rods at The Maze. I had been looking forward to this gig since Simon Bowlie (drums) told me about it last July so a cold wasn’t going to stop me, in fact my legs could have fallen off in a freak occurrence and I would have still soldiered through. After recommending the venue to the band following their last appearance in Nottingham, I was relieved to see such a big crowd turning out to see them. Especially as they had driven up from Southend for the gig.

It was nice to see them again and hearing their music always makes me a bit nostalgic for my time living in Southend. My time there turned a little sour in my memory as I met my wife there and subsequently lost four years of my life and career. Last time they were here I was told how much had changed since I was last there, a fact that was proved all too obvious when I saw this video that had been tweeted by someone who lives there. Apart from the pier and the promenade there was very little I recognised as the Southend I loved, and another Southender who incidentally now attends Nottingham University confirmed a few locations for me.

It was approaching two o’clock when I finally got home, and after washing up and having some tea and toast I caught up with the blog before taking Jack for a walk at about six o’clock this morning. Maybe that’s why I felt so shitty this morning, although I did pile a Lemsip and a couple of tablets on top of the few beers I had partaken.

Something nice happened this evening, in response to yesterday’s blog about Michael Barrymore and the fact that he should be back on television, I received a nice email from the man himself thanking me for writing it. The message from Michael can be read (with his permission to publish it) on my official Facebook page.

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