What Tomps Did Next.....Monday March 26th

Well, I'm not too sure if others will be blogging today so I've taken it upon myself to cover this, the first day off of the tour. SPOILER ALERT....anyone looking for tales of wine, women and debauchery is going to be sorely disappointed !!! Now, it was a long old hike home last night, and after finally snuggling into my bed at 2:30am this morning after driving back from Croydon, it just took what seemed like 20 minutes for it to become 9:15am. And so it was that, bleary eyed, I set about my jobs for the day. First off was to get the “ show blacks” washed and ready for them entering the suitcase. “ Show blacks “ are the clothes we have to wear onstage during a gig so that we’re not so visible to the audience. They’re also great at hiding muck and mankyness, and whilst they’re not exactly the cutting edge of fashion, they’re dead useful on tour ! It turns out that I actually own around 27 black t-shirts which is more than enough to cover the first couple of weeks before the wash - stop in Bedford ( thanks, Mum !). Next job was to drop my car keys at the mechanic’s place as my MOT is due whilst we're out there somewhere in Theatreland UK, so I cross my fingers and hope it isn’t going to be TOO painful......One of the other things about this business is that you’re often working on several things at once, so my next task was to digitise some video footage which I need to get edited ( whilst in the back of a tour bus, somehow !! ) before Easter Monday. All of this conspired to give me quite an appetite, so there was only one way to go at lunchtime...! MIXED GRILL !! Nomnomnomnom.....)Having got all of that lot out of the way, I thought I’d go REALLY rock and roll this afternoon, and the first task was to finish off the painting of the garden fence, followed by collecting my boys from school and upgrading my youngest's mobile phone. Pete Doherty eat your heart out.......With everything successfully completed, it would normally be dinnertime, and I’m usually one of the first to the trough, but not tonight....even MY considerable girth was still fit to bust from the earlier feast. Instead, I began packing for.....well, however many days we’re going to be away. Packing for a tour is a bit like packing to go on holiday....you don’t know what you’re going to need, so you have to throw in things to cover every contingency. After sourcing a rather large suitcase from my loft, I decided that this time I’m probably not going to need the car trolley – jack, the scale model of the Titanic, or the dog, so I began filling it with my 27 t-shirts, 31 pairs of socks and both pairs of pants ( actually, that's not strictly true.... I have enough pairs of pants to clothe most of a third world village....thanks again, Mum ! ). Bags packed, I realise again what a long day it’s going to be tomorrow, so it’s off bed and into the Land Of Nod ( can anyone remember where that saying comes from, by the way ? ). Crewe ( and the crew ! ) await....