"I love my sister & I love her tonight, yeah!"

Strap yourselves in for a post of Hyde-esque proportions because as Mr. Worf once said; we have much to discuss.

The Boy & I arrived in Wakefield at about 2.30 on Friday. We didn't do much on Friday to be honest. Myself, My Dad & Our Kid went round the local in the evening for a couple of hours. Our Kid showed me her photos from her recent birthday trip to New York. She and SportyBruv had a great time & I happily soaked up her stories. SportyBruv joined us in a right grump having come directly from watching Wakefield Trinity being mauled at home by lowly Huddersfield but he cheered up as he joined Our Kid in recalling their trip.

I asked my sister a favour whilst I was up there; would she buy me my flights as I'm having trouble finding enough cash at the moment?
Without hesitation she said yes.
So they'll be booked & paid for in the next day or two.
So watch out New York city because the last weekend in May you'll be getting a visit from the Flashman & he's ready to party.

Saturday consisted of hanging out at Mum & Dad's, playing with The Boy on his gamecube & watching the footy. At teatime The Boy went off with Our Kid & SportyBruv. They took him out for a bit & he stayed with them Saturday night. I was ill-timed with my pre-night out preening & ended up ready by 6.15. I wasn't meeting The Duke Of Jokes until 8.
This meant I had to endure most of the Stars in their eyes grand final. Not good.
Obviously as someone who would dearly love to be famous & show the world what an accomplished singer I can be, you may think that Stars in their eyes would be right up my street.
You could not be more wrong.
I despise it. I would love to go on telly & sing but as somebody else? NO!
That's not to say I couldn't, I'm pretty sure I could do a passable Kelly Jones, but why would I?
I don't want to be Kelly Jones or anyone else for that matter, I want to be me.
I don't want to condemn the contestants, everyone's ideals & goals are different, but I cannot imagine anything more embarrassingly cheesy.

(Just got a visit from Not Right, which as always consists of him putting his head round the door & enquiring "Having fun?" to which I always reply "No", then he spurts puerile nonsense at me for 2 minutes before announcing that "shit happens" before he shuffles off in the direction of the smoking area. He's not right, that one).

So I got the bus into town. As I alighted a woman said Hi to me, she looked at me like she knew me, I said hello back & that was that. Everytime I go back home, I get so frustrated that I never bump into any familiar faces from the past. Never! Now I don't know if this woman's face should've been familiar but it wasn't (maybe my natural magnetism got her, eh?) & I fear that I've been away so long that I wouldn't recognise these people anyway.

Anyway, the Duke & I met up, we drank, we discussed "Confessions..." & Depeche mode & how all women are mental to some extent or other & Leeds United.
Now despite having had "Confessions..." for over a week, he'd not actually listened to it all (tut bloody tut, matey) but was impressed by what he had heard prompting him to utter to himself "He's pulled it off, the twat!". I shall be using that quote in my future advertising.

Around 11 it was decided that we would spurn town in favour of his local in his village. There I met his parents for the first time in eons. They too had drunkenly given "Confessions..." a listen & both expressed to me that it was good stuff. Nice.
At kicking out time, I was just about to get a taxi back to Mum & Dad's, I went to say goodbye to Father Duke who insisted that I came back with them to drink more vodka.
As you know readers, I do not turn down vodka.
It was fun & strange in equal parts chez Duke of Jokes. Strange in that his folks had lots of questions about my odd choices, such as changing my name, & also strange that the last time I had any conversation with them I was just a kid. Now they were people, not just my mate's mum & dad. It was all jolly fun though. At 3 or 4 am I decided I'd totter back. This involved a walk of about a mile & a half. I'm still not sure how I managed it without falling over but I did. It was actually really nice, walking this oft-trodden path in complete solitude with memories jumping out from every street corner & minor landmark.
I'm not sure what time I eventually got in ( my mum reckons 5) but I did not have to try to sleep.
In all a fine night was had, cheers Duke of Jokes.

Sunday morning I was awoken by the sound of The Boy bounding up the stairs calling "DAD! Get up". He jumped on the bed & proceeded to tell me what he'd been up to with Our Kid & SportyBruv. I got up, had a fag & a coffee & realised I felt a little fragile.
Wrong!
I felt fucking awful. Still it was time for us all to go out for a family lunch in a nearby pub so I had to put a brave face on it. I still felt like shit as we ordered our food. I couldn't decide what to have, Our Kid noted that I must be really ill because I never even look at the menu usually, just order a mixed grill. I decided not to eat at all but then changed my mind & opted for a light scampi & chips. Then Reckless rang me up, then I was sick (in the toilets as gracefully as possible). So you could say Reckless made me sick! I felt much better after expelling all the bad stuff & ate half my lunch. After he'd had a play in the wacky warehouse, The Boy & I got our stuff sorted out & headed back down the M1; Homeward bound.
I dropped him off to his mum at 5ish & went home.

I put my feet up & started to read a few blogs before going over to Reckless & Dream Girl's for the evening. Just as I started to take my first sip from my freshly made cup of gold blend the phone rang. It was Funny Dance.
What are you doing?

I've just got back from Wakey & I'm just chilling.

Why don't you come up here?

Mate, I've just got in

Go on, you have something I want...

There was the truth. Funny Dance you see is trying to stop smoking. He's not doing very well & felt the need to sneak one in whilst the missus was over the hospital. I had to oblige because I've been there myself & it's a bad place to be in.
So I went up there & hung with him & the kids for a while, which was lots of fun actually. Then I went over to Northampton armed with Vodka.

As usual we drank, we smoked & we laughed. We also tried to get all creative & write a new song. It didn't really happen but I've got a cracking melody for a verse from it so it wasn't a fruitless exercise. We all crashed about 1am.
Yesterday poor Reckless had to work in the morning. I had no plans at all so decided just to hang with the ever-charming Dream Girl. When Reckless came home we just sat about saying what shall we do now? We later got some more vodka in & I decided to stay over again.
In truth, we didn't do much of note all day but it was a lovely lazy day to round off the busy weekend.

So here we are today.
I found out earlier that Paul Hester, drummer & founder member of Crowded House has been found dead. Suicide apparently.
I have a lot of time for Crowded House, they were all about the songs & the songs were pure quality. I'm listening to a 20 best tunes playlist right now in Mr. Hester's honour.
I have always made up compilations for people & pay a lot of attention to getting the sequence of the tracks right, so this isn't the order of preference it's how they fit best.
It goes like this:

Distant sun
It's only natural
Weather with you
Instinct
Into temptation
I love you Dawn
Chocolate cake
Pineapple head
As sure as I am
Four seasons in one day
Not the girl you think you are
Private universe (acoustic version)
Better be home soon
Locked out
I feel possessed
Whispers & moans
Fall at your feet
Fingers of love
Nails in your feet
Don't dream it's over

Honestly folks, if you ever wanted a Crowded house compilation go with that, it's better than the actual "Best of.." album.
Trust me, I'm a lab technician!

Just before leaving for work today the phone rang again.
To my surprise it was Northants social services. They have received some information about my adoption. I'm going for a meeting type thing next Monday afternoon. So that's pretty interesting, eh? Who knows, I may even have some answers this time next week.

And that's what I've been doing.
Boredom staved off for a while.
Nice.