Paul Chaudry

Our quest to have less boring lives continues. On Friday we had tickets to see a Paul Chaudry warm up show. We weren't sure what to expect because we hadn't been to a warm up show before. We have only been to the main tours.

If they are all as amazing as this one was, we'll be doing a lot more. The show was at the Komedia in Brighton. There were about 100 of us in a tiny little side venue. It was fantastic to be so close (though you'll spot that we kept it safe and didn't go too close to the stage).

Basically a warm up show is an opportunity for the comedian to try out some of their new material. There were a few tried and tested bits of material thrown in as well. 

Anyway, he was absolutely fantastic. The only bit that threw me was when he said how old he was. I thought he was about 10 years younger and spent about 15 minutes of the show wondering how he'd achieved looking so much younger than me. (Because that's how shallow I am).

There were some hecklers in the front row, who were throwing around quite a bit of 'casual racism', needless to say he dealt with them with panache and there was no doubt about who came out of it looking worse. Though they were very persistent. If it had been me up there I'd have got bored a lot more quickly and got them thrown out. But then that's probably why I'm not a stand-up comedian. The whole concept of it is terrifying. I'd much rather be on the outside looking in.

I have to say that husband and I both had an excellent night out, many laughs. And it was quite exciting to have a stamp put on our hand so we could get out and go back in. It made me feel young and alive again.

The rest of the weekend was more 'back to normal'. I spent most of Saturday cooking supper and also prepping the meal for Sunday. As I haven't done much of this kind of stuff for a few weeks, it reminded me just how much I hate doing it. The fact that I'm prepping and cooking whilst the rest of the world gets on with their lives. 

On Sunday my parents came over. I did fajitas, mum had sounded quite excited, then admitted on arrival she had no idea what they were. I'm not sure they were a massive success to be honest. There was a lot left over, my family will be living on it for a week. I also didn't really like fajitas. It's been about 10 years since I've had them - it's definitely something I liked then, but not now.

Dad's Alzheimer's has got a lot worse - even since Christmas. I need to work out a way to have a quiet chat with mum about it, but its difficult because whenever I ring they put the phone on speaker, so you can't have an easy quiet conversation. Personally I wish they'd go into sheltered accommodation, they don't need a carer, but at least mum could get some respite. It must be exhausting and because dad never leaves home, it means that when she's in she never gets any space.