RichardHerring.com - Warming Up

8604/21523I haven't got to spend too much time with the kids recently as I've either been in hospital or in bed and trying to isolate a bit so I don't pick up any treatment-threatening, life-threatening bugs. But they came in today to give me my Father's Day cards and presents and to remind me (as if I needed reminding) that I absolutely can't die for at least 15 years, however much my body wants to self-destruct.I didn't get the #1 Dad it the world this year, but it's nice that it's gone to…

8603/21522I find myself in a weird limbo where man delights not me, no nor woman either. Nor most TV shows and the vast majority of foods. I could be passing the many hours I have to myself watching films or catching up on TV shows, or reading books. But so little interests me, in the weird purgatory between 2/5ths of a treatment and another 5/5ths of a treatment.

8602/21521What a great way to show you�€re a Newsround fan and help us out during this difficult time. Thank You Moriarty t shirts now available to order here. We�€ll take orders for a fortnight and then print whatever we�€ve sold. You won�€t be able to buy them later!And I don't know if you've heard, I've got incurable cancer, so you know, do the right thing!THANK YOU, MORIARTY.OK so thanks to the wonderful British press (and I suppose I am partly responsible) that…

8601/21520My first ever non-baby related night in hospital was quite eventful.After doing a fair few tests already I got a visit from a doctor, who seemed a bit more concerned than I had hoped. I don't know how old she thought I was, but she asked me if I was still working. I know I am a bit ill but that's the first time I've been accused of being a pensioner.Even though the only time I have had a high temperature was when waiting for my injection yesterday, she wasn't taking any chances.

8600/21519Fucking Jeremy Clarkson stealing my thunder.A much less settled night in which I was a big confused and tossing and turning and which led to a spectacular sleep graph. Thos orange bits are every time I woke up.Bizarrely when I went down for breakfast I felt better than I had before the chemo. Maybe it was curing me already.Bad news when I went in for today's third jab. They took my blood pressure and temperature and told me that the latter was too high for them to give me my jab today.

8599/21518So far so good. In fact better than usual.I got nine and a half hours sleep last night and got to stay in bed. And whilst I don't feel nauseous, I don't really feel like eating much, so I am hoping I can shed a few kilos.I had a Solero for lunch and that was it. Which is basically me living my dream.I got to stay in bed all day watching telly and playing video games and Catie is insisting I don't do any housework or childcare.This is probably the greatest thing to happen to me in my…

8598/21517In for the first of five daily treatments today.So I've mentioned this to my wonderful Substack paid subscribers, but let me give you the bad news first. I have cancer again. Not ball cancer this time, I can't afford to lose another one of those (though I will be doing my show "The Male Eunuch" if it does happen).This time I have blood cancer. And God is determined to make sure I get the funniest cancers possible and this one is called hairy cell leukaemia. The other bad news is that…

8597/21516Feeling a bit under the weather today, so it was the perfect time for Catie and Phoebe to head into London for a shopping trip and for me to have to look after Ernie for seven hours straight.I can't complain too much. I'm about to get at least a fortnight in bed, so it's fair enough that I do my bit now. But it was quite a tough ride keeping up with this ball of energy tiny-clone of me. I adore him obviously and find him very funny either because he is being funny or trying to be…

8596/21515Congrats to Elon Musk on becoming the planet Earth's first trillionaire (hopefully this is the only place in the Universe where such a thing can happen, but I can't guarantee that).We all need a bit of money saved to fall back on, but I reckon a trillion dollars might be setting the ceiling a bit high.

8595/21514I cleared up a spillage on my desk today using Keir Starmer.(if you don't understand this, you should be watching Newsround. Also why aren't you watching Newsround? It's the best thing I've ever done).I didn't give Ernie my fake arm today, but he went back in with the fake hand. I wondered if that joke might have played out, but he was insistent. Again, apologies Ernie. You got all this from me.It was a busy day for me as I tried to get ahead of the curve in case I am laid low by my…

8594/21513My son was going to school in his new jacket today. He loves dressing up as a mini businessman in a shirt and tie and Catie recently bought him an adult sized jacket in the sales. He will be able to grow into it. This morning though he kept badgering me asking if he could have a fake arm to wear in the jacket. I don't know how much of my stuff he's seen, but I presume he must be aware of my Rod Hull garb which I wore for the Right Bollock bit in Can I Have My Ball Back?

8593/21512I finally managed to cajole the NHS into giving me some dates for the procedure I need to go through to help treat the incurable disease I have, that only paid Substack subscribers and people who were at the gig on Sunday know about. If you think I am telling the rest of you what it is then you've got another think coming. Cough up and you can read all about it in the previous blog. Or come and see Oh Shit I'm 60! If I last that long.Anyway, it's all taking place last week.

8592/21511Into London town again today to take part in a filmed pilot for a new quiz-style show. I assume I can't really talk about the show, but I really hope it goes ahead. It was loads of fun to do and smart and challenging and aimed at nerds and my team won. What more could you want?Oh yes, for it to actually be on television.But maybe I can make a living being in pilots and not have the inconvenience of people recognising me or getting offered cocaines at showbiz parties or having a…

8591/21510Ernie had his first bout of existential dread today, crying and shouting "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Sorry son, if you're anything like you're dad this is going to be a daily occurrence between now and whenever you finally do die. Probably in the next century mate, so don't worry too much yet. I am sad I won't be joining you. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.Catie did a good job of explaining that dying is a long way off and that people believe different things…

8590/21509It was the big St Albans Roman Theatre gig tonight. What a thrill it was to perform in this space where 2000 years ago Romans were doing something vaguely similar.Stand up comedy traditionally goes best in a low-ceilinged room, but in this theatre the ceiling has always been the sky. I worried that intimacy and laughter might be lost, but even in the current dilapidated state of this once great theatre the space worked.

8589/21508As if to prove how remarkable that 8 hour uninterrupted sleep was, let me present last night's stats. 6 hours and 1 minutes sleep and I woke up 8 times (only 2 or 3 of those were for trips to the loo though).A couple of things I forgot to mention yesterday - firstly, obviously Ernie was 100% fit and fine, but still unable to go to school because of their 48 hour vomit/diarrhoea ruling. So he won that battle. Luckily his Nanna was on hand to look after him for the day.

8589/21508As if to prove how remarkable that 8 hour uninterrupted sleep was, let me present last night's stats. 6 hours and 1 minutes sleep and I woke up 8 times (only 2 or 3 of those were for trips to the loo though).A couple of things I forgot to mention yesterday - firstly, obviously Ernie was 100% fit and fine, but still unable to go to school because of their 48 hour vomit/diarrhoea ruling. So he won that battle. Luckily his Nanna was on hand to look after him for the day.

8587/21506The only good thing about being a parent is that eventually, once they've already broken you, your kids have to go to school and between 9am and 3pm you get a slice of your life back.This all goes out the window when your kids are ill though. And it's more annoying if they get ill at school, because that's a whole extra pick up (if you've got more than one kid at school).Ernie's school got in touch whilst I was recording Newsround to say that Ernie SAID he'd had diarrhoea.

8586/21505Another intense round recording four podcasts in four hours at the Podcast Room in London. For the first time I actually messed up my timings a bit so I actually did four and a quarter hours and thanks to the Podcast Room for letting me run over a bit so that I could get a decent length interview with Lorna Rose Treen.Unusually I only did one Book Club (with Andrew Hunter Murray) and three RHLSTPs (with Andrew, Ronni Ancona and Lorna).

8585/21504Battling against the behemoth that is the underfunded NHS to get the treatment I require for my new exciting medical condition. Yesterday I got a letter that was composed on the 19th May advising me to get in touch with the secretary of my haematologist regarding the results of my scan. Not only did I have no contact details (and none were provided on the letter) but I wasn't super happy that they knew two weeks ago that I needed to speak to someone, but I only found out yesterday.

8584/21503I enjoyed Marcus Payne's post on Bluesky which read "It's all kicking off in Richmond" with a picture of the front of a TG Jones shop with the new name crossed out and WH SMith written next to it. (WH Smiths would of course be more correcter)Whilst I do not suppose for one second that someone actually did this in real life (but if I am wrong, well done), even as a fabricated tweet it is a worthy act of rebellion that makes a greater point.

8582/21502On the way back from the wedding yesterday I bought the kids some cherry flavoured Tictacs for the journey. I used to love Tictacs when I was a kid, not that we had the array of flavours they have now and so I was suspicious of the cherry ones. But I tried some and it turned into a very Proustian moment for me. Firstly because I was eating Tictacs again, having not eaten many in the last 45 years. I remembered eating them as a kid and suddenly had a hankering for my Tictac of choice,…

8581/21501I've now been blogging for over 39.9% of my life. I won't stop til it's 100%.We dragged our reluctant kids into London for the wedding party of one of my (many) friends. It was a bit of sweaty jaunt to West London, but given how much neither of them had wanted to go they coped very well. This was actually a wedding party - the ceremony had happened five years ago with social distancing and very limited numbers, during Covid and the happy couple had finally got round to getting their…

8581/21500A day off that I seemed to pack with more stuff than usual. I played tennis in the early morning sun for the second day in a row and then came home and headed to the gym with Catie. I didn't really need any more exercise, but I did a few weights before hitting the showers. We then had an early lunch at Wagamamas before going to see Obsession at Cineworld.Three films under 24 hours - what a world!I really enjoyed this one, apart from the gory bits which I shut my eyes for.

8580/21499The kids were at their grandparents tonight and so that meant we could do anything we wanted.We decided to watch two films. Which these days feels incredibly hedonistic. The kids stay up a bit later now and it means we rarely have 90 minutes before we're falling asleep and certainly not four uninterrupted hours.Once again I will remind those without children or responsibilities to enjoy the incredible freedom they have. Not by going round the world or making love to a thousand…

8579/21498I'd tried to avoid the choking heat of the night by sleeping downstairs on the sofa in the slightly less stultifying lounge, but I carried on sweating and hoped that at least this would mean I finally shifted some weight (no luck).Tough to get much done and Ally was not up for a Newsround, so we had family time. The girls went off to watch The Devil Wears Prada 2 which they both thought was ace and I watched the first Percy Jackson film with Ernie, who is really into the books.A

8578/21497Driving in this kind of sunshine can be a bit of a nightmare. Without being able to park in the shade the car is like a furnace and the steering wheel almost too hot to touch.So we made an earlyish start today and I left the engine running so I could get the air conditioning up and running. It pretty much worked and meant we were on course to get home before midday.As always life hangs by a thread and your destiny is largely not in your own hands.

8577/21496Cheddar caves on the hottest day in May on record? Are you crazy? Not at all. If you knew anything at all and had stood in the caves for 8 hours a day for several weeks in 1986, then you would know from the repeating commentary that the temperature is a constant 11 degrees celsius in the caves. So it was actually a bit chilly.

8576/21495We walked up the Gorge with mum this morning to go to the nice cafe we found last time we were here. Ernie wanted to buy more fossils so we popped up to the Goughs Cave gift shop. One of the staff there recognised me, not from off the telly, but from having gone to school when my dad was the head. He offered us free tickets to the caves, which was very kind. Last time we paid to go to the caves but the kids were too freaked out and scared to go in. Ernie is still very nervous about…

8575/21494Back to Somerset for a few days. At a service station I went to the loo. As I came out a man clocked me and struggled to think of what to say, before blurting out "Podcasts" which I took as the compliment I think it was intended to be and thanked him. It would have been more weird if I'd still been using the facilities.We were seeing the folks, of course, but it was also the Wells Comedy Festival this weekend and we were taking the opportunity to take Phoebe to see Flo and Joan who…