Something happened today that has never happened before. I took the monkeys to the coffee house in the bookshop (that's not the thing) and afterwards, I announced I was going to wander the shelves for a little while (that's not the thing either).
What usually happens next is one will gravitate towards the baking, travel or psychology section (not sure how it is that she hasn't figured out what to do with her life yet but I'm leaving her to it with subtle hints along the way), while the other one pinballs around, being fascinated by anything with a sticker on the front cover.
Today, those exact things happened with a slight change to the advertised programme. Both actually wanted a book and said so out loud. One put in a request for some psychobabble about why women don't read maps and men don't listen (something like that) and the other presented me with My Family And Other Animals and an expectant face. I wasn't sure about that one - it hasn't aged well, and after a brief 'sit here and read a page' test, it turns out I was right and she switched to a gorgeous half-sized hardback of The Hobbit. How could I refuse?
But wait: The Hobbit instead of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and human behaviour over sexy muffins? What's going on?
Couple that with older monkey buying her own copy of Vanity Fair because I'd forgotten this month and smaller monkey going to bed of her own volition to crack on with Tolkien - I'm convinced that somebody has switched my children for... well, I'm not sure what for.
They look the same and eat in a similar fashion but this behaviour is not correct.
Not in the slightest.
•••
Earlier today, I hooked up with Dave Navarro for a hit and run catch-up interview type thing. It feels good to go back to my roots - I haven't interviewed somebody that I grew up with (figuratively speaking) for a long time. I'll let you know when that will be coming out sometime later, but for the record, Jane's Addiction in London, 1990: best show ever - of all time.
I've been to some 'whole new level' shows over the years but that one was something else. It changed the way I saw rock n roll forever. At the time, I believe I said something about it being the closest a man who was born too late could get to seeing The Doors.
And that makes it very serious indeed.
Here's some old and some new(er):
Nirvana? Never even touched the sides, people.
Never even touched the sides.