It's all been very pleasant, makes a change from the normal routine and Charlie's loved every minute. Not sure Amanda Thomson felt the same, but hey! He had a great time this morning pretending to be the cameraman. In between bouts of introducing each of his toys to the Look North viewers, that is. And I got to spout a bit about the blog, the MADs awards and life as a dad in what's still, round here, a woman's world.
The thing is, when I started this blog just over a couple of years ago I was firmly convinced it was going to be a minority interest. I'd written a novel that was just about to be published; I'd got a work-from-home job writing primary school text-books that I could fit in around looking after Charlie and I had high hopes - while he had an afternoon nap - of finishing any of the several other books I'd begun to write at one time or another. And I'll let you into a secret: Bringing up Charlie was my 'second' blog, the one I thought would be my online diary, the one I thought would keep far-flung relatives up-to-date with Charlie's progress, the one I thought would be a nice little way to keep a record of my years as a stay-at-home dad. I had another blog, back then. One linked to a work of fiction I was writing. One I was convinced would become a blogging sensation. Only it didn't. And I not only found that writing a parenting blog was more interesting, I found other people were actually reading. I pretty soon gave up on the 'other' blog, and at pretty much the same time the parent-blogging world began to take off and I was getting PR requests to review stuff, invitations to attend press launches and generally more opportunities to have a good time (at someone else's expense!) than I'd ever had in twenty years of being a school-teacher.
In my Walter Mitty moments, I sometimes think it would be quite nice being a 'proper' journalist and working for the telly or a radio show. But then, it ain't all that it's cracked up to be, is it Amanda? A sudden drop in temperature and you end-up blow-drying your TV camera.
Oh well. Let's hope that it was worth it. You can judge for yourself on BBC One (Yorks/Lincs) tomorrow, or worldwide on Sky channel 977 or Virgin 858 or iPlayer.
I'll be the one behind the sofa.
