All I did was go away.  Now I should explain that I am a lucky woman because I have a job I love, working for an Organisation (Contact a Family Scotland) that I rate, with colleagues I respect and who make my life better!  How many people can say that?  Particularly in these times of cutbacks - but that’s another blog.

 My job involves occasional travel, or as I prefer to think of it - escapes.  Because although Dancing Queen Sarah is the centre of my universe, she can take me to the edge of reason and beyond.  I know I’m lucky.  Her dad adores her and is more than capable of looking after her without me.  I was going to say he’s wonderful...yeah right! 

Off I trotted to Edinburgh for two days.  I kissed missy goodbye as she continued to give me her spiel about strawberry, raspberry torte, lemon meringue and all their scabby wee pals..and I thought..thank god.  I know that sounds awful but I made a decision to be honest in these blogs, and I did think that.  I was looking forward to sleeping without worry, to having a shower without someone bursting the door open to shout “excuse me, excuse me” over and over until you gave in and gave her the sign to start telling you all about those wee dolls.  I was looking forward to that and to the joy when I came home, refreshed and able to once again deal with it all over again.  Because I knew what I was coming back to...well I thought I did.

 The first sign that something was wrong was Sarah’s opening  line to me -  “whaddya  say?  I say wuff.  Know any more?”.   Hmm..I said nothing.  Got my kiss, noticed the eejit had a strange smile on his face but put that down to his having been stuck with strawberry for 2 days.  Then Sarah started her stories..only this time Strawberry and the weirdos had some new friends and they were called Blue Meanies.  I hadn’t a clue.  So eventually as Sarah got angry with me for being unable to repeat this all back to her I asked the bold boy.  

And then he told me about his buying Sarah a present, a music DVD.  Have you ever had one of those moments when your blood runs cold?  I did.  He had only bought her Yellow Submarine.  And to make matters worse, she loved it.  She still does.  She now has a new obsession and they are called “The Four Gentlemens”.  And she knows all their names too and give me strength she says their name and she blows a kiss.  Not only is my poor wee girl listening to the bleep bleep Beatles, she is in love with them!  Now I ought to explain that whilst I have no love for the Beatles, I can’t be doing with them, those feelings pale into insignificance when compared to my feelings about Paul McCartney.  Whilst he doesn’t bring on quite the same vitriol as mention of Margaret (excuse me while I go off for a private rant) Thatcher, he’s no far off it!  So there I was, back from working away, to find not only had she not gone off Strawberry, but she was now making up stories linking Strawberry to the Blue Meanies, the yellow submarine and some dog.  Could it get any worse?

 Daft question.  As any of you out there with a child who is obsessive knows, like it or not you are going to learn all about your child’s obsession, try as you might you have no choice.  I tried, believe me I tried to bring her back from the dark side.  I got out all the ponies, I even  made nice with strawberry.  But no...she loved The Four Gentlemens.  So I had to accept it.

I did however draw a line at going to see The Bootleg Beatles.  Now I may sound harsh to you all.  One female relative I know actually said to me that I ought to go to support my husband...say whit?  I am proud of the fact that we don’t do the “we want to be together” routine.  He is a big boy and can go to gigs on his own.  And has.  However I am actually quite nice really and I have gone with him to see the Bootleg Beatles, I have also (to my complete shame) gone to see Status Quo with him (apparently my ranting about how crap it was caused such embarrassment I will not be asked back - result!).  I have been two years in a row to see the Bootleg Beatles.  I’ve done my bit and not doing it again.  But I should have gone.  I should have been there. 

According to her dad I should have been there to see the utter delight on her face when The Four Gentlemens started singing Hey Jude, and she stood up and blew them kisses.  Or the joy of hearing this lovely girl with limited vocabulary sing word perfect all their songs (ok maybe all the words weren’t in the right order but hey who cares!).  And when they sang “All you need is love”  she turned to her dad, wrapped her arms round him and said “I love you”...yes I should have been there.  I joked to him that had I been there I would have been dragging her out shouting “Bad Mens - come and listen to the Pistols!”.   I wouldn’t though.  I too would have been fighting back tears of pride and joy.

 And here’s the thing.  I still can’t be doing with The Beatles.  But now when I think about them I realise that even in those nerve shredding moments of her obsessions, when she won’t stop talking and I want to scream, there is a beauty for her which may drive me mad but keeps her sane.  And I hold onto that.  For the moment....

 Because the eejit is away for two days this week and I have a playlist to bring her back to the good side  :-)

 A wee bit of “Hey Jude” showed that “All You Need Is Love” but  this led to my being, as they say in Gentleman Caller’s fab song “The Locusts”  “..ten shades of crazy and ...at least nine different shades of gone...”  but a wee dod of The Ruts’  “Babylon’s Burning” might bring her back home.  Though I am informed by the eejit that she has “the right” to like what she likes.  And if you want to know what he really thinks of her rights to anything then go to FSDC’s home page, click on podcast, then on Sarah’s song...and that’s the daddy singing for his girl.  As long as he understands I have the right to change her mind!!

And why am I telling you this?  Well some of the other stuff I want to blog about isn’t so nice or so light.  But it really is important that we all remember that even in the dark times there are moments of fun, laughter and joy.