Round the countryside

Sarah Humphreys was one of the first people to follow my blog. I discovered her little space and, in turn, realised I lived around the corner from a lovely singer-songwriter. But I had no idea just how lovely.

I've been meaning to see her play for a while, and when Sarah posted a link on her Facebook page to the video of her latest single Like a House Needs a Door, I booked tickets to one of her first album tour gigs on Sunday night.

I played the song over and over before the show. The boys were drawn to her voice and would sit on my lap. We watched the video together and tried to remember which came first out of the shore, the lion and the child.

Can you play that song again, Mummy was all I heard for a few days.

I couldn't tell Luca where I was going on Sunday evening because I knew he'd insist on coming. I pictured a smoky boozy music venue (I haven't been out in a while...), but instead it was like a private house party in somebody's oversized garage. Children ran around and people sipped chai.

I so wish he came with me.

As she sang and played her ukelele and her dulcet tones filled the room, I kicked myself for not buying tickets before. She was utterly amazing and her music is just beautiful. I'm not a music journalist so I don't have the right words to tell you what she sounds like. Watch the video.

I looked forward all night to her playing Like a House Needs a Door, but I fell in love with so many others that I bought her album. She signed it and wrote lovely words on the back, and I haven't stopped playing it since.

As the boys and I drove round the countryside yesterday, wind blowing through, to pick up our weekly box, she sang my favourite line take me round the countryside in a van, we'll make a life together holding hands.

Luca kept asking for more, Kian clapped at the end of each song and I'd turn it up a little more.

It was beautiful. I feel blessed to have discovered Sarah and her music and even more blessed that she lives and plays nearby.

I can't wait to take Luca to her next gig. We'll know all the words by then.




Childhood music

Might seem like a bit of a departure for me to be writing about a pop singer, but Whitney's music was a big part of my childhood.

Mum would always have the radio on, and if it wasn't the radio, it would be one of the cassettes playing sent over from my uncle in England. Elton John, Phil Collins, UB40 and Whitney Houston were always singing in our home.

I only have to hear I Wanna Dance with Somebody or Where Do Broken Hearts Go and I'm ten again. Mum's in the kitchen dressed in a yellow galabeya (kaftan) and the three of us are playing 'house' or 'shops'. A hot breeze is blowing through the thick velvet blue curtains in the lounge.

Happy times playing with my sister and brother. Sitting on the balcony eating yoghurt and fruit with my mum after sunset.

It's amazing how a song can immerse us completely in a moment.

I write this and I'm still not sure why I'm feeling a little sad. Is it because the music is a reminder that life passes by so quickly? That we all grow up so fast?

I felt the same with Michael Jackson in 2009. Billie Jean always takes me back to sitting in the back of the car in Kuwait. I see Hardee's (fast-food chain in the Middle East) and I see the Kuwait Towers.

Or is it because the music's a reminder we were all together then, and we're not now? Maybe that's it.

Anyway, mum flies over in just over two weeks' time, and staying for a whole month. So, no reason to feel sad. Just very excited. And then we can bop together to How Will I Know.

I know Luca will join in.


Was Whitney singing when you were a child? What other music takes you back?