Something Happens frontman and broadcaster Tom Dunne has been making his daily music show in his attic, baking with his kids, and catching up on telly with partner Audrey. Oh, and painting (the house, that is).
"Can I preface this by saying that I am acutely aware of my good fortune. I am at home with my loved ones and they are all well and so too are our extended families. My girls are 11 and 13 and full of joy and mischief. It seems like an extended holiday until, every evening, we watch the news. We find this difficult and scary but it also heightens our appreciation of our health and our simply having each other.
"Our main activities have included:
"Television: The Tiger King. My partner Audrey and I watched this open-jawed. We have long since suspected that no country does utter insanity quiet like America and this did nothing to counter that. There is not one 'normal' person in this, it is like a sequel to Lord of The Flies. We have also been finding really good films including Frost/Nixon and Mark Felt, both of which are Watergate-based and - one, anyway - truly excellent. All The President’s Men is next. We’ve also enjoyed The Post, Le Mans 66 and the Trip to Greece.
"Audible: I signed up to listen to Stephen Fry narrating all of the Sherlock Holmes books about three months ago. It is 96 hours of the Conan Doyle Stories and Fry is a genius narrator. He does a posh voice for Holmes, then a posher voice for members of the Aristocracy and then, just when you think he is at ‘peak posh’, he has one he reserves for members of the Royal family! It is startling!
"I only have four hours left in this and will be bereft when finished.
"Walks: Within 2km of the house lies Dun Laoghaire Pier, so we are blessed again. We walk Murph, the family jewel, everyday - either there or towards the Forty Foot. It has become a feature of these walks that the 11-year-old demands to hear a Sherlock Holmes story. Oddly a story that takes Stephen Fry four hours to tell takes me about 10 minutes, so we can easily cover two in one short walk!
"Music: I am now producing and recording my nightly Newstalk Music show from my attic/office. This takes quite a bit of time so I am actually very busy during the day. This really involves me sitting listening to music, reading emails, music magazines and books, visiting music websites and occasionally shouting, "leave daddy alone, he’s working."
"I found John Prine’s death very affecting. I knew a few of his songs prior to his passing but it took the work I put into the special show that I did marking his death to really draw me into his world. I haven’t really emerged from it. I am haunted by the humanity and wit and pathos is his songs. And somehow energised by it too, wanting to create and write more.
"Zoom: Yes, there is no avoiding it. The girls have been using it for online schooling but this week Something Happens, the band with whom I am the singer, had its first ever Zoom rehearsal. We had an idea to do something after a show we had at Christmas and this seems the best way to do it. The experience was hilarious and may lead to the first new Happens recording in about 20 years!
"Reading: I am reading Pete Paphides’ Broken Greek and loving every minute of it. He is The Guardian’s chief music writer and the book tells both the story of his family coming to England from Cyprus and his own utter love of music. Oddly enough, at the same time Audrey is reading Phillip Norman’s biography of Paul McCartney, a HUGE book on Paul. She will soon know more about him than I do, which is odd enough.
"Food: My Wife is a chef and up to very recently owned a restaurant. They say most chefs don’t like to cook at home but it would appear Audrey is an exception to that. The 11-year-old and I recently stopped eating meat so every night it is fish or vegetarian based, well ‘meal’ seems too small a word. I think ‘celebration’ would be better. It is , without exaggeration, a nightly feast!
"To further complicate matters, the two girls love to bake. The 13-year-old and I are cocooning until I reveal her in about two years’ time on some cookery show. The 11-year-old has given herself over to starters. All told, it is very pleasant.
"Painting: A man gave us a quote before all this to re-paint the interior of the house. I’ve been on smelling salts since. So when this started I announced that I would save us a fortune and ‘do a better job.’ So far neither of these things have come to pass. I have googled how to ‘edge in’ nightly every since but a lot of my work is more like a cry for help. However I shall continue.
"Worth mentioning that the girls facetime their friends and have found a way to ‘group’ watch Netflix with them. They pick a time and then all watch together even though they are so far apart. They love it!
"Next week we shall be mostly gardening!"
The Tom Dunne Show is on Newstalk, Monday to Friday from 10.00pm to midnight
