double dozen (andrew)
Darwin and Greg immediately started a push on our overseas flight to name this leg of tour. Very early. Possibly prematurely? Darwin is pushing for “High Spirits”. He bought a fancy Toberlone chocolate bar at the airport, and pledged that on this tour, no expense would be spared in an effort to keep everyone’s spirits high. Greg suggested “40 Days and 40 Nights” as a reference to the duration of the tour. I preferred Greg’s. High Spirits sounded too much like High Life, the name of our tour last October/November. But Darwin thinks the naming theme works in its favor, and shows no signs of surrendering.
At this point in the tour, 40 Days and 40 Nights is a distant memory. It didn’t stand a chance. However, a third contender has joined the race, and that name is “Double Dozen” in homage to our prolonged quest to purchase 24 Krispy Kreme doughnuts and indulge our tour party of six. After several thwarted attempts, Darwin and Ben marched into our Manchester apartment, triumphant, wearing paper Krispy Kreme sailor hats and bearing two enticing white and green boxes. We promptly gorged on classic glazed, pink sprinkles, and coconut cream.
But it’s not all gluttony on the Darwin Deez tour. On the other side of the coin, Miles and Greg are religiously doing hour-long workout sessions each day, following along with this popular new exercise series called P90x. They lean the hotel mattress against the wall, set up Miles’s laptop, and mimic these instructional videos led by a funny, extroverted jock.
Dot to Dot was dope. As was hoped for back in October (see October blog), we completed our run of Manchester Academy, starting with Academy Club in the spring, Academy 3 in October, Academy 2 in February, and yesterday, Academy proper. It was a giant room filled with lots of faces. We nailed the set, our best since Australia! The applause at the end was deafening. It was louder than our music had been the previous hour. It might have been the loudest applause I’ve ever received. I felt so proud.
We reunited with our friends Orlando, Nina, and Zara from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Our complete tour family went out late together and jammed to TEED’s sweaty set. At 3 AM, we raced home in the pouring Manchester rain.