Ladies and gentlemen, meet my very good friend Drew Hutchinson - better known in showbiz circles as DJ Steady. He is an extremely kind and generous man. He is also a more than bit mad.
You may have noticed that Steady is pictured holding a large Angry Bird (it's the one on the left). But why is this Barry, I hear you cry? Well, funnily enough, there is a story behind it.
Jamie has recently developed a bit of an obsession with Angry Birds (I think it's got something to do with the amount of time he's been spending with Vanessa and Charlotte). So, when I was walking through a popular arcade during last week's trip to Northern Ireland, I made the fatal error of passing one of those machines with the big hooks that grab the cuddly toys (in this case Angry Birds) before dropping them just as you think you're about to win one. Jamie was uncompromising in his demand that I had a go. Sadly, £7 later, we remained an Angry Bird-less family. And Jamie was in floods of tears when I said I was giving up. (It was like of those scenes in Holby City when the consultant decides it's time to hand the heart patient over to the morgue).
A soft touch in such situations and desperate to make him stop, I announced that I would buy him an Angry Bird instead. And could we please leave the effing arcade as I was broke.
But that was where my problems were only beginning because, after two subsequent days of trying - in Belfast, Coleraine, Portush and Portstewart - an Angry Bird could not be found. It was just as my last desperate possibility fell away (Tesco, since you're asking) that I walked into the Bull's Eye in Coleraine to meet Steady for a drink. And, magically, my fortunes transformed.
He asked how my day had gone, I told him it had gone very definitely downwards and explained why. He asked where I had seen the Angry Birds in the machine. I told him. He said he knew the man who serviced the machine and would get me an Angry Bird. I said that was incredibly kind, but he really didn't have to go to such efforts. He insisted. I told him he was mad. He told me to shut up. I told him he was mad again. He told me to shut up again (although this time he didn't use the word "shut"). I agreed to do so.
And, almost exactly 24 hours later, Steady turned up at my dad's house clutching a you-know-what.
Jamie was far from angry when he saw it the next day.
What a good man, what a wonderful friend - and what a DJ. Steady is currently available for all your entertainment needs on Tel: 07598 566938. Rock on.
