I get up as late possible. Given the chance, I like to wake up at 11. My nine-year-old daughter, Pepper, stays with me on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so it's an early start on those days. I get up and make her breakfast, but I skip breakfast myself. I'm not a big eater. I have a cup of tea, then another cup, which I take into the back garden with a ciggie. I don't like smoking in the morning, but you've got to get the first one of the day out the way. Pepper lives with her mum [Anna Norlander] the rest of the week, but I drive her to school on a Monday. It's always a bit of a shock, especially the route I have to take through Camden. It's hideously busy and everyone's got road rage.
I've had a couple of motorbikes stolen recently, two in one weekend. So then there's that really grown-up business of having to phone insurance companies and things like that. It's all very boring, chores - I don't have someone who deals with them for me - perhaps I should. I get stressed when a lot's going on. I get confused and don't know what's happening day to day. I have piles of unopened mail, and paperwork, which I don't understand. Most of it goes in the bin without being looked at; I'm typically musician-ish in that way, just not very organised. Anything to do with business or money, I haven't a clue about. Whether you've got money or not, it's always a worry.
My house is falling to bits, so I'm having to do it up a bit. The wall's falling off the side of it or something. I'm a terrible procrastinator. I do like to hide from problems, but at the moment I just don't have time to stare at the wall. Not the wall that's falling down - any old wall.
I'm quite a scruff. I've got too many clothes and I always seem to be bored with them. But I'm a very clean person and I won't wear anything twice, so I try to keep the laundry under control. The other night I dressed up like a Beatle, because I was performing Abbey Road with Robyn Hitchcock at the Three Kings in Clerkenwell. I don't allow myself to get nervous about performing. I try not to put myself under any pressure. I rehearse just enough that I don't look ridiculous, but I don't like to be too slick.
Since I got into English luthiers, my acoustic-guitar collection has grown. I've got a lovely one by Ralph Bown - he's from York - and a nice one by Alistair Atkin in Canterbury. But electric ones - I've lost count. There's millions of them all over the place. I sometimes wonder whose they are, then I realise they're mine. I try to keep the guitars in their cases but if I'm being lazy and one's lying around I'll play while I'm watching the news.
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There's quite often something to do. I'll check my e-mail, and I've got an iPhone with all those aps so I Twitter and I'm far too easily accessible. It's a peculiar thing, the net. The real world is better. Stephen Fry has blocked me and I've no idea why. I used to like reading his tweets. If I'm in the countryside - I've got a place out in Kent - I might go for a spin on one of my old motorbikes. Or carry a lot of wood about and chop it up, put it in wheelbarrows or the little tractor trailer. Or I'll dust. You get a lot of those horrid spiders that vibrate when you go near them - cellar spiders, a totally weird species. They freak me out a bit. And you know, there's badgers and rabbits and foxes and pheasants and pigeons and all sorts knocking about. In my twenties, when life was more hectic, I didn't like the countryside, or parks for that matter. Too peaceful. But I get a lot of pleasure out of them now that I'm knocking on.
If I have lunch I'm a cheese-and-pickle-sandwich fan, but I try not to eat much bread. And I don't trust oysters. Blur was playing Edinburgh this summer and I had food poisoning off them. I fainted on the stairs in the hotel and had a weird fit. They took me to hospital and I had to decide whether I was okay to do the show. I thought: "Well, gosh, I've got to, really." It felt really nice to play with those boys again.
And the affection from the audience was amazing. It was the right thing to do for our friendships and everything else. All the old Blur problems were flimsy and weren't even apparent when we got back together. We were just pleased to be friends again. I'm in a very different place than when I was 30, and drinking was a problem for me. I had a new child, a difficult relationship, my house was upside-down as usual, Blur was really busy and I'd escape any way I could. Now I don't feel sad or awful; there are no black shadows or regrets.
I like a kip in the afternoons while Midsomer Murders is murmuring away, and lots of tea. I have a Moleskine and I write in it and do drawings - puerile scribbles, just to make me giggle. You can always exercise your creative muscles. It's natural, painful, all the rest of it. I can switch it off a bit more now.
I'm fond of Lebanese food, so I order too much of that for dinner and watch Emmerdale, which I don't really enjoy, but I do like the Dingles. I used to go to bed at 2am but I go to bed earlier now or I start falling asleep like a narcoleptic. Sometimes I go to bed and wake up 12 hours later, which is excellent.
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I celebrate if that happens.