A new Giant

1. Today one of my oldest friends gave birth to baby Daniel. Only a week or so late and with the head of red hair that was expected. I've known Fiona, Daniel's mum since we were in nursery school and Dave, Daniel's dad for about twenty odd years.

2. Fiona and I have in common an enduring love for the American band They Might be Giants. We both loved them from the first time we heard Birdhouse in your soul and saw them on Top of the Pops. Our music tastes hadn't really crossed before and as I recall it was one of the reasons our friendship became proper.

3. These are some of the TMBG cds that I have gathered over the years. Now most of the songs I like are on my ipod and I don't bother with the rest. Back in the day though everything was on tape and this tape on top of the pile is the only one I have left by the looks of things. If you look closely you'll see the word Fiona in brackets. This was made for me by her.

4. A couple of years ago Fiona and I met in a bar - two professional women in their thirties chatting over a glass of wine. Within an hour or two we had ran screaming through Alien Wars and were sharing ipod headphones singing a selection of our favourite TMBG songs a bit too loudly and having a right good laugh. There's a lot of fun to be had with the right soundtrack.

5. And so things change and time moves on. They Might be Giants now do all the music on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. My three year old niece has one of their cds (she is being brought up right) and now Fiona has a little Giant of her own. But nothing really changes, not really. You can't take away our shared past, you'd need a crane if you wanted to rebuild that.