Show me the way to go home – enhanced edition
I have been re-reading the Witches books from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and am currently reading Maskerade. There’s a point in it where the witches hear the opera singer in the room next door singing “Show me the way to go home” and moving into Italian (or Brindisian as it is in Pratchett’s world) because he’s passing as exotically foreign and not plain Henry Slugg…
That got me thinking about the version of the song that we used to sing as children and I started Googling. But nowhere can I find the exact version that my Dad taught us – probably from his mountaineering days. So I’ve strained my memory, and here it is, I think:
Show me the way to go home
I’m tired and I want to go to bed.
Well I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it’s gone right to my head!
Wherever I may roam,
On land or sea or foam,
You will always hear me singing this song.
Show me the way to go home!
Indicate the way to my habitual abode
I am fatigued and I wish to retire.
Well I had a gin and tonic 60 minutes ago
And it’s risen to my cerebellum.
Wherever I may infrequently perambulate
On land or sea or effervescent vapour.
You will always hear me melodiously harmonising.
Indicate the way to my habitual abode!
At one point in this book Granny Weatherwax is bored and restless and in a state I very much recognise in myself quite often:
“There seemed to be so much to do that she couldn’t bring herself to do any of it”
But that’s another story!