Squeaky

Today i feel rather elevated, despite the recent events of the past three/four/five days. My dad is slightly amazing sometimes. It was last year, I forget exactly when, me and dad were in the car talking about instruments we'd like to learn. And I mentioned I'd love to learn how to play the squeezebox, anglo concertina. My birthday came and with it so did an anglo concertina, fondly called Squeaky for obvious reasons.
Squeaky and I became thick as thieves very quickly, I loved her, I still love her, I can't help it. She's nothing special, 20 button, 10 button either side with an extra button to release air out of the bellows. She's not that attractive either, she looks more like a toy then anything. Green and red with yellow paper bellows with little flowers painted on. There's metal clasps at every corner, and the two ends are wood work, nothing fancy, just hexagonal and bolted. The straps are red and the buttons are white, in case you were wondering. Plain in comparison to most concertinas. But shes wonderful. And I adore her.
I started off on the absolute beginners guide to the anglo concertina written by Mick Bramich. I can play a few tunes from it, but mostly got bored because there's so little in there, few Christmas carols, 'sweet jenny jones' and a very small simplified version of the 'wild rover'. And really that's all I've had interest in. But my dad, the amazing man picked up a new book for me today, In-between anglo by the same author.
I had a book for Christmas, but being unable to read music it just wasn't happening. But I will learn, eventually. So after hitting a bit of a wall I've got some new material, that further on goes into a more complicated thirty button machine and gives you tips on how to read music. Huzzah!!! Joyous day.
So, me and Sqeaky are enjoying this new development in music. No I've never been musically talented, for the better part I'm dyslexic, have trouble with numbers and never really managed to understand music. The love story between me and Squeaky was and still is bizarre. I picked her up and within three hours knew where all the buttons were and picked up a fair bit. It was magic.
And no, an anglo concertina isn't easy to play, it requires hours of practise. But I love it, and now also want a melodeon similar concept, bellows, buttons, slightly larger, more buttons, looks more like an accordion.
First love: Words. Second Love: Squeaky.
Without a doubt.