'The Magic Of Candlelight'

We suffered a power cut at home last night due to the weather. One minute I was browsing the Internet on my laptop in my bedroom - the next I was plunged into total darkness bar the light from my computer screen...

The power came on again but then went off once more and so I lit a candle, turned off my laptop and just sat back and soaked up the atmosphere. With the wind howling away outside and the draft from my slightly ajar bedroom window making the flame of my candle dance and cast creepy shadows everywhere I felt just as if I had been transported back in time to the days of Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Was I too about to be visited by three ghosts? There was no use in hiding under the bedclothes like old Scrooge that was for sure! I got out my camera and took a few pictures of my candle burning bright in its brand new 'Wizzard' candle holder. I bought that during my visit to Seaford earlier this year as a present for someone else. As usual, however, in the end I bought them something different but (for once!) was quite happy that I did because I had wanted to keep it for myself all along!


'Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble' my little Wizzard looked just like the 70's television character 'Catweazle' with a hat on! I met the actor who played "Catweazle', Geoffrey Bayldon, earlier this year when I attended the 'Catweazle Fan Club' weekend get-together in East Horsley. The residue from the fallout of that weekend haunted me for some time actually as the fan club objected to a series of films I made of my time there for my Youtube channel. When I refused to take them off the net I was banned and thrown out of the club so my happiness at sharing in something dear to me and at meeting my hero was short-lived. Its a pity there isn't a ghost of 'hindsight' because we could all do with being visited by him or her regularly!

I can see now why people associate candlelight with relaxation. There is something natural, almost primeval about a flickering flame as opposed to modern lighting. I HATE the new bulbs anyway! They take an AGE to get bright, are full of Mercury and look ugly yet we are being forced to use them by the E.U. I won't start off about The E.U. and my hatred of it here as this is a Christmas blog  but lets just say that its very existence is one of the things that makes me such a retro loving person. Sure, 'the good old days' were never as good as we remember them but the modern day could certainly learn a lot from the past in my humble opinion.

One of my Christmas fantasies revolves around having the money to start up a business re-creating 'A Victorian Christmas'. How cool would it be to be able to go and stay in a HUGE mansion over Christmas bedecked in all of the traditional decorations! Not only that but I would BAN mobile phones, Laptops etc. 'Guests' would be picked up at an agreed location by hansom cab complete with black horses and driver and kitted out with Victorian costumes to wear during their time at the mansion on arrival. I would hire a combination of ordinary staff and actors to help re-create an authentic feel to things and entertainments would revolve around parlour games, masked balls and story telling. The cost of doing all this would of course be horrendous but if I won the lottery I'd gladly do it at least once just to have the experience of it myself!

Oh well, enough dreaming for one day. Have a cracking Christmas Eve - whatever the weather xx