'A Visit To A Christmas Craft Fair At Last!'

Well my friends, it seems that I missed my beloved St Clements Church Christmas Fair this year! In spite of searching the Internet, making phone calls and posting on Facebook I was unable to find out when it was and so my 'favourite festive trigger' failed to fire for me this year...

My bag of 50p pieces and I did manage to go to TWO Christmas Fairs today, however! The first was a Craft Fair at Kings Church near The Conquest Hospital. There were some LOVELY, Christmassy items on sale and some fabulous stalls but (as ever) I was left rather frustrated by the fact that i have no-one to give most such items to for presents and with over 5,000 records, CD's, books etc, etc in my ONE ROOM at home have nowhere to store anything I'd like just for me even if I could afford it!

I got chatting to a lovely lady on the first stall I saw and shared a few of my 'ill advised these days' 70's jokes about relationships. It was her mum's stall and I asked if I could take a few photos of some of the magical things she had for sale. Thankfully, I was allowed to do this (though I think the flash on my camera is broken - boo!) and so you can take a look for yourselves now...

I LOVE the two little cushions and the 'Baa Humbug' cards were such fun! Everything on this stall in fact was beautifully made and I asked for a business card as IF I ever get the chance to do the artwork for my 'Mr. Christmas' album this lady may be worth commissioning to do some custom made pieces for use with the album sleeve etc. I gave the two ladies a copy of my 'Timeless' album for being so nice and all in all it was a typically Christmassy experience for me - my first real chance to enter into the Christmas spirit this year! Here if you are also enamoured is a pic of the lady in questions business card...

After I left Kings Church I went onto the annual Christmas Fair at The Holy Redeemer in Upper Church Rd, Hollington. It was the usual combination of festive fair, Father Christmas, bric-a-brac and raffles but (ironically) all I bought in the end was a few cheap CD's! Christmas is a time of the year I love but it is rarely easy for me as shopping for gifts often brings home to me the fact that I am still single. I'm pretty good at 'being in my own company' but there are times when it would be nice to have a girlfriend/wife and a family of my own to REALLY fire up my Christmassy side...Mind you, if most of this 'unattained as yet' family should turn out to be as BAH HUMBUG like as most of my British relatives ( NOT you lot in good old Australia - Trevor and co!) then maybe I'm better off on my own! (lol)

Oh well, let's hope I can get into top Christmas gear soon, eh? To finish today, here is a lovely Christmas song I recently discovered...

'It Doesn't Seem Like Christmas!'

Well, I never thought I would say this but it really doesn't seem like Christmas is on the way this year at all to me...

Don't get me wrong I'm not all 'bah humbug' or anything I just haven't got my usual buzz about the whole thing this year yet. Have had no luck in finding out about my favourite Christmas Fair at St Clements Church either and now strongly suspect that I have either missed it or that they have not had one there this year for some reason?

Not feeling as 'festive' as I do normally at present has been sad not least because the world is in the worst state I have ever known it to be. God must truly be holding his head in his hands and bawling his eyes out at the moment. So much hate, so much killing and tit-for-tat murder - how we as a race have ended up like this I don't think any God of any persuasion could say? I mean, what has happened to 'live and let live' - agree to disagree and tolerance?  I have my beliefs and these cause issues with other people but the way to sort out differences is to TALK, LEARN, LISTEN and UNDERSTAND what is going on for someone else. It is not always possible to change minds so the best you can achieve is to ENLIGHTEN others to YOUR way of looking at things and by listening gain a MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING.

Anyway, I doubt there is much chance now that words from any source can stop what has been started and yet, do you know what, if this planet was to be attacked tomorrow by an ALIEN FORCE from another planet everything would change just like that!

Escaping from the ills of the world then seems like a good idea at the moment and as I have recently been introduced to a Christmas single from the late 1960's that Id never heard of before I think I will share it with you all now...

So, what do you think? 'The Bells Of San Francisco' by Carnegy Hall may not be a well known festive tune but right now I LOVE its hippy aspirations and think it would be FAB if all of us could 'tune in and drop out' right now, don't you?

'My Christmas Music - A Jolly Update!'

I am glad to be able to announce that my Youtube Christmas single for this year is now recorded and mixed! I decided this year to do a 'very different' kind of Christmas song in the shape of a pop/punk version of 'Jingle Bells'. Why would anyone in their right mind want to record such a thing? Well, it has been rather an angst riddled year this year and as such I wanted to record something with a bit of bite to it. seeing as I am also friends with one of Punk Rocks earliest pioneers, Sue Butchers, ('Siren', 'Debar', ex-wife of Max Splodge etc, etc) I thought why not do a punky duet?

Sue Butchers

I am now VERY glad that I did because, thanks to the always awesome Mr. Harvey Summers (my friend and Producer) the song has turned out splendidly!

Harvey Summers

 The next stage in the process will be to try and film/put together some kind of video for the song. That's going to be a bit of a challenge at this time of year as poor light and wet, miserable days do not make for good videos. If we were to get some SNOW, however, that would be different!!!

Anyway, I think you are going to LOVE the song - especially if you liked Dick Emery's Vicar character because I do my own Vicar impersonation on the song and he eventually gets into the spirit of the punk anthem and gets the choirboys to do a lot of 'O1i! Oi! Oi!'s in the chorus!! HA HA

On the 'Mr. Christmas' album front, I am hoping to receive the final mix and master of the album before the end of the year. The set has been long delayed due to unavoidable and extremely unfortunate circumstances concerning 'Old Harv' as I like to call him. Thankfully, all that is now in the past and he and Broadoak Studios are now powering on into the future at full speed! You won't find a better Producer or nicer guy than Harvey and I can't wait to hear the final mix of the album!

In fact, I am so thrilled with the 'Mr. Christmas' set that I am seriously considering commissioning, Artist, Sally Woodworld (Priston), to design the cover artwork for the album. Sally is an amazingly gifted Artist and I'm sure her connection to all things natural and traditional events like 'Jack In The Green' will mean that my rather wistful and traditional songs will inspire her to greatness! At this stage we are just 'talking shop' but I'd really love it if she could come up with some custom made pieces for use with the album. Here is one of Sally's most beautiful works taken from her photos on Facebook...

October/Winter Is Coming By Sally Woodworld

I'm sure you can see now why I am so excited at the prospect of having Sally produce some artwork for me! How awesome is the above!!

I will keep you posted on developments and look out for my 'Jingle Bells' video single on Youtube in late Nov or early Dec.

You can see more of Sally's wonderful works of art here...Sally Woodworld's website