'Tying Up Christmas News'

Well, it is nearly time for me to cease writing this blog again for another year... Christmas has not really 'kicked into life' for me in a lot of ways this year but I am happy in the circumstances how I have defiantly tried my best to enter into the spirit, keep doing all the festive things I love and stay jolly.

Ironically, I now have another good friend in hospital! I spent part of Christmas Day with Robert and he made us both a nice christmas lunch. We pulled crackers (both of mine went off as well!) shared a bottle of wine, had a few laughs and watched the Queen's speech. Robert has been a 'creaking gate' for a while now and his health has not been great but on the 27th he had a heart attack and is now in the James ward at The Conquest hospital. I saw him yesterday and he was tired and sounded awful
(he has a chest infection as well) but thankfully was still his usual self so, hopefully, all is not lost just yet. He is at least in the best place for care now and will HAVE to eat the right things rather than stuff that's not good for him...

Add to this the shock of finding out that George Michael died on Christmas Day and you have a lot of 'time is passing so blooming fast' like memories and thoughts buzzing around your head, don't you? I was one of the first people in this country to become aware of Wham! I bought the original 12" version of 'Wham Rap' in Flyright Records in Bexhill-on-Sea when it ended up in the 'cheap bin' and think I still have it somewhere. 'Young Guns ( Go For It!)' followed and was a hit and that started the ball rolling. I always admired George Michael as a gifted songwriter as he was capable of writing what I call 'candy floss pop tunes' alongside brilliantly adult and emotive songs like 'Father Figure' and 'A Different Corner'. Both of the latter are I feel classics as is 'Last Christmas'. It is sad that George had such a troubled personal life but he obviously had a heart of gold from what we are now hearing of his legendary generosity. I was not so keen on his later work ( a bit too self-indulgent) but there was no doubting the man's genius...

On a more personal note, while I lost (as usual) on the Boxing Day Gee Gee's, this time I did share a win as well when my nap, 'Does Your Dog Bite' won at Kempton at 8/1. I only got the one winner all day so lost 50p myself but in my joint bet with my 'punting pal' Vakis we won about £50.

Finally, my post about 'getting up to a lot of good' is probably best forgotten as though I had the best of intentions my act of kindness was not so well thought out as it should have been and so I caused a bit of heart ache as well as fun by what I did. Still, all is sorted now so I must 'live and learn' and not let the spirit of Christmas carry me away in future...

P.S) I am glad to say that I received a card from one of the 18 households I carded this year as part of 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit'. Last year I posted over 50 cards and failed to get one back so to receive the card you can see here was extra special...

Lots of love and BE SAFE New Year's Eve!! xx

'An Emotional Day'

Things never work out as you think they are going to in life, do they? As I posted earlier, today looked like being a VERY quiet Christmas Day indoors with just me and my Mum and Dad but it did not turn out like that!

No, in the end I received a phone call mid morning from my friend, Robert. He had not heard from me for a while and had not received my usual card so rang to see how I was. Now, as you all know, I have not been 'at the races' with Christmas this year and have had difficulty focusing so I had not sent him a card nor even bought him a present yet!

Robert is a good friend, however, and knows me of old. We may be totally different people but he does his best to understand my 'fevered brain'. Before I knew it I had been invited to his house for lunch! This was a most welcome offer as Mum was not cooking anything much today having made the effort to do a lovely dinner yesterday. For her to have 'one less to worry about' was thus going to be good. Mind you, my brother, Geoff, had changed his mind about coming today as well so I needed to be back home by early evening to meet him and his kids, Sam & Sophie for the VERY unceremonious present opening session!

Amazingly, on the way around to Roberts I spotted a £5 note laying in amongst a pile of leaves! That was a nice Christmas bonus! What filled me with even more joy though was that the £5 note had a prefix that started with the letters AL. I could not help laughing out loud when I spotted that and looked up to the heavens and thanked my old mate, Alan Gaywood, for the fiver from beyond the grave! I know its crazy, but I choose to believe that there is no such thing sometimes as a coincidence and today was one of those occasions. It would be typical of Al to give me his last £5...

After a really festive Christmas lunch with Robert (who is not normally much of a one for 'the c word') and having watched The Queen's speech to the nation on the telly it was time to return home. Oddly, I felt rather flat for a while when I got back so decided to have a bath and freshen myself up a bit. A good old soak often helps if you are feeling a bit down...

As soon as I wanted to have my bath my brother turned up with the kids but they were staying a while so I carried on with my previous plans.

Sophie opens one of her presents from me..

When it came to finding the presents I had got for the family I had a bit of a job. Space is at an absolute premium in our house these days and I could not find some of the cards I had written! In the end I had to either give up on them or write a few new ones but poor old Mum missed out because I had used up all my spare cards doing 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' yesterday!

Anyway, in the end the present giving session went off quite well and I did manage to get a few nice family photos (as you can see) to share with our Australian side of the family in Victoria. Sam did not even know about them so I spent a while telling him all about them and how we are related. Good job Trevor & Lesley are as family orientated as I am down under! If It wasn't for Trevor and I using Ancestry.com a while back the two sides of the family would not know anything at all about each other!

Dad, Mum and my brother, Geoff.

Lesley & Trevor May from Victoria in Aus

Sam (my brother's boy) is all smiles!

Once my brother and the kids had gone I set about opening my presents! My mystery benefactor's purple box turned out to be a battery operated Christmas Train set! Ideal for a 51, nearly 52, year old kid! HA HA HA I also got a pair of Elves slippers with bells on from my friends, Sally & Ro and loads of thoughtful gifts all individually wrapped up from Stephanie, Simon and Solana!

Prezzies from Stephanie, Simon & Solana

Jan sent me a poetry book from Oswestry and Bin & Bean Kennedy a swanky new writing book with a magnetic cover - I even got a Balloon Modelling Kit from Martin & Vanessa - all good fun stuff!

Lastly, I set about opening my Christmas gifts from the St Clement's Church Christmas Fair. I got some LOVELY fragrancies including a TED BAKER one (not bad for a £1, eh?), a LONG Toblerone to look forward to polishing off and  a Star Wars Sticker Set! HA HA The most odd gift of all though was a tin of pilchards! I know its Hastings Old Town guys but, really! For Christmas???

So, there you have it, my Christmas Day in a nutshell. A lot more eventful and emotional than I had expected and bargained for. I still miss my old buddy, Al and will be glad now in a way when I see 2017 on the calendar rather than 2016 but Christmas does at least make you aware of what you STILL have for now and that sometimes is just enough...

'Merry Christmas!'

Another year, another Christmas day! Well, I'm STILL waiting for the 'fanfare of trumpets at dawn', the Willy Wonka like experience to cap the morning, the LAVISH and happy family present opening gathering this evening and to look out on a freshly laid carpet of snow BUT it is CHRISTMAS! Ho! Ho! Ho!

To keep my newly installed Christmas tradition going, I DID manage to write and deliver 18 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' cards yesterday. I was not able to do it under cover of darkness this time and did get more than a few 'funny stares' from local residents while peering closely at their homes as I walked slowly around with my bag of cards over my shoulder... Still, 18 people will have discovered a card from 'Santa' on their mat ( or stuck in their blooming awful, very stiff letterboxes!) either yesterday or this morning and a few festive chuckles will ( I hope!) have been caused due to the wording inside. I came up with all kinds of silly but fun tales to put in the cards this year including about how Rudolf had a cold and because of that his red nose went out! Poor old Santa (me) could not see a thing and was only saved from crashing the sleigh by the families lovely light show! Now, what more Christmassy a tale could anyone tell to someone they don't know but wish well, I ask you?

Today is going to be a VERY quiet one for me and my folks. It doesn't look as if any of the rest of the family are going to come today and Mum has already opened two of her presents at the breakfast table! I despair with my lot about their 'lack of a sense of occasion' and intend to save opening all of my presents until the light has gone, the Christmas tree is twinkling away and I have time to enjoy unwrapping my gifts and thinking of the people who have sent them...

LOTS of love to you all this Christmas day and make sure you spend plenty of quality time with the ones you love...

'I've Been Visited By A 'Secret Santa'!

While this year has been a difficult one it has had its moments when, as if to say 'don't give up old boy' something nice has happened. The day before yesterday my Mum went to put some paper in the re-cycling and found that someone had left a present on our doorstep!

The Mystery Gift!

 The present was not labelled nor was there a card but I knew somehow it was meant for me and was the result of either my writing this blog, my work as 'The Clean Up Man' or a 'ripple' from last years 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' campaign...

Sadly, Mum opened the end of the parcel to see what it was before I could stop her so I already know what is in it but I won't enlighten you all until the big day! I am really pleased to know that 'someone out there' also has the spirit of the season in their heart and shares my wacky sense of humour. I hope they had as much fun 'sneaking up' on my house to drop off the present without being seen that I have when trying to drop cards in people's letterboxes on Christmas Eve! Being a burglar may be a horrid and selfish thing to do but I would not want their 'job' I can tell you! HA HA

It looks like today I am going to have to help Mum with some last minute Christmas shopping but I still have one or two presents of my own to get so that's fine. I am SOOO late this year on competing my Christmas present buying and have REALLY struggled to think of what to buy a couple of my friends. I know there are 'safe' options that I can get but I LOVE to come up with something new, un-expected and different that is just right so have been reluctant so far to buy the 'same old same old'. Still, I am sure my friends would rather have something they like than something different they don't and so I may have to concede defeat this year and 'revert to type'...

Overall, I think I have done quite well this year at keeping Christmas in my thoughts but I can't say I have really felt the 'fuzzy warm feeling' I usually get much. I guess that was always going to be a bit much to ask though this year having lost TWO people who were close to my heart...

Oh well, time to get ready for a days shopping and then I will have my last session of present wrapping to do for this year. I have not written any 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' cards out yet either so if I am to do it for a third year...

'4 Days To Go!'

Well folks, we are now nearly at the 'big day' again! As usual, instead of a lovely, soft carpet of snow and a population of Snowmen looking at us through the window we have wet, depressing days and that HORRIBLE grey sky...

Still, Christmas is the 'season that lives in your heart' and so you don't actually need to see it you just need to feel it and know that it is real...

I'm writing this listening to The Manhattan Transfer's Christmas album from 1992 so I'm all wrapped up in great harmonies and lush melodies! The 'Man Tran' are not normally my scene ( a bit showbiz) but this time of year their gorgeous vocal harmonies and show like songs all help create a bit of badly needed glamour!

The run in to Christmas has been a strange one for me this year. I have either been out enjoying myself with good friends and attending Christmas Dinners or I have been at a loose end indoors at home with (too much) time on my hands to reflect on the horrific losses I have suffered this year and how scarey 2017 looks...

I know I say this every year, but Christmas can be and is a difficult time emotionally for lots of people. Offset against all of the happy get-togethers there are inevitably thoughts of those no longer with us and of how things keep changing on you as you get older. Loneliness is especially keenly felt at this time and that is why I try to smile at everyone I meet in the street and make sure I say a cheery 'Good Morning' or 'Good Afternoon' to them with my 'Merry Christmas!' Small little gestures like that can really make a difference and maybe be enough to keep someone who is feeling 'cast off' going.

I hope with this blog I 'connect' with a few people and help bring the cheer and spirit of Christmas into your home!  Here is a little poem of mine I put to music a few years ago. The video may be very amateurish but the scenery is lovely and Christmassy! I filmed it myself in Church-in-the-Wood the last time we had some significant snowfall in my area...

Finally, I had a lovely evening out with my Shorelink Writers club at The New Inn in Westfield at our Christmas dinner party.

Yvonne & Alvin are all smiles!

Someone left me a 'secret Santa' present on my chair while I was taking a few pictures, which was very nice and I will look forward to finding out what it is o the 25th! 'Thanks for all the help' was the message attached to the card. Now, I do try to be a 'helpful fellow' whenever I can to my friends but I've no idea this time who this present could be from?

They really are a great bunch of people at Shorelink Writers and no-one can feel lonely or lost for long at our group because it is such fun and we all support each other - like a family does...

So people, if you are reading this and thinking you could do with something new to be a part of next year make a new year's resolution to come to one of our meetings. We are on a 'holiday break' now until January the 9th but you are most welcome to come along to our next meeting at Tesco's Community Room in Churchwood Drive! We start at 7pm until 9 and the tea, coffee and biccies are all free so what have you got to lose?

'A Truly Heart Warming Christmas Card & Letter'

I was really touched the other morning when I received a Christmas card and a letter 'out of the blue' from someone who knows me only from my 'One Man's Guide to Hastings' series and as 'The Clean Up Man'. I love making videos for my Youtube channel (Maybrick44) and especially videos to do with my home town of Hastings, East Sussex so it gives me a real boost when something like this happens and I get some recognition from someone that they are watching and appreciate my efforts!

The Letter & Card From Dave Booth

The voluntary work I do clearing the streets of rubbish and litter and generally 'looking out' for the well being of my local community as 'The Clean Up Man' can also be a lonely and sometimes soul destroying job but people like Dave Booth, who the letter was from, (thanks so much mate!) who reach out to me REALLY fire me up again to keep doing what I do and to try and make a difference...

I have been doing my 'work' in the streets of Hollington as 'The Clean Up Man' now for the best part of five years and get a lot of pleasure from the result of my efforts every time I see a horrid, smelly area suddenly look new, neat and nice again. In a way, I feel a bit like a 'vigilante' for decency, which is why I gave myself the 'superhero' monicker of 'The Clean Up Man'... It's all a bit pathetic though in a way as I should be working a proper job and creating a life for myself but I just don't feel up to that and lack the confidence required to 'take life by the scruff of the neck'. In many ways, 'The Clean Up Man' gives my battered ego a chance to feel good about who I am and what my contribution to the world is for a change and kind people like Dave really help to keep me going in the 'scarey' world of ours.

Dave is obviously a 'man after my own heart' as he tells me in his letter how he regularly relates to many of the things I talk about and show in my videos. Dave lives in West Sussex now but is yet another of the 'ex-pats' (as I call them) that still have a soft spot for Hastings and get their 'fix' of the place by tuning in to my Youtube channel. It feels good to know that my words and feelings about the place I love are not just 'lost to the ether' and I'm glad that Dave and people like him find comfort and solace in my videos and thoughts...

Dave mentions 'Woolworths' (and the Kings Rd branch), the two swimming baths, our long lost but sadly missed Memorial Clock Tower that was lost due to vandalism and 'your beloved pier' in his letter - and assures me he could tell me a tale or two about them all...Keep up the good work! He says to finish with...

Well Dave, I will! THANK YOU so much for your card and 'words of wisdom' - the boost they have given me is much appreciated, I can tell you! 2016 has been a pretty awful year for me emotionally and it feels really good to know that there are people like Dave 'out there' who notice and who care.

Have a VERY Merry Christmas Dave and all the best to you and your boys for a happier 2017...

'Emerald City' - The Seekers Lost Christmas Song

I am in the process of trying to update my (fairly) comprehensive list of all U.K. Christmas hit singles and as such have been trawling the Internet for information. Ironically, I discovered 'Emerald City' by The Seekers (no 50 - 1967) by going through my own collection of CD's as part of my drive to whittle down what I have to make room for some of the CD's I was left by my mate, Alan.

Listening to bits of the CD's you are thinking of getting rid of is usually fatal as, when you actually hear most of them again, you find that you don't want to get rid of them at all! On this occasion, however, the compilation of The Seekers I was playing was water damaged and so I had already decided to get rid of it and was just making sure there weren't any individual songs I wanted to keep on the computer.

As soon as I heard, 'Emerald City' I thought it sounded like a Christmas single and so I checked it out on the internet. According to Official charts.com the song got to no 50 for 1 week in Dec 1967 as so also qualifies for inclusion in the unfortunate list of songs to reach the lowest available chart position for just the single week. Thankfully, The Seekers had plenty of other bigger hits so they do not join acts like Angel Witch, who's 'Sweet Danger' single was their only hit and reached no 75 for one week (there was only 50 official chart placings available in 1967).

According to Wikkipedia, 'Emerald City' was written by Kim Fowley (a real 60's 'character!) and another of the band members, Keith Potger under the nom-de-plume of 'John Martin' and is a song based upon a fictional visit to the Emerald City in L.Frank Baum's book, 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'. Quite why Fowley and Potger thought that a song about the Wizard of Oz would sell at Christmas time I'm not sure?

Still, I have to say that the song does evoke the 'magic feel' of Christmas time and does feature some VERY cute kids voices in the background so I'm a bit surprised that it did not do better than it did. Mind you, 1967 does not seem to have been a very 'festive' year for some reason? Until discovering, 'Emerald City' I had not found one single Christmas chart hit for that year in the U.K...

Take a watch of the video here and see what you think? Since discovering the song I have been playing it quite a bit! In fact, finding something that I missed before is what has inspired me to do some more research into U.K. Christmas hits and I hope to post an updated list here soon...

Merry Christmas pop pickers!

'My Christmas Quiz Is A Hoot!'

Well, I am glad to say that my annual Christmas Quiz went down a storm at my Shorelink Writers club meeting yesterday. Our last regular meeting of the year (before our Christmas meal next week)  I am usually called upon to put a Christmas themed quiz together for a bit of fun.

Ye noble chocolate rations!

As ever, I supplied the three teams led by Ro, Brian and Alan (2), with a 'chocolate ration' to keep their spirits up and their brains fed during the evening and dressed in a suitable daft way to MC the evening!

With 6 rounds of questions prepared, including a music round where I intended to play 20 or 30 seconds of 10 festive songs and ask the teams to tell me the artists name, there was a lot to get through in two hours. I was a bit disappointed at the turnout as only 13 people showed up ( we regularly get 18-20 at meetings these days) but things happen at this time of year and one of our regular members relies heavily on the trains so the disruption at the moment was always likely to count him out...

Thankfully though, the 13 I did get were all in a festive mood and took quite keenly to the quiz once we started. I did try to split Ro from Sally (one or the other's team ALWAYS wins our quizzes) but Sally objected quite rightly claiming that they always get separated and could not help being so intelligent! Dashed insolence, eh? HA HA HA

Ro (in red) and Sally (opposite) - The DREAM Quiz team!

Suitably attired as Quizmaster!

Having had quite a bit of flack the previous two years for making my quizzes too hard I
REALLY tried to make it all a lot easier this year and had also 'upped the silliness' factor by including rounds about 'Christmas Riddles' and a 'questions you were asked last year but I hope you have forgotten the answers' round!

Introducing the idea of each team playing their joker on one of the rounds for double points I started the evening in hope that everyone would enjoy themselves...

Well, I think you can see from the pictures here that it was a good night! I had planned for 4 teams of 5 to play the quiz but in the end we had to settle for two teams of 4 and one of 5. Sally and Ro were in one of the 4 person teams but soon went into the lead and after scoring an impressive 16 points with their joker in the second round were well ahead even by half time! Brian and Alan (2)'s teams though were locked in a battle for 2nd and dead level at the half-time interval...

Half Time and Ro's ALREADY in a good lead!

My previous music rounds have been slammed as 'too hard' by all in previous years and so this time around I simply played snippets of 10 festive songs and asked the teams to tell me who it was singing - no need for the song title or anything else... This seemed to do the trick as all of the teams did very well and appeared to enjoy the christmas vibes! Both Brian and Alan (2)'s teams scored 5 out of 10 on their prospective joker rounds (doubled to 10 points)  and amazingly at the end finished locked together for second place as they had been at half time - Ro's team having long sauntered past the winning post (as usual!)

Oh no! Ro' wins AGAIN!

Chris 1 and Sian (LOVE the specs) of Brian's Team...

Alan (2)'s team deep in thought

Overall, it was a fun night and I think the best quiz I have put together so far. Just hard enough to get people thinking, it was still easy enough for everyone to feel they were doing well and that is always the mark of a successful quiz!

Onto the last Shorelink get-together of the year next week - our Christmas dinner at Westfield. It should be a great night and a fitting end to another great year for Shorelink...

To finish off here is a track from one of my favourite Christmas albums by Lady Antebellum - check it out!

HO! HO! HO!

'A Christmassy Walk And Oranges'

I went for an evening walk along George Street in The Old Town of Hastings on the 9th. So much of Christmas is 'best served' when it is dark and the cobbled streets of The Old town really come into their own when you can see lots of Christmassy lights twinkling and flashing above them!

The snag with that though is that it is VERY hard to try and capture the magic of all that with a small camera - especially if like me you are no 'whizz kid' with the technical side of things! As you can see by the pics here, I did my best but ultimately failed pretty miserably!

Still, Christmas is a time when it does you good to get out into the world and give yourself a chance of meeting new people. With people traditionally busying about the shops there is often a chance to stop for a rest on a seat and share a few words with someone you don't know...

In many cases, it is words like this that can make a Christmas for many. I'm one of thousands of single people who often feel isolated at Christmas and while I while I  am lucky enough to have some GREAT friends, when the festivities really get under way they all have families of their own to visit or concentrate on and so I spend a lot of the main days of Christmas playing records in my bedroom at home. Mum and Dad are not really into Christmas at all (especially Dad, whose the ULTIMATE 'Bah Humbugger') and so I have to try and create the festive atmosphere for myself more often than not! Next time you sit down next to or near someone when Christmas shopping say a few words to them - it doesn't cost you anything and you might just make someones day!

Anyway, I made a little video of my walk! Like the photos here, its not great quality but if you want to see it you can do so here...

If you do watch the film, there is a part in it where I take a shot of the front window of the Jewellers shop . I was really taken with that scene as it transported me straight into the era of one of Charles Dickens novels. I felt like Tiny Tim lovingly staring at the toys in the window of the toy shop in 'A Christmas Carol' I can tell you! This morning I had an Orange and the citrus burst I experienced had a similar effect upon me as I imagined the look of utter delight  there would be on one of the poor little street urchins faces in that film if they could have just one segment...I think the Orange is the most 'christmassy' fruit of all and in the right circumstances can really connect with how marvellous a feeling it must have been to poor kids to find a WHOLE one all to themselves at the bottom of their Christmas stocking...

'Up To My Festive Tricks Again!'

I am beaming with delight right now writing this as I have been up to 'plenty of good' again as far as spreading the Christmas spirit goes and can't wait now to witness the fall out from my devilishly nice act! HA HA The Devil certainly misses a trick being an 'old rotter' you know, its MUCH more fun doing something nice and (sadly) much less expected these days!

I can't reveal the exact nature of this 'good deed' as yet but once it comes to fruition I promise I will post and tell you all about it...In the mean time have a listen to this wonderfully Christmassy piece from 1974 featuring the classic voices of Mel Blanc and others. It might just give you a clue as to what i've been up to...

'R Kelly Hits The Spot!'

I have been looking for some new Christmas music to introduce you to this year but haven't found much... Imagine my surprise then when I stumbled across the new '12 Days of Christmas' set by R.Kelly and was pleasantly surprised at how sensitive and festive the songs on it are! Now, to be fair, Mr.Kelly has written some corkers in the past - especially 'You are Not Alone', which I played to death when Michael Jackson died and even tried to sing at karaoke as a tribute to Michael.. 'I Believe I Can Fly' being another great song of his. Sadly, all too often, much of the man's material revolves around sex and is pretty throw away so, while I respect R.Kelly as a songwriter of enormous potential talent I rarely listen to him as a whole album of his usual stuff would bore me rigid (if you'll excuse the terminology!)...

The songs on '12 Days Of Christmas', however do seem to show that the man has a good heart though! 'I really like 'Snowman' (above) and having flicked through the rest of the album on Amazon via the mp3's think I will probably buy the album. R.Kelly's voice has always been o.k. for me - its just what he has been singing I've not liked. He's no Luther Vandross or Donny Hathaway but he does have a nice, soulful and mellow voice when its matched up to good material.

Another act who have a good Christmas single out this year is ABC. I really liked them in the 80's   (The Lexicon Of Love is a great album) but went off them after 'When Smokey Sings' came out as they went all dance-floor and the songs were less interesting. 'A Christmas We Deserve' is not available at the moment on Youtube so I can't steer you in the direction of the video but check it out via the mp3 somewhere on the net...

Finally, I see that Spandau Ballet's, Tony Hadley has released a Christmas album. The reviews are not that great though and I could not find any mp3 previews of it to have a listen to so I will wait until I get a chance to hear some of it before I get too excited! Maybe one day I will finally get my Christmas set 'in the wracks' alongside them all and give them some festive competition!

'The Lights At Westfield'

I had a lovely afternoon at the G.R.O.W. (Grass Roots Open Writers) Christmas meal. Beginning with a visit to a pub in Ninfield for a carvery Christmas lunch once the light started to go it was time to make our way to the 'Capital City of Christmas' - Westfield to see the Christmas lights this year.

I don't think there are quite as many homes in the village this year that have taken part in the annual event to raise money for St Michael's Hospice but it is a tad earlier than I usually go so maybe that is why?

This said, there are PLENTY of amazingly festive sights to see in the village and many of the 'regulars' have gone out of their way to 'up the ante' even more and produce some new displays. I'm not going to show you all of them here because I want to encourage you to go to 'make the pilgrimage' to Westfield to see the sights yourselves but I have uploaded a few of the best pics I took here in order to 'get your juices flowing'!

I shall be back in Westfield for my other writing club's Christmas Dinner (Shorelink Writers) on the 19th so it will be interesting to see if more of the houses are lit up by then or not?

The villagers do such a good job of promoting Christmas and of advertising the Christmas spirit that just walking about the village in December is an uplifting and re-assuring experience! I fear that the whole idea of Christmas is in decline these days (hence this blog!) and so I love it when I am anywhere where it is obvious that this is not the case...

One of home owners has come up with a really great Santa projection show as well! If you stand outside and watch you get to see Santa moving about seemingly inside their house! He looks as if he is delivering presents and even peers out the window to wave at you!

Especially fun for the kids, I found watching it almost transported me back in time to when my eyes would go all big and wide at the thought of seeing Santa Claus dropping off my sack of presents at the end of my bed on Christmas night...

I hope the villagers do well with their collection this year. I did not see as many collecting buckets or places to drop donations into as last year though but like I said it is still a little before the prime Christmas season. Go on! Get yourself and you family and friends out to Westfield and re-kindle your inner children!

'A Wonderful Time At 'Meet Of The Tongue'

I had a great time at last night's 'Meet of the Tongue' event in Robertsbridge! While there were not a huge amount of people there our host, Yvonne Rees, did a splendid job of facilitating a good old-fashioned evening of social interaction and began the night by asking us all to spend a few moments to think of either our best or worst ever Christmas. Accompanied by the soft acoustic guitar playing of regular attendee Derek Povey, we all sat in silence contemplating our answers for a few moments...

Christmas is a time of MANY wonderful memories for me (as this blog stands witness) and so it was hard for me to think of just one Christmas to tell everyone about when it came around to my turn to speak. I had a very happy childhood (in the main, I have always suffered with emotional problems) and Mum and Dad always went out of their way to make Christmas special. I think I have missed that 'special feeling' ever since and maybe that is why I always throw my heart and soul into Christmas in the hope that just for a few days that 'warm inner glow' will return. Most years it does, though often only for a fleeting period, but others, try as hard as I might, the conditions to re-kindle those far off days are just not right. The weather can play its part in that as if it is too warm and sunny (like this year!) then it is harder to transport myself back into that precious Christmas space.

Going to festive events really helps though and I was gutted to find the whole of Robertsbridge having a street party with stalls and fairground rides when we arrived last night. Don't get me wrong, it was amazingly lovely to see a community coming together and making something of the festive season - I was just gutted because had I known it was on I would have suggested to Alvin that we arrive early and join in the fun for a bit. Not having kids cuts deeper at Christmas than any other time of the year and seeing all of their little happy faces whizzing around on the carousel with their duffle coats and bobble hats on was just like something out of a dream for me...

Still, if that kind of made me a bit sad, Meet of the Tongue soon cheered me up. As you will know if you follow this blog ( or read my articles for 'Hastings Town' magazine) I love the intimate and supportive atmosphere that exists at 'Meet of the Tongue'. No matter who you are or where you come from there is always a BIG welcome waiting for you at the meetings and the fact that everyone gets involved by either sharing a song, a story or a poem is great. Whether listening or performing everyone contributes and we often sing songs and create loads of opportunities to laugh. Last nights event was one of the best ever and after Derek finished playing each one of us recounted stories from our lives about Christmas to the whole group. People spend so much time online these days that its actually quite difficult nowadays to find somewhere you can go to get human interaction free of mobile phones and the like.

Aside from our personal stories of Christmas Yvonne provided us all with some of her poems as did a few others. Jane Trott told us a captivating and festive story from Mongolia about God's gift to the world of story telling, Alvin read one of his typically eclectic stories full of science and sex and Sally Fadelle presented more of her powerful poems. We had even more powerful and thought provoking poems from Laurie, while Jan Povey recounted the story of her 60 year old Christmas Fairy and read 'the famous poem' The Night Before Christmas'. Derek Povey meanwhile returned in the second half to read a comical but powerful story of life in the trenches at Christmas and how a mum's Christmas pudding broke down a bastion. As for me, I told the story of my mate Alan and his slippers and sang my tribute song to him, 'You Can't Take Christmas Away From Me' live. As ever, I had to suffer NUMEROUS problems with getting my backing track CD to play properly and there were a few 'false starts' to the song but in the end I performed it well and I think people liked it.

At the end of the evening I stood up to initiate a round of applause for Yvonne, who puts in the work all year to keep 'Meet of the Tongue' going and then it was time for us all to say goodbye and head back into our lives.

If I were you, I'd make attending the next 'Meet of the Tongue' a priority for 2017. January 6th is the date, 8pm is the time and 'The Ostrich' pub in Robertsbridge is the venue. Why not re-kindle your sense of belonging at a good, old-fashioned community style event?

'Its December!'

Well, the calendar now has the word DECEMBER on it! It all starts 'kicking off' from here usually but I seem to have started earlier than ever this year... I have been to three three course dinners in the last week (though only one was an official christmas do) and have been thus living an 'a la carte' lifestyle!

I went to THE MOORINGS restaurant in Cooden Beach yesterday with the residents of R.O.A.R. for their Christmas get-together. Three courses for the special price of only £10 (usually £20) was a bargain I could not turn down and I have done various things for charity to support R.O.A.R. in the past so I did not feel guilty about accepting something from them. It did not feel much like Christmas though as the sun was shining and we had perfect blue skies as far as the eye could see! The sun was low, of course, so that did give you the idea that it wasn't summer but other than that it was more like a cool summers evening than the first day of December!

I had Garlic mushrooms for starters followed by a three cheese pasta bake and Lemon Meringue Pie and ice cream for sweet. You always get hearty helpings at The Moorings and so I was pretty stuffed by the time I got through my lot. Ironically, I sat next to an elderly lady who had just lost her husband in unexpected circumstances and we talked about how it feels and how best to cope when something like that happens. Funny isn't it? How the universe seems to throw you together with someone in the same boat when it would be therapeutic for both of you to speak with another who fully understands your loss?

One thing that always irks me about Christmas though is that whenever I pull a cracker with someone mine NEVER go 'bang!'. I pulled two at The Moorings and neither exploded yet both the other two crackers did when pulled by others on our table!

Some of the items from our Christmas Crackers at The Moorings...

My mate, Alvin, who I went with said that 'My Crackers Won't Go Bang' would make a GREAT title for a fun Christmas song and I think he is right!
I must see if I can come up with a comedy song to fit that title as well as work on another festive title given to me by another friend, Keith, 'Christmas Did Not Send Me You'. I LOVE working on Christmas material and would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE  to get my LOOONNGG delayed Christmas album finished and pressed up. Maybe 2017 will be the year It finally happens? I hope so...

I have been invited to ANOTHER festive meal on Dec 5th and am out again on the 16th and 19th for my writing club (Shorelink Writers) annual bash. Its my Christmas Quiz on the 12th as well so plenty of festive researching to do to get ready for that! Am not doing badly with my Christmas present buying but it looks as if 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' may not happen this year as I do not have the cards and am snowed under with other urgent tasks at the moment...

Off to Meet of the Tongue in Robertsbridge tonight where I will be singing my Christmas song, 'You Can't Take Christmas Away From Me' live. The fun begins at The Ostrich Pub at 8pm if you are interested...

Oh well, I hope you are getting in the festive swing of things - in spite of the horrible good weather! HA HA