'Less Than A Month!'

I am working hard to try and get prepared and organised for Christmas in good time this year after a couple of 'debacles' the last two years. When you fail to sort things out before the word 'December' hits the calendar you are on a very slippery slope! By GUM the time flies away from you at that point and as you become too stressed to enjoy anything you miss out on the magic of the run up to Christmas and how that can make you feel...

When you are organised, have written all your cards, sent all the overseas ones, written all of the letters to go inside them AND have sorted and wrapped up all of your presents though you can just relax and soak up the festive atmosphere. The  Christmas lights have now been switched on in Battle and there is no better a place to go - especially when its getting dark to feel the 'Disney' kind of vibe that Christmas evokes. The sight of Battle Abbey all lit up and of the tiny Christmas trees that usually hang out from above shop fronts around the Market Square is amazing and as there are also plenty of public benches to sit on in the square you can simply relax, be merry and think of favourite memories or of 'the things to come' this year.

I am soon to be 'off on my travels' back to Grassington and the Dickensian Festival there. It should be fun but I reckon this year its going to be much colder and probably damper up in Yorkshire than last year. I'm going to try and fit in all of the things I missed last year (including a trip to the little museum there) AND make the time to go and have a pint in the quaint little Pub there. Hopefully, the trip will live up to my expectations but its always a risk 'going back' to somewhere in consecutive years because if its not so good the second time you kind of spoil your overall memories of the place, you know?

I had a 'traditional taste' of High Street shopping yesterday in Hastings. It brought home to me just why most of us shop online these days because, try as hard as I might to support the High Street, I could not find the item I wanted to buy anywhere in Hastings. Every shop I went to that I thought would have it did not and in the end that is what you are up against. Time is of 'the essence' to most people these days what with 'flexible' working hours and so the average person needs to be able to find what they want quickly. Mind you, It did bring back lots of happy memories of shopping back in the 1980's when we would all be seen carrying a plethora of carrier bag fulls of stuff in town on a Saturday or at Christmas time. I used to love looking at people struggling with all their bags and  wonder who they were buying the stuff for? The snag with all kinds of shopping is that the more a person looks  - the more they buy and usually for themselves! (lol) We all know what WE want but struggle to find presents and so for every £1 you spend on someone else you are likely to spend twice that on yourself! (lol)

I did get some LOVELY Christmassy enamel badges (you can see a few of them here) though from one of the St Michael's Hospice charity shops. All of the money raised goes to help the hospice and so I couldn't resist - especially as the designs are so cute and festive. In my situation I shouldn't really be 'handing out money' but Christmas is all about 'good will to all men' (I do feel sorry for women on this occasion!) and the hospice do such fantastic work.

Finally, I managed to get a glimpse of the fabulous old Steam Train that visited Hastings Station yesterday afternoon at around 3pm. While the weather was rotten and it was raining looking down on the train from the bridge in Linton Rd was a lovely, nostalgic and emotive experience. There was quite a crowd with me, which was nice to see, and we all 'oohed and aahed' when 'the old girl' fired up and pulled away in clouds of steam towards us and we heard that (once) familiar chugging sound as she picked up speed. It was only a Steam Train but it brought back so many wonderful memories for me of my Nan and Grandad, Fish N' Chip suppers and sitting on the bridge watching the trains in their old Austin A40. Whenever a Steam Train came in or went out of Hastings Station I used to delight in getting enveloped in the smoke as it went under the bridge and would then rush over to the other side of the road to watch it gradually disappear into the tunnel. I did most of that yesterday (couldn't get really into the smoke due to the crowd) and so for me that train yesterday was like catching a glimpse of the Polar Express...

You can see a video of the Steam Train on my Youtube channel, Maybrick44. Sadly, we are not allowed to include links here anymore but if you type in 'Steam Returns To Hastings' and Maybrick44 into your browsers you should find it o.k.

Love Tony xx

'Christmas Fun At My Favourite Christmas Fair!'

Well, I had a LOT of fun today at, St Clements Christmas Fair! I look forward to this event every year and save 50p pieces in a model lighthouse all year round in order to give me some money I can afford to 'enjoy myself with' and not worry too much. Being unemployed and on a paltry income is not a lot of fun and so I LOVE the feeling of freedom that saving for this event gives me. Oh to often in the past I would look at the lovely raffle FULL of great prizes and mouth watering chocs and yet not really feel comfortable with 'spending a few quid on tickets' because the odds of winning are so slim and I always have things more important I need to spend my money on at this time of year like presents...

Some of my 'haul' from today's Fair

It is then with a MASSIVE smile upon my face that today I had a go at EVERYTHING! (lol) I had a couple of goes on the Tombola stall (and eventually won a nice pen in a box), I 'went back to my childhood' and had a go on the 'bounce a ping pong ball into a glass jar to win the prize inside the jar' game and of course I PLUNDERED the £1 a go - prize every time stall!

Because I am a 'regular offender' as far as attending this event goes and (hopefully) spreading a bit of Christmas cheer and good will I am well-known at St Clements by all of those who organise and put on the Fair. It was lovely today when walking up the front steps of the church two people said hello to me and said that they were 'glad to see me back again'. The two people I spoke to were elderly and they said were going to be in charge of organising the tea & coffee. I SO admire them and their fellow parishioners for all the hard work they put into making this Fair happen. It's a LOT of work in the kitchens at this event and the tables need wiping, the plates of biscuits and mince pies need replenishing and then there is all the washing up that needs to be kept on top of so that there are enough cups and saucers!

About our new, 'Vintage World' magazine...

I gave the couple a free copy of 'Hastings Town' as a little gift. I brought a few with me to try and promote the magazine as we ( I have been writing for 'Hastings Town' now for a decade) have a NEW title coming out soon called, 'Vintage World' and so it was a good chance to 'pop a flyer' for that in the middle as well.

While the event was well attended it was more of a trickle of people coming in rather than a 'long queue to get in' kind of event. I felt a little sad waiting outside before the doors opened as I realise that going forward there are likely to be less and less of these community type events. People today seem more interested in the 'virtual' world and 'talking to their T.V.'s' than they do in attending and taking part in organising events. The lady who has been at the helm of St Clement's Christmas Fair for years told me herself that she is now 80 and can only really see herself carrying on for another two or three years. It is SO SAD how so many of the hard working and happy faces behind the stalls at this event are now the 'older generation'. Why and how has society gotten to the state that it is in today with people so seemingly disconnected from each other?

The sense of community in The Old Town though is second to none and that's precisely why I like to think of myself as a kind of 'Honourary Old Towner'...

This all said, there were a few YOUNG people helping out today! The ladies 'ladying' the ping-pong game were very fun and smiley and a schoolgirl who looked very chirpy was also helping out on the £1 a go - win a prize every time stall.

There was no 'bottle' stall this year though and it didn't seem to me that they had quite had the level of donations as far as 'bric-a-brac' was concerned that they usually get (though I got a lovely book for someone I know as a Christmas present and a fun little finger puppet that I'm going to have some fun with!) but all in all the FESTIVE spirit and feel of a 'Traditional Christmas' was as intact as ever!

The St Clement's Church Christmas Fair is like the best tonic any Doctor could prescribe for me and I almost got a bit teary after I left. This time of year there is so much going on and it all comes at you so fast. With other appointments today I could only spare an hour and a half at the Fair this morning and I got a bit emotional when I realised that it would be a WHOLE YEAR now before I could potentially feel that happiness again.The upside to this sad tale being the fact that I soon realised that, just like the days of Charles Dickens when 'Christmas was just a few days and far less commercialised' when something in life is so rare it is that very rareness that makes experiencing it that much more SPECIAL.

There is no way I would ever want to get 'over familiar' with the MAGIC of my favourite Christmas Fair and so until next year I shall hold on to my special memories and keep the spirit of Christmas they evoke in my heart...

Finally, I also got a copy of the brilliant, 'A Pier Amongst Peers' book at the Fair today. It was brand new and £10 but if I was ever going to buy a copy I thought today was the day to do it! All of the money raised goes to charity and (as you may know if you read, 'Hastings Town' magazine) I have a very personal connection to the history of Hastings Pier...

Lots of love to all at St Clement's Church and A MERRY CHRISTMAS and THANK YOU for all they continue to do to make this event so special.

My Christmas starts from today and long may it last!

Love Tony xx

'New Christmas CD's'

I LOVE Christmas shopping! Even though it often 'does your head in' trying to work out what to buy people I love the 'thrill of the chase' and often end up buying stuff for myself that I 'discovered' that I didn't intend to!

The snag is, of course, that while we all know instantly what WE would like for Christmas (cue an evening of chat about music, life and Christmas with, Kim Wilde and a romantic dinner with Claudia Winkleman!) we only really find out how LITTLE we know about our friends when its time to buy them something! (lol)

I always take a good 'scroll' down the list of new Christmas albums on Amazon.com at this time of year as well to see which artist has 'done a Mariah' this year! One thing that often irks me though is that prior to an albums release date you cannot even have a listen to 'previews' of the songs via their Mp3 choice. How silly is that! I mean, if people can get a 'sneak preview' of 30 seconds of each song or even a few songs on the album they will be MORE likely to pre-order it or buy it as soon as it comes out. Denying people the chance to hear a single bar beforehand is thus surely BAD for sales and only likely to COST artists as it is easy to forget all about something at this time of year and as Christmas albums are seasonal you are hardly likely to order it when you remember in January!

One of the CD's it would have been good to have a listen to is the new 'Fizz' (Bucks Fizz) Christmas record, 'Christmas With The Fizz'. It's due for release tomorrow and includes some 'festive favourites' like, 'Winter Wonderland', 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' and 'White Christmas' along with a couple of band written songs and rare covers of, 'I Believe In Father Christmas' by Greg Lake and even more oddly, 'Mull Of Kintyre' by Wings.

There is also a 'Christmas version' of the Bucks Fizz hit, 'Land Of Make Believe' as well. All in all, it sounds like a very curious mix and quite a 'brave' selection in many ways because both the Greg Lake and Wings songs sound VERY easy to 'butcher' to me if the wrong approach is taken. To add even more interest the album is produced by, Mike Stock of Stock, Aitken And Waterman fame. Retro is really the 'in thing' these days and so I hope the album turns out to be a triumph and not a disaster! (lol)

Another intriguing item is the 'A Very Monotreme Christmas' Various Artists CD.

Limited to just 200 copies it is going to end up a 'Christmas music collectors ( if there is such a thing?) holy grail' in a few years time. The cover doesn't look all that 'Christmassy' to me and I have no idea what Monotreme means nor have I heard of any of the artists?Being a HUGE MUD fan I have to admit that I'm intrigued to hear the 'soulful' version of their, 'Lonely This Christmas' hit on the album but with only 8 tracks and covers of 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' (Jack Watts) and 'Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy' (The Favourite Bench) neither of which are my favourite Crimbo songs its a bit skinny value for me. I would like to know what the cover of , Etta James, 'At Last' sounds like though being a, Harvey Summers fan...

Talking of, Kim Wilde (I had a HUGE crush on her at school!) her Christmas album from a few years back is pretty good. I will be playing a track from it on Christmas Eve on the Jeff Belton show on CHR (Conquest Hospital Radio). In line with Christmas, Kim is releasing a DELUXE edition of her, 'Here Come The Aliens' album with a second disc of remixes, live tracks and two brand new tracks. While I have not heard the, 'Here come The Aliens' album in full from what I have heard it is a pretty 'samey' sounding set and so I won't be rushing to buy the deluxe version but if you saw, Kim live at the White Rock theatre in Hastings earlier this year you might like it as a souvenir of the tour as the three live tracks were all recorded on the tour...

Finally, HORRIFICALLY there is also a new, William Shatner Christmas CD on the way this year! Oh my GOODNESS I can only imagine how terrible that is going to sound.

The album is AWASH with 'guests' though as you may well imagine (seeing as Shatner is an AWFUL vocalist!) and AMAZINGLY quite a few of them are famous people! One of those being, Elliot Easton (The Cars) who contributes to the, aptly named no doubt, 'Run Rudolph Run'. Also on the album are, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Henry Rollins and Rick Wakeman. Well, its amazing who you can get to appear on your records when you can 'boldly go where no man has been before' is all I can say! (lol)

Oh, and poor old Captain Sensible will be 'turning in his shoes' after one look at the cover because it features a CRINGE WORTHY pic of Shatner in a Santa hat. Sadly, for the good Captain at a quick glance it looks a bit like him! (LOL)

'A Truly Magical Radio Show!'

Well, well, well I am so excited that I'm like a kid the night before Christmas Eve writing this!

In case you didn't know already I am to be a 'special guest' on Jeff Belton's 'Christmas Jamboree Bag' Breakfast Show on CHR (Conquest Hospital Radio) Christmas Eve and I have just had a personal message from someone VERY SPECIAL to tell me that he is also going to make a personal appearance on the show!

Now, before you go thinking of this person being 'a certain gent who wears a red suit' there is NO WAY that he will be able to make it! Oh no, he will be 'up to his sleigh bells' in preparation work by then! I tell you what though, 'our Jeffrey' is going to be in for a BIG SURPRISE when this person turns up, 'POOF! as if by magic" from out of nowhere! I can't wait to see the look on his face! (lol)

See, what I haven't told, Jeff yet is that I am RELATED to the Christmas Family! How else do you think I get the inspiration for all of the festive Christmas songs I write, eh? Oh yes, I'm in the PERFECT position to 'call in a few favours' when it comes to my festive activities!

Jeff and I will be 'on the air' from 9am until midday on Christmas Eve and he and I have put together a FABULOUSLY Christmassy and fun playlist that will really put you in a good mood for the whole of Christmas. In amongst the chat, fun & frolics there will be plenty of Christmas music - hits old and new - plus a few awesome festive songs you may not have heard. All era's and styles will be covered as well because Christmas is for EVERYONE, right?

Oh, and I should also tell you that it is FREE to listen in as well via the Conquest Hospital Radio website so, go on, tell all your friends and mark it on your calendar now so you don't forget!

Start your Christmas off the right way this year with the Jeff Belton Christmas Jamboree Bag Show!

'A Lovely Day At St Luke's Christmas Market'

Well, I am positively GLOWING with the festive spirit right now after visiting St Luke's Christmas Market this morning at Silverhill.

I got there a bit early and so stood in the queue where I got chatting to a lovely lady. We passed the time of day by talking about all kinds of worldly things and about 'the state of the world these days' but none of it was depressing for long before we were laughing together again.

Once inside the Church hall I had a whale of a time browsing through the variety of stalls and quickly found an ideal 'stocking filler' present for my Mum (don't you dare breathe a word now!). An elderly lady had a hand-made card stall and was selling some lovely cards for just 30p each! That is INCREDIBLY cheap for hand-made cards and so I 'filled my boots' and bought 20! I asked the lady why she was selling them for so little and she told me that she can get £1.50 a time for them 'outside' but that she believed in raising a good amount for the church and felt that people coming to Christmas sales like this expected to be able to pick up a bargain. I was really touched by this and told her that what she was doing was truly in the spirit of Christmas. "As long as I cover the money it takes to buy more materials I will be happy", she told me with a gentle smile.

There was a FANTASTIC raffle table with over 100 prizes stacked up on it as well! If I had been able to stop to the end of the event and wait for the raffle to be drawn I would have 'invested' a few pounds on tickets as some of the prizes were well worth winning like a full sized bottle of Jack Daniels, for example! Sadly, I had other appointments to go to today and I really don't like paying for raffle tickets and just writing your name or telephone number on the back of them.

I DID have a go on the Macmillan Nurses Tombola stall though and amazingly won three prizes with just a £1! You get 5 tickets for that and numbers had to end in either a 5 or a 0. Hilariously, the first thing I won was a pink ladies handbag! Now, I know I'm a, Dick Emery fan but that is ridiculous! Next I won a Mc Millan Mug and lastly I got a nice Indian sculpture of an elephant. The lady who sold me the tickets told me that she had brought it back from India when she went - not bad, eh for a single pound!

The cake stall really made my mouth water! By gum, if I had been returning home straight afterwards I would have bought a few cakes! Small cup cakes were only 30p and looked delicious. they reminded me of the 1970's when my Nan used to arrive every Friday evening with a white bag full of cup cakes with 'swirly toppings' on for us to munch on while watching Brucie and 'The Generation Game' on T.V.

After a second look around (and a good 'um and aah' about buying a Christmas cushion from the arts and crafts stall) I decided it was time to have a cup of tea and a sit down. The whole event was really well organised and there were rows of tables in the middle of the room all with plates of biscuits, cutlery and sugar in neat bowls upon them. The tea was 50p and to my delight when I went to sit down the nice lady I had been talking to in the queue was sitting on her own so I asked if I could join her. We then spent a good half an hour nattering about Christmas, Charles Dickens, what people expect at Christmas these days and all that kind of stuff. A real Christmas person she was and I think both of us felt better for meeting each other afterwards! That's the kind of thing that SHOULD happen at community events, after all! Not a mobile phone in sight to ruin a good wholesome conversation!

So enamoured of this lady was I that I gave her a free copy of my, 'Timeless' CD as a little 'memento' of our chat. She seemed genuinely pleased at this (though she hasn't heard it yet!) and it was nice to be asked a few questions about my 'musical career' again! I told her about my mate, Alan and the making of my Christmas album and about the existence of this blog. We chatted about St Clement's Church Christmas do next week and I urged her to go. Hopefully, we will bump into each other again there next week!

The pictures you can see here are of just some of the lovely Christmas cards I picked up today. I LOVE giving hand made cards as I feel I can say what I want to say in them and the fact that they are hand made makes them seem all the more personalised. With my finances in pretty dire straits these days its been a couple of years since I've been able to afford to buy the amount of hand made cards that I need to send out to all of the people I know. Thankfully, thanks to that dear old lady on the card stall today that won't be the case this year...

Here's looking forward to next week and my FAVOURITE Christmas Fair of them all!

Love Tony x

'Welcome Back For Another Year!'

Hi Everyone!

I hope this post finds you and yours in good health and looking forward to the run up to Christmas this year? I've taken to leaving it a bit later (past Guy Fawkes Night) to begin posting about Christmas these days as there is so much in the media and in the shops that winds you up well before bonfire night that I didn't want to add to that.

I've been a right old, 'Scrooge' this year!

2018 has not been a great year for me but then again I don't expect it has for a lot of people. Finances have been dire this year and that has meant that I've been unable to do any recording. This has been tough for me to bear and I've had to battle depression as a result. It's also been a sad year because I lost another good friend in, Bin Kennedy and felt compelled to leave my writing club, Shorelink Writers due to 'differences' as well after 14 and a bit years. Not much good any of that, eh?

STILL, all the time you are still in the game and battling there is always a chance that a 'silver lining' to all this misery will show itself and I HAVE done wonders this year in my role as, 'The Clean Up Man' - recently receiving a 'contribution recognition' award from the 'Tidy Up St Leonards!' Group.
In the last few weeks my creative mojo seems to have returned also and I have written a number of poems and THIS MORNING a NEW Christmas song called, 'What We'd Got For Christmas'!

Considering my financial state and the fact that we are already into November, I doubt I will get the chance to record the song this year but it has been a bit of a boost coming up with something new as I really had 'dried up' the way I was feeling.

The other GOOD news is that I have booked a short break in order to return to the 'Grassington Dickensian Festival' again later this year. In DIRE need of getting away from it all earlier in the year I rather stupidly booked a holiday (when you are depressed you just think 'Oh, sod the expense!'). As it turned out the tour operators had to cancel that one and so I was due a refund. It all seemed a bit like 'Deja Vu' to me because that is exactly what happened last year! I really LOVED my trip to Yorkshire last year and so in the end decided to re-book the same holiday that I went on in 2017 again. It's not always a good idea to try and 'replicate' a great experience as you can set yourself up for a tarnishing experience but the tour operators have dropped the holiday from their 2019 brochure and so I realised that if I ever wanted to experience the Grassington magic I probably best go again this year. You can see a few of my favourite Grassington pics from last year with this post...

Lastly, we are coming around to the 'Christmas Fair' time of year again! My 'beloved' 'do' at St Clements Church in High Street Hastings takes place on the 17th of November at 10AM and so I am looking forward to that! In case you live in my area (Hastings & St Leonards) here is a short list of a few other Christmas Fairs to go to in the next fortnight or so...

10th November - St Luke's Church (Silverhill) - Christmas Market 10AM -1.30PM
17th November - St John's (Nr St Michael's Hospice) Christmas Fair 10AM - 1PM
24th November - Battle Xmas Lights Switch On (always lovely to see Battle at Christmas!) 1.45 PM
1st December - Holy Redeemer (Upper Church Rd) Christmas Fair 11AM -1PM

I'm not sure if I will be able to get to all of the above (especially St John's as it clashes with St Clement's do) but will try to get to as many as I can. If you see me there do come and say 'hello', won't you?