'A Simple Chatty One!'

Well, I don't know about you but I don't think I have ever seen as wet a Christmas as this one! My friends at Horam who run 'The Steelyards Collective' have seen the little stream that runs through their property become a raging torrent of flood water! All of the lawn and some of their driveway is now under water and yet it STILL keeps raining! I sincerely hope that the wet weather 'gives over' soon else even the house will be under threat...

I'm relaxing today (at last) and listening to one of the best Christmas albums ever recorded - 'Wilde Winter Songbook' by Kim Wilde. I LOVE tracks like 'Hope' and Kim is so obviously a 'Christmas person' that her love of the season, of family and of Christmas comes through in every word she sings. I used to 'have a thing' for Kim when I was a teenager and would still LOVE to meet her!

Funny how Christmas always makes you think about people isn't it? Some are of course sadly missed but others come into what I call the 'Rupert Holmes bracket'. By that I mean that Rupert wrote a song called 'The People That You Never Get To Love' (from the LP 'Partners In Crime') which is about how we all potentially miss out on a lifetimes happiness by either being shy and missing an opportunity or by just missing someone who makes your heart skip a beat in silly ways like she is in the 'up' escalator while you are traveling in the 'down' one!

Two Christmas Trees & Two Santas!

There are a few 'celebrities' I would so dearly love to be able to spend a 'quality hour' with for a chat and a coffee and Kim Wilde is one of them. I'd LOVE to tell her (going red, no doubt!) how I used to gaze lovingly at her photos for ages and how she is the writer of one of the songs I want played at my funeral ('Someday') because I feel it sums my inner self up better than any other song I've ever heard...

If I did have just one precious hour with Kim I would want it to be at Christmas time and in the foyer of the Rendezvous Hotel in Skipton.

The comfy and Christmassy Rendezvous Hotel foyer.

 I LOVED my stay at that hotel whilst visiting my beloved 'Grassington Dickensian Festival' as the owner has a real sense of both 'showbiz' and Christmas. It would be so lovely to sit and talk quietly with Kim about hopes, dreams, fame, family and to swop 'Christmas stories'. Sadly, 'my hour' would be up before I'd know it and I would then leave Kim knowing pretty much that we would never meet again. What special memories I would have to replay EVERY Christmas though, eh? And I'd have the chance to recount the story of 'how I met Kim Wilde' to everyone willing to listen for the rest of my days! (lol)

It's Ho Ho Ho all the way at the Rendezvous Hotel!

So, who would you want to meet if you had just one hour this Christmas? Others I would love to spend some time with would be, Claudia Winkleman and of course my beloved, Marilyn Monroe but purely for an interesting chat I would also love to meet and spend an hour with, Trevor Horn (Buggles), Tony Mansfield (New Musik), Bruce Forsyth, Donny Hathaway & Geoffrey Williams.

As is, I am just going to be thankful this year that a) I have lovely memories of The Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton and b) I have some AMAZING people in my life that I DO know who love me and look out for me. Hopefully, 'I'm worth it' as the ad says!

Finally, I cant end without saying a few words about Harrods. I saw a fascinating documentary on T.V. the other day about Harrods at Christmas and have to say that I was blown away by it for a number of reasons. Sure, Harrods is EXPENSIVE and realistically mainly a 'playground for the mega rich' BUT they really do put the pizzazz into Christmas and do a lot for under privileged kids each year with some of their profits. Old Charlie Dickens would certainly approve of them for that even if some of the obscene amounts of money their customers spend on ridiculous items is harder to justify. At least the store is no 'Scrooge' though and their staff certainly genuinely seem to LOVE working there and care deeply about how Harrods is a British Institution. In these days of failing High Streets everywhere I'm actually very pleased that Harrods is still as profitable and popular as it has always been. I don't mind people making a profit if they do something to the best of their ability, work hard for their customers and genuinely care about others at Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS to all at Harrods, all who get a buzz out of shopping there and all who benefit from their charitable acts each Christmas...