'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?

'All Saints Christmas Fair - Hastings'

Christmas Fairs are one of the festive seasons little innocent joys for me. Walking around festively decorated village halls, churches and youth centres looking at enticing looking raffles, bric-a- brac stalls and ogling the cake stall is the stuff simple dreams are made of as far as I'm concerned...

My favourite Christmas fair of all though is the one that takes place (usually) at All Saints Hall along Hastings Old Town. It usually costs 50p to go in but for that you get a ticket that entitles you to a free cup of coffee and a mince pie. They have a HUGE raffle - oh how I wish I could win the hamper (I have always loved the idea of winning a huge Christmas hamper - so Christmassy!) - and loads of fun stalls selling all the usual things. 

The best stall of all for me though is the £1 a go 'win a mystery present every time' stall. I save up each year to be able to have a real bash at that stall and usually end up spending £15 - 20 on it. The 'presents' are always worth a pound and as I save all my winning parcels until Christmas Day they give me plenty to wonder about sat there under the Christmas Tree until Dec 25th at home. Sometimes I win a big cuddly toy. Those are not usually wrapped up and so I often approach someone at the fair who has a little one and offer it to them. I have had some nice smiles and friendly chats with people because of doing something like that over the years and that for me is what makes Christmas special.

This year the fair is to take place on the 16th of November (a bit earlier than usual) at St Clements Church in High Street. The reason for the move apparently is because the interior of St Clements has been recently refurbished and so the Christmas fair is seen as a way to celebrate that and show the new interior off. The fun starts at 10am and goes on until 2pm. I will miss the intimate nature of All Saints Hall I have to say but St Clements is bigger inside so as long as it is festively decorated it will be a bit more comfortable at least. See you there!

St Clements Church

'A Snow Story'

This is a video I put together a few years ago. 'A Snow Story' forms part of a poetry/music concept album entitled 'In Words, In Music...Of Life, Of Death' and is all about how young you suddenly feel when the Christmas spirit grabs a hold of you! I wrote the poem after catching a snowflake in the palm of my hand while walking back home from work one day. I am a HUGE fan of Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' and think it the best story ever written. A lot of my Christmas musical pieces are thus inspired by the Dickensian era and I love to evoke thoughts of the simple Christmas gifts people used to give to each other back then. To think how magical an Orange might be to a poor boy or girl in Dickens time is still for me an inspiration and I often yearn for life today to be less complicated than it is...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little film. It was filmed  at the nature reserve at Church-in-the-Wood, Hollington, Hastings on a magical 'Narnia' like wintry day. I use Church-in-the-Wood quite often to film videos as you will see if you check back here regularly. The music was composed by the brilliant, Harvey Summers and recorded at Broadoak Studios - more about him and there later...enjoy!