'Arts On Prescription Bring Festive Cheer!'

I had a swell time this morning at the Christmas get-together organised by 'Arts On Prescription' in Warrior Square! If you are on your own and are feeling lonely are unemployed and a little lost or suffering with mental heath, anxiety or depression then you should look into joining some of the brilliant 'arty' courses put on by Arts On Prescription next year!

2019 has not been 'all sunshine and roses' for me and I have felt quite down and hopeless at times. Now, I know from experience that when I feel that way it is time to DO SOMETHING different to give my life a fresh perspective. With that in mind I decided to look online to see if I might find anything 'going on' in my local area that might suit me? It wasn't long before I found the Arts On Prescription website www.artsonprescription.org and saw that there was a free 'Creative Writing' session coming up shortly! Well, as writing is 'right up my street' I thought that such a session would be a good way of 'testing the water' in order to see if the whole set up was 'my scene'.

As the old saying goes, 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and after contacting, Tara Ready - the lady who runs the sessions it wasn't long before I had booked my place on the writing session and had it to look forward to! When you are lonely you need 'something to look forward to' and so its always a good idea to 'line a few things up on the calendar' to keep you going.

Well, the time eventually came for the day of the session and so I went along to see how it went? Tara is lovely, warm, friendly and welcoming and as the session (usually 2 hours long) wore on I began to feel at home and started to get talking to some of the other people there. One really nice chap who is known by the group as 'Jeff' let me into the secret that he is really SANTA and me being a Christmas nut we had a lovely conversation swapping stories about our adventures at Christmas time! I liked 'Jeff' so much in fact that I gave him a complimentary copy of my 'Timeless' CD and told him to 'have a listen to 'The Toy Museum' as being Santa I thought he'd appreciate it.

Well, I'm glad to say that 'Jeff' did have a listen to my album. Better still he told me today that he really liked it! He also proved that he really IS Santa - turning up (as you can see here) in full robes and boots! I happened to go as an Elf 'for a bit of jolly' and one of the ladies present ( THANK YOU, Mandy!) thought we looked like a team and took the photo you see here! Santa was in his element throughout the morning telling us all a few festive tales and dishing out presents! I helped him with that to make sure that everyone present got something and both of us joined in with the carol singing  as well - though I think both Santa and I prefer the sound of other voices at this time of year. It's kind of nice to listen to other people singing Christmas carols etc because that way you get a real sense of belonging and feel for a short time at least that you are all 'singing from the same hymn sheet' and celebrating the same thing for once!

Such 'togetherness' is sadly in VERY short reply these days and so Christmas needs to play its part ever more to calm the world down a bit and get us all thinking of others and not just our own needs and wants...

If you are interested in finding our more about Arts On Prescription you can either contact Tara through the website or see your GP and ask to be referred. You don't have to be 'ill' and you can do what I have done and refer yourself so there is no pressure! Go on! Give it a try! No good staring at four walls - I know! (lol)

'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...

'The Story Of The Snow People'

Remember I told you earlier about my love for the Church-in-the-Wood nature reserve near Hollington, East Sussex? Well, I made this rather silly but I think quite inventive festive promotional film for my album 'Timeless' there in 2010. After a particularly heavy snowfall that year the whole of my area was covered and Church-in-the-Wood was as near to the fictional beauty of Narnia as it is possible to get in the real world...

Walking through the woods I came across something that really made me laugh ( I won't tell you here what it was else it will spoil the fun when you watch the clip below)! As soon as I finished laughing I knew I had to come up with something fun and so I decided to do a 'Brian Cant', make up a story to tell and make a little film to enable me to share my festive discovery. 'The Story Of The Snow People' was the result and I think I did a pretty good job building up the tension! I think kids will enjoy this as well and seeing as I don't have any of my own its kind of nice for me to think I might be making a few tiny tots smile.

Anyway, take a look! If you don't think much of the story or of my acting I'm sure you will gasp in amazement at how beautiful a 'winter wonderland' Church-in-the-Wood looks...