'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?

'So Here It Is - Merry Christmas!'

Yes, I know that I probably used a line from the Slade classic to announce Christmas Day last year but what the hell - it is the best Crimbo song ever!

I'm feeling quite emotional this morning for a number of reasons. One is that I watched a Christmas version of the EXCELLENT, 'Back In Time For...' series last night and it brought back so many happy memories of my Christmases as a kid. For those of you unaware of the series it revolves around a modern family (The Robshaws) who agree to embark on a social experiment the aim of which being to place the family in a home that has been re-decorated to mimic this era or that. The whole family are given clothes to represent that era, have their hair done up in the popular styles of the day and are supplied with a manual telling them all about the 'social etiquette' of the period etc...
In effect, the experience is about as near to jumping into Doctor Who's Tardis and whisking yourself back in time as you can get!

Well, with a remit like that you can understand why an 'old fashioned dinosaur' like me loves the programme! Watching it is not only interesting to see how the family cope with life as it was back then (the things they discover that are now long gone they love, the modern things they miss, the lifestyle and how they cope with the social changes) each programme has LOADS of 'I remember that!' Or 'I had one of those!' Moments and as such can be a bit of an 'emotional battering ram'.

In last nights episode The Robshaws had to live through a 1970's, 80's and 90's Christmas and it was lovely to see some previously familiar  household 'old friends' on screen again. Each Christmas the family have tasks to do in keeping with the era and so in the 1970's they had a large Christmas tree to decorate with as much tinsel and stuff as possible! The tree was a real one that had been specially treated (by being dipped in a special liquid of some design) to ensure that it would not be a fire risk and that it would not drop pine needles all over the place. On Christmas Day of each year the family would unwrap Christmas presents popular from the time and so in the 1970's Mrs. Robshaw got a fur coat and the presenter of the show, Giles (he pops in and out of the show) received the Evel Knievel toy that I had as a kid that you wound up and then released.

Thanks to Glenn E Walker for use of this pic

 It was GREAT fun and BRILIANT for inspiring the imagination as it came with some cones, a couple of ramps and other accessories that you could use to create 'death defying' leaps for your Evel to master! In reality, of course the toy was pretty USELESS at even travelling in a straight line as the model of 'Evel' was rather 'top heavy' and thus the motorbike had a tendency to fall over more often than not shortly after you released it from the 'winding up ramp'. Whatever its failings, however, LOADS of kids of my age had lots of fuj lining up the ramps, using some of their Matchbox toy buses to give Evel something to jump over and then trying to get him to complete a successful jump! When you think about it? The real Evel Knievel was more famous for his spectacular crashes than for his successful stunts so I guess in that respect the toy was a pretty accurate representation of the man! (lol)

If you get a chance try to catch a re-run of the 'Back In Time For Christmas' series. I missed the first part myself covering the 1940's, 50's and 60's so I will be looking for that myself.

As for 2018? Well, I don't look forwards with much positivity these days but who knows? Each new year is a fresh start one way or another and so you can never discount something magical happening!

LOTS of love to all of my family and friends this Christmas and to all of you who subsequently find this post on the Internet xxx

'It's Nearly Time!'

Well, I have had a nice, relaxing day at home today! After a busy week of visiting friends, Christmas meals, 'Tom's Midnight Garden' at The Stables Theatre (very good!) and a trip out to Pett to attend the annual, 'Carols in The Barn' event (where we all gather  in a barn, sit on straw bails and sing Christmas carols accompanied by cattle and a whole host of other farm animals) it has been nice to take it easy for a change.

I had a good time at my Shorelink Writers Christmas meal in Westfield, which is where this festive photo of me was taken. Didn't do the 'rounds' of the Westfield lights though as, with all things this year, I arrived rather late. Things have definitely been stressful regarding Christmas this year and I do feel I've let myself down in a number of areas but I guess I ought  to be thankful that I've had plenty to do and people to see.

Me in one of my 'conservative' Christmas outfits!

Tomorrow is likely to be another quiet day at home though my brother and his kids are coming to visit in the evening. It will then be time on Boxing Day for my annual tilt at the bookies! I think I only really bother now because its traditional - I can't recall EVER winning anything worth having on a personal level during the Christmas period in over 30 years! Me and my mate, Paul DID win a few quid on our joint bets last year though so I shall keep my eyes peeled for any pigs I see flying over my house in the next few days!

As I'm getting older I'm beginning to feel the lack of a 'Mrs Christmas' in my life more keenly but I am TRULY blessed with some WONDERFUL friends and more of them are female these days, which is a HUGE improvement on the previous 40 odd years! I can even count a 'funny story' regarding my 'perceived love life' amongst my 'boring life stories' to tell people thanks to his fact, which revolves around a coffee bar in Hastings I visited on three consecutive days with three different female friends! The woman behind the counter gave me some VERY disapproving looks  on the SECOND day when I turned up with someone new and on the THIRD day she gave me that kind of 'I don't know how you do it or where you get the energy' kind of glance! When my friend that day was overheard saying that she'd better, 'give her husband a ring' as we were being served I was surprised not to get my hot drink poured down the front of my trousers! (lol)

Actually, its quite un-nerving how 'universally trusted' I am with other people's wives!

Hmm, It must be the way I walk, I reckon!

(Note for the P.C. Brigade ... JOKE! ITS A JOKE! you know, HA HA and all that? LOL)

Happy Christmas folks!