'Tying Up Christmas News'

Well, it is nearly time for me to cease writing this blog again for another year... Christmas has not really 'kicked into life' for me in a lot of ways this year but I am happy in the circumstances how I have defiantly tried my best to enter into the spirit, keep doing all the festive things I love and stay jolly.

Ironically, I now have another good friend in hospital! I spent part of Christmas Day with Robert and he made us both a nice christmas lunch. We pulled crackers (both of mine went off as well!) shared a bottle of wine, had a few laughs and watched the Queen's speech. Robert has been a 'creaking gate' for a while now and his health has not been great but on the 27th he had a heart attack and is now in the James ward at The Conquest hospital. I saw him yesterday and he was tired and sounded awful
(he has a chest infection as well) but thankfully was still his usual self so, hopefully, all is not lost just yet. He is at least in the best place for care now and will HAVE to eat the right things rather than stuff that's not good for him...

Add to this the shock of finding out that George Michael died on Christmas Day and you have a lot of 'time is passing so blooming fast' like memories and thoughts buzzing around your head, don't you? I was one of the first people in this country to become aware of Wham! I bought the original 12" version of 'Wham Rap' in Flyright Records in Bexhill-on-Sea when it ended up in the 'cheap bin' and think I still have it somewhere. 'Young Guns ( Go For It!)' followed and was a hit and that started the ball rolling. I always admired George Michael as a gifted songwriter as he was capable of writing what I call 'candy floss pop tunes' alongside brilliantly adult and emotive songs like 'Father Figure' and 'A Different Corner'. Both of the latter are I feel classics as is 'Last Christmas'. It is sad that George had such a troubled personal life but he obviously had a heart of gold from what we are now hearing of his legendary generosity. I was not so keen on his later work ( a bit too self-indulgent) but there was no doubting the man's genius...

On a more personal note, while I lost (as usual) on the Boxing Day Gee Gee's, this time I did share a win as well when my nap, 'Does Your Dog Bite' won at Kempton at 8/1. I only got the one winner all day so lost 50p myself but in my joint bet with my 'punting pal' Vakis we won about £50.

Finally, my post about 'getting up to a lot of good' is probably best forgotten as though I had the best of intentions my act of kindness was not so well thought out as it should have been and so I caused a bit of heart ache as well as fun by what I did. Still, all is sorted now so I must 'live and learn' and not let the spirit of Christmas carry me away in future...

P.S) I am glad to say that I received a card from one of the 18 households I carded this year as part of 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit'. Last year I posted over 50 cards and failed to get one back so to receive the card you can see here was extra special...

Lots of love and BE SAFE New Year's Eve!! xx

'An Emotional Day'

Things never work out as you think they are going to in life, do they? As I posted earlier, today looked like being a VERY quiet Christmas Day indoors with just me and my Mum and Dad but it did not turn out like that!

No, in the end I received a phone call mid morning from my friend, Robert. He had not heard from me for a while and had not received my usual card so rang to see how I was. Now, as you all know, I have not been 'at the races' with Christmas this year and have had difficulty focusing so I had not sent him a card nor even bought him a present yet!

Robert is a good friend, however, and knows me of old. We may be totally different people but he does his best to understand my 'fevered brain'. Before I knew it I had been invited to his house for lunch! This was a most welcome offer as Mum was not cooking anything much today having made the effort to do a lovely dinner yesterday. For her to have 'one less to worry about' was thus going to be good. Mind you, my brother, Geoff, had changed his mind about coming today as well so I needed to be back home by early evening to meet him and his kids, Sam & Sophie for the VERY unceremonious present opening session!

Amazingly, on the way around to Roberts I spotted a £5 note laying in amongst a pile of leaves! That was a nice Christmas bonus! What filled me with even more joy though was that the £5 note had a prefix that started with the letters AL. I could not help laughing out loud when I spotted that and looked up to the heavens and thanked my old mate, Alan Gaywood, for the fiver from beyond the grave! I know its crazy, but I choose to believe that there is no such thing sometimes as a coincidence and today was one of those occasions. It would be typical of Al to give me his last £5...

After a really festive Christmas lunch with Robert (who is not normally much of a one for 'the c word') and having watched The Queen's speech to the nation on the telly it was time to return home. Oddly, I felt rather flat for a while when I got back so decided to have a bath and freshen myself up a bit. A good old soak often helps if you are feeling a bit down...

As soon as I wanted to have my bath my brother turned up with the kids but they were staying a while so I carried on with my previous plans.

Sophie opens one of her presents from me..

When it came to finding the presents I had got for the family I had a bit of a job. Space is at an absolute premium in our house these days and I could not find some of the cards I had written! In the end I had to either give up on them or write a few new ones but poor old Mum missed out because I had used up all my spare cards doing 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' yesterday!

Anyway, in the end the present giving session went off quite well and I did manage to get a few nice family photos (as you can see) to share with our Australian side of the family in Victoria. Sam did not even know about them so I spent a while telling him all about them and how we are related. Good job Trevor & Lesley are as family orientated as I am down under! If It wasn't for Trevor and I using Ancestry.com a while back the two sides of the family would not know anything at all about each other!

Dad, Mum and my brother, Geoff.

Lesley & Trevor May from Victoria in Aus

Sam (my brother's boy) is all smiles!

Once my brother and the kids had gone I set about opening my presents! My mystery benefactor's purple box turned out to be a battery operated Christmas Train set! Ideal for a 51, nearly 52, year old kid! HA HA HA I also got a pair of Elves slippers with bells on from my friends, Sally & Ro and loads of thoughtful gifts all individually wrapped up from Stephanie, Simon and Solana!

Prezzies from Stephanie, Simon & Solana

Jan sent me a poetry book from Oswestry and Bin & Bean Kennedy a swanky new writing book with a magnetic cover - I even got a Balloon Modelling Kit from Martin & Vanessa - all good fun stuff!

Lastly, I set about opening my Christmas gifts from the St Clement's Church Christmas Fair. I got some LOVELY fragrancies including a TED BAKER one (not bad for a £1, eh?), a LONG Toblerone to look forward to polishing off and  a Star Wars Sticker Set! HA HA The most odd gift of all though was a tin of pilchards! I know its Hastings Old Town guys but, really! For Christmas???

So, there you have it, my Christmas Day in a nutshell. A lot more eventful and emotional than I had expected and bargained for. I still miss my old buddy, Al and will be glad now in a way when I see 2017 on the calendar rather than 2016 but Christmas does at least make you aware of what you STILL have for now and that sometimes is just enough...

'Merry Christmas!'

Another year, another Christmas day! Well, I'm STILL waiting for the 'fanfare of trumpets at dawn', the Willy Wonka like experience to cap the morning, the LAVISH and happy family present opening gathering this evening and to look out on a freshly laid carpet of snow BUT it is CHRISTMAS! Ho! Ho! Ho!

To keep my newly installed Christmas tradition going, I DID manage to write and deliver 18 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' cards yesterday. I was not able to do it under cover of darkness this time and did get more than a few 'funny stares' from local residents while peering closely at their homes as I walked slowly around with my bag of cards over my shoulder... Still, 18 people will have discovered a card from 'Santa' on their mat ( or stuck in their blooming awful, very stiff letterboxes!) either yesterday or this morning and a few festive chuckles will ( I hope!) have been caused due to the wording inside. I came up with all kinds of silly but fun tales to put in the cards this year including about how Rudolf had a cold and because of that his red nose went out! Poor old Santa (me) could not see a thing and was only saved from crashing the sleigh by the families lovely light show! Now, what more Christmassy a tale could anyone tell to someone they don't know but wish well, I ask you?

Today is going to be a VERY quiet one for me and my folks. It doesn't look as if any of the rest of the family are going to come today and Mum has already opened two of her presents at the breakfast table! I despair with my lot about their 'lack of a sense of occasion' and intend to save opening all of my presents until the light has gone, the Christmas tree is twinkling away and I have time to enjoy unwrapping my gifts and thinking of the people who have sent them...

LOTS of love to you all this Christmas day and make sure you spend plenty of quality time with the ones you love...

'I've Been Visited By A 'Secret Santa'!

While this year has been a difficult one it has had its moments when, as if to say 'don't give up old boy' something nice has happened. The day before yesterday my Mum went to put some paper in the re-cycling and found that someone had left a present on our doorstep!

The Mystery Gift!

 The present was not labelled nor was there a card but I knew somehow it was meant for me and was the result of either my writing this blog, my work as 'The Clean Up Man' or a 'ripple' from last years 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' campaign...

Sadly, Mum opened the end of the parcel to see what it was before I could stop her so I already know what is in it but I won't enlighten you all until the big day! I am really pleased to know that 'someone out there' also has the spirit of the season in their heart and shares my wacky sense of humour. I hope they had as much fun 'sneaking up' on my house to drop off the present without being seen that I have when trying to drop cards in people's letterboxes on Christmas Eve! Being a burglar may be a horrid and selfish thing to do but I would not want their 'job' I can tell you! HA HA

It looks like today I am going to have to help Mum with some last minute Christmas shopping but I still have one or two presents of my own to get so that's fine. I am SOOO late this year on competing my Christmas present buying and have REALLY struggled to think of what to buy a couple of my friends. I know there are 'safe' options that I can get but I LOVE to come up with something new, un-expected and different that is just right so have been reluctant so far to buy the 'same old same old'. Still, I am sure my friends would rather have something they like than something different they don't and so I may have to concede defeat this year and 'revert to type'...

Overall, I think I have done quite well this year at keeping Christmas in my thoughts but I can't say I have really felt the 'fuzzy warm feeling' I usually get much. I guess that was always going to be a bit much to ask though this year having lost TWO people who were close to my heart...

Oh well, time to get ready for a days shopping and then I will have my last session of present wrapping to do for this year. I have not written any 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' cards out yet either so if I am to do it for a third year...

'4 Days To Go!'

Well folks, we are now nearly at the 'big day' again! As usual, instead of a lovely, soft carpet of snow and a population of Snowmen looking at us through the window we have wet, depressing days and that HORRIBLE grey sky...

Still, Christmas is the 'season that lives in your heart' and so you don't actually need to see it you just need to feel it and know that it is real...

I'm writing this listening to The Manhattan Transfer's Christmas album from 1992 so I'm all wrapped up in great harmonies and lush melodies! The 'Man Tran' are not normally my scene ( a bit showbiz) but this time of year their gorgeous vocal harmonies and show like songs all help create a bit of badly needed glamour!

The run in to Christmas has been a strange one for me this year. I have either been out enjoying myself with good friends and attending Christmas Dinners or I have been at a loose end indoors at home with (too much) time on my hands to reflect on the horrific losses I have suffered this year and how scarey 2017 looks...

I know I say this every year, but Christmas can be and is a difficult time emotionally for lots of people. Offset against all of the happy get-togethers there are inevitably thoughts of those no longer with us and of how things keep changing on you as you get older. Loneliness is especially keenly felt at this time and that is why I try to smile at everyone I meet in the street and make sure I say a cheery 'Good Morning' or 'Good Afternoon' to them with my 'Merry Christmas!' Small little gestures like that can really make a difference and maybe be enough to keep someone who is feeling 'cast off' going.

I hope with this blog I 'connect' with a few people and help bring the cheer and spirit of Christmas into your home!  Here is a little poem of mine I put to music a few years ago. The video may be very amateurish but the scenery is lovely and Christmassy! I filmed it myself in Church-in-the-Wood the last time we had some significant snowfall in my area...

Finally, I had a lovely evening out with my Shorelink Writers club at The New Inn in Westfield at our Christmas dinner party.

Yvonne & Alvin are all smiles!

Someone left me a 'secret Santa' present on my chair while I was taking a few pictures, which was very nice and I will look forward to finding out what it is o the 25th! 'Thanks for all the help' was the message attached to the card. Now, I do try to be a 'helpful fellow' whenever I can to my friends but I've no idea this time who this present could be from?

They really are a great bunch of people at Shorelink Writers and no-one can feel lonely or lost for long at our group because it is such fun and we all support each other - like a family does...

So people, if you are reading this and thinking you could do with something new to be a part of next year make a new year's resolution to come to one of our meetings. We are on a 'holiday break' now until January the 9th but you are most welcome to come along to our next meeting at Tesco's Community Room in Churchwood Drive! We start at 7pm until 9 and the tea, coffee and biccies are all free so what have you got to lose?

'A Truly Heart Warming Christmas Card & Letter'

I was really touched the other morning when I received a Christmas card and a letter 'out of the blue' from someone who knows me only from my 'One Man's Guide to Hastings' series and as 'The Clean Up Man'. I love making videos for my Youtube channel (Maybrick44) and especially videos to do with my home town of Hastings, East Sussex so it gives me a real boost when something like this happens and I get some recognition from someone that they are watching and appreciate my efforts!

The Letter & Card From Dave Booth

The voluntary work I do clearing the streets of rubbish and litter and generally 'looking out' for the well being of my local community as 'The Clean Up Man' can also be a lonely and sometimes soul destroying job but people like Dave Booth, who the letter was from, (thanks so much mate!) who reach out to me REALLY fire me up again to keep doing what I do and to try and make a difference...

I have been doing my 'work' in the streets of Hollington as 'The Clean Up Man' now for the best part of five years and get a lot of pleasure from the result of my efforts every time I see a horrid, smelly area suddenly look new, neat and nice again. In a way, I feel a bit like a 'vigilante' for decency, which is why I gave myself the 'superhero' monicker of 'The Clean Up Man'... It's all a bit pathetic though in a way as I should be working a proper job and creating a life for myself but I just don't feel up to that and lack the confidence required to 'take life by the scruff of the neck'. In many ways, 'The Clean Up Man' gives my battered ego a chance to feel good about who I am and what my contribution to the world is for a change and kind people like Dave really help to keep me going in the 'scarey' world of ours.

Dave is obviously a 'man after my own heart' as he tells me in his letter how he regularly relates to many of the things I talk about and show in my videos. Dave lives in West Sussex now but is yet another of the 'ex-pats' (as I call them) that still have a soft spot for Hastings and get their 'fix' of the place by tuning in to my Youtube channel. It feels good to know that my words and feelings about the place I love are not just 'lost to the ether' and I'm glad that Dave and people like him find comfort and solace in my videos and thoughts...

Dave mentions 'Woolworths' (and the Kings Rd branch), the two swimming baths, our long lost but sadly missed Memorial Clock Tower that was lost due to vandalism and 'your beloved pier' in his letter - and assures me he could tell me a tale or two about them all...Keep up the good work! He says to finish with...

Well Dave, I will! THANK YOU so much for your card and 'words of wisdom' - the boost they have given me is much appreciated, I can tell you! 2016 has been a pretty awful year for me emotionally and it feels really good to know that there are people like Dave 'out there' who notice and who care.

Have a VERY Merry Christmas Dave and all the best to you and your boys for a happier 2017...

'Emerald City' - The Seekers Lost Christmas Song

I am in the process of trying to update my (fairly) comprehensive list of all U.K. Christmas hit singles and as such have been trawling the Internet for information. Ironically, I discovered 'Emerald City' by The Seekers (no 50 - 1967) by going through my own collection of CD's as part of my drive to whittle down what I have to make room for some of the CD's I was left by my mate, Alan.

Listening to bits of the CD's you are thinking of getting rid of is usually fatal as, when you actually hear most of them again, you find that you don't want to get rid of them at all! On this occasion, however, the compilation of The Seekers I was playing was water damaged and so I had already decided to get rid of it and was just making sure there weren't any individual songs I wanted to keep on the computer.

As soon as I heard, 'Emerald City' I thought it sounded like a Christmas single and so I checked it out on the internet. According to Official charts.com the song got to no 50 for 1 week in Dec 1967 as so also qualifies for inclusion in the unfortunate list of songs to reach the lowest available chart position for just the single week. Thankfully, The Seekers had plenty of other bigger hits so they do not join acts like Angel Witch, who's 'Sweet Danger' single was their only hit and reached no 75 for one week (there was only 50 official chart placings available in 1967).

According to Wikkipedia, 'Emerald City' was written by Kim Fowley (a real 60's 'character!) and another of the band members, Keith Potger under the nom-de-plume of 'John Martin' and is a song based upon a fictional visit to the Emerald City in L.Frank Baum's book, 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'. Quite why Fowley and Potger thought that a song about the Wizard of Oz would sell at Christmas time I'm not sure?

Still, I have to say that the song does evoke the 'magic feel' of Christmas time and does feature some VERY cute kids voices in the background so I'm a bit surprised that it did not do better than it did. Mind you, 1967 does not seem to have been a very 'festive' year for some reason? Until discovering, 'Emerald City' I had not found one single Christmas chart hit for that year in the U.K...

Take a watch of the video here and see what you think? Since discovering the song I have been playing it quite a bit! In fact, finding something that I missed before is what has inspired me to do some more research into U.K. Christmas hits and I hope to post an updated list here soon...

Merry Christmas pop pickers!