Well here we are.
January.
Just about says it all.
The Batt cave had the look of a hurriedly deserted ghost flat on returnval this morning at 1000h following high speed Priest Powered lift from the Eastern Marches of Thanet and 8 days of hols with Ma and Pa plus visitors. Pot plants looked distinctly dead/in need of emergency treatment. Aviary suggested by text that Batt man should ZAP! them with Robin. (As in l'eau Robinet...) I liked but didn't get the joke till it was explained. Bi-linguist wot I ain't.
So, farewell then,
Christmas 2011.
You were really fun.
And very warm
and wet
and
windy.
The Thanetshire coast was in bracing form along the prom last night, when Jack Russell Harmer was receiving his final walk of the Harper hols. I'm sure that dog has hypnotic powers - why else would you agree with someone, who has no powers of speech or writing or sign language, to take them on a 20 minute walk at 10pm on a night that had the weathermen reaching for their thesaurii. (Another word for thesauruses I hope?)
We peeked through the wind-ow, Jack and I, at Rodin's statue of the doomed Danteish lovers - the Kiss is still on display in Margate and they've relaxed the rules on photographing it after lots of complaints. I took loads when Ma A and Ma B and I popped in last week. One or two of the shots felt as though one was trespassing on others' intimacy: the sculpture has a lot of presence. Ma B was comparing early Turner picture in the Turner gallery, with her memory of the picture that might be an early Turner back at the Chelsea homestead: maybe the Barrans will yet return to the Hermitage!
Jane Bishop of the Walpole Bay Hotel asked when I was moving in when I turned up on Tuesday for arfter-high noon tea plus incognito Father M. Something about the place is somewhat addictive - the breakfast is better than the tea and the tea is excellent. Lunch is the weak-point in their armoury of fare but still decent by 5th Avenue Standards...
Birenirenaby (I'm fast getting through the vowels) and I arrived at 1130am for the 1030am Mass - mildly irritating, seeing as I'd made a special point of looking very carefully at the noticeboard. There's none so blind as those who cannot read... B enjoyed the lengthy 5 minutes we were there for, followed by Eats and Takes in the church hall plus Sarah Jane and Christian, and their grandad Joe. Wendy and Michael behind the Keys and Toffees hatch suggested that St Ann's (C'ville) might be ripe for musical gatherings. Hmmm. Sarah Jane (sweet!) said, very spontaneously and naturally, that she thought Barnaby was a lovely name. Charmant.
Breeneeenaby and I arrived at the Dog and Duck in Margate Old Towne at 1030pm for New Years Eve Karaoke the night before our late appearance at Sunday Mass. The rootin tootin, tuneful twosome treated the locals to Queen 'Somebody to love' plus a duet version of 'Rawhide' and my party piece 'Born to be wild!!!' These last two are genuinely among the only popular beat combo songs I know all the words to, and I've known them for over 20 years, since I was a young lead singer in a Ukelele band at Westminster School known as the D.F.G's, and we used to perform them "somewhat ironically" at formal dinners in the Abbey dining room and school and house concerts. Y.M.C.A. was also another swan song. (Well - more goose standard maybe.)
(The Darn Funky Groovers if you're wondering.)
Our tentative album cover was supposed to be representative of the instruments of the band: 2 Uke's and a pair of bongos accompanied by a bleeding, torn-out-of-throat larynx (plus eggshaker). I was never sure (and didn't think or like to ask) where the voicebox was supposed to be procured from. Will Grove-White was our Uke player par excellence and general Uke Orch of Grea Brit aspirant. There's a video online of him doing his dream-realising stuff at the RAH proms. Leigh Melrose, also then on Uke, was (and is and will be?) a regular soloist at ENO for a while. (As a Baritone singer - not a Ukelele player.)
"I knew them when they were nobodies!"
I still vaguely (i.e. a bit more than Facebook friendship) know Ed Stern, our Bongo-comedianist, now deeply embroigled in the games industry as a guru to all things shootemup. He's no shootemuppet, that's for sure. (Couldn't resist: apols Ed.)
So, January cometh and February loometh. What shall the year hold we all wonder, nervously checking the share prices and the train fares, the supermarket shelves and the petrol station dot matrix displays. I gather the veil of the temple has always been a bit dodgy round this time of the century...
Get your motor running....
Grazie
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