I got the ultimate accolade yesterday from my 2 year old granddaughter Ellen. I had gone down to Exeter to look after her she had been ill the day before. We had a lot of fun and she was quite chirpy. She told her Dad that “Gramps was silly!” , she then told him all about me riding round the room on the hobby horse!
Not at football today so will be listening with my fingers firmly crossed and hoping the Mighty Hatters don’t miss me!
A packed Three Horseshoes saw a super lively evening of entertainment provided by Beer and Books Book Club. It was a night full of songs, poems and a story. There was audience participation and good humoured heckling! We raised £105 in donations to the community play Between Severn Tides. It was a late night as well and was feeling it today!
I told a new story for me The Wish Bottle which I had found in Gloucestershire Folk Tales. I feel it is a story I can develop for the future (I often reshape them after a couple performances adding bits here and there). I am like a magpie picking up stories from a variety of sources and always on the look out for a new story idea.
I am off later to watch Ridley Scott’s film “Napoleon” which has had mixed reviews! I know historical fact will be lacking!
Having spent time working on St. Helena and having read quite a bit I do find him an interesting historical figure- especially his rise from being a Corsican officer to the most powerful figure in Europe. Talking of interesting figures who rise to the top, another tyrant is Julius Caesar (just finished watching the BBC 2 series on him). I will review the film tomorrow! I can’t persuade Clare to come with me- there is much blood and gore!
Don’t forget all are welcome at the Three Horseshoes, Frampton tomorrow night for my Book Club’s Christmas Entertainment starting at 8 pm It will feature music (Dan Everett, Chris and Molly Robbins), poems from the legendary Mike Church, Brian Dimmock and Rogan Woolf. Possibly some more songs from Terry Coughlin! And a course a story from your truly – I am also MC for the evening.
I am not talking about going south! We actually had some sunshine today after the unrelenting grey of recent days so I enjoyed getting outside! Made my first attempt at clearing leaves, we have many trees all around us! I will need many more sessions over the next few weeks! I also got out on my bike today for the first decent ride this month = feel better for that.
Don’t forget my Book Club are doing our traditional entertainment on Wednesday at the Three Horseshoes Frampton starting about 8 pm. I found a new story to tell so I am currently learning it!
Disappointed that the Mighty Hatters lost narrowly yesterday having gone toe to toe with the richest club in the world. Just wish one day we get a bit of luck.
Think today’s title would be a great title for a book- if I could think of something to write on that theme! I was actually referring to my pathetic attempts to sort out the Christmas Lights! A thousand lights can get in a mess even though I thought I had wound them together properly last year! Still after much patience and only an occasional expletive I did it! Putting them in the tree was much easier!
Tomorrow it is an early start for football. A potential mismatch as the Mighty Hatters take on the the richest club in the world who need to win. So do we! Still upset about Tuesday’s game!
Well my third book has just been published! This one is different only one copy has been printed!
It is called Owen’s Magic Blue Tractor and was written for my grandson Owen’s 3rd birthday. It is a photo book that Clare managed to edit. I was inspired to write after he has “read” to us from some of his small books and his favourite toy that goes everywhere with him is his Blue Tractor! So the pictures are a mix of his toy tractor and the Blue Tractor we have at Wick Court. So I wanted it to be one he could memorise and then “read” it to anyone. I read it to him 6 times this morning and already he has learnt some of the words! Phew!
Sorry but I am talking about last night’s football. It was a fraught night all round. Normally I travel up with my pal fellow Hatter Mick from the other side of Stroud. He couldn’t go so I was on my own and the journey both ways was full of hitches – accidents, road works and traffic. I eventually got to Luton in time but struggled to find a parking spot. I got into the ground with about 15 minutes to spare dreading what one of the best teams in the world would do to my beloved Hatters. What a game it turned out going toe to toe with Arsenal coming back twice and even going ahead. At 3-3 as we watched biting our nails the added time tick down. A silly mistake gave Arsenal the chance to get the ball into the box and with the last action their £105 million headed a cruel winner. The collective groan of thousands of people told the story. So yes as sick as a parrot! I got home about 1.30 in the morning. My picture below is from a banner at the ground (I took 5 years ago) from my happiest moment as a Hatter when we beat Arsenal in the League Cup Final! If you read Fever Pitch it was Nick Hornby’s worst day of his football life! See I can mix a well known author with football. COYH!!!!!
My goodness what awful weather we have had! What with the weather and the resurfacing work going on here in Frampton it was a logistical challenge getting out of the village. We had to park vehicles at one end of the village in the early morning and cycle back to our house and repeat it the other way when we needed to get out later.
I had to get out to do Story Telling for Upton St. Leonards W.I. I had a lovely afternoon and finished with my own Christmas Angels Story, a story I am very fond of. I even had audience participation as well. Coming home afterwards was interesting as I had to drive through plenty of deep surface water.
Dreading the football tomorrow night, the Mighty Hatters are playing Arsenal with the likelihood we wont have any fit defenders! I will have everything firmly crossed (fingers and toes!)
Of course the title refers to yesterday’s football! Hard to think of anything positive from my trip to Brentford. Maybe it being a new ground and better than my last visit to their old ground when we got beaten 7-0! We were really poor yesterday and for the first time I think our manager made a tactical mistake. To be fair we lost two centre backs to injury. I dread to think of how the Mighty Hatters will fare in their next two matches – it is against Arsenal and Man City!!!!
Off for a Story Telling tomorrow for Upton St. Leonards W.I. I going to sneak in a Christmas Story my Christmas Angels. Have a bit of a logistical challenge getting there as many of our roads in Frampton are shut for resurfacing tomorrow!
Finally the poster below if for our Book Club’s traditional anarchic Christmas Entertainment (click on the link!). All welcome it usually a lot of fun and my brother Mike is performing for the first time since before the pandemic!
I thought I would give an update on the sales of my two books and the dilemma I now have. Having sold quite a few books on Sunday at our Berkeley Castle Gig, I decided to do a stock take.
My first book “Don’t Look at Me Like That” we printed 500 books and all the proceeds go to Farms For City Children. I have only 5 copies left and they have 32 left at Wick Court! Selling them for £5 we have raised over £2000 for the charity. Do I now do a reprint? If I do will we sell them?
300 books were printed for Pig The Legend but these books retail at £7.99 and the profits all go to Alzheimer’s Society. The publisher and book shops obviously take some money although every book I sell in person all money goes to the charity. So far almost £1200 have been paid into the charity.
