Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things. — Russell Baker
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My family gathered at our place to watch England play their opening game against the USA, the usual mixture of subdued excitement, hope, occasional boredom and ultimate disappointment, all conducted to the wall of sound we produce when we are all in the same room. The star of the night was of course little Zena. The photos are here.
We held a small gathering at our house to watch the election results, gossip, drink and eat lots of comfort food. In the end the night was not the disaster we all feared and there was even the chance for a few laughs – plus of course the chance to spend some time with with some old friends. The photos are here.
My dear friend Andrew held a small gathering to celebrate his 60th birthday a few days ago and a fine time was had by all. I was particularly pleased to meet up again with Mike, Andrew’s younger brother, with whom I shared a flat back in the late seventies and who I hadn’t seen for a very long time. The photos are here.
Here is a photo of Andrew and I on the Mayday demo in Regent’s Street in 1974 and here is a photo of the two of us from the party. As far as I can see the only thing that has changed is that we no longer have a red flag and I seemed to have mislaid my favourite striped tanktop.
Christmas festivities seemed to go on for a very long time this year, I think we spent almost a week sitting around tables of food with large crowds of family and friends.
It started with Christmas Eve at Eva’s Name Day party. As usual the food and the company were both excellent. Here is a photo of just a part of the feast that Eva had laid on.
Christmas Day was spent with Rosie and Dom and more food and then some pleasant dozing in front of the TV
The next stop was Hackney – more food – and a long and chaotic game of Trivial Pursuits. The photos are here.
Then we gathered at my brother Chris’s new house for our usual sedate Swash family gathering. There were so many of us that we had to have a shift system for eating at the table. The photos are here
The highlight of the evening (it even beat the supremely entertaining secret santa) was a musical interlude when the kids demonstrated their nascent musical skills. Lucky you – here is a video
Next we had Ilse and Mick around for dinner – more good food and good company.
Here is a photo of Ilse brandishing some chocolate nugget
Finally we managed to get to Chris and Janice’s for a small new Year’s Eve gathering – time for a bit more food
Isabel and I travelled up to Bridlington at the weekend to meet up with John and Moira to go to a Specials concert. The journey up was wild with torrential rain and the motorway was littered with wrecked cars. When we arrived the sea at Bridlington was heaving and I managed to get a few nice shots of the storm.
The next days was sunny and windy and we walked out to Flamborough Head.
in the evening we went to concert. The crowd was predominantly middle aged men, lots of cropped hair, tone tone paraphernalia and the odd pork pie hat. The Specials came on with an explosive entry and the crowd went bonkers and several hundred blokes started to leap about and relive their youth. Isabel and Moria retreated to the balcony but John and I decided to get stuck in and proceed to leap about, crash into people, shout and generally get very hot and sweaty. The Photos are here.
I managed to shoot a bit of video in crowd and here it is. John is in the white T-shirt. The sound is not great because the volume of the band overwhelmed the mike on my little camera.
Isabel and I travelled up to Bridlington at the weekend to meet up with John and Moira to go to a concert by The Specials. The journey up was wild with torrential rain and the motorway was littered with wrecked cars. When we arrived the sea at Bridlington was heaving and I managed to get a few nice shots of the storm waves.
The next day was sunny and windy and we walked out to Flamborough Head.
In the evening we went to the concert. The crowd was predominantly middle aged men, lots of cropped hair, two tone paraphernalia and the odd pork pie hat. The Specials came on with an explosive entry and the crowd went bonkers and several hundred blokes started to leap about frantically reliving their youth. Isabel and Moria retreated to the balcony but John and I decided to get stuck in and proceed to leap about, crash into people, shout and generally get very hot and sweaty. The Photos are here.
I managed to shoot a bit of video in crowd and here it is. John is in the white T-shirt. The sound is not great because the volume of the band overwhelmed the mike on my little camera.
A generally tremendous evening. The next morning as Isabel watched me climbing rather creakily out of bed she gently sang “You did much to much much too old….”
