Christmas day has been and gone.......wasn't too bad. Was helped by the fact dad never really liked Christmas and wasn't big on celebration anyway.......hopefully once the new year is here things will get a bit easier......

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I'm BIG in Sweden!

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Been a strange week. Firstly my sore neck turned into an arm that won't lift. I have to have a scan.....more hospital stuff.....then on Friday evening my dad was taken to hospital. He died on Sunday morning......I have never experienced such a close death before. I don't really know how to react. I spent the last ten years worrying I wouldn't be able to handle it....then when it happened I became surprisingly calm.....maybe it just hasn't  hit me properly yet.
He was nearly 89.....he had a GREAT life....saw amazing things.....rose to the (almost) top of his profession.....was a great dad.....I will really miss him!

Dad pope goes

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Friday saw Ivan come up for the night......we went for a couple of pints, then I went to see 'Letz Zep' at the Forum. I watched a couple of songs (about 40 mins in Zep world) but decided my aching neck deserved bed.......
Saturday and my old friend Rob came up for the night. We went to Australia together when I was 17....so we've been friends a while. We had drinks with Keith (another old friend)...but then the weather was so bad, we headed home and watched X Factor...the next day he fixed my aerial  and gave me an extension...so now I can watch TV in bed....sweet!
Yesterday I had coffee with Cara.....hadn't seen her for ages. Met her lovely son Austin (again) who's SO cute!

Austin

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Last weekend was 'Ash' here at the Tunbridge Wells Forum.....Saturday and Sunday. It was great....I forgot how many hits they have! Then 'The Specials' in Brighton on Thursday. AMAZING.....After 30 years of doing nothing they seem to have forgotten nothing and not aged that much. Full of 50 year old skins (who should know better) doing stupid dances that were not cool 30 years ago....but you HAD to move.......so I did it seated in a dignified 40 something manner.
Last night it was back to the Forum for 'The Fillers'.....they are a 'Killers' tribute act.....I hate tribute acts unless the bands are dead or so old they are unlikely to ever tour again.....seeing one doing the 'Killers' is frankly saying 'I'm too lazy to go and see the real band.....this one's on my door step and will do'....rubbish.
`tonight I'm back there AGAIN! 'Frightened Rabbit'......don't know a lot about them but they seem really up my street from their site.........

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Was working in Cheltenham on Friday so stayed with Matt and Alex, Thursday night. Matt was rehearsing, so I didn't really see him.....and I had an early start so I was in bed by 10.30........up at 5.....out at 6.....I met the journalist off the tube and we headed cross country.......first stop was a press call at some famous ex jockey/trainers livery.....well, I am beggining to love horses....but only for about three minutes...then I get bored....this was all about twenty people watching twenty jockeys ride twenty hoses around a track, inside while listening to an ex jockey witter on.  My attention span isn't that great.....so I left and headed for the famous Cheltenham racecourse. It was about 40 minutes away. My sat nav had me driving down an ever decreasing in size country lane. I gave up eventually when I hit a river I was meant to cross, about four feet deep!
By 11am I found myself on the race track.....setting up lights......inappropriately dressed in suede shoes (sodden) and suit jacket (freezing).......the subject was about two hours late and by the time she arrived all traces of sun had vanished!
I had a few other jobs there so didn't end up leaving till late in the afternoon......then I drove to Bath. This is where the pic ed and old mate lives. We went to the pub.....and then I got up early and drove to Totnes in Devon.
By 10.30 I was sat in my car, opposite my cousins house. It was her birthday and I'd sworn her husband to secrecy about my imminent arrival.....I rang her....engaged....again.....engaged.....I knew who it was....my mum, ringing to wish her a happy birthday.....I had spoken to her a few minutes before and told I was about to arrive and my plans!!!!!! Eventually the phone rang and Colin answered. He passed me over to Heidi, by which time I was out of the car and over near the front dor...'hi..happy birthday...what are you up to....' we chatted.....then I tapped her on the shoulder....she turned and screamed....it was perfect. I felt like Noel Edmonds (but more handsome)

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