Fairytale of New York...

It’s Black Friday today… celebrating the fact that people can be persuaded to buy things they palpably don’t need, with money they probably don't have. I’ll be staying well away from the shops for the rest of the day… thought I doubt if the charity shops of Kent will be adopting the Black Friday tactic.

I popped into a little pub last night, on the seafront in Herme Bay. I made the mistake of asking if they’d be showing the Liverpool game later; the landlady and locals let me know exactly where the fortunes of Liverpool FC stand in their list of sporting priorities. So I shut up, drank my beer and uploaded my latest batch of pix. Then a young lad walked up to the piano, sat down, lifted the lid and began to play Fairytale of New York.

The landlady said “It’s not Christmas yet”, but it doesn’t have to be Christmas to play this wonderfully bittersweet song. It’s the only ‘Christmas’ song worth listening to, I reckon, and it’s only a Christmas song because it takes place at Christmas; the lyrics are a long way from the saccharine sentiments of, say, Roy Wood’s certifiable request, I wish it could be Christmas every day. The song was a long time in the making. Full story here...

Fishing boat arriving back in Whitstable harbour...