This Time of Year.....

This is the time of year when my life starts to get some semblance of normality! From the beginning of December,until Boxing Day, I find that I have untold numbers of Church services to play for. In addition to these I have things like a Christingle Service, A Children's Nativity Play Service, A Bingley Live Nativity Play (which circulates around Bingley) - the choir providing a commentary to the events by carols they sing. Then for some unexplicable reason, there always seems to be a glut of funerals in the weeks preceding Christmas, and the undertakers are constantly phoning me. For the first time ever I found myself with the possibility of three funeral services to play for on the same day, but as the first funeral was only two hours apart from the last funeral, I had to say that I couldn't manage all three! Boxing Day usually heralds the start of the sales season. Over the years I have noticed that there are always some good bargains to be had, if you are prepared to do a bit of searching through all the offers on Amazon. Considering myself a bit of a film buff I have, over the years collected quite a goodly number of films on Video, and DVD. I particularly collect old black and white classics, so I was delighted to see the original Universal films of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and The Bride of Dracula all going for a bargain price in a 4 DVD Box Set! The British film organisation called Hammer Films, produced some very entertaining horror films on the theme of Dracula, Frankenstein etc. during the 60's and a box set of their short films made for Tv was another bargain I picked up. The 20 DVD Box Set of Morecambe & Wise contains all their work for the BBC and is an absolute "gem". I have managed to collect a few other bargains from Amazon's DVD department too.

This afternoon I managed to sit down and watch the classic Henry Williamson story of Tarka the Otter.

Bingley Nativity Live

My, how time flies! I see that my last post was in October, and having been in conversation with our dear friend's in the USA I was reminded that I hadn't posted anything for a long time. (I think Ros is suffering from England deprivation!!) - so here goes. Over the past month life has been extremely hectic with church activities and the run up to Christmas. There have been the ususal Sunday services plus a Christingle service, a Crib Service,a Carols by Candle Light Service, a Midnight Mass, a Christmas Mornng Eucharist, Carol Singing round the parish, and, probably the highlight of the Christmas period - The Bingley Live Nativity. This involved a full cast of the usual characters - Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, Gabriel, Angels, Shepherds, Three Kings a live donkey, a flock of sheep, and an Innkeepers wife played by none other than Dorothy Bentley!! This event got a two page spread in the local Bradford Newspaper the Telegraph and Argus!