Hampstead (for Camilla)

Camilla called us from Stockholm on Sunday, said she was going to see the new Jane Campion movie about John Keats, set in Hampstead I believe, so we were just about to leave the house to go to the heath as well so I said "we'll both be in Hampstead then this afternoon",and she said "take pictures", so here there are, the good ones anyway.... and merry x-mas! thomas x

Ali's 40th birthday party/jamming session @ West Hill Hall in Brighton

 another atmospheric shot of Brighton beach, it wasn't as windy as two weeks ago but it still looked fairly dramatic, ever since Aldeburgh I started paying more attention to the clouds when taking these kinds of pictures

and another shot of Waterloo Street... and onto West Hill Hall, a beautiful community centre in the Seven Dials area, sometimes used for acoustic, informal gigs and gatherings. For his fortieth Ali had organised an afternoon of mulled wine and some short sets of jamming with friends and other musicians from Brighton and beyond, even some morris dancing, etc. so here are some pics:

so happy birthday, Al!

Brighton breezy, isn't it?

Above: John and Sue's party, or is that a doctor's waiting room...

John plays cricket with this man, and Momus wrote a song about him apparently, he played it to me at the end of the night:

and here's some pics from the very dramatic sea in the morning and during the day, Brighton looks good when it's windy:

Waterloo Street, our old haunt The Iron Duke is as the bottom of this street

one of the big old windows of The Bristol, looking out from the seafront

North Laines

I'm halfway through Daphne du Maurier's "Jamaica Inn", enjoying it more than I thought, I recognize a lot of the places in Cornwall. Want to go back to places like Padstow and the Bodmin Moor...

in the Evening Star (the obligatory stop before getting the train back!), dressed like a not quite convincing "Le Donk"