George Micheal. Didn't see that coming. I'll add an anecdote at the end of this post.
The couple next door had a spectacular row earlier - then bought a car load of alcohol, the appear to be having a family party now. I'm turning the lights out later and pretending I'm not home.
Next doors suicidal cat keeps trying to get into the house. It spends almost all it's time sitting outside the dinning room door - waiting to be let in, whilst my dogs become increasingly hysterical behind the glass. As X-working dogs, if they ever catch it - there will be carnage. I have had to fix the kitchen windows shut because it managed to get in there a couple of times. Curiosity will certainly kill this cat.
The mouse in the house may actually not be a mouse. It's far too big. It's also using the spaces behind the plasterboard to move about. It's actually quite noisy - small dog is following it from room to room.
I had a delightfully quiet Xmas day - and a dry one. Except at the very end when I tried an experiment and put sherry in my coffee. It curdled the milk and tasted like the very last chocolate liqueur in the box, the one that lasts until Easter before anyone eats it. I had a slow cooked risotto - it was actually very good indeed. Also, despite almost cutting dairy out of my diet - I had 2 different types of smoked cheese - which was lovely. I'd forgotten how much I liked it.
Last night I watched 'Theatre of Blood' with Vincent Price and was in bed by 10pm. A wise move. I'm really glad I spent this year apart from everyone and in the peace and quiet - I needed the space. I spoke to my brother on the phone in Ireland - my sister apparently had a disaster and her cooker broke down, so they used the barbecue in the garden instead - which is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect from her very practical and easy going husband - and I expect they had an absolutely brilliant time.
Anyway - back to death. I really didn't see this one coming - but I'm so used to it all now, I couldn't summon much of a reaction. I had no strong feelings either way about him. It wasn't my kind of music and it wasn't my personal kind of politic. A lot of good stuff is coming out about him now, he seems to have been a very decent sort. The right wing press are fawning like lickspittles but still rushing to judge him - like they always did. One very sad aside. Back when the video was made for Wham Rap - they invited students from Chelsea School of art to be the backing dancers in the party scene. I knew some of them - including Hannah, who also died this year. It's been a very cruel year.
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My George Micheal Anecdote. Cut and paste from Facebook which may effect the formatting - and there are references in there that make no sense, but if you a long time reader of this blog - you may recall bits of this anecdote.
*drumroll* One of the oldest friends is a very good voice coach - record companies use him to teach talentless celebrities who have already become famous how to actually sing, he's quite good at the 'post-mortem' approach. For a long time he was employed by Gerri Halliwell and they become close friends - at the same time - Gerri was also George Micheal's best friend in the public eye. (Russ might be familiar to you - his parents own the Hastings Old Town club next to the Electric Palace and he bought Jim and Deborah's old house on St Paul's Road). Anyway - NYE 1999 - the big one, he was invited to Gerri's super-star studded New Years Eve part and told he could bring as many friends as he wanted as long as they were checked for security - which is why I reluctantly ended up seeing in the new millennium with people like Dawn French, Lenny Henry, Dale Winton, Jordan (she was a complete slag) and Richard E Grant, and about 200 people who had been invited by various record company executives, and Gerri's entire family. Celebrities are very probably the dullest, most bitter, angry, pointless people in the world - and quite rude. I have no fucking idea why they even bothered going out that night - they all hate each other and themselves. I honestly wish I'd stayed at home. Anyway - Gerri had a suite of rooms upstairs (this was her house in Slough) where George and Kenny were kept hidden, away from the rest of us - and she went around asking everyone if they could please not take pictures of George and Kenny when they came downstairs - it was a private party, no press allowed etc. This is before camera phones - so everyone had small film cameras with big flash bulbs. At about 11.30 - G &K came downstairs, there was a brief moment of silence, and then the whole room erupted in a clamour of cameras, flashes and people pushing to the front to take his picture. It was chaos - the worst ones, I'm afraid to say - were Gerri's elder aunts who probably needed medical attention afterwards. It wasn't a very good party, Dale Winton tried to kiss me, Dawn and Lenny had a fight and I think Jordan was asked to leave. Someone stole my Paul Smith jumper and there was a complaint from the nuns in the convent next door about the noise. The caterers also seemed really keen on taking all the best food away with them. The 'comedienne' Janet Brown was refused entry - despite being a neighbour and I watched someone quite well known being sick into their handbag. The only happy people were the staff - who were all getting triple time and a bit more. Gerri has no books and the only Video in her collection was 'The Sound of Music'. This was also the evening when I found myself in the gents next to Martin Kemp and a small boy came in and announced that he was in acting school and if Kemp didn't get him a part in Eastenders he'd tell his dad that he made him touch his cock. I don't go to parties like that anymore.
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