Hootenanny

We drove down to Northiam on the Kent/East Sussex border where our dear friend, Carol, had gathered her children and grandchildren to host a surprise 80th birthday celebration for our mutual friend, Ron. Carol is a great host and laid on a great supper. Unfortunately, as happened the last time I was at Carol's, I started to wheeze and cough badly. It turns out that other members of the family experience similar symptoms and guard against them by taking an antihistamine. The culprit appears to be Carol's cat, Bustopher, which is odd because I've never been allergic to any of our cats, and I've lived with cats for most of my life. Anyway, it got to the stage that I couldn't really hold a conversation so we headed for home at around 10pm. My breathing eased on the journey back and we then settled down to see the New Year in with Jools Holland and his Hootenanny, which has been a New Year's Eve fixture on BBC2 since 1992. He's got some golden oldies on tonight including Rod Stewart and Paul Jones, featured in the photo, singing the 1964 Manfred Mann hit, Do-Wah-Diddy. Paul Jones was, I think, the best of the Manfred Mann frontmen. He's a sprightly 81 year old. Meanwhile I shall be seeing 80 year old Ron again on Tuesday as my present is a trip to the theatre in London. Happy New Year to all blippers.