A Review of this year’s Pickwick Night…

Festive Fun and Father Christmas…

Hi Guys,

Just a few lines today to let you know about how this year’s night of festive fun and frivolities down in the village of Whalley went down with us.

The weather was, after a very wet day, clear and cold, and really rather pleasant.

As always the Griswald-esque mother and daughter did a fine job of decorating their houses with large crowds gathered outside taking photographs and there were some folks dressed in period costume, although not as many as in the past.

Mum and Dad were both there this year, which made it all the more special for me and we walked around the village expecting to look in the windows of some of the local shops although we were amazed to see that a lot of them were closed this year and that the art gallery, which we always looked in, had gone.

There were lots of Christmas fairy lights, a lot of loud music from the obligatory, automated and animated organs on display, and the smells of Christmas spice, and mulled wine once more pervaded the entire village, but there was a lot less to see this year and there was also an absence of charities in the main.

I have to admit to feeling rather disappointed this year, especially as the weather was so agreeable and felt sorry for my Mum and Dad who had been really looking forward to looking around and buying things from the charity stalls. Even my brother and his wife were not in attendance this year and they have been present at this event with their charity stall for years now.

We made the obligatory stop inside the church hall for a cup of tea and a warm mince pie, although Mum had biscuits instead, where we saw Father Christmas pay a visit and had a queue of children, there waiting to speak to him. I wasn’t able to get a chance to do so myself, as he was obviously very busy, but I did manage to get a wave and a nod of the head from him, which was nice.

The nice thing though is the picturesque village with its old church and quaint looking shops really is straight out of a picture postcard Christmas card scene, especially at this time of year, although, again a lot of the shops were either closed, or had been replaced with beauty salons.

This one event always kick-starts the seasonal period for me and something I really do enjoy doing with my parents every year, so even though it wasn’t as well attended, by the charity stalls, or indeed the general public, as recent years, it was still great to go along with my parents and then stop off for a little supper at their home, before setting off to my home once more.

Unfortunately this year I forgot to take along my camera, which I left on the side of the studio workstation, due to the mad rush to get ready to leave for the evening, so there are no accompanying photographs this year.

No one managed to give me the correct answer to this year’s question either, although one person came quite close, so I am going to hold it open to the first person visiting this Blog to drop me a line here to become the winner.

The question was:

“What is the name of the “Mathemagician” in Worlds End?”

And therein lies the clue…

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
December 5th 2009