Santa sighting

A blog is rather like a baby. ‘Feed me!’ it demands. Sometimes one doesn’t feel like it. Still… unlike a baby it won’t die of starvation. Or perhaps it will. To make amends and, quite against my usual principle of ignoring Christmas until it is imminent, I present a shot taken this weekend of Santa on his sleigh launching skyward from a garage roof in Nunhead. Look closely and you’ll see that Santa is wearing ill-fitting glasses. 

Defrocked Nunhead Priest

This gentleman (apologies for missing head) is a follower of the Grand Prix priest. If you don’t know who he is, Google will enlighten you. And if you need a good laugh, look at YouTube’s ‘The Dancing Priest’. Cornelius (known as Neil) Horan used to be a priest at the Catholic church in Nunhead… until he was defrocked. Apparently, he was defrocked because of his self-appointed mission to warn about the end of the world. Despite the loss of his priestly status, Horan has carried on with spreading his message through other means, notably running on to the track at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix as well as other attempts at the Olympics Marathon, the Derby and Football World Cup. When he’s not running, he’s dancing an Irish jig. He has performed the jig in various venues including Britain’s Got Talent, 2009. When he dances (and does his sensational running demos) he wears a kilt; it is very short and resembles a mini-skirt. That’s a defrocked priest, then, in a skirt.

Kick Some Ass

It’s Bank Holiday Monday and the Notting Hill Carnival will be rattling the windows. I’m not there this year to shake my ass or to kick ass. But in the spirit of the occasion, here is a snap taken in Nunhead, a little-known corner of south London that boasts a village green, a butcher’s, a baker’s… and occasionally, people attired in silver, who parade on stilts. It’s all a lot quieter than Notting Hill but splendid, in its way.