Happy Christmas from the Barnet Eye

 Sadly this year, many of us can't be together. Many of the things we normally take for granted just can't happen. I was approached by Fr Eugene at the Sacred Heart Church in Mill Hill who asked if there was something we could do to raise the spirits of people for Xmas, as there would be none of the singing of carols which normally make masses so special.  

I worked with the amazing choir and its choir leader Clare Shah, to put together this socially distanced version of Silent night. This has been shown at all Xmas masses. I just hope that it raised a few spirits. 

If you know the Sacred Heart Church in Mill Hill, I hope you will enjoy the views of the church, if you just like listening to carols, this is a lovely version.

 

You can watch masses live streamed from the Sacred Heart at their Youtube Channel. One of the good things about having a music studio is that, even in these difficult times, we can put a smile on people's faces. 

Dyslexia and Christmas

For those of you who have read my dyslexia blogs before, you may wish to skip this paragraph as it is just the background. If you haven't read my dyslexia blogs before, here is a little preamble and introduction, so you know who I am and what I do and why I write this stuff. For those of you who know the story, skip to the end of the paragraph for todays installment. Let me give you a bit of Background so you know who I am and what I do. I was born in 1962. I didn't start talking until I was 4 years old (at all, not a single word). My parents thought I was deaf. My reading age at eleven was 5. When I was fifteen I started a rock and roll band called the False Dots, the band is still going strong. When I was 16 I started a business called Mill Hill Music Complex (although then it was simply called the studio), a rehearsal studio, as we had nowhere to rehearse. The business has grown into a very successful enterprise, one of Londons biggest and most well respected independent studios. We now have 16 studios and a music shop and also have a photography/video studio and a dance studio. I also have done IT work, mostly on a freelance basis since 1983. In 2012 I also moved into film production, producing two highly acclaimed documentary films, both of which had screenings at the House of Commons. When I was 31, a friend suggested I had a dyslexia test. To my surprise I was told I was moderately dyslexic. This made me interested in the subject. To my amazement, what I have learned over the years is that my lack of educational aptitude, my feelings of anger and injustice and the core of my personality have been formed by the fact I cannot read words in a linear fashion.

I guess that Christmas is a great time of year for Children everywhere. When I was but a wee nipper, I used to love it. I can remember raucous family dinners in the Tichborne household. We'd awake at 4am to check our stockings. I guess things were simpler then. We'd get a couple of quality street choccies, a tangerine, a few small presents and a big present. We'd write Xmas lists, which we'd burn on the fire and send up to Father Christmas. My choices were usually things like a train set, an action man or a Corgi toy, usually the latest Thunderbird or one of the machines from UFO. It was great. Then as I grew up Christmas became more serious. I guess the worst Christmas was when I was around 12. My parents felt I was too old for toys. It was a right of passage in our house that at a certain point you stopped getting toys and started to get clothes and books. Now I wasn't into clothes and being dyslexic I could read properly.

My Mum took this into account, so got me things she felt would interest me, such as the Manchester City Yearbook or the Shoot Annual. She figured that if I had something I liked, I'd at least have a crack at it. She'd say "What book would you like for Christmas?" I'd reply "Comics". She'd say "You're too old for them". I then realised what the game was. I'd ask for things which were vaguely educational, such as Chemistry sets. All I wanted to do was to use the set to make explosives. I must confess that my Dad was also fairly fed up as that was what he was hoping to do as well. Instead you got Copper Sulphate and were able to make nails look like copper. My Dad, being quite kind in that respect, realised my disappointment and took me to his workshop for a quick crash course in making expolsives. Having assembled several prototype bombs, we proceded to a piece of wasteland at the back of his workshop and let them off. It was one of the best days of my life. My father was raised in the outback of Australia and worked on goldfields. Handling things such as nitroglycerene and dynamite were part of daily life. Sadly though, reading and following instructions were not my strong point, so my bomb making career never flourished, my attempts always seem to go wrong (thankfully). I was thinking about my early Christmas experiences and I was wondering how I would have approached Christmas if I was the parent of a dyslexic child. Happily my three do not have the condition.

Firstly, I guess that however much fun it was, I wouldn't give them lessons in bomb making! The Chemistry set was also a bit frustrating because I couldn't get on with the instructions. Anything which has overly technical reading requirements is not great for a dyslexic youth. Needing help only reinforces the frustration and the sense of uselessness. 

The thing which transformed my life was music. I would always encourage dyslexics to try music. A Ukulele is a good way in to playing as it is simple and you can play along on your own. It is easy to pick out simple melodies and also to play chords as a background. 

Another thing which I got into was photography. My folks bought me a cheap instamatic camera and I went around taking all manner of odd pictures of Mill Hill. I still do, many of them I've posted here on the blog. Whilst most people liked taking snaps of their friends, I hated pictures with people in them. My folks would laugh and say "what is that supposed to be?". It is something I never really took further, but would have liked to.

I also loved games. We'd play cards at Christmas and other board games. I was quite good at reading other people, but lousy at counting cards, which my brothers both excelled at. I learned to read their ticks and also to give misleading signs myself. As for board games, I loved games like monopoly and risk. These games help you devise strategy. Many families seem to have lost the art of playing board games. I would suggest that they are great for dyslexics. 

Another thing which I got into then was gardening. My sister Cath used to buy me seeds and plants. I would grow all manner of things. I still have a couple of trees in the garden that I planted when I was twelve (I bought my folks house from them in 1987). I really got into gardening and worked for a landscape gardening firm for a while when I left school. I loved being out in the open. 

Another thing I loved was cooking. My mum would follow recipes, but my Dad always simply cooked by intuition and taste. If he cooked a bacon sarnie, he'd never simply have bacon, he'd always put some tomatoes and mushrooms with it. His omelettes were legendary and I watched and cook a pretty good one myself. He said that if you could cook, you could live like a king. He explained the importance of seasonings and why certain foods worked well with other foods. My mum noting my interest, bought me cookbooks, but the instructions often baffled me. Maybe one day I will make a cooking video for dyslexics. I believe that if you understand the taste of food and why it tastes good or bad, you can cook. I love cooking Xmas dinner.

The last thing in my list is drawing and painting. I've always enjoyed it, although I am truly useless. It is something that you can enjoy. My mother started painting in her 60's and developed a great love of it going on courses in France. It is something I will do if ever I get to retire. For the modern day generation computers open up other forms of art such as video making, which are often easy and intuitive. 

So anyway, my advice is that if you are giving presents to a dyslexic youngster, ask what they want. If you see that there are hidden issues such as difficult and baffling instructions, then discuss this. I personally would steer away from anything overly educational at Xmas. For me this was always a source of disappointment . For many dyslexic children, especially those in their early teens, Xmas is a break from school and is a big highlight of the year. Make it special. We all need to enjoy ourselves sometimes and not be vividly reminded of our big failings as human beings. 

Christmas Carol Service at The Sacred Heart Church, Mill Hill

This evening we attended a fabulous Christmas Carol service at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Mill Hill. The service featured carols sung by both the senior and junior choirs and relevant Christmas bible stories. It is part of our families Christmas tradition to attend this service. The service started with the Church lights being dimmed and the choir arriving singing "Once in Royal David's City". The church is blessed with a large and very versatile adult choir as well as fantastic childrens choir. For me carols such as "O Little town of Bethlehem" and "Hark A Herald" are a big part of the season. It is interesting to note that over recent years the tradition of children doorknocking singing carols has declined, as "trick or treat" has grown.

The church was packed and everyone was welcomed into the social centre afterwards for a mince pie and a glass of wine or soft drink. For such a wretched night, it was good to see the church so busy. It is probably one of the most popular fixtures in the calendar. I for one find the childrens choir very moving when they sing.

Christmas is traditionally a time of good deeds and giving. It has become heavily commercialised over the last few decades. It is perhaps sometimes worth reminding ourselves that there are plenty of people around the world who won't have much to celebrate this Christmas, indeed some people who won't even be able to openly celebrate the festival. Christmas is traditionally a feast to celebrate new life and a joyful time in the darkest days of winter. The feast has built on the ancient tradition of marking the Solstice, when the days start getting longer again. Over the next week, I'll be having many social events with friends and family and a bit of time off. We all need some time to recharge batteries and to relax. This year, for the first time in many years, we are not going away for New Year. Today for our family was the start of the season. This blog has been focussing on Your Choice Barnet for the last two weeks. Today we heard that the economy is growing and the jobless rate has fallen spectacularly. My hope is that the gap between the rich and the poor does not continue to grow. Lets use the Christmas season to remind us that there are people who need our help. Much as I love a good carol service, the Church means nothing if it doesn't remind us that we have responsibilities at this time of year. Whatever your faith or tradition, please remember that there are people sleeping rough in our very own city as I write this blog. I will be getting up at 6am to help feed them at The Passage, a homeless day centre in Victoria.

Ultimately these problems will get fixed when we all start fighting a bit harder for Social Justice. That to me is the real message of Christmas.

More classic stupidity from Richard Barnbrook, London's BNP Numpty no 1

London faces many major problems and issues at the moment. Families struggle to make ends meet, commuters struggle to get to work through traffic chaos, Boris Johnson struggles to balance his budget. Today was the day when the members of the GLA had an opportunity to grill our Mayor and get him to answer the important questions which matter to London. You may wonder what the best question Richard Barnbrook, the GLA's only BNP member could come up with would be - well here it is.

Just how stupid is Richard Barnbrook. Does he really think eating Christmas pudding would help people to understand Christianity? Does he think that one mouthful of figgy pudding leads to enlightenment, if accompanied by a bit of Silent night?

Generally I don't do religious lectures on the Barnet Eye, but as Richard Barnbrook seeks to lecture Muslims about Christmas (Jesus is recognised in Islam as a major prophet so they probably don't need  a lecture), I thought I'd remind Mr Barnbrook of a few facts about Jesus, as stated in the Holy Bible.

Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi. Had he decided to have staged his second coming in Germany in 1944, Mr Barnbrook's political allies, The Nazi's would have gassed him under the racial purity laws.

Jesus was an asylum seeker (as were his parents, Mary and Joseph). They emigrated to Nazareth to escape persecution. We all know what the BNP thinks of Asylum seekers.

Jesus liked foreigners. He even had three wise men turn up from the Orient baring gifts at his birth. The BNP are not so welcoming.

Jesus was a pacifist. He advised his followers to "turn the other cheek" when confronted with violence. Sadly we've seen quite the opposite from the BNP and their bedfellows "The English Defence League".

Jesus was welcoming of foreigners. He told the parable of  "The Good Samaratan" to expose the attitudes of his fellow countrymen to Samaritans (who were disliked). The point of the story was that "foreigners can be as good as anyone else" its how they behave, not where they are from. Let's just remind ourselves of the BNP's attitude to Johnson Beharry, a VC winner in the British Army, who the BNP say cannot be British because he was black.

Which brings us nicely on to what colour was the skin of Jesus. Given where he was living and that he was of pure Jewish ancestry (his birthline to Adam and Eve is listed in the new testament), he was quite clearly not blond hair and blue eye'd. He was probably olive skinned or black. He most certainly looked and dressed more like a Mullah than Richard Barnbrook or anyone else in the BNP. Most representations are of a swarthy looking man with a beard and long hair. Now for all any of us know, he may have looked like Arnie Shwarzennegar, but it seems to be pretty unlikely.

Finally lets remind us what Jesus used to tell his followers "Love Your Neighbour". He didn't qualify that with "Unless they are ******* (complete as appropriate)".

When I see people like Richard Barnbrook, I fail miserably to love my neighbour. That's why generally I don't go around giving religious lectures. The good Lord loves to see a sinner repenteth. I hope Barnbrook reads this, realises he's a twat and repents. I hope he dedicates the rest of his life to making up for the mistakes he's made and the misery he's caused.