HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all my wonderful, beautiful friends.

If I live to be one hundred years old, no matter what happens in the coming thirty-three years, 2017 will always be the worst year of my life. It will also be, undoubtedly, the very best year of my life.

Throughout 2016 and in the early part of 2017 my wife was always complaining that I sat about the house doing nothing more than write books to publish on Amazon. Books that nobody ever read and books that would never transform me into a wealthy best selling author. She was for ever urging me to get  involved in some form of community work. I was not in the least bit  interested.

My beautiful and so much loved daughter Rebekah passed away on Friday 19th May. All her life she had been plagued with kidney  problems and had been unwell for many weeks but still her death was sudden and unexpected. Beck and I have always been close, I just could not imagine life without her.

At her funeral the chapel was packed, it was standing room only. Rebekah had been dealt  a bad hand in the card game of life but she had touched so many, many lives with her kindness and her love.

Her cheeky smile was legendary and infectious. I defy anyone to produce a photograph of

my little girl where she is not smiling. Rebekah inspired all she met.

2017 will always be the worst year of my life, nothing could ever change that.

2017 is also the most wonderful year of my life. I am now involved in so may different areas of activity. We have OurRebekah which her friends set up to support Ronald McDonald Houses. I am part of our local radio station through which I intend to generate support for all kinds of different causes. I joined the team as Audience Development Manager but will soon be presenting my own show - David's Adventures In Music. I have become a Sheffield Wednesday fan. I have made contact with so many of my former students and hope something will come out of that friendship where we Leonites can support other people less fortunate than ourselves.  I used to say that I was of the wrong generation to make social media work, I am now a social media expert, my Facebook page is alwaus in the top 2% for UK activity. . One of my former students has involved me in the celebration party for Bletchley Youth Centre's 50th

anniversary. I am hoping soon to become a governor of a local school. 

As and when I can find time I still write stories. 

I even have my medal for completing the Big Fun Run - NO I did not come in last !

Quite a portfolio for someone who said he did not want to become involved in any  voluntary  activity !

Rebekah you are responsible for this !

I am involved in so many different things life can be a bit stressful at times. At other times that can be a major  understatement.

But it is not this collection of activity orbiting round my life that has made 2017 such a special year. It is all of the wonderful, beautiful people I can now call my friends that makes 2017 so special.

If you take the years from 1950 all the way to 2016 and add them together I have made more friends in 2017 than I have in the preceding 66 years added together. These are special friends, wonderful, beautiful people.

Something has happened with the friends I already had, friends from those 66 years. Our friendship has strengthened.

I boast about my friends ll the time. When our city's Mayor and his wife give me a Christmas present I took pride in telling people.

Yesterday Sheffield Wednesday FC sacked its manager. My friend Club Director Trevor must have spent Christmas Eve up to his eyes in dealing with the media yet at thirty-one

minutes into Christmas Day he sent me this e-mail.

Hi David 

Many thanks again for the gifts and good wishes. We are honoured to have welcomed you as a Wednesday supporter and I hope you are as proud of yourself as we are of you. 

I hope you have a great Christmas and our paths will hopefully cross on New Year's Day.

Kind regards as always 

Trevor 

But this boasting is not my being immodest or engaging in a massif ego trip, well I hope it is not.  It is an expression of pride to have so many wonderful people around me. Pride in the world we live in.

Yesterday one after another Leonite sent me a message wishing my family a Happy Christmas. Heck it has been twenty years since I was head of year at Leon School. When Rebekah died 120 of my wonderful, beautiful  former students sent Maureen and I messages of love.

I live - you life - in a beautiful world filled with some incredible people - people I am so
deeply proud to call my friends, my special friends.

In a short while my very best friend Maureen who has put up with me for almost forty years and I will exchange presents. Maureen thank you for putting up with me all this time. I love you so much.

Today on Christmas morning, wearing my Santa Hat - both the traditional one and the one in Sheffield Wednesday colours may I wish everyone a wonderful HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Let's all together have an amazing 2018 in this special world we all live in, a world made special by the beautiful friends who live here.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

I plan to leave this blog entry on-line over Christmas. I will start writing again on 30th of December.

Twenty- seven thousand, four hundred an seventy-one

Twenty-seven thousand, four hundred an seventy-one people turned up at Hillsborough yesterday to cheer on their team. There are many so called big clubs who would not have minded having such a gate figure yesterday.

Sheffield Wednesday has not won a game since 4th December. Yesterday the team lost 2 - 1 at home to Middlesborough.  Currently at fifteenth place in the table, if something does not change in the New Year then relegation can not be dismissed.

But it is the TEAM that is going through a bad patch not the CLUB. The club is riding high as one of the best, if not THE, best in English football.  With teams bad times come and go. With clubs bad times come and the club goes !

If the club stands firm for the game - which it is, if the fans stay loyal to the club then everything will be well. Negativity breads negativity. I have stopped looking at the fans' Facebook page where too many people are demanding the manager be sacked. As I left Hillsborough yesterday evening a man was running around shouting Carlos Out ! What good did that do ?

Let me tell you about my day at Hillsborough.   Let  me tell you why I am a proud Wednesday fan. As you read what I say stand aside and think the solution Sheffield Wednesday Football Club needs for its team is the same thing we all need when we hit less than perfect times in our own lives.

Gary and I arrived at Hillsborough at  11.30am. We had a good ride up the M1 even if the turbo charger on the Jag was giving us a hard time.

We made our way  to the club reception to leave a few Christmas gifts for the behind the scenes boys and girls - those who play a major part in making the club as great as it is.  We were spotted by the lady who runs the reception area, she recognised us - Good to see you again.  Her welcome was warm, friendly and lovely.

I said to her that in my opinion it is the work behind the scenes that makes Wednesday great. She smiled and made some comment about her not being on the pitch.

On then to the club shop - The Owls Mega Store. More than three hours ahead of kick-off it was packed. There must have been thirty or more people lining up for the tills. I waved my

visa card at the till for one hundred and forty-four pounds  !

I got two away  team shirts which I am going to ask if the boys would autograph. When OurRebakah has its fun run on the Golden Gate Bridge in April we will then take the shirts to the two Ronald McDonald houses in San Francisco.

I got a Sheffield Wednesday toy truck and an Owls watch which I am going to use for a game of pass the parcel when my two grandsons come round later. 

It is a tradition that I buy a scarf which I send to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham to give to a family.

Back then to club reception and the pre-match lunch. We were early so a member of the hospitality team took Gary and I on a behind the scenes tour.

One area we did not actually get to see was the physio room. The door was ajar and our host called out ARE YOU DECENT ! Club Captain Sam Hutchinson yelled back NO !

I have put together a little slideshow of our tour through the Wednesday Wonderland yesterday. Enjoy.................................

While we were dining in the finest possible style fans were being greeted with mulled wine, Santa was handing gold Sheffield Wednesday chocolate coins to the children. How many BIG clubs did that yesterday ? 

The white onion, stilton and sherry soup was delicious with a capital D.  I dropped a hint to get the recipe from the chef but that just brought  smile. I have challenged Maureen to make some.

It was delicious !

From the menu I selected Christmas Pudding Trifle for desert. A novelty but every bit as yummy.

Eating in Sheffield Wednesday's  Dooley's Restaurant is a gastronomic extravaganza.

Staff we wearing blue and white Santa hats. Being a big kid I wanted one. Had they been on sale in the club shop ?  Had I missed them ?

Walking the short distance from the hospitality suite to our seats I heard a voice behind me say: There you are, I've been looking for you.  It was Club Communications Director Trevor. He put a club Santa hat into Gary's hand who put it on my head for the game.

The OurRebekah Brummie Owls project sponsors goals the boys score for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. YES YES the team lost yesterday but Ross Wallace scored a goal which has added ONE HUNDRED POUNDS to help run The Mansion of Love.

I have been thinking hard about our Brummie Owls project and want to make two suggestions which I hope everyone will support.

FIRSTLY, if we are going to take this project forward in 2018 and make it a more significant source of support I need to hand it over, we need to appoint a secretary/manager to be in charge.

SECONDLY, in running Brummie Owls I am very careful not to invade the club fan base.

Sheffield Wednesday has its own programme of support for sick children in Sheffield Hospital. It also offers support to St Luke's Hospice.  I have decided that I want to support the work the club does within its community programme. 

Yesterday I found the prefect way we can do this.

On Saturday 14th April people can be sponsored to become a Sheffield Wednesday player for a day. A minimum sponsorship of five hundred pounds is required. I am trying to persuade Gary to take part but it is the week before we all fly to San Francisco so getting two Saturdays in a row off work may be difficult. If Gary can not play I intend to ask the club to nominate a player we can all support. Let's add one thousand pounds to the sponsorship. Will you do that with me ?  

We are going back to Hillsborough on New Years Day. I intend to explore then how we can become involved to support Sheffield Wednesday support St Luke's Hospice.

The team lost yesterday ! The club did not play its victory anthem but thought I would play it now. As I do that I want to say two things.

ONE: Come on boys !  Get your act together. You are part of the greatest club in English football so let's see a bit more power, a bit more passion in the games. Forget the negativity surrounding the play. BANG THE BALL IN THE NET !

TWO: There is far more to a football club that two goal posts and a bit of grass between them. It is that philosophy that makes Sheffield Wednesday Football Club what it is.

I'll be back at Hillsborough on Saturday 1st January. Gary and I have our names down for the GRANDSTAND VIP HOSPITALITY AREA. See you all then.  HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL.

I have taken the theme from Wednesday Wonderland for today's Advent Calendar.

On Christmas Eve this should be our last window but I plan something special for tomorrow Christmas Day, something for all the wonderful people who have been a part of OurRebekah since it was set up seven months ago.

Speak to you then.

A very short bog today

Here's today's Advent Window. In a couple hours I will be heading to Hillsborough to watch the boys play, and hopefully win against. Middlesborough. I will bring you a full report on the game tomorrow.  Then on Christmas Day there will be a special edition.

David

So much for yesterday being my day off ! LOVE POURED IN.

I thought Thursday would be a chill out day after a busy week. Who was I kidding ! ? !

Where to begin.

I received a Christmas card yesterday from Ronald McDonald House in Nashville Tennessee.  A card of love from half way round the world.

This pic I love. It's two family members who stayed in Ronald McDonald House Nashville.

Let's play some music for these lovely people.

I love that piece of music. It actually features in one of my books but that's another story. Pardon the pun !

On Wednesday Mayor David Hopkins asked if I could arrange for him to present his top fav hits from the 1970's on Secklow 105.5. Spoke with Tony Ingeldow and spoke with David's PA. That is now happening in four weeks time.

I had an e-mail from the council's marketing director, wasn't quite sure what it was about. Then the penny dropped.

We all know this picture from OurRebekah's Frog Challenge was popular on Google. Yesterday Google told me it is the most viewed image ever for Milton Keynes on Google Reviews and Google Maps.

Our JustGiving page took an enormous jump yesterday with those lovely, lovely people from Little Houghton Day Nursery crediting the £410 raised from their raffle and Christmas Jumper Day.

I am now looking to the boys at Hillsborough on Saturday to score TWO goals then we will hit THREE THOUSAND POUNDS in time for Christmas.

Little Houghton I have loads of kids songs on vinyl if you want mt to come over an play them for you all some time. Until then let me play this for you.

Well I guess I had better play today's Advent Calendar song.

I had completely forgotten that I was bidding on a collection of 40 vinyl singles on e-bay. I WON !  So my music collection is expanding.

Maureen says I have got to buy a little van to put all the radio and music gear in. I spoke with the brothers who own Aristocars down the road, always get my cars from them, asked them to look out for a cheap Citroen Saxo. With the seats down that's a mega car.

Do you remember Prescott Two Jags ?

Meet Ashford Two Jags.  Well I do have first refusal on another one. Have I not said it would be cheaper to buy a new car rather than pay to have mine cleaned. Thing is I can not bear to part with my existing X type.  I have put 35,000 miles on the clock this year so if I had two I could share things out a bit in 2018.

I wonder what will be in Mayor David's top ten hits from the 70's. David is a bit younger than I am so I am allowed to select mine from the 1960's and drift into the 70's.

Of course my number one is this. You all know that don't you........

That is t he greatest piece of music ever written.

Yesterday evening I received a Christmas message on Facebook from a Leonite Friend. I am not going to say what was in the message or who sent it, it was personal but so powerful.  THANK YOU. Let me end today's blog with something which is so very important to me, it has been since the day I first heard it back in 1971. My Friend, ALL of my friends take this and make it it your resolution for the New Year.

DO YOU LIKE MY JUMPER ?

Do you like my jumper ?

Yesterday 157 friends read the blog bringing the weekly total to 789.  

Christmas will soon be here, don't know about you but I am nowhere near ready.

As I start writing this blog page the Advent Calendar Window for today is uploading to YouTube. Let me have a look and see how it's doing...................

Oh that's cool - just finished.  Here you go.

The JustGiving page is still at where it is. There's another £410 from Little Houghton Day Nursery's Christmas Raffle yet to be added which will bring it up to £2,819. I would so much like it if we hit £3,000 by Christmas Day.

If the boys from Sheffield Wednesday score two goals on Saturday against Middlesborough that would do it. Brummie Owls Sponsorship for the day stands at one hundred pounds a goal.

Would you like to cheer on the team ?

I will be at Hillsborough cheering on the team.  I am not certain if my Christmas Jumper meets the club's dress code. I think ahead of the game I will visit the club shop and treat myself to a club tie.

That photograph of me in my jumper was taken yesterday in the studio at Secklow 105.5 as I reported on the two Secklow Radio Roadshows held last week. Our next roadshow is

happening on Saturday 6th January at Asda Supermarket in Bletchley.

I would like to have one or two Secklow Radio Roadshows every month. 

Do you run a community, social or sporting group ?      Do you have a business, large or small, which has an EFFECTIVE and ACTIVE community programme ?

Could we bring the Secklow Radio Roadshow along to support you and what you do ?

Roadshow events are NOT outside broadcasters but playing music to support what you are doing.

Please speak to me - don't be shy, let's get your group into the roadshow diary.

I was a good boy yesterday - a very good boy. I typed up all outstanding notes for my latest  book THE BRIDGE HOUSE. 

The remaining five or six thousand words are in my head, I just need to take them out and into my notebook then type them up into the draft edition.

If I  am a mega good boy that could be achieved by February.

The the hard work begins. I could do with some help there. I need people to proof read the text and help me eliminate the typos !  I need short review comments to appear on the back cover. Could you help me ?

The story has reached the point where this photograph was taken.

That's me playing cricket with Mac, the family pet dog. I write under the pen-name of Max Robinson. Robinson is my Mother's maiden name and Max is a slight alteration of the name Mac.

I am going to do now something which is very much out of character. I am going to shut up. Let's keep the blog short today. 

Catch you again tomorrow.

That was Tuesday - Now bring on Wednesdsy

Sunday - blog readership = 348

Monday - blog readership = 127

Tuesday - Blog readership = 157

348 + 127 + 157 =  632 - not bad eh !

Now bring on Wednesday

Yesterday Secklow 105.5's Tony Ingeldow and Your Truly the station's Audience Development Manager were playing music in West Bletchley Community Centre - TAKING COMMUNITY RADIO INTO THE COMMUNITY..

We had some fun I can tell you.

Everyone sat very politely eating their Christmas tea while Tony and I played Christmas music in the background. 

Requests kept coming in. 

See if you can guess the most requested song.

Go on, what do you think it was ?

I've used it for today's OurRebekah Advent Window.

I had the microphone in my hand yesterday when that song was announced. I described it

as politically incorrect but fun. I have always liked that song. On Saturday at the Roadshow it was the most requested exactly as it was yesterday.

With the food coming to an end Santa appeared, Tony played SANTA  CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN and I followed him round the room taking photographs.

Returning to the music decks Santa followed me and gave me a gift. Opening the packed I found a pair of thermal socks. Hey Santa THANK YOU.  I could have done with them at last Saturday's Roadshow !

With Santa heading back to The North Pole and the food eaten it was time to turn the

volume up and let the people bop.

And how those people could bop !

I worked the decks while Tony worked the microphone. We played:

YMCA - AGADO - THE LAMBETH WALK - S|SIMON SAYS - THE MUSIC MAN - THE CONGA - THE HOKEY COKEY.......

Here's a quick slideshow of the afternoon.

A great success for the Secklow Radio Roadshow taking community radio into the community.

Many of those lovely people dancing to the music yesterday had sent gifts of love to the families with a child sick in Birmingham's Childrens' Hospital. 

Those gifts are now under the tree in Ronald McDonald House.

The music yesterday was in part a THANK YOU for the gifts.

This afternoon I will be in the studio with Tony telling people all about yesterday and the roadshow last Saturday.

I am going to take along a CD with SINGING ON IN THE RAIN which Tony will play to

describe Saturday !

Isn't life just fun ?

Isn't this world just full of wonderful people ?

There is a question I keep being asked. I usually smile and say nothing but today I will give you an answer.

Folk ask me where I get my energy from. When you get to my age the ONLY way to live life is like an express train.

When Secklow Presenter Frank Scarito had

me on his MY INSPIRATION programme I explained how as a teenager I was a serious underachiever !  I am working now to make up for those sad, lost years.

If you missed the show CLICK HERE and have a listen.

During the interview I talked about my wasted time at school.

My schoolboy autobiography explains why and how I wasted my time at school.  Max Robinson is me - that's my pen name.

I am proud to have so many of my ex students - MY LEONITES as friends. It has been twenty years since I was Head of Year at Leon School but every day I speak with several of these special, wonderful people. I think I would be embarrassed if any of them were to actually read that book !

Not wishing to enhance my author's royalties but feeling I deserve embarrassment for those wasted years I will give you the the e-book link for my schoolboy autobiography.

Here you go !  CLICK HERE  Don't read it though will you !

My latest book THE BRIDGE HOUSE is coming to an end. I have about five thousand more words to write then it can be published. I am certain this will be the best selling of all my books.

This afternoon while Tony is broadcasting and I am sitting on the side waiting for my turn on the microphone I will be typing up a few hundred words I  have scribbled for the penultimate chapter in the book.

My publisher is always moaning that I do not promote my books enough. Ok the royalties go towards my being able to drive a Jag instead of the Ford Focus I used to have but the thrill for me is writing not making money.

Royalties from The Bridge House when it is published in May next year will go to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.  I will be promoting that book like crazy.

I am thinking what I will be writing when The Bridge House comes to an end.

Just under a year ago I tried by hand at a style of writing I had never considered before. I had a go at crime fiction and found I loved it. Words flowed so fast and The Case Filed Of Dave McDermott was written in just a few weeks.

The crimes McDermott investigates are very violent and some of a nasty sexual nature. Not a book for the faint at heart.

If you want to read it CLICK HERE. Make sure you are 18 before you do.

I may go back and find some more cases for my detective to investigate.

When Frank Scarito interviewed me for his show we talked about the painter L S Lowry. I wrote Lowry into my book The Autobiography of Billy Hardcastle.

CLICK HERE

We also talked a bit about my time travel trilogy. In that I fictionalise myself back in time to become a DJ on a pirate radio station.

CLICK HERE if you like. If you must.

This book is a bit different.

CLICK HERE

Oh stop it David, your ego is running away with you.

There are actually another eight books I have written but perhaps I will tell you about them on another day.

My latest piece of writing will go on sale this Saturday at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. This is the second time I have been asked to write something in a match-day programme.

This little article will support the photograph taken by the club's official photographer when Secklow 105.5's Tony Ingeldow presented the club with 7" vinyl singles of their adopted

anthems.

I am determined that next season I will be in Hillsborough's sound box playing some party music ahead of a game.

Yesterday I reminded Tony of this. On Saturday I will run the idea past the directors.

It will be a LONG day on Saturday. Gary and I are due to be met at the club reception for noon. The post match party then ends at six !

Perhaps I should write a book THE DIARY OF A SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY SUPPORTER - first game to directors' box in three months !

I'll leave you with this.