Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

Monday was the luckiest day – I spent the morning with my Tory dentist – we argue all the time although he usually gets the last word – because he’s got my mouth full of equipment.

Afterwards I spent a while in Hounslow. I never get to go there anymore, which is sad.  I used to work there and lived just up the road.

It’s a wonderful, vibrant Asian town. Full of life and hope. I wrote a Blog about the film ‘Bend it like Beckham’ last year – it was made locally and captures all of that feeling.

 I ended up looking at hats. Its spring, my hats were starting to look as sad and old as I do. I needed a change.

I bought two – big money proper new hats. Not from charity shops, not from discounters.

How about this for a hat:

 

That’s a real Pork Pie Hat, that hat.

It does mean that I could now have Charlie Mingus’s ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’ played at my funeral, except it’s not my favourite tune. Written to say goodbye to Lester Young, it does have a bit of class to it.

As does my new hat – I bought it for chemotherapy but then, when it came time for me to go to my Jazz Club I couldn’t resist wearing it.

 

That's Dave O'Higgins on Sax with Dave Green on bass.

In a world of Jazz Hats I have to say that mine was the coolest.

 

It's that cool. 

I said it was the luckiest day – it was. I phoned Impact Tours in the afternoon and they confirmed I have a booking for Saturday.

I AM GOING TO FRANCE!

A day trip to St. Omer!

The blog is going international!

Ever since I got ill, the one thing I dreamt of, the one thing I couldn’t do was to travel. This Saturday, I get a day in La Belle France. I can’t believe it.

If anyone can think of anything to do in St Omer I would like to hear from you.

As far as I know it’s an industrial town in Le Pas de Calais and its only claim to be a tourist attraction is that when you go to France to buy cheap lager – that’s where they make the cheap lager.

Mind you, there are worse things I could do than drink lager.

Wish me luck – it will be a long, long coach trip.

I am so excited.

(roadtrip)

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)