Xmas Critique. By Uncle Monty.

Xmas Critique. By Uncle Monty.

YouTube Video By

Richard van den Boogaard.

Xmas Photos By Alex Albion.
...
Richard van den Boogaard's "Merry Christmas London

2009" appears via his YouTube video, on this Christmas

Morn, with myself finally getting 15 seconds of "fame"

of some sorts for all the world to see me on ...
.
YouTube:

www.youtube.com/brandedchannels

...

I must say that Richard van den Boogaard's YouTube

presentation of Christmas in London 2009 is a "jingle bells"

kind of piece that he has done rather nicely,videographic-

ally and, of course, with much of a xmasy dose.

...
London's St. Martin-in-the-Fields Carollers.

...
Lone Scotsman outside London's Charing Cross Station.

While on my way to London's Charing Cross underground

to participate in the annual carol singing to raise funds for the
Connections homeless centre at St Martin-in-the-Fields, I
saw the lone pictured Scotsman playing somewhat plaintive-
ly at the outside of the CX station. I couldn't resist giving him

a quid or two as I listened to his bagpipe music of Yuletide.
Inside the station there was the St. Martin's carol singers
with Roger Shaljean in charge. I got a charity bucket to

collect whatever I could for the homeless centre, which is

quietly Anglican without public fanfare. Roger seemed rather
aloof, I must say. When I went to shake his hand to say
"goodbye" at the end of the carol singing he failed to
look and to shake my hand as if I wasn't even there.

...
Then there was dear "Pooh," who for years has sang at St. Martin's

and who plays the Xmas tambourine, telling me her vexing story of

how she'd bought from a Big Issue vendor the current Paul Mc-

Cartney Christmas issue only to later find the female vendor had

cunning slipped in her shopping bag an outdated copy of an August

back issue instead of the Xmas one she'd happily paid for. The same

vendor had also demanded 10 quid from "Pooh," a retired lady

and devout Anglican, telling her she needed the money to help

feed her baby or something like that. Big Issue's Paul Joseph

called Pooh back and she said he apologised and was so nice.

I asked Pooh, if she thought the vendor was a Romanian

or an Eastern European foreigner?

"Probably so," answered Pooh.
...
Uncle Monty with a lovely St. Martin carol singer.

...
Richard is a regular St. Martin's carol

singer who shows his old fashioned love
for Father Christmas, too! Bravo!!

...
Two of Uncle Monty's Café Nero buddies - Robin and

Nicola - on Christmas Eve as they enscribed their Xmas

messages to him on the large cup of piping Hot Chocolate!!

So nice of them, I say ...

...

Fabulous was Xmas Eve for me with last minute Xmas folkz stopping to buy my Big Issue that totalled around 120 sold copies of mine. My big green jacket pockets were almost full of 1 and 2 quid coins, although I had my wheelie bag ready to also fill up with whatever coins the Covent Garden shoppers may have decided to give me more. On the whole, however, it was the quietest Xmas Eve I have ever seen in my past five there. When I counted all my change - with also a few but rare big quid banknotes - I tallied almost £350 for my Xmas Eve! Bravo! I manned my pitch from 7.00am to 6.00pm despite the earlier rain and the all day gray overcast sky that always makes London so dreary and especially on times like Xmas Eve. Yet even though I did okay, many Big Issue vendors didn't see much of a Christmas for them with poor sales and even poorer giving by the shoppers and visitors to Covent Garden over the past week leading up to Christmas Day, 2oo9. When I tallied what I had taken over my 28-day period of Xmas sales, I had taken £1,781 in all. That's stated not to brag but to tell you of what took place. While that is pretty good, it was poor compared to pervious Xmas takings I have at my Big Issue pitch. This year I didn't see the huge single donations - except for Jan Mol's usual and kind £150.00 donation to me - but rather alot more quids of small 1's and 2's. Of course, if one gets the volume of such, then it can soon amount to a tidy bit of welcome cash. Such helped to save my Christmas, if not my spirit or our Broken Christmas at Broken Britain of today ...
...
While overall, I still saw thousands upon thousands of
folks in London who refused to even give a dime at
Christmastide to Big Issue vendors. I also saw foreign
visitors galore, those cagy Orientals - Japanese,
Chinese, Koreans - by the busloads; along with those
god damn imposed Africans and menacing Muslims
upon us, who will not give a red cent let alone a word
of good cheer to those vendors trying to make a little
something over the Xmas period. For many vendors,
they just quit trying to do Christmas on the streets of
London. Many more head to CRISIS to spend Xmas
there with their fellow homeless and the vunerable.
Christmas is a cruel time for all too many people.

.

Out of luck, on the streets ...

By Steve Bird.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article6966905.ece

...
Yes, Richard van den Boogaard's Christmas "jingle

bells" on YouTube is all fine and dandy, but the reality

of Christmas in London isn't music to the ears of the
elderly, the lonely, the sick, the poor, the rejected, the
unloved, the homeless, the disrespected, the redundant,
the bereaved, the abused, the familyless, the marginal-
ized, and society's castoffs. Christmas for them isn't jingle

bells, it's simply living hell on earth!! The immaculate birth

of Christ Jesus is as remote to them as flying to the moon.

Sad, but true ... But if they embrace Him, then humankind's

earthly "Christmas" is basically trivial and nothing to have

missed or even to fret about with all the shopping bags and

obligatory Xmas gifts that amount to human gratification

and not the glorification to or for Him. That's why Christ-

mas is a kind of hell for many because we've grafted

commercialism and consumerism on humans among the

jingle bells of modern and meaningless Christmas. Once

things become less important in one's life, then the

celebration of the The Prince of Peace and The King of

Kings transcends our plastic ideal of Christmas that has

become more and more Christless in Broken Britain

with non-believers of every kinds now killing all that is

good and great about Christianity and The Nativitiy

of Him. Nobody, and no thing, comes close to the

holy birth of Our Only Lord and Saviour. Amen.
...

Some folks pray to see the end of Xmas for it brings no

joy, but pure pain, deep sadness and sheer emptiness.

It shouldn't be like that! Therefore, embrace Him.
...
Inside Café Nero with a bunch of Spanish
kidz visiting London at Christmas Eve, 2oo9.

...
Videographer Richard van den Boogaard at
Uncle Monty's Big Issue pitch a week or
so before Christmas Eve, 2oo9.

http://www.youtube.com/brandedchannels
...

:: Feedback From America ::
Dear Monty, So good to hear from you, and to see your smiling face on YouTube. You look very well! Thank you for the Christmas greetings. Here in Northern California, in the mountains, we had a beautiful day. We spent it with family and friends, definitely the way to go. Had dinner with Heidi and Jim (Johnson) - you remember our Heidi? - the other evening. Hope you stay cozy and warm, and that the Nero folks keep you well-supplied with Orangina and coffee. Best wishes, Susan (Prince) . Re: UNCLE MONTY on Youtube this Xmas Day ... Date: Sat 12/26/09 04:38 PM.

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The story caption photo is of Uncle Monty at his pitch with old friend Jan Mol's 7 lovely grandchildren visiting London from The Netherlands for Christmas while staying with their grand dad at Theatreland.

What else can I say, except "A MERRY CHRISTMAS" TO YOU!!

Uncle Monty. +Christmas Day, 2oo9.

~ Click on any image to Enlarge ~