London Pride has been handed down to us...

I come from Hounslow. Well, actually..do I? I was born in Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital, which is sort of Hammersmith/Shepherd's Bush. I was taken home to my parent's flat in Chiswick, and we moved to Heston in about 1970/71. Chiswick & Heston are both in the London Borough of Hounslow, so that will do for the purposes of this blog.

So, I've just finished one of my birthday books: Charles Hawtrey: the man who was Private Widdle, and, to my utter delight, I discovered that he came from Hounslow, and indeed, lived there for much of his Carry On career.

Mind you, we're not slackers when it comes to other famous folk you know: Jimmy Page (Heston), a page 3 girl who've name I've totally forgotten, Patsy Kensit, Phil Collins (I think..or was that Ealing), Elvis Costello, and Sanjeev Bhaskar.

Hounslow was the location for Bend it like Beckham. Heston Aerodrome was where Chamberlain waved his bit of paper. When I lived in Heston Johnny Ball and Hannah Gordon lived there....not together, I hasten to add. Finally, slightly more bizarrely, Hounslow is where Rene from Allo Allo (actor Gordon Kaye) was whacked in the head by a bit of masonery during the storms of '87, and chef Heston Blumenthal is named after the 'famous' services on the M4.

Summer party 2007

A massive summer catch up is required. Let's start with a (almost) wonderful weekend in Christchurch, at a summer party thrown by the hostest with mostest....vronni. This was the weekend after the major floods, and and it took us 12 hours to get from Harrogate to Christchurch. Thank God for the portable DVD player we bought. That, and regular naps, kept Laura (and me) surprisingly calm.

As is always the case on the Dorset coast the weather was lovely for the party. A selection of photos above, and see all of them here. Now then, there is a famous person in some of these photos. Actually, I embarassed myself when introduced, by saying "oh, I'm so excited to meet you" (well...I was!). See if you can spot who it is!