Nice Shot Of Terry And Terry ,

3 Lovely Dublin Old Ladies - Very Funny!

Margaret Thatcher's death - George Galloway - BBC Radio West Midlands - ...

Carolyn, One Of My Gorgeous Nieces.

The Two Beauties: My Daughter Eileen And Her First Cousin Carolyn.

Lovely Shot Of Colin With Their Spouses Colin And Joanne.

Lovely Shot Of Eileen And Mam.

Eileen And Family Arrive In Dublin

Deer

My Three Girls / Sleepyheads

JP In All His Glory !

Eileen's Father's Day Present To Me .

A Few Shots Of Eileen In Paris And Houston

It took Eileen a good half hour to wake up in the morning as you can see by her expression here. It takes me the same amount of time.

She loved to mimic me, she would read the paper the same way I did although she read it upside down. Here she is with my pipe in the park in Paris.

Nice Shot Of Colin In The '80's.

From what I remember this was taken in Terry's place during a visit there. I think I was working in New York at the time.

A Lovely Shot Of Eileen And Her Step Sister Aline

Two beautiful girls. Brazilian and Irish blood.

Eileen In The Park In Paris / Summer And Winter.

These were some of our best times together.

JP With His Absolute Youngest Sister Lynda

A great pic taken during a visit to Ireland in the late '70's early '80's.

Brendan's Kerry Blue.

B

Eileen And Eduardo

Obviously having a wonderful time.

Georges Moustaki 1934 - 2013

Saw him in the Olympia in Paris in the late '70's. Great artist. It was  wonderful evening of music and conversation with the audience. A true artist who understood human nature. At the end of his set he wanted to to do more songs and poetry and he gave the audience the option of leaving or staying to enjoy his music. I was with someone very special  and we stayed until the end. It was magic.....

This is an autographed photo of Frank Sinatra that I have had since the sixties. No big deal but there is an interesting story behind it.

Frank was playing the royal festival hall and he was in London for the performance. There is a DVD of this performance. It was wonderful. We didn’t see it of course. Gerard twyford and I lived in London at the time but we had very little money and we didn’t have the time to wait outside his place (wherever it was) to try to see him. At that time Sinatra was very, very big in Europe, he always has been. We wanted to meet him and get his autograph but we had more chance of seeing god in those days. We were Sinatra crazy the both of us. We went to Sinatra meetings where they played old recordings and had discussions about composers, interpretations of songs etc. We were crazy; we played his music all the time and would often stay in of an evening and listen to him, Tony Bennet and Ella Fitzgerald. We got to know a lot about who composed what and how many people had sung what, the year it was recorded and so on. One of our favorite LP was Tony Sings for the Jet Set; A great cd for those who care about music. Sinatra at the Sands was also played to death. We also read everything there was to read on these subjects. We ended up being amateur music experts with what we listened to.

Anyway, I digress, one day during frank’s stay in London there was a picture posted in the Standard of him coming out of what looked like and apartment building and on this building there was an address with a number. We put two and two together and wrote to him at said address asking for an autographed photo and hoped for the best but of course we didn’t really have that much ??? of ever getting a response.

But we did! At least Gerard Twyford did, complete with photo and cover letter. I got nothing and was very disappointed, the concert was over and he left London, I still did not have my photo.

Then I remembered the cover letter, got the address and wrote to him in California. You have to remember that this was the sixties and California was on another planet for us.

I sent him a letter and within few weeks I got my photo with a letter of apology. I don’t know where this letter is now but I know I have it somewhere. These were the days before automatic signature machines and as you can see by the smudge the writing seems to be authentic.

The world was a larger place then and the chances of seeing Sinatra ever was as remote as to be beyond imagination for us poor 20 something’s in the sixties.

Little did I know then that 20 years later as we were preparing a banquet in Palm Springs that the door would swing open and in would walked Frank Sinatra. He looked at me and our eyes met for a brief moment. They were piercing blue eyes and the aura around the man was almost visible. I cooked dinner for him at the Palm Springs hotel and saw him concert in Tacoma, Washington for my 40^th birthday. After the concert I went up to the stage before he got down and watched him come down the steps to go to his dressing room. This man floated on air and had a powerful presence. I reached out and touched him on the shoulder.  People parted to let him through as if he were royalty.

The moral of this story, if there is one, is that we never know what tomorrow or next year will bring and things that seem out of reach are attainable. 

Me In That Same Church

Eileen And Aline's Mother / Brazil 70's

These were lifted from a contact sheet so the quality is not very good.

Eileen And JP Looking A Little Alike

A Few Shots From A Contact Sheet Of Eileen And Me In Paris In The 80's.

Polo Grounds Indio California

The Entire Walsh Family / The Only Photo Of Us All Together In One Place. Where We Grew Up.

1/Eileen 2/ Brendan / 3 Brian / 4 Colin / 5 Terry 6/ Phyllis 7/ Paul 8 / Raymond / 9 Me 10/ Audrey 11/Lynda 12/ Mam 13/ Dad/ 14 Anne.

Zsa Zsa Gabor Indio California

She was at the horse show in Indio California.. Pity I didn't get to talk to her, she looked great.

Terry's Watercolor.

My brother Terry's watercolor. A true  talent ! I wish he had done more.

All of the photos on the blog have  been deleted by Google due to the fact that I deleted the photos from Picasa which in turn deletes them from the blog. They did not make this clear. What Idiots !!!!!

Old People Do Math / Very Funny !

JP's New Pea Coat.

My Brother Brian's New Grandson

Very nice photo taken by Brian's daughter.

What does Pope Benedict order for breakfast on his last day?

Mam And The Girls

Flipping the Bird to the Judge

This is too funny. She won't be so smart again in a hurry.

Meridien Hotel Crew / Life In Egypt 1976

This is an extract from a much larger video filmed by Claude Patry in Cairo when we worked there together. It shows a photo shoot we did with the entire kitchen staff in the ballroom. It also show a small cruise down the Nile that was taken by the expatriates and a scene at the pyramids with all of the kitchen management staff. I am still in touch with most of these people and it is unfortunate that they are in France and I am here. Many long term friendships were forged during that period and although we worked very hard we also had some fun. I have very fond memories of this particular time and the good laughs we had. There is a small snippet of Cathy that I left in at the very end for those at home who remember her. She is at a little picnic wearing a short sleeved blue shirt, it is very fleeting so you have to be quick. Phyllis loved Cathy so she will be glad to see this.
The quality of this video is not very good because it was filmed in super 8 and then transferred to video. The memories are in technicolor and cinema scope.

Seattle Today Television Show

Television show on cold soups on a Seattle station during the late 80's,

Riding Lesson Bob Woodington

If you don't like riding and are not into equestrian sports then don't watch this, you will be bored.
This was a lesson I took of the best, if not the best, instructors. He is sadly now deceases and greatly missed. He only taught upper end rider so the day he agreed to take me on for this lesson was a huge compliment and a sign of the progress and confidence I was getting at the time.
I loved this sport and I took to it like a duck to water after a very shaky start. It was a sad period when I could no longer do it due to constant moving and the lack of facilities in some of the places I had to move to.
The people I met in this sport knew nothing of the Hotel Industry so the sport had the added advantage of getting completely away from work. The two ladies you hear talking in this little video are still dear friends and were greatly responsible for any success I had in the sport.
It makes me sad to watch these wonderful bygone times of powerful concentration and total focus on what one was doing, to the exclusion of everything else.

Les Antilles

Beautiful shot of the French Antilles by my good friend and fellow photographer Daniel Bouchard.