Hi Giovanni....good to hear back from you. I’m wondering if I knew you or interacted with you back in the “John Leslie at his shop” days? I saw John quite often at the period where I bought his customized accordion. I remember him saying he wanted to give me first dibs on purchasing it because he knew I loved playing French musette and how much I loved that accordion and that.....he wanted it to go to a good home. I, in turn, couldn’t figure him out. He loved that accordion as much as I did, and he just.....one day, gave it up!



Yes, by coincidence,a few recent events made me realize that even if I went back, it’s “not the same.” One event was reading from this site about renewing my UK driver license.

British Expats Forum

It seems life there DID take a turn for the worse. Unemployment and housing shortages accompanied by astronomical prices among other things. Can't even get my license renewed without residing there. At least many of the pubs have survived the changes.



Wonderful times, wonderful memories. I’ll never have those wonderful days again but just to relive them, writing something like this, makes me feel warm inside. Those were such great times living in happy and Merry Old England.



I enjoyed your commentary about Valentino. I didn’t know him that long, but I remember we liked and respected each other and talked a lot about the business. I do remember that when I met him, he said he was going to go into hibernation.....back out of entertainment for six months and regroup.....put a different act together (?). I also recall him wearing a red velvet tuxedo in performance mode(?)

I had a lot of respect for him that he cared that much about his audience. I’m really glad to hear he’s still around and apparently everything he did “worked” out for him! He certainly impressed me as a really nice “bloke.”

Now is this the same Valentino?:

[url=[url=https://www.google.com]Valentino - GOOGLE search[/url]

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