Dear Friends
Merry Christmas
It has been a while since I last wrote a Christmas newsletter or felt at all Christmassy. Those of you who know me really well will fully understand why. Anyway I thought it was about time to SUMO, (shut up and move on) to get on with my life and stop feeling sorry for myself and hiding away from you all. We only have the one life and it is for living.
I finally divorced in February. Hurrah!
It is now two years since I last saw H or had any contact with her. I will never give up on trying to re establish contact. I cannot tell you how awful and slow the legal system is in this country is but sometime in the New Year we will eventually get to a resolution. Roll on 2008!
On to happier things. I have moved down to the beautiful Purbeck hills in Dorset. 16 years in Kent was enough and when J introduced me to the Jurassic Coast with its breathtaking beauty and incredible sunsets I was hooked. This would be the new start. Purbeck is like the best of Yorkshire and Devon combined and felt so right I made the decision immediately to move. I had been intending to find somewhere in the New Forest but financially that was a step too far and I had not at that point discovered that no-mans land between Hampshire and Devon that we drive past focused on the bloody caravan in front and never stop to look! This photo should say it all. After a lovely Valentines day lunch in Swanage, Jane and I happened to pass an Estate agent’s window and there was a Church Tower for sale! We viewed it that afternoon and I put an offer in. It was accepted eventually in April and I moved in the following month. It is perfect. Close to the Ferry to Jersey, close enough to J and her girls in Christchurch and also it’s on the main line to London and right on a river within spitting distance of the arguably the best coastline in Britain.
There is lots of renovation to do and it is a 5 year grand design project to return it to its former beauty. I am now officially Quasimodo in my Tower and looking forward to you coming to visit or stay.
October saw the Kitchen finished and I am now able to cook both technically and physically thanks to the patience of J who has forced me kicking and screaming to the oven to the point I hate to say I now enjoy it! So much so I am hosting Christmas lunch this year to try and repay the wonderful hospitality and welcome I had from J and her family in previous years. Greater love hath no woman than to trust me to cook!
A 4m Manta coming to play!
Other great things this year include an amazing week on a diveboat in the Maldives where I had the once in a lifetime experience of diving with Manta Rays. Thanks to 'Rommel' a good friend and business associate I spent 6 weeks in the amazing country of Oman and got to dive, stay out overnight in the desert and even learn to Kiteboard!! This was all in between running back to back leadership courses one of which was held in the middle of a hurricane. That is a story in itself. J the girls and I also managed a week in Antigua …. A last minute deal that, we discovered when we arrived, was due to another hurricane passing through. Ho hum we still managed some nice sailing and some sun although I would not recommend Antigua as a holiday destination.
Business has been a mixed bag this year with some big changes. Much of my work has been sub contracting to other training providers to keep the wolf from the door and certainly the recession has been very evident for sometime now as training is typically the first thing to get hit. Likewise the pace of life in Dorset is different and the last two years has made me realise that there is more important things in life than financial security and more to life than working your socks off.
On Monday I finally had the operation to remove my gall bladder which was last planned for 12 December 2006 at the notorious Kent and Snuffit hospital. With only 4 small holes to show for it and two days in hospital in Poole I have had my faith in the NHS renewed and can honestly say it was a pleasure! My recovery was in a bed by the window on the 5th floor of Poole hospital. I woke up to a stunning sunset then, the following day to dawn breaking over Poole harbour. A sight that footballers spend millions on in their palaces in Sandbanks all for free. I suppose lying there I realised that it was a good metaphor for the last few years. The end of one period of my life, and the dawning of something beautiful and new.
So to sign off can I say a big thank you for sticking by me through the dark times and for putting up with my black moods ( I share them with other ordinary folk like Churchill, Napoleon, Mandella etc!) I promise to be more fun and a better friend in return going forward. I wish you all a fabulous Christmas and even better 2008.
Book your stay at the Tower nice and early it will be great to see you again soon
Much love and best wishes
14.12.07
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