Saturday 2 January 2010

The Last Decade: Part 1...

My friend Paul gave me the idea of writing a review of the last 10 years. It was pretty amazing to look back on this period in my life, most years have been full of really exciting things, far too many to mention. What I have tried to do is capture some of the special, most significant moments......
2000

I saw in the new Millennium with my best mate Ben Bigglestone at a party. After midnight, fuelled by mucho alcohol we decided to abort the party to go to another celebration at a friend’s house in Rawdon. 2000 started with a very drunk 5 mile run at 1am to Pauls, where the fun and games continued. If I remember correctly at one stage I was performing handstands against a wall dressed only in a cooking apron!!

I celebrated my 25th Birthday in Leeds with Ben. It was a great night as we celebrated not only my Birthday but my success earlier in the day getting a new job, Head of the PE Department at Read School.

Athletically I achieved some great things. I rode PB’s in various distance Time Trials. They are still my PB’s 10 years on. I rode 21.12 for 10 miles, 53.42 for 25 miles (the absolute perfect time trialling morning) 1.55.50 for 50 miles, and I did 37.50 for the Dewsbury 10k run. Will I ever ride the bike as quick? Well I think the 10 and 25 maybe out of reach, but I think I could get the 50.

I was still coaching Soccer for NOGA a company based on Long Island NY, USA, and spent 3 weeks during my summer holiday directing a couple of camps.

I qualified and completed in the World Duathlon Championships in Calais, over a distance of 10k run, 40k bike and 5k run. This was a fabulous event; I loved every minute of it. It was made even more special by the fact that Max (my brother) was also racing. The photo is with a good friend John Trevena, an awesome athlete!

The year finished in style. On 31st December I met a gorgeous girl called Sarah Cullen. We met at Manchester Airport, with a group of mutual friends ready to fly to Andorra for my first ever snowboarding holiday.

2001


To this day we are not sure if the snowboarding holiday was a set up, but either way we had a brilliant New Year’s Eve, and weeks snowboarding (The photo was taken early in the morning on 1st January) I subsequently started 2001 with a new Girlfriend. Sarah got to know me in Andorra with a crazy, blond, curly, surfer hair style and a full goatie beard, When I arrived at her flat in the second week of January I looked like a teenager, clean shaven, with a short spiky hair cut (all the blond locks cut off) I think she was a little surprised, but she still liked me!

Work was going well at Read School, however the travelling from Leeds was proving to much of a journey so in April I took up the position of House Master in the schools Boarding House. This allowed me to save some money and roll out of bed down to breakfast and in to work.
The M62 became mine and Sarah’s road. We travelled it as often as we could between Leeds/ Selby and Didsbury. We took a holiday together in Morocco, enjoying each other’s company but hating the place. I have heard that Marrakech is the City least returned to in the World, it wasn’t our cup of tea!

I spent a few more weeks in the summer coaching Soccer on Long Island.

I decided to make Sarah a new TV table. Five patio slabs were required so we picked some up from B&Q and set to work on the very modern looking table, (straight out of ‘Living’ magazine). Three slabs would rest on their ends, with the two slabs resting on them to form the flat table top. The leg slabs were too tall so needed a trim. We went down to the hire shop for an angle grinder and grinding disks. We had a slight problem, Sarah’s flat was on the 3rd floor, and we didn’t have a long enough extension lead. I confidently said it won’t take long so let’s cut the slabs in your hallway. Well clearly my mind wasn’t working very well, as I made the first cut and brick dust fired out the back of the grinder all over the walls, Sarah freaked out hid in the kitchen drinking wine while I finished what I had started. I think Sarah was cleaning up slab dust for months, but miraculously I wasn’t dumped and guess what? Sarah had a really cool TV table, which we still have.

I represented Great Britain again at the World Duathlon Championships, this time in Rimini (Italy) Sarah, my Mum and Dad came with me. I wasn’t very well prepared, having a fairly low key sort of racing season, but I was there and ready to give it everything. Unfortunately in torrential rain I punctured on the first lap of the bike course so my race ended rather abruptly.


2002

Sarah and I enjoyed a fabulous snowboarding holiday at Banff (Canada), it is definitely a place I hope to return to someday.

Come the Spring we had both decided we knew the M62 well enough by now. Sarah’s work situation had changed and we decided to rent a place together near my School. It was a pretty basic cottage in the middle of a farm....... a PIG farm. I loved it, however Sarah was not as impressed. Leaving her lovely brand new Didsbury flat for a dark, damp, spider infested, pig smelling rented cottage was not her idea of fun, but we had a great time buying stuff and enjoying each other’s company.

I finished off the school year in the Boarding house, giving up this part of the job so Sarah and I could spend more time together.

I did a couple more years in the States coaching Soccer, and Sarah and I flew out later in the summer for a holiday, staying with some of my friends at their holiday home in the Hamptons on Long Island. The Hamptons are a beautiful, beach fronted location at the end of the Island, multi-million dollar homes are the norm. We had a great week.

2003

During the Spring Sarah and I brought our first house together. It was a really nice 3 bedroom semi-detached house in the village of Brayton, a well sought after village just a few miles outside Selby. We spent much of that year doing the DIY and decorating thing. The living room floor boards got a sanding, we knocked down the bathroom/ toilet walls to make one big bathroom and put in a new kitchen.

We hosted some great parties; the cocktail party was one of the best. We built a bar, had every cocktail or shot available and had a gambling gazebo with poker and Russian roulette. It was a great night.

I continued to snowboard, leading a holiday for the school to France and fitting in a New Years trip with Ben.

I changed my car this year. My trusty Fiat Punto was gone, replaced by a 4L Jeep Wrangler Sport. I loved it, with the top off and the roaring 4L it was pretty cool. Jeep Wranglers are common place cruising along the beach boulevards on Long Island and now I had my own. I just wished the British weather made having a soft top car more amenable.

At the end of our garden we had a wooden shed and an old brick built one. I drew up a grand plan to demolish both and build a 5m x 3m brick built one which would become my gym. Having cleared the site, dug and concreted the foundations, my Dad then joined me for a week to help with the brick work. We constructed it from breeze blocks, put on a lean to roof, with exposed beams inside, and put in a recycled barn door into a door frame I had constructed. I spent the following week rendering the brick work and finishing off the inside with wooden panels, a laminate floor and spot lights. Neither Dad nor I are builders, but I have inherited my Dad’s practical skills and enjoyment for this kind of work, we were both really proud of what we had achieved. When I moved my weights and training gear into it, it made a fabulous gym.

The summer finished with even more excitement when I proposed to Sarah. My Dad had just left to drive home, we were chilling in the lounge, I reached into my pocket pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. She said Yes.

In the autumn we put down a deposit on a new build house that was being built in the field at the end of our Garden. It was due for completion in Spring 2004 and looked like a really nice 3 bedroom detached house. At the time we had planned to buy it as an investment to rent out. However as the build progressed we realised it was going to be a lovely house on a large corner plot, so we decided to put our house on the market and move into the new one.

Sarah made another career change and decided to work for herself teaching private music lessons. As a kid she played Flute, Clarinet and the Saxophone all to high levels and decided that a change of direction could result in a new career. Things took off instantly with the phone constantly ringing with local people wanting music lessons.

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