Since my last Communique newsletter, my life away from Integra has continued to be busy with a mix of family, travel, music and football.
Unfortunately the last three months have also seen the deaths of four people whose passing will leave significant holes in my life.
Firstly John Buddle, ex ISVA President and a huge figure in the Cornwall community. Whilst John had a “good innings” as befitted a man synonymous with Camborne cricket club and Cornwall cricket, his passing was still very sad and Sue and I had no hesitation on making a three day trip down to Cornwall (we stayed at the beautiful fishing village of Porthleven) to be present at his well-attended funeral and pay our respects (and those of the Past Presidents Club of ISVA) to celebrate the life of a wonderful man and a true gent.
Secondly, Sue and my lives were rocked with the sudden death of her younger brother Kevin who got up one morning and had a massive heart blockage that saw him dead, probably before he even hit the floor. The funeral saw his coffin carried to the service on the back of his HGV tractor unit and a sad day was made easier by the outpouring of love from a large gathering of family and friends. We were proud to have our son Tom carry Kevin’s coffin into the crematorium as part of the team of pall-bearers.
The third recent passing was that of Matt Long, an exceptional musician and driving force behind the band Catfish. Matt had been battling aggressive cancer for some time and the music community had raised significant funds for specialist treatment that, sadly, could not save his life. Matt was a wonderful young man, had only recently got married to Samantha, and passed away aged just twenty nine. His parents Paul and Fiona have been incredible, as has the music community and his legacy will be one of both having created great music but also of showing great humanity and bravery in the face of being dealt a terrible hand.
Lastly, but certainly by no means least. Sarah Edmundson. Sarah was the CEO of the estate agency charity Agents Together and a committee member of the Women in Estate Agency group . She also had her own training and consultancy business.
I worked closely with Sarah in Agents Together and she was hard working, committed to helping people and to improving well-being. She was also heavily engaged in promoting the cause of women within the property industry.
She was sadly diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago and this seemed to spur her on even more. Sarah fought bravely, doing much to help inform and support others through her efforts. Unfortunately she lost her own battle in late October. She was just 38. She will be sadly missed by all who knew her.
All four leave huge voids and still had much to offer when they were taken. It has made me think much more about my own mortality and to not waste a minute unnecessarily.
I have always been a huge believer in planning ahead, and still am. I never worry about things I can’t control and look forward rather than backwards unless looking to learn from what has already happened.
I am, however, now looking to temper this with the Latin aphorism, Carpe Diem – sieze the day.
My own song Tomorrow Never Comes has the line – Don’t put off until tomorrow, what we should do today. It has never seemed truer than now.
Keeping with music, I have attended a number of gigs lately including Wishbone Ash (twice), Toby Walker (twice), Blue Nation, The Cinelli Brothers, Pat McManus, Teed Up and the David Sinclair 4. Tickets have already been acquired for future gigs seeing The Big Wolf Band, The Hitman Blues Band, The Blue Bishops, Stray and Laurence Jones.
I have also been playing regular open mic nights which give me an opportunity to both play covers but also try out my own songs. I play three or four such gigs a month and in recent weeks have played at the Ivy Leaf Club, the Thatched Cottage and the New Inn in Maidenhead and the Ivy House in Chalfont St Giles. Always great fun with some excellent fellow “artistes” and a supportive crowd. I currently have seven open mic gigs planned for November and December.
I have been working a lot of new material in recent months and have promised myself to get some recordings done and rekindle my rockstar career – after all, sixty five is the new twenty!!
You can see many of my performances on Twitter (X) and on Facebook.
Travel wise, Sue and I, as mentioned, spent an enjoyable three day break in Cornwall in Porthleven. We love Cornwall but wouldn’t normally go in August, other than it was John Buddle’s funeral, the traffic was horrendous – taking nine hours to get home! Our hotel was right on the harbourside and our bedroom window had a wonderful view across the harbour.
In September we went to Portugal, spending three nights in Lisbon before a week cruising on the Douro River. The weather was excellent at the start of the trip (34 degrees in Lisbon) but slowly deteriorated but not to the point of hindering any planned excursions etc.
We got to see many different and interesting places and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
We now don’t actually have any travel plans in the pipeline so time to start thinking of our next adventure.
The football season started in August and Watford have made a half decent start and, as I write, we are seventh in the Championship.
Given the obvious lack of strength in certain positions within the squad, Tom Cleverley is doing a good job – we are unbeaten at home for twelve games but our away form is very poor. This needs rectifying if we are to challenge the play offs so we shall see how the season progresses.
Family wise – all is well – our six grandchildren are growing up so fast but we are immensely proud of the decent human beings they are all becoming.
Finally, in July, August and September, I once again completed the Diabetes UK one million step challenge by walking around five hundred miles in a seventy seven day period. With the support of friends and contacts across the industry, I raised a little over £2500 to add to the £3500 raised last year. Thank you.
I finished off the walking challenge by completing the ten mile London Bridges walk with my daughter Carrie, again in aid of Diabetes UK.
