Well, since the end of the 2000s is only a few hours away, i thought i would look at the past 10 years of my life
Not suprisingly, alots happened to me in the last 10 years, Some good, some bad. and it has seen me gone from a greasy spotty child to a greasy spotty man
Im Going to start looking at the good points over the past decade.
First off, ive had some wonderfull experiances. The main thing i can look back on and feel proud about is the fact ive achieved one of my lifetime goals in working for a race team at the Le Mans 24 Hours race, and not just once, i managed to do it twice. Both different experiances, but both had a finish, and came with an overwhelming sense of happyness, relief and joy.
Ive also had the experiance of travelling around europe racing aswell, travelling to some legendary circuits in Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and Portugal going to such motorsport meccas as Monza and Spa. Ive made some good people in the motorsport area of my life, which i can happily call my freinds. Its also made me see both sides of the motorsport coin. The good weekends (where you turn up, the car is quick, has no problems and wins) and the bad weekends (where you are up from 5am on friday morning to 10pm on sunday evening with an hours sleep all weekend), but that is the price you pay, and it wouldnt make the highs as good as they are without them.
Ive also spent the past 10 years restoring, tinkering and generally having a great time playing with Trains. To the average person, that may make me sound like a train spotter, (and while it doesnt) i dont care. Again, ive had some great times plastered in grease, oil, dirt and the like fixing them. Ive also had the great pleasure of being involved in some great events, such as railcar50 (an event on the Severn Valley Railway celebrating 50 years of diesel railcars). Various other events. and having the priviledge of actually driving a train which became more of a dream due to something else that happened this decade).
Ive also had the thrill of being in a fairly successfull local rock band, playing infront of 1000 people, creating music, writing lyrics, and pretty much doing all the band management side of things. I had a great time doing it, with a great bunch of freinds and also through doing it, i made new freinds who ive met while playing / gigging.
A personal highlight of my time in Vacant Revolution, was stealing the show at the (at the time, annual) rock festival at Kidderminster Town Hall, and im sure that if i hadnt gone to uni, our music would have got alot better, Some of the songs we were creating at the end were in my biased opinion, awesome.
Ive also met some great people this decade, who i can call close freinds. I hope they know who they are, some of them have helped me get through some hard times, and i feel honoured that i can call them freinds, Some i have known forever, and some it just feels like so. On the flip side, ive also grown apart from some of my freinds, but i guess that happens, everyone goes off in different directions, and only the strong freindships survive through it.
I can say i met the love of my life in the past 10 years, the year or so we spent together (although it was in a long term relationship) was amazing, she was such a wonderfull girl and i enjoyed every single minuite of the time i spent with her and whenever i left, i always wished i was on the coach going back to see her. and its a shame in a way that we eventually grew apart and broke up. Saying that, ive also had some diabolical relationships, some of which have left me emotionally scarred and one in particular left me scarred and also seriously in debt, and that person, i will never forgive and if i could honestly be bothered, i would make her life a living hell, but she just isnt worth the time of day and one day, she will get her just deserts.
Ive lost quite a few important People in past 10 years. I lost my grandma Paddy, A great lady who i spent alot of time with when visiting relatives when i was nay but a lad, and i have some great memories of her. The second and the hardest hitting of my family, was loosing my Grandad Allen. Him and I had the most in common, He had a love of railways and model railways that i can pretty much guarrantee was transfered into me, I spent hours with him in his garage playing with his model railway, Had many a nice outing on a preserved railway, or doing one of his lifes ambitions and seeing HMS Victory in Portsmouth. I will never forget getting in after my first day working at the racing team i had just started at, to get home and have a message from the Hospital up where he lived saying he had been admitted, and may not make it through the night. It was distressing to see him pass away, but im glad i was there to say goodbye to him and be there holding his hand when he passed, since my dad was in China and couldnt at the time.
The third most major loss in this decade was my freind Chris, It came as a complete shock, and im not sure if it has completelly sunk in still, He was such as cheerfull and mischevious soul, I have some great memories of us getting up to no good, (the gaffa tape incident and the nightime exploration spring immediatley to mind).
The biggest thing to also affect me this decade, was me being Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. This has definatley altered my life, and almost ended it on a couple of occasions. Its something that will probably reduce my life expectancy, and made things tricky for me, If i could go back and change one thing, It would be that. Mainly because it is quite a tricky juggling act, and when there is too much sugar, it leads to feeling dehydrated and feeling really sluggish. While going low, makes me feel sick, lightheaded and turns me into a potato eventually (which i really dont fancy happening).
All i can say now, is im gonna hold on tight and see what the next 10 years (possibly finishing uni, getting a job and at somepoint settling down with someone, or dropping out, ending up on the doll married to a wallrus named Doris. Only time will tell!
