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Showing posts from July, 2020

Fuck off Bognor - In the name of Thiago - Day 209

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  You may remember me a little earlier in the week alluding to my visit to the sunshine coast of glorious Sussex and how Eastbourne is the second sunniest place in the UK, second only to you guessed it, Bognor. In truth, unlike George V – if you believe what he’s meant to have said on his deathbed – I have nothing against the West Sussex resort. But it’s not a scratch on my home town – all conquering Eastbourne.   Okay all conquering is a little bit of a stretch but I’m sure you’re getting a sense of my happiness at being home. We set off from reasonably sunny Newcastle-under-Lyme at bang on 8, which remarkably, was exactly as planned. We sailed down the M6 and breezed along the M40, before grinding to a halt on everyone’s least favourite car park: the M25.       We stopped at the village of Berwick as this is where my brother’s workshop is. This place is more like an aircraft hangar than a workshop – it is absolutely fucking cavernous. It’s owned by the farmer that has the surrounding

A time for assertiveness - In the name of Thiago - Day 208

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  I can be quite a contrasting character at times. As I mentioned yesterday, my decision-making skills can leave a lot to be desired. However, today I was a model of decisiveness. Well, by my standards anyway!   The electrician paid a visit just after lunch, lovely bloke he is. He wanted to know where all the sockets were going and lights would be – you know electrical stuff. I was doing pretty darn well making sure all was understood until he caught me on a question.   I had a General Melchett from Blackadder Goes Forth moment today. Melchett (looking at the battlegrounds on a map): “God it’s a barren featureless desert out there Blackadder.” Blackadder: “It’s the other side sir.” I was looking at the plans upside down, which at least explained why we had a light fitting in a very unusual place. When my confidence grows, my stupidity grows with it!     I packed a lot into my working day, which always makes it more satisfying when you do call it time for the day I reckon. While a colle

Paralysis – In the name of Thiago – Day 207

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  Now I should say that last time I checked I was definitely a man but bloody hell, am I hormonal at the moment. Work is still going well, which is a blessing because everything else is a bit of a mess, a literal mess in respect of the house. It’s times like this where I really appreciate having Angélica around as she is the one with the common sense, the ability to focus on the things that matter and lastly and most importantly, to me at least, an extraordinary capacity to keep me as close as possible to being on the straight and narrow.   I know what my problem is. My brain will not retain information if it’s simply something that I am not really interested in or if I am well outside my comfort zone. And that’s the nub of the problem with our building project. I know it’s important, it’s very important – it’s wiping out our entire life savings – but I’m no bloody project manager so handling differing approaches to problem solving makes me incredibly anxious.     Outside of my working

You’re doing well lad – In the name of Thiago – Day 206

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  It turns out that I’m not all that great at taking compliments. With me being off work yesterday, somewhat bizarrely they’d been racking up in my absence. So, as I logged back in this morning there was an array of emails from many of the high and the mighty saying how thrilled they were with the way that the virtual pride event that I had hosted on Saturday had gone.   I’m so overly critical of myself at times. I remember thinking on Saturday that I’d made a bit of a botch of the intro for the programme. I watched it back this morning and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Okay, so there was a slight bit of repetition but no more than you would expect from a reasonably competent broadcaster, which is what I see myself as.     The important thing that doing that programme achieved was showing people that I’m not afraid to take a risk. No-one asked me to take that job on, but I saw an opportunity and convinced the people that I needed to, that I could do it. I’m not going to rest on my l

Time to press on – In the name of Thiago – Day 205

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  I’m hoping that it hasn’t escaped your collective attention that I’m doing a rather significant 300 mile walk this autumn. I don’t bang on about it with every blog because of course, as I have such an extraordinarily exciting life there’s so much else for me to write about!   However, today I have precisely fuck all that is more exciting to write about, so you are going to be subjected to my walk-related witterings. I’ve had a day off today and I can say quite happily that I have used the day very sensibly. Although I woke up at 6.30 and got up, that was only to speak to Angélica before she left for work and I then went straight back to bed.   Usually when I go back to bed I feel as if I’ve wasted time, but today I felt properly refreshed. I had this bizarre feeling wash over me of having truly achieved something by doing fuck all. I’ve got to say, I like this feeling an awful lot!     The weather helps on days like this. I had a plan ‘a’ and a plan ‘b’ for the day. My plan ‘a’ was t

Just when you thought you were fine – In the name of Thiago – Day 204

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  After the mental demands of yesterday, today was more about the physical. I have been out for little walks during the week and keep ‘topping up’ as I call it, but today was a proper 15 miler. As I sit in our temporary living space/kitchen/office this evening writing this, there are a few aches and pains. That’s a little frustrating but the difference now is that I know that I can go again the next day if needed, which is not something I could have said a couple of months ago.     I walked passed this place earlier and really fancied a beverage. I was momentarily considering refreshment but then thought nah, it’s shit. I continued onwards northbound up the A34. It was a couple of hours later when I did eventually stop for a beverage and it wasn’t some Frappacino shite.   Nope I met up with Kev at The Blue Bell in Kidsgrove – my halfway point – where we sat for half an hour waiting for them to open at 1pm and then a further 45 minutes while we had a pint of something pale from Oakham’s

New found chic – In the name of Thiago – Day 203

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  There’s only really one place to start today and that’s Virtual Pride. If you’d told me six months ago when I was feeling the rawness of my grief in the most painful way imaginable that today I’d be fronting a virtual pride event, well I’d give you fairly short shrift.   The unrelenting sadness of losing my beautiful son Thiago is still constantly attacking my senses but I know that one way of helping to cope is to throw myself at things that are well outside my comfort zone. Hence Cheshire East Virtual Pride .     And throw myself at it I absolutely did. I put my name forward to host the show and came up with a sparring partner for the event in the form of a chap called Will Read, who found fame with a rather unusual dance act Showbears eight years ago.   We bounced off each other quite nicely – well we are both fairly big fellas – and managed to guide the ship through some stormy waters for five hours and 40 minutes of at times questionable entertainment. All in all, the event was

Showing some Pride - In the name of Thiago - Day 202

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  As some of you may already be aware, I have an afternoon engagement tomorrow. Okay, so my arse will still remain mostly perched on the sofa, but for good reason. For tomorrow, I shall be co-presenting the first Cheshire East Virtual Pride event and you know what, I reckon we’ll have a hoot and all being well, so will all the people who tune in, whether live tomorrow, or a later stage at their convenience.   Today has been a day of making last minute amends and pushes, promotions etc of the event. A lot of hard work has gone into making this a success, it’s just a case of delivering the programme now, something that I have years and years of experience of in sports broadcasting – but am exploring completely new territory with the LGBT scene.     There’s so much to like with this big fella: Rahkeem Rashawn Shane Cornwall. He is a proper big lad, weighing in at a colossal 22 stone and one of the reasons I like West Indian cricket in particular. It’s very hard to imagine someone of this

No short changing here – In the name of Thiago – Day 201

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  I was having a chat with my mate Bill this evening after he twatted me 6-0 in a practice set we played over at Draycott largely in the pouring rain. I was telling him how I still needed to whip round to my Dad’s and then back home to write this blog, by which time I knew I would be tiring.   Bill suggested I just bang out a shorter blog in 15-20 minutes as no-one’s going to think any less of me. He’s quite right, no-one’s going to think any less of me, but there’s something within me that says that if I’m going to consider myself to be a writer, then it would be a dereliction of duty not to provide you lovely people with what perhaps you have come to expect.     And of course, the other reason I feel I need to keep up the good work, is that to do anything else would feel like an insult to the gorgeous little boy above, who gave this blog its name. And that is something I cannot countenance.   After my foul-mouthed tirade towards people whose pets have died inspired by the recommended

Double ton up – In the name of Thiago – Day 200

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  Of course I’m only speaking from recent experience, but reaching a landmark has that joint effect of making you feel proud of what you’ve achieved and posing the question of how much longer you want to carry on for. The truth is that though the words for my blog often flow unimpeded like water in a stream, getting the motivation to set about my work after doing what I’m actually paid to do for a living, can be tricky.   Lying ahead is the walk of course, which runs from September 19 to October 16. It goes without saying that I’ll still be blogging then. November 28 marks a year to the day since Thiago died – it feels appropriate to still be writing then, while I plan to close the fundraiser down on 1 December. I’m thinking that no-one will want to hear some bloke droning on about his late son leading up to Christmas. All things to think about but perhaps, another day.     I’ve not had a bad day by any means, but I have been wound up by social media today. Yes, I know, I know it’s har

Up on the roof – In the name of Thiago – Day 199

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  First things first, as I’ve been guzzling down water like it was going out of fashion, my bladder is feeling way better. It brought to mind an episode of QI I recall seeing ages back, which showed Japanese businessmen taking a toilet into meetings. I felt like I needed one of those yesterday. Today, to borrow and slightly amend a Beatle’s lyric, the smile has returned to my face.   Anyway, that’s enough about my toilet habits, what else happened today? Well Angélica trotted off to New Brighton beach on Merseyside with Elisa and Elisa’s mate Bella. The girls got back shortly after 6 as I was just getting into my early yoga stretches and before too long they were heading upstairs; both feeling pretty knackered.     Grace, that’s Elisa’s mate that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, happened to be at the beach today as well. Angélica had worked that out last night and this was a smooth tactic, as it enabled her to scarper off on occasion for fags and various other things, which she hasn’t