Hope FC

I played my last game for my football team, Hope FC, this morning. I have been playing for them for 4 years now and loved every minute of it. Well, apart from the time I fractured my skull!!! You see, for as long as I can remember I have always loved football. And I have always played for a team (the pinnacle of my footballing career was playing in the FA Youth Cup, albeit as an unused sub!!). When I moved to Bristol I joined Hope FC who play in the Bristol Churches League.

Anyway, over the four years I never experienced a league promotion or a relegation (mind you, it was a bit difficult to get relegated from Division 2, when there are only 2 leagues!!). And I never experienced a cup win. But it was a good laugh with a cracking bunch of people. I won Player Of The Year in my first two seasons with the club (I play centre-half), and then fractured my skull in my third season (clash of heads, not very pleasant)..I like to think that was why I didn't win it for a third year :-). And in my fourth and final season I was made Team Captain. I spent most the time playing at the back, but just recently I moved into the centre of the park, and then today I went up front..and scored! We were 3-0 down at the time....but we drew 3-3. And I am currently joint top scorer...with 3 goals for the season.

I am going to really miss it when I'm in Australia. Maybe I'll join an Expat team. Mind you, the injuries these days seem to take a lot longer to heal. Maybe I'll take up cricket instead. Watch this space.

Anyway, thanks to Big Jon, Chris, Jordan, Andy, Chewie, Quin, Joe, Neil, James, Markus, Paul, Nick and Pete (the gaffer)...and the likes of the two Rich's who don't play anymore..and Eric! And Mikey "Da Engine" Roberts who now lives in Singapore (All Right Here?). It's been a lot of fun.

Good luck for the rest of the season, and beyond!!

Oh yeah, I'll post the team photo when Pete emails it to me.

Well I Guess This Must Be The Start.....

I've kept a diary now for 13 years - since my first day at Uni. Writing a diary has been a real pain the in arse but it is like an addiction. I have to do it everyday, whatever state I am in. It doesn't take long, maybe 5 minutes, and most days it is full of the same old drivel.

But I am hoping this blog will be different. It's about time I set up one of these anyway.

You see, I am about to leave the UK with Helen, and move to Australia!!. We met there in 2000 when we were both backpackers and after coming back to the UK, and spending 5 years in Bristol, we have decided it is time to go back. I applied for residency in 2004..and got it !! (I used this company to help get me my visa. They were great!!) We leave for Australia in February.......but we are going through South America en route.

Leaving our friends and family behind is going to be rough. But it is something we both feel we have to do. We don't want the "What if?" question hanging over us. Is that selfish? I don't know, but as hard as it is to go, it definitely feels like the right thing to do.

So we leave in just over three weeks time. We have both handed our resignation in and it definitely felt a little strange, leaving the comfort zone, especially as I don't have a job to go to (neither does H), let alone have anywhere to live. But it still doesn't feel very real. Maybe because we are so busy at the moment getting things sorted and seeing as many people as possible. I guess it will hit us at the airport after we have cleared passport control. And said "See you later" to our parents.

We are flying to Brazil to start with (for the Rio Carnival!!) before heading south to Uruguay, Argentina and finally Chile where we fly from to Sydney, arriving in May. It promises to be an exciting road trip, and hopefully I'll be able to document a lot of it on here. And when we get to Australia I'll update the blog with details of our new life Down Under.

Enjoy!!