Okay, it’s July and something is driving me to write things down, this usually happens when I can’t quite find the words to express in simple terms, how I am feeling or, if I feel that I perhaps haven’t said things to people in a way that fully conveys the content of my head. If you’ve been reading this blog over the years you will know that this desire to write things down usually comes from a negative or negatively confused state of mind. Well this one is the opposite, I am ridiculously happy.

On Sunday afternoon I was walking on an empty Morecambe Bay beach with my Wife and our 4 dogs, the weather can only be described as bloody awful, with mist out across the bay and driving rain on top of us, although it was warm enough for us to be wearing shorts. I was in my element and absolutely loving it. Caroline was cheerfully talking about being on these same beaches as a kid and despite being soaked to the skin, was also happy and just naturally excited to be out there. I genuinely could not have been happier in that moment, just completely blown away with the wow of living and loving and feeling so incredibly lucky that we could so naturally love this same experience. I was quite overwhelmed with joy as I hope you can see on my face.

I will quickly bring any readers who are not also fakebook wankers up to speed with 2025, I have just re-read my summary of 2024 and am feeling the need for a lie down thinking again about all that actually happened within one lap of the sun. The year started with lots of wedding planning efforts, it doesn’t matter that it was only a small “do” the details matter and we spent a lot of time getting organised. There was one crucial detail that was out of our control, but the safe arrival into the world of Corey Jack Mylor Wootton on the 24th Feb meant that our celebration could go ahead with all of our invited guests present. Welcome to our crazy family little one.

The day was just wonderful, simple and beautiful and just as we wanted and full of so many happy little details that I could keep writing about it for days but will just leave you with a couple of pictures that haven’t previously been shared.

We followed up the wedding with what we keep calling a “familymoon” since we had a holiday booked to Tenerife with lots of members of our family long before the wedding date was set. We jetted off for 10 days of sunshine, exploring and chilling on what was my first trip to the Canary Islands where we managed to find time for everyone as well ourselves.

On our return, as well as getting back to work, we put in place a plan to upgrade the motorhome so that future holidays could involve the most important members of our family for whom such fun in the sun on fly away holidays is not an option, the dogs. My tired old Laika motorhome was beginning to struggle and since it lost the use of 5th gear after the trip to Hungary in 2023, the fun of long journeys had become a little lost. I put on my sensible head and big boy pants and accepted that she would have to go. A loyal family servant since 2007 that had been throughout England, Scotland, Wales, NI, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Netherlands and provided wonderful memories over those 18 years was traded in so she could go and make happy memories for someone new.

But as you all well and truly know, life is for now, life is for living in the moment and about making new memories rather than wallowing in those from the past. So I was genuinely delighted that by working together, Caroline and I were able to invest both financially and emotionally in our shiny new motorhome that will become a vehicle for many new adventures and outings in the future, making new memories as we build our lives together. That rain soaked walk on Morecambe Bay that prompted me to write some words, was our first little exploratory adventure in our shiny new machine and already it has worked some magic. We enjoy the same things and are loving any experience that demonstrates and emphasises that and are so excited to just get out there and live.