OK, this might seem a bit self-centred but this blog includes so much about Lisa and I today, a little looking back may not be a bad thing. So let’s begin by delving back 63 years, yes there I am, about 4 – 6 weeks old with my brother Graham, aged 11, and sister Averil, 7. Today, I am 63, Averil is 70 while, sadly, Graham died aged 48. He would be 74 now.
Me a few months old, not sure of the exact number. Note the blond curly hair.
Our family in, I think, 1959: Back: Averil, 13, Graham, 17, and Dad. Front: Me, 6, and Mum.
1970: I qualified as a football (soccer) referee and started refereeing adult matches in the 1969/70 season while I was still at school – good job that the players didn’t know that their referee was still in high school. This picture was taken when I was 18.
At work, about 1976, so 23 going on 24. The fashion was for longish hair covering your ears – not easy to accomplish when you have natural curly hair.
Solemn and smiling, which do you prefer of these two photographs? I know that these were taken in early 1982; I was aged 29.
In 1983 I was Senior Warden of the Masonic lodge of which I had joined in 1979. I would become Master in January 1984.
31st October 2011, sunset on Samhain/Halloween: Lisa and I, just married on Fort Myers Beach in a pagan handfasting ceremony by a Notary Public, licensed by Florida to conduct weddings. Our wedding was eight days before I turned 59.
Lisa and I with the remainder of the cast of Murder at the Theatre, performed at Theatr1 Colwyn, North Wales, UK, in August 2014. Lisa wrote the murder mystery, directed it and ended up acting in it (all for the very first time) when one of the cast pulled out – and that is why she was presented with her very well-deserved ‘Star of Fame’ award. 1Welsh spelling.
14th November 2015, our last night in the UK before moving to Spain. Joanne Jones joined us for our farewell meal in the Paanshee Bengali Restaurant in Prestatyn. Note my new hairstyle, curls and waves are all gone – now its ‘number two all over’.
15th November 2015: Lisa and I arrived in Spain to start our new life together.
We met in Second Life, an online virtual world; we took our relationship into real life; now we are living happily in our new life in the sun.
We were told by some that we would not make a go of it; others wished us every happiness.
Lisa and I are really happy and plan to be so for a very, very long time.
50shadesofsun 