holidays

Happy Holidays!

| Richard

Well I’m counting down to our Eurothrash 2014 – a week in Austria on the Sprint GT with Ali and a couple of mates – and I’m definitely in the holiday mood.

This year around Easter I went to Fuerteventura yet again, this time taking my kids and their partners and Ali, which meant the villa was packed and I had to hire two cars for us all thanks to all our gear (and the fact we were six!).  Ali and I are heading back there again at the end of the summer, so much more shooty fun is envisaged!

And I’ve also just booked the first of our holidays for 2015: Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand next spring to start us off in a bunch of 5-star hotels. The second week at Ko Samui in particular should be spectacular with a villa to ourselves with its own private pool, outdoor sofas and rain shower and a beach:

Garden Pool Villa
Garden Pool Villa
Beach View
Beach View

It’d be rude not to take my camera gear and do some shooting whilst we’re here!

2012 Review

| Richard

With 2013 upon us, it’s time to look back on an eventful 2012 for me.

January

I was based up in Wigan for January, staying in a Premier Inn for almost the entire time. Just as well they’re comfortable, clean and friendly.

Another photoshoot with the delightful Polly Lockitt … which I haven’t really edited yet. Oops!

January also saw the end of an irritation for me: the psycho ex-girlfriend had been badgering her local police trying to get them to take action against me for what she claimed was harassment by me. They’d been in touch with me to make an appointment for them to come and see me for an interview and a time and a place to suit me, so I saw them at a Solicitors’ offices in Liverpool. It was a very light-hearted afternoon given the increasingly bizarre allegations we went through and we finished by me giving them some real evidence of her (sadly ongoing) harassment and stalking of me. Needless to say, it wasn’t long after this that they dropped their investigations against me completely.

Of far more importance was my father’s funeral. It’s sad that it’s only times like these when we get to hear about people from others’ perspectives. My stepmother was upset not to be able to attend but she had been admitted to hospital herself the day before.

My wife and I agreed terms for our divorce at the very end of January. I suggested we get her Solicitor to tidy things up and agreed to share costs doing so, assuming – very incorrectly as it turned out – that we’d be divorced by my 50th birthday in April…

February

A short month, mainly spent in Wigan.

March

With a few days to spare following the completion of my work in Wigan, the highlight this month was that I took the chance to head off to Barcelona for a break and a few photos, taking a suite in a fabulous luxury hotel on Las Ramblas.

The month ended with the first of many gigs this year – Pop Will Eat Itself – and a weekend away staying in a suite at Luton Hoo with another quickie photoshoot with GT thrown in for good measure.

April

My 50th birthday was celebrated in a lovely restaurant in Ireland with GT where we’d gone for a week’s break. My first time visiting Ireland as a tourist rather than on business. That came the following week with some work in Dublin.

GT ran the London Marathon prior to which we decided she’d do the Venice Marathon in October. On the same day, it was Kawasaki Day at the Ace Cafe which meant a blast to the Ace in the morning – and a dyno session – before heading to the finish to meet GT.

The month ended with me heading off to Vienna to do some client training.

May

May saw a load of work and play in Manchester plus another photoshoot with Marlyn Lindsay.

June

A busy month, mainly in Manchester for work plus lecturing at the University of Vienna which was good fun.

And of course there was the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend. That plus the House of Burlesque (with me on stage…) was where it was all happening!

My Decree Nisi was granted in the middle of June, some 4 months after getting things moving.

On a sad note, my stepmother joined my father on 24th June.

July

It started getting a wee bit hectic in July. The month started off with work in Manchester and the Marilyn Manson/Lacuna Coil gig, plus my day driving a Ferrari on track.

Then it was Paris do some training for one of our clients there.

And then, of course, there was my flight to Chicago…

August

…for my little trip across the United States along Route 66 on a Harley. Truly epic stuff.

Once back, it was more work including more training for a client in the Paris.

September

More work, more champagne receptions and more shopping, mainly! Most of it was recounted in this blog entry.

October

I started October with trips to Paris for two clients as well as another breakfast seminar. This one was videoed and a copy was allegedly on YouTube for a while! It’s now forming part of our company showreel.

Mid-month and I was finally divorced: almost nine months after starting the divorce process on an uncontested divorce!

At the end of the month, it was off to Venice for GT to take part in the Venice Marathon and a lovely stay in a luxury hotel. Great time! Oh and confirmation that I was booked to take part in the Berlin Marathon in September 2013…

November

More of the same, work-wise. Birmingham, Glasgow and London mainly.

Gigs included Fields of the Nephilim and Marilyn Manson with Rob Zombie.

And some mucking about with a camera with my friend Alix and, of course, Movember!

December

As the year drew to a close, my diary was a little crammed.

Work was London and Paris and there was a little trip out to Fuertevenura before Christmas which was great to recharge the batteries.

Gigs were Fear Factory and the Prodigy.

2013

And here we are! Crawley this week, Paris next. And so it starts all over again.

I need to start some training for the marathon and then buy myself somewhere to live in London to plan for the future. Torn between apartments and penthouses and actual houses.

Hola Fuerteventura!

| Richard

So here I am in Fuerteventura yet again: it feels like coming home these days.

It all started this time two years ago when I came out here alone having split from someone I cared deeply about but who still felt the need to cheat on me for months and then swear on her daughters’ lives that nothing was going on. We were due to spend a week out here in a lovely villa so I went anyway despite her efforts to cancel the booking out of spite (despite us talking when I was at the airport and me saying she could come out to talk).

And I met a number of really good, genuine people who remain firm friends to this day.

I’ve since been back here on my own again – this time at the fab Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahia Real – and I’ve brought my kids out here another time as well as GT on one visit.

The place and the people are so chilled it’s good for the soul to kick back, breathe a deep sigh and relax.

Maybe I should buy a place out here? The received wisdom is that this place gets to you so you need to leave from time to time or go mad. I can see that. But in the meantime, I’m going to eat well, sleep well and drink well with my kind of people.

Cheers!

Party Time!

| Richard

Well that was a busy weekend!

After my skydive at Skydive London on Friday – photos and videos to follow! – I got back to the apartment late, late on Friday night.

An early start on Saturday morning, as I was heading up to Norfolk to see my kids. Big pre-match lunch at Nando’s before going on to the Norwich v Blackburn match at Carrow Road. After the match – a real thriller and a well-deserved draw – I drove down to Epsom for GT’s 40th birthday party. She looked really gorgeous in the LBD from Ted Baker and French Connection killer heels that I’d picked out! Great food and a great atmosphere too at the Barley Mow where Phil and Cil took good care of all of us and in Cil’s case, slightly overdid the drinks…

Thank goodness the clocks went back, as it was a late night and I had an early start to head back up to Norfolk for Jack’s football and a family lunch before heading back down to London again!

When I got back, a text from a very good friend reminded me of this time last year: a Hallowe’en Party hosted – obviously to be the centre of attention as always! – by my ex-girlfriend in Grimsby. The exchange started something like this:

“This time last year…”

“…wearing masks and pretending to be someone else. And that was just [the ex]. The rest of us were having a Hallowe’en Party!”

Of course by this time, she was already cheating on me whilst professing undying love, etc. I wasn’t to know at this point that it was my wallet she actually loved and everything else was merely escorting… Still, Karma’s a bitch, as they say, and the ex’s new true love is apparently Jack Daniels. That, coupled with her inability to sleep these days – guilt maybe? Yeah right! – has really taken its toll on her looks, and of course her family have apparently all turned against her so she hasn’t even got them any more to use. She’s apparently clinging on to the poor sap who, like her, seems unable to maintain an er… I mean a relationship. I wonder if she told him about her claim last Christmas that she was pregnant by me as a ruse to get me back, even saying that she could ‘fix’ our relationship and lose the loser? Of course that pregnancy miraculously disappeared all by itself when she realised that I wasn’t having anything to do with her and wasn’t sure who the father might have been – one of many potentials – in the very unlikely event she was telling the truth!

All academic, really, and I honestly do thank her from the bottom of my heart: she saved me from throwing my life away with her and her duplicity before I’d wasted too much time (just far too much money) on her. I learned a valuable life lesson too: there will always be those who take advantage of good people like me. What goes around come around…

Oh wait – that’s a tattoo someone else has: the ex used to regularly take the piss out of her behind her back, despite this poor woman being a genuinely nice person. Of course now with the departure of her oldest and dearest friends – again used and lied to like the rest of us – it’s funny how this poor girl is now the ex’s supposed best friend! Still, given the poor lass was interested in the ex’s local hero before the ex ensured they didn’t get together, she’s clearly trying to keep any friends close and her enemies closer still. Trust is a wonderful thing and the levels of paranoia are high with her! It’s also interesting to note how she’s also trying to break up her friends’ relationships to feel better about her own inadequacies.

So the text exchange compared and contrasted my ex with GT: the differences couldn’t be more profound. It’s good to reflect on things sometimes and better to be thankful for where you are today. It’s funny how after I posted a photo of me in Madrid last week to Facebook, a number of friends commented on how much happier I look these days when compared to this time last year. How true!