Happy New Year

We are really pushing the boat out this new year and are spending the night at the north terminal of Gatwick. Sounds of jet engines and people dragging their suitcases down the corridor will replace popping champagne corks.

We travel home to Sarasota tomorrow after a very enjoyable ten days back at home (sic) seeing our family for Christmas.

We have had a hectic year getting prepared and then moving from Bermuda to the United States and we are now happily ensconced on Florida’s Gulf Coast in Sarasota, although it has though been a far bigger adjustment than I imagined for us all.

My job and work days are very different to when I was in Bermuda, but I’m looking forward to the challenge as it evolves in 2024. My taxi-service-other-half is not quite seeing ‘early retirement’ as she imagined and her new year will hopefully see her settle into a more flexible routine.

Our daughter had not found it easy settling into a new school and new swim team, mostly because teenage girls are the most malevolent humans on the planet it turns out. Yet, she is also the most steadfast and sedulous kid you are ever going to meet, and she makes us proud every day. If only she could keep her bedroom remotely tidy.

Incredibly my son will be 24 in February, and continues to finely map out his life like a cartographer. Most of all though he is wonderful company and I am so happy we all got to see him and our families this Christmas.

Something not so chipper in my life is bloody Charlton, an affliction I have had since 1975. I lived and breathed Charlton for the 30 years before I left for Chicago and the 20 years since in enforced diverse ways, but always with them at the forefront of my mind probably every day. Yet, this past year has really tested us all and the hopes and dreams every football fan has are severely being tested.

Nonetheless, this Blog is mostly about them and I plan to keep this thing going into it’s 20th year and probably well beyond the next ugly chapter of Charlton Athletic owners, managers and players.

This Blog has been diary, a sounding board, a therapist, a pain and a friend, and although Blogs are a bit passé nowadays, it has now accompanied my life for two decades. Let’s see who is vlogging still in 2043.

Mostly, I keep coming back to the keyboard because you read it. 2023 will be another record year for visits and I am forever grateful for those of you that take time out of your day to read my musings and especially those that give it a community feel by commenting.

After losing Doctor Kish a few years back, this year we lost Dave Thomson, who not only was a friend, but was a wonderful orator of all things Charlton. Sleep well guys.

Lastly, I’d like to wish you and your families a happy, healthy and prosperous 2024. Cheers 🥂