Lewis’s house visit and chores over the weekend

Tash and I have come up to Manchester for the weekend to spend some time with Lewis in his new house having been settled in for about six weeks now I think.

He’s had the kitchen sorted but it still needs a bit of minor work in terms of tiling and the extractor fan etc. but it looks a vast improvement on what he had previously. He’s done really well for himself.

We spent time working on his front garden today and tomorrow we will work on the back garden and I am currently sat in the queue for the recycling centre to get rid of all of his kitchen crap. I can’t believe how incredibly busy it is at this recycle centre the queue goes right up to the turn into it we came here twice on Saturday and turned around and went home however at 9am on Sunday morning the queue is just as bad! However I need to get rid of all of this rubbish so I am sat here making diary notes!

Had a nice evening by playing games we went for a walk into Cheadle Hume got a coffee and some wine and had the evening getting a bit tipsy and staying up watching YouTube videos and having a nice evening.

Charlotte made good use of the spa/hot tub and sent through videos and photos and it looked lovely. She claims it has been an amazing investment so that’s good to hear.

Look forward to getting home to try it out which reminds me I should text her and tell her to turn the heating on so it’s nice and warm ready for when we get back.

Not sure what else today will bring, we will sort out the back garden the grass is terribly long and there’s some crap behind his shed which we will sort out, but I hope we will go for a walk across the mall or whatever is nearby we will have to have a quick Google search and see what there is.

During the course of dictating this diary note, I think I have moved perhaps 20m, if that!

Never mind, I need to clear out all of this kitchen rubbish from my car as it will be harder to get this offloaded at the dumps in Oxfordshire whereas the dump here in Manchester is So much better.

Mickey Lewis

I heard some extremely sad news today in that my old football coach Mickey Lewis has passed away. Apparently two weeks ago he had been diagnosed with throat and lung cancer and two weeks later he’s gone.

He was an immensely popular enthusiastic and charismatic person who you genuinely couldn’t have a bad word to say about him.

Locally at non-league and boys football level he was very popular and involved and contributed, but also as a professional involved with Oxford United he was just as popular and well liked and infact well loved.

As you can well imagine, the tributes on Facebook have been pouring in and rightly so

One good example which made me tear up each time I kept thinking about it was Rob Cruise’s love of Mad Dog and his busyness and keenness to impress him, it makes me smile how we used to tease Cruisey about the way he would always say Mad Dog and Gaffer.

I hadn’t spoken or dealt with Mickey for sometime but I know that whenever I did see him in recent years he always always enthusiastic and chatty, exactly how I will always remember him.

As a coach at City it was great being under his tutelage because the training sessions were so enjoyable short and sharp quick passing and good fun and always innovative.

Such a sad, sad, sad shame that he’s passed away and he was only 56.

It does really make you sit up and take note as to what you’re doing with your life and wanting to make use of the time that we have left spending it in some sort of better quality but I guess that happens each time somebody passes away and you can become numb to that feeling and sensitivity. However, I do wonder if in this particular instance the same old routine will happen or whether it will have that marked affect in the coming days weeks months and years.

Especially at a time when I am thinking about working even more longer hours for work but really I should be stepping back and enjoying my life at this age I’m 53 this year I don’t have long left to be honest how do I want to spend the next 10 years because at 65 I won’t have the same energy and physical abilities that I have now. Which even now to be honest I’m not exactly fighting fit!

Rest in peace Mickey you’ll be very very sadly missed by friends and family.