This was a big year.
My Green Card arrived. If you look carefully, the residency officially started December 28th 2022, but hey, we can sneak it into 2023, can’t we? Look, below, it is green, and it is a card!
Bees. I’ve had a quiet hankering to keep bees for a while, and in spring 2023 I set about making it happen. Charlie and Rosie helped me get, build and stain the hives, the president of the Nashville Area Beekeepers Association (NABA) sold me the bees, and a local friendly Brit, Ian, became my mentor. I loved it. Bees are important, there is the promise of honey, beginning in year two, and it develops a certain “zen-ness” to open up hive and have thousands of bees getting a little agitated in front of you.
After a successful summer growing the colony, in September and October, first one hive then the other were “robbed”, that is the queen was killed (so all the other bees fly off), and the hive is stripped of all its honey. We think the culprits were yellowjackets (a mean type of wasp). It was really sad. I’ll try again next year.
Cancer. On 26th July I finished my two years of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). It’s a treatment that removes all testosterone from the body. That was a big date. After six weeks I had my first meaningful cancer test. NO DETECTABLE CANCER. That’s a big thing. I have had another test mid – December and also, no cancer. At the beginning of the journey I heard some pretty downbeat doctors tell me some pretty grim stats. So I’ve done well. Though I am still left with some horrible scars. Some are physical; seriously compromised sexual functionality, some bowel and urinary functionality, chronic and very inconvenient lymphedema, and some strange numbers on testosterone (too high!), cholesterol and pre-diabetes which are probably due to the two and a half years during which my body was seriously screwed around with. The mental scars are as tricky; some to do with my masculinity, esteem and ‘male’ confidence, some more to do with aging (I suddenly feel old and disabled), and some to do with a more general “is that it then?” feeling. But, I am alive. And, though it sounds dramatic, it’s better to be planning to live than be planning to die.
I think I should write more on this, perhaps when I can put it in a greater perspective. All I’ll say for now is that every man I know fifty plus should get checked, especially in the UK, where prostate cancer screening is NOT routine and you have to go ask for it. There needs to be greater awareness so men DO ask. No culture of annual medical check ups only compounds the situation. I am extremely unlucky to have got this cancer with this level of aggressiveness (stage 4a), diagnosed at fifty seven. Yet I am extremely lucky that is was picked up when it was in the US. If I was still in the UK, it would probably not have been picked up until it was too late, and I’d have incurable cancer.
Sixtieth birthday. I rented a deck on the Battersea Barge, a static barge on The Thames. Ollie’s present was the music. It made a fabulous evening even better, one of the best and most memorable ever. Thank you, everyone who came. It was so much fun. (And thanks to Rupert for this video)
Then George took me to Istanbul. I had always wanted to go there. We had a brilliant time. Thanks George. Amazing.
Keith, who was responsible for getting me over to New York and my boss when I got there, happened to be in Istanbul at the same time. We met up. That was a crazy coincidence!
Wedding #1. The legal ceremony was on 26th Oct in a small town called Viola, Tennessee, about 90 minutes drive from Nashville. Tiffany has a lawyer pal, Bill Ramsey, who is qualified to perform weddings, and we were married in the garden of his house. It’s been in his family for generations. The boys read Corinthians 13:1-13. It was idyllic and beautiful. Our legal wedding feast was cheeseburgers and fries at Tammy’s that we had to make haste to get to as it was due to close at 4.30pm. We just made it in time and they stayed open a little longer than normal on account of us having just got married!
Wedding #2. This was the big bash ceremony, though it wasn’t that big. About fifty people. The perfect autumn weekend at the Tennessee Arboretum: still warm and the colours of the fall. It was absolutely lovely. Forever thankful that George, Ollie, Charlie, Anna, Rupert, Andy, Fiona, Dan, Ade, Roger and Vicky made it over. The boys were so supportive in helping out and reading Corinthians again. Michelle, our officiant, did an amazing job. She was wonderful, and there was so much love in the air. Tiffany looking absolutely stunning – clearly the most beautiful person ever – and had done so much work to get everything as perfect as it could be. And it was. Thank you to everyone who came. And thank you most of all to Tiffany for saying “yes.”
Chief Creative Officer. At the back end of the year, I was given a job I had been doing in an interim style since May. As Chief Creative Officer I am responsible for all of the agency’s creative output. It’s a great job and very exciting to be given this role at this stage in my career. I’ve always liked the creative side of the business. It’ll be a good test, and hopefully fun and rewarding too.
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It’s been a big year. Many many good things. Real change takes a long time. The upheaval and chaos I created almost a decade ago is settling down. It has been, at times, an extremely challenging journey – literally life threatening – and will continue to be challenging. Yet, the most important people in my life are still the most important people in my life. And I have nothing but thanks, gratitude and as much love as I can generate for you. Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. Cxxx