With a full weekend of rugby ahead of me – watching not playing – I’m going to get some thoughts down on ‘paper’. So, the living under the same roof lasted for 3 months,It’s very hard to have any privacy when you’re in the same environment. And for me that became unbearable so I rented a 2 bedroom mid-terrace house packed up some belongings and made the move.
Other than a bed I didn’t have a lot of furniture to take; the most important things to get sorted were Sky – I just can’t survive without SkySports! And Broadband, modern world essentials! Both were sorted on the day I moved in as well as a very clever, build at your house pair of settees.
I found myself living on my own for pretty much the first time in my life – It was a liberating feeling! And again for the first few weeks I slept really well.
One thing I noticed when I moved is that I pretty much had only photos of Luke on show; that was wrong and remedied pretty quickly!
Alexandra had moved to Winchester the previous October and Jake decided he wanted to stay in the big house with his Step-Dad. Shirley the dog had no choice in the matter – she stayed in the ‘family’ home.
That first month or so alone was actually a good time as I got used to pleasing myself; eating or not eating when it suited; no ironing – I’ve literally ironed 5 times I reckon in nearly 4 years! Life is far too short for ironing!
It felt a bit odd being without both my kids but I knew Alex had made the choice she needed at that time and that Jake needed to be able to decide where he lived. It was a credit to his Step-Dad that he chose to stay.
To give those of you who don’t already know a glimpse at my viewing choices; for a month the only thing on my Sky Plus Planner was sport, more specifically rugby!
I’ve always liked sport; I’m a girl in the middle of 2 boys with a Dad who was sports mad; so I pretty much was brought up at the side of a cricket pitch.
As I grew past running around I moved to scoring at the cricket, no staying indoors and making the tea for me thank you very much!
At 15 I had a boyfriend who supported Spurs – we went a few times and then I carried on going with a group of friends, me and maybe 4 lads.
To say I was a tomboy was probably an understatement; we used to go to the pub on a Friday night to play darts; then back to one of our houses to play poker (for money! not strip!) then we’d troll off to the football on the Saturday.
I seem to think you didn’t need to take out a mortgage to watch a game of football in those days! That was a time of terraces and I’m vertically challenged, so I used to take a little stool with me to stand on, then I could actually see the game.
I am digressing here I know but that seems to be my way, And I’m going back yeeeeears, but now I’ve started…….
One thing that used to literally drive me crazy was the fact that we always left the game before it’d finished; we left a game against Aston Villa one Saturday when the score was at 1 apiece – Spurs won 3 to 1! Oh my goodness, how incredibly annoying!
One reason you’ll never see me walking away from a game before the final whistle!
On the cricket front; my stepson Peter gave me a box of ‘things’ that’d been in the loft at the big house only a few months ago; there were 3 scrap books in there from when I was a teenager. 2 were from when I went on a cruise with school when I was about 15; the other I presumed would be all about football.
But no it’s full of cuttings about cricket; and dated in the year I was 16! Seems I’ve always been a sports geek! That leaning towards sport has been a huge part in helping me find my smile again.
A real buzz to see these 2 play their 1st game for Spurs! Yes it was THAT long ago!
The more I look back and think about life the more I realise the huge part sport has had in my life; that love of sport was to be a huge part of starting to feel ‘normal’ again.
With a season ticket for London Broncos (rugby league) and Saracens (rugby union) from almost the beginning I had something to look forward to at weekends.
I’ve never had the shopping obsession that seems so prevalent nowadays; and as I get older I’d say I pretty much dislike the whole experience.
So a weekend with a game to look forward to was a great boost. Broncos haven’t been hugely successful; so summers have generally been spent admiring the way the opposition play; Saracens on the other hand have gone from strength to strength in the last 5 years – thank goodness!
Over the last 5 years sport has become pretty central to my life. Having married 2 men who didn’t like cricket I missed watching the sport I was brought up with.
In that 1st summer I was given some tickets to watch Essex play; I loved that so much I went on to became a member and wow I was reminded of how much I love the game!
I’m in danger of writing for hours at this point but it’s getting late and I don’t want to bore you rigid – that will come soon enough believe me when I ramble on about the sports I love.
One thing I have decided and learnt since Luke died is that we have to live our lives to the full! If I want to go and watch a game, be it rugby,football or cricket I go and watch it; at times I’ve been looked at as if I have 2 heads; but I have some of my very best times watching a ball of some shape or size being thrown, kicked, hit.
A recent rugby photo – one of my new passions – photography 
365 Happy Days 