As always, life away from Integra revolves around family, music, travel and football with these often combining.
Family
September saw twelve of us – Sue, myself, our children Tom and Carrie, their partners Sian and Ian and our six grandchildren, Georgia, Ellie, Tia, Jack, James and Taylor descend on a wonderful beachside house on Shoreham Beach for weekend celebrating Sue’s birthday.
The hot tub was put to good use and we had a super fish and chip supper on the Friday night. We then enjoyed a day in Brighton, breakfast in Spoons, a visit to the i360, mini golf (modesty prevents me from saying who won!), various pub visits including the Druids Head in The Lanes, fun on Brighton Pier and dinner at Brighton Marina. The next day we travelled on the wonderful Bluebell Railway before lunch at Trading Boundaries accompanied by some live jazz!
Also in Sepetmber I once again completed the ten mile Diabetes UK London Bridges Wellness Walk with my daughter Carrie – the fourth year in succession we have done so. You can still support by donating here.
October saw my brother Chris and wife Lori in Europe and they visited us for a few days. A wonderful afternoon with fifteen of the family took place one Sunday at Merlin’s Cave in Chalfont St Giles. They also took in a Wishbone Ash gig and a Watford home game during their visit. They were returning to the US to visit their second home on Kauai and ascertain the damage caused by the recent hurricane. Paradise is not always all it seems.
Music
2026 has ben a wonderful year for my own music.
February saw me release my album Prodigal Son and, as I write, I have performed live on over eighty occasions, manly open mic nights but also some solo gigs such as Tring Brewery (The Piggeries), The U3a Club in Tring and the B’Hive in High Wycombe supporting The Gillies. On November 15th I am supporting Bad Influence at the Blues at the Tropic in Ruislip.
I have also been asked to do some solo shows at The Bunker at Watford Football Club and these are scheduled for early 2027 where I will be playing before kick-off. Should be fun.
I have enjoyed a number of radio interviews and local press coverage and the release of my Christmas charity single on November 14th will, hopefully, like last year, do well and raise significant funds for Diabetes UK and The Propertymark Trust.
I have lined up considerable publicity in the property trade press and via Diabetes UK and the video is being played at a number of conferences in November and December.
The song is called – It’s not the same for everyone on Christmas Day – and I recorded it at Long Dog Studios this summer. Piers Nolan once again producing.
You can listen, download and donate on my Bandcamp page here – please be generous.
The video can be seen on my You Tube channel here
I have a number of new songs being worked on, two have already been recorded, ahead of what will hopefully be another album or EP release early in 2027. The title will be Into the light.
As well as playing, I still attend a lot of gigs, many by good friends I have made in the music industry.
Recent weeks have seen me attend gigs by Wishbone Ash (3), Laurence Jones, Chantel McGregor, Robin Bibi, Zoe Schwatrz, Big Gilson and Chris Corcoran and there are gigs in the diary before year end to see Noel McKella, Del Bromham, The Blue Bishops, Bad Influence and McGillvray Burke.
Tickets for Joanne Shaw Taylor next year have already been purchased and we will be seeing Wishbone Ash in Poland in February (4).
Travel
As well as the aforementioned family weekend at Shoreham Beach and Brighton, Susan and I grabbed a few days on the Isle of Wight as part of a business trip I was making on behalf of a client. We stayed in Fishbourne and enjoyed some rest and relaxation.
We visited Ryde and Shanklin and had a drive across the island taking in Freshwater and Yarmouth as well as visiting the biggest display of Christmas decorations for sale at the Busy Bee garden centre – it was incredible and it was lucky we only had a car with us as, anything bigger, would have seen Sue bring more of the goods – singing reindeer anyone?
Our next planned trip is to Poland in February where we will undertake a nine day road trip taking in Krakow, Pszczyna, Poznan, Gdansk and Lodz.
By way of an incredible coincidence, Wishbone Ash will be playing four gigs whilst we are there and it would obviously be rude not to attend!
In April we will, once again, be visiting the wonderful city of Liverpool and taking in the Small Fakers gig at The Cavern. Matt the front man for the Small Fakers is a good friend and I’m sure we will be well looked after.
We love the atmosphere of the Cavern quarter and as Watford are playing away at Bolton on the Saturday we are staying overnight at the hotel at the ground and have booked a bedroom with a balcony overlooking the pitch from where will watch the game. Cool eh!
June will see us fly to Toronto from where we will see the Niagra Falls before heading across Canada to Banff and joining the Rocky Mountaineer train through British Columbia and The Rockies to Vancouver from where we will take a cruise along the Alaskan coast. It threatens to be immense and the Rocky Mountaineer will tick of one of Sue’s bucket list and, if I get to see bears hooking salmon out of a river, one of mine!
September will see us heading to the beautiful coastal city of Taormina in Sicily for a week accompanied by our friends Andy and Marianne. With an ancient amphitheatre and nestling in the shadow of Mount Etna we are looking forward to a chilled few days with great culture, history, scenery, food, drink and company.
Because I like to plan ahead, we already have two trips booked for 2028!
February will see us cruise from London all the way along the Norwegian coastline, stopping at various locations and ending within the Arctic Circle in Tromso. We hope to tick off another bucket list item and that is to witness the Northern Lights.
Lastly we are again heading North in July with a trip to Iceland and a cruise that will start and end in Reykjavik having gone around
the entire island. There are a number of interesting and beautiful towns and the scenery looks incredible.
Football
This won’t take long!
To say that this season has started badly at Watford FC is an understatement.
A very poor transfer window saw a depleted squad start the season under new coach Alessio Dionisi. Many of the last minute new signings arrived unfit or have been in and out of the matchday squad with injuries.
The fan base is disillusioned with the club’s owner Gino Pozzo and the senior team led by Scott Duxbury. The communication from within Vicarage Road does nothing except encourage more discontent and the malaise that surrounds the club is as bad as I can remember bearing in mind, recent years saw us in the Premier League and an F A Cup Final.
No club has an automatic right to success and the Hornets have undoubtedly punched above their weight but the whole set up feels wrong at the moment. There is potential within the squad but some key positions are light and Alessio Dionisi may well not last until Christmas if our trigger happy owner decides to make another change.
