My life away from Integra revolves largely around family, travel, music and football
Family
My family continue to be the number one reason behind everything I do and Susan and I are blessed to have two great kids (plus their partners) and six fabulous grandchildren who are all confident enough to take the mickey out of me and what I do whenever the opportunity arises!
In September we will be celebrating a BIG birthday for Susan and we have rented a property at Shoreham on Sea near Brighton for a weekend of family fun and mayhem. The property is in a spectacular location directly onto the beach and has a huge open plan living space, a large balcony and a mini putting course and a hot tub which, knowing my family, will be put to good use.
We have time planned in Brighton, and being highly competitive, we are looking at activities such as mini-golf, ten pin bowling and going greyhound racing with a possible trip to the i360 tower thrown in. We also plan a trip on the Bluebell steam railway and no doubt plenty of eating, drinking, laughing and mickey taking going on too.
Special mention to grandson Jack who was part of the team that won their cup competition at the end of last season – another medal to add to his growing tally.
Travel
The FD and I have just returned from a wonderful couple of weeks in the Italian Lakes. We stayed at Lake Garda, Lake Comon and Lake Maggiore. The weather was predominantly decent, the food and drink and hotels, excellent and the scenery and sights visited, exceptional.
Italy is undoubtedly our favourite European country to visit as it has a deep and interesting history that goes alongside beautiful landscapes, architecture and culture.
Our next trip away (the weekend after Sue’s birthday weekend in September), will be to Chester for the Wishbone Ash Ashcon weekend – more below.
We are currently exploring the plans for our next travel destinations with British Columbia, Alaska and the Rocky Mountaineer Railway, the Norwegian Fjords, Iceland, Cambodia and Vietnam and, if my brother can organise timely access to his house on Kauai in the Hawaiian islands, an around the world trip where we would fly to San Francisco, stay in California at his Los Gatos home for a few days before flying to the Hawaiian islands and then returning via New Zealand and Australia or possibly Japan. An immense trip that would be fantastic if we are able to pull it off.
Music
I have significantly stepped up my musical activity this year and have already done over twenty five live performances with around two a week diarised over the next three/four months.
I am also moving up from just playing open mic nights with longer sets at the Chalfont St Peter Feast Day on June 27th and on August 30th at the Piggeries Taproom at Tring Brewery.
I will be announcing more solo gigs in due course.
The release of my album – Prodigal Son – has generated a pleasing amount of interest and I have given three radio interviews and had articles appear in two music publications.
There is more information about my album and how you can either download digitally or buy the CD here:
On June 27th I will be running and playing at the open mic tent at the Feast of St Peter event on Gold Hill Common, Chalfont St Peter. I will kick off proceedings with a couple of numbers at 10.30am and then do my main set at 12.50pm. The open mc tent is next to the beer tent so come on down, have a lunchtime pint or two and listen to some great music.
On 30th August I am playing a solo gig at the Piggeries tap room venue at Tring Brewery (there’s clearly a beer theme going on here!). I shall be playing for a couple of hours from about 2.30pm. I shall be playing a mix of originals and covers and have invested in a new PA system ahead of this step up from the open mic and support set circuit.
On 19th September I shall be playing in Chester at the St Werburg’s Centre as part of the Wishbone Ash Ashcon event. I shall also be playing the following day at The Live Rooms in Chester.
I’m also in discussions about appearing again at the Blues at the Tropic on a Sunday evening this side of Christmas.
At the end of June I am going back into Long Dog Studios and will be recording some new songs with Piers Nolan again in the production chair.
One of the songs I will be recording is this year’s charity Christmas single – entitled – It’s not the same for everyone on Christmas Day – when released later in the year I hope that it can follow the success of last year’s Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year which saw just shy of £3000 raised for Diabetes UK and The Propertymark Trust.
You can still donate and download on Bandcamp here:
You can watch the video on my You Tube channel here:
Whilst my own music occupies a lot of my time performance wise, I still get to see many professionals and in recent weeks, the FD and I have seen Papa George and Val Cowell, The Cinelli Brothers, Connolly Hayes, Paul Cox and the Proof, The Big Wolf Band and The Small Fakers. We also attended Doris Brendel’s birthday gig where she was ably joined by long term collaborator Lee Dunham and her band and had Minnie Birch and Claudia McKenzie as support acts.
On my birthday in May I went to the Matt Long tribute and album launch gig in Fleet. An incredible five hour event in tribute to a wonderful and immensely talented young man who tragically lost his fight with cancer aged just 29. Artists who played included Brave Rival, Greg Coulson, Burning Rope, Hollie Rogers, Thomas Heppell, Katie Bradley and Dudley Ross, The Zac Shulze Gang, Will Wilde, Nick Meier and Nat Martin.
The coming months have a number of gigs in the diary including The Steve Summers Band, Bad Influence, Paul Cox and the Proof, John Young (Lifesigns), Big Gilson and Blues Dynamite , Zoe Schwarz Commotion, Robin Bibi, Mississippi Macdonald, Laurence Jones, Chris Corcoran and the mighty Wishbone Ash!
Football
Of course this summer, all eyes (well of those who are interested) turn to America, Mexico and Canada for the World Cup. England should comfortably get through their Group games. After that? Fingers crossed!
Watford did their customary thing and dismissed their head coach after the last game of the season – the right decision Ed Still was way out of his depth (the question mark isn’t why they sacked him but why they appointed him in the first place!).
They now need to appoint a new manager/head coach and the process currently seems to have stalled.
CEO Scott Duxbury came out with a statement that no-one believed about appointing an experienced Championship coach with track record of success and then all the speculation is about appointing a virtually unknown European!
The club is at a bit of a watershed in that the ownership has lost the support of much of the fanbase and has, at best, luke warm defenders in the remainder. The constant chopping and changing of coaches has largely not worked and the playing staff must have a view that whoever they are playing for won’t be there three months later.
The playing squad is largely young and inexperienced albeit with some incredibly talented prospects. We will likely have to cash in one or two assets during the summer but hopefully will retain enough that, with the addition of three or four key experienced heads, could challenge at the upper end of the table next year, particularly as the play off places will extend down to eighth place for the first time.
Naturally, as a family, we have all renewed our season tickets and look forward to the pre-season games in July against Barnet, Boreham Wood and FC Hansa Rostock (a club with a worrying reputation for violence and hooliganism form their right wing “ultras”. They have apparently sold some 6000 tickets for a game that I cannot quite understand why we have arranged.
Diabetes Wellness Walk
With two, one million step challenges, and three London Bridges walks now completed, I have now raised over £8000 for Diabetes UK and will be undertaking the ten mile London Bridges Wellness Walk again on September 27th together with my daughter Carrie – you can support here:
Executor Role
Sadly I have had to step up to the mark for the third time in my life as an Executor. I handled the probate process for both my Mum and Dad and now, I am doing so again following the recent passing of my brother-in-law.
These are always difficult scenarios due to the obvious emotional aspects involved but the reason for even mentioning it here is to offer a simple piece of advice to anyone reading and that is to ensure that your affairs are as much in order as possible because, unfortunately the ultimate day will inevitably come to us all and possibly when unexpected.
In the case of my parents, their affairs were in good order with wills and power of attorney documents in place and records of all of their financial and other interests known and available.
Whilst the probate process was complex it was made easier because a good degree of pre-planning had taken place.
In the case of my brother-in-law, whilst he had a will, he also had a few business interests which means that as he was the sole shareholder and director, they form part of his personal estate.
The unravelling of his business affairs including the accounts, asset registers, and the like, is slow and very complex. Cost of accountants and solicitors will also be greater than they needed to be because several actions that could have been taken prior to him becoming terminally ill, and during that period before ultimately passing, did not happen.
No-one wants to think about their own mortality, and, of course, possible denial comes into play but, for the sake of those left behind, some planning and action makes things so much easier and less painful subsequently.
As many of you know, four years ago I had a triple heart by-pass and, in the lead up to that operation, I ensured that my affairs were all in order with new wills, power of attorney documents and clear records of where money, insurance and other key information was. I ensured that this was known by my immediate family, just in case the outcome proved to be negative. Having sorted these elements I actually was much less stressed than I might have been by the surgery that I underwent and, I am sure, that this peace of mind contributed to a remarkable recovery.
So, please don’t put off dealing with these matters. Make sure your “houses are in order”, that your wishes are clear and the documents to support that are in place and known about by those that matter.
School Governor
Training, coaching and mentoring form an important part of my business activities and education and being the best one can be is at the forefront of much that I do.
For several years I was the Chair of members at a Multi-Academy Trust and, after we merged that organisation with a larger Multi-Academy Trust, I was offered and accepted a position as a Governor at Harefield Academy.
It has been a huge learning curve bringing myself up to speed with the work of the school, its people and the immense requirements of running a successful educational establishment.
Fortunately there is a very supportive group of Governors and staff and I am, hopefully, bringing some fresh impetus to our plans, particularly in terms of commerciality and PR.
Michael S Day
