A last little dip…
…a last quickie with the weights in the barn…
…a last ‘play’ outdoors (despite the cool weather)…
,,,and we’re off. The start of the school year in Tennessee beckons. We’re all sad to leave Wales behind us, but the boys will both be pleased to see their other friends (and Chris has not seen his entire family for four weeks); Dave is itching to see how his daughter Jaymee has been doing, whilst the start of the most intensive coaching season awaits both of us.
It has been amazing weather (for the UK) this summer (until now!) and we’ve been really pleased to have the sun without the high humidity we have in TN at this time of year. All relatives have been visited, Ollie and his family had a great time with us and the three boys re-cemented their determination to keep training hard and exchanging progress reports. Ollie stays in Oxford – however, we hear that ‘Ryan’, son of the (previously?) homophobic dad has been doing really great things back home under tuition from Pete and Ivo, so we shall see how he shapes up as the fourth member of this ‘exclusive’ young clan! Some of this before long, maybe, if we can get all four together somehow:
For Dave and I, well, it seems that we move more and more to teaching and less to performing – some of our original group are approaching 40 now, so keeping this up becomes more challenging…
…whilst teaching others to do this becomes somehow easier…
Many things remain unresolved: our lack of time at Cefn Derwen in Wales, although Carol and her son Neil mind the place and run it for us as a holiday let, which makes a decent amount of money. Before you ask, we’re booked up to Christmas (kept free for us, just in case) and for a lot of next spring! Also our split lifestyle with family both in UK (parents) and USA (kids) – we’re torn about what to do in the longer term. I cannot see the kids ever wanting to live (or work) permanently in UK, but then circus work can take you almost anywhere, if that is what they choose. They had a taste of life on the road for four weeks before we came to UK, and seemed to thrive on it – getting applause for your efforts does have an effect!
Of course, ‘play’ time remains essential…
…and of course (for us all) there is a determination to look really good…
Guys train for many reasons…
and, maybe for us gay guys, that’s one of them…
…but all decisions we finally take about the future will be based around giving Jaymee and Leo (seriously straight) the upbringing they deserve and the chances to make their own mark. Yep, we work and train ’em hard, but we also make sure there is plenty of ‘play’ which 12yo kids need to have as well.
Despite which… – a good maxim being ‘never use the elevator [lift], use the stairs’ – kids need to understand that life can deliver hard knocks too. We’ve had our share – ask our friends Zach and Gary, and see the books about it all at the end of this post! All history now, but things could have worked out very differently. And my recent medical experience has taught them that fate [God?] can still strike in unexpected ways, and you just have to deal with it.
But then there’s another maxim – enjoy it while you can!
Next post from Tennessee… Meanwhile, the wheel of life continues to turn!
