My Journey to Lexington

I arrived in Lexington about a year ago. So I'll start with a recap of the previous 48 years;

I was born at home in Northwood Hills a suburb of London, the original London that is. In January 1964. Here are my parents outside that house. It was an interesting month besides my arrival on this floating orb. The Rolling Stones started their first headline tour, President Lydon B Johnson declared war on "Poverty" (this is still in progress, we hope) Alec Douglas-Home was the British Prime Minister, the worlds largest cheese was produced in Wisconsin and perhaps most significantly given my obsession with all the Olympic the 9th Winter Olympics opened in Innsbruck Austria. It was indeed a simpler time.


I moved a couple of times in my formative years but spent the bulk of my childhood and adolescence in Great Barton a sleepy village in Suffolk about 80 miles north east of London. Now what you need to understand is while in this day and age we drive 80 miles for dinner or in some cases a decent cup of coffee in that day and age it was a pilgrimage to be accompanied by flasks of tea and sandwiches. Due to the fact that pretty much no roadside cafe's existed then and the roads were hardly conducive to long distance driving (in England at the time this would have been anything over 10 miles. In this day and age it has I believe slightly increased to 50 miles in the British psyche) 

So I grew up in a sleepy Suffolk village, rode ponies, bikes played with my friends. I had no siblings but what I did have was a labrador's Kim was my first. And thus my lifelong love of dogs and the breed  began. Kim was a true Labrador...ate anything he could. I still remember my mother making a pan of flapjacks (not pancakes more like an oatmeal cookie) pulling them out of the oven and sitting them on the counter just before we sat down to dinner. After dinner the pan had not moved an inch but was licked clean and the dogs tongue was still intact with no signs of the thermo nuclear heat he had no doubt had to endure whilst gulping down the goodies.


I left Great Barton and lived in Jersey the Channel Islands not the birthplace of Snookie for a while, then London returning for a while before meeting the ex getting married and arriving on this side of the pond for the first and setting up residence at Shaw AFB in Sumter South Carolina. Can I just say that I had no idea how hot hot could be until I lived in the south. Danielle was born here in June 1987. In 1989 we moved to Decimomannu, Sardinia Italy. Where Nick was born in 1991. Then on to Aviano Italy on the mainland about an hour north of Venice. From here we exited the military and came back across the pond to Southern Illinois. Why there I hear you cry well that is where the Ex's family was. I spent a very happy 18 years there. Raising the kids, divorcing, coming out all the usual things people do.


In 2011 I lost my job of 16 years, broke up from the what I thought was the love of my life, was getting ready to send my baby off to college and generally receiving a message from the universe that it was time to get the hell out of dodge. Where else to go? Lexington? Pro's number 1 child graduated from college and living here, not too far from number 2 child. Con's.....none. So Sophie and I packed up and arrived here for good in July last year.....

Me and my girl.....more later