Saying hello to married life!

Ciao! Wow, it’s been a while since my last post! I am now writing this MARRIED! The day finally came where someone was mad enough to take me on!! We got married in the New Forest and had such a lovely day, full of food, drink and glitter (with no rain!!) and obviously Bella and Monty both featured. Theo was busy at Saints Rugby Club.

I’ve always been pretty honest in these blog posts - I’ve always believed that’s important as owning a business definitely isn’t a bed of roses. Yes, I love the flexibility and working for myself but I’ve always struggled with the loneliness and lack of social life during the summer months. However, the hardest thing for me is the decision making - it is ALWAYS me making all of the decisions; yes Tom is a brilliant sounding board, but ultimately every decision is mine. I often wish I worked as part of a wider team but then that comes with its own difficulties too!

The summer of 2018 was exceptionally hard; I massively expanded the business by buying a new van (Monty), taking on two full time staff and taking on 4 or 5 events a week. Things were chocca! Four months, two stone and a lot of stress later, I got through it! I usually have a few months off every winter to recuperate, so I’d hoped that after this slow period, that I’d be chomping at the bit to get going again. Unfortunately I was still scarred from the stresses of the previous year, so I said I’d only do private, local events. 2019 also tied in with Alice (Long Buckby Station Trailer) leaving me to go to Wales, so I had to step up and man the horse box at the station from 530am - 930am. I couldn’t believe how tired this made me for the rest of the day! I was only waking up an hour or so earlier but wow, it hit hard!! My running suffered the most and I didn’t have much energy for any form of exercise.

As it turned out, last year turned out to be one of my favourites with the business. I relied a lot less on staff and only did events which were within 30-40 miles radius of our house. For any further afield events, I made sure that Tom came and we made a weekend out of it. I ended up enjoying every single event and only had two break downs!! Result. I was also offered a pitch at Northampton Saints Rugby Club - this was something I had wanted when I first moved to Northamptonshire; so I was chuffed. It got even better as I was allowed to leave Theo at the club, so there was no worry of break downs or setting up. It’s been a slow start at the rugby because I’m a small unit and the supporters haven’t got used to me - but I’m confident business will grow. Also, Tom now gets to see all of the games and doesn’t have to queue or pay for his half time food. How lucky can a man get?!

Another highlight from last year was my 30th party, in which Theo & Monty heavily featured and moving to Long Buckby. It’s only a village but we’re so close to the train station that we could be anywhere. We have a huge renovation project ahead which I’m really looking forward to getting started. I also acquired two neices - both my sister and Tom’s sister had their babies within a month of each other :)

Tom and I also went to Thailand for my cousin’s wedding and then Cambodia and Vietnam with my parents for a week after. We had such a good time, and it was nice to have a holiday with my parents - it’s been so long since my last family holiday.

So, what does 2020 bring? In all honesty, I still don’t know. Already it’s been pretty spectacular - we had the most amazing hen do in Liverpool and then UNFORGETTABLE wedding day and we went skiing in Livigno (Italy) for a few days after. I also catered at our annual event at the Excel so that started the MYO year off nicely. We’re off on our proper honeymoon next month, however, we’re not 100% if we’ll be able to safely go to Hong Kong with this new coronavirus.

Work wise - I am still getting up every morning to serve all the Long Buckby train station commuters. I’m also going to focus on my personal training as I am now officially L3 qualified. I wasn’t a big fan of starting off in a gym, but I’m starting to believe this might be the best option as it’ll give me a good base and help me find clients. It’ll also be nice to work with other people! I might be saying otherwise in a few months time!

MYO wise - I have another few months at the rugby club and will keep on taking on private events. Unfortunately, some absolute ****** stole my beloved trailer so hopefully I can get another one sorted pronto, otherwise these events might be hard to get to!!

I’m going to write another blog about our ski trip in Italy, so ciao for now :)