In the Year 2029...

So that was the 2010s… a decade of running, running, gongs, running, fighting for services, losing friends and falling in love & getting married.

Any retrospective of a decade focuses on the highlights and or the low lights, and skips over the middling murk of normal life that we live in most of the time. So, I’m not going there. Instead, I’m going to jump into my TARDIS to 2029 and look back at the 2020s…

In 2029 I’ll be almost 60, I’ll still be running and will finally have got a t-shirt worthy number of parkruns done. I’ll still be moaning about my hip, my ankle and probably other bits of me. But I’ll still be plodding, often with Mrs Jiminy beside me, in costume (from the second decade of Marvel films), around courses and taking our annual pilgrimage to Newcastle and the Great North Run.

Work will still be work, although I’ll note we are all complaining about the pay and car parking despite the fact that money was outlawed in 2025 and we all access work remotely by VR…

Mrs Jiminy and I will have had a decade of being favourite geeky Uncle & Aunt to the growing collection of friends children and (say it quietly) grandchildren… VR goggles are more truly immersive and the hug-suits (suits with air pockets that mimic the pressure and movements of a linked person) mean though we’re on our island retreat (complete with volcano for my lair) we’re never far away.

Health wise there’s been up and downs, threats of surgery have come and gone, and come again… but we’re still as active as we can be, having fun and smiling- even if our dream of climbing El Cap is only now a virtual one.

I was present when the baton was passed to the NW of England as it became initially the best CHD all-age service in the country and then the world. The loss of follow-up work that me and my charity chums had been banging on about since the early 2010s has led to lives being saved.

The Lego collection has now reached the stage where it’s on display for children of all ages to enjoy – yes, we got the gallery space… yes, we still have Lego to make from the wedding… no there’s never enough Lego…

So as the 2020s come to a close the shadows and the light.

To my friends who aren’t here, I have screamed at the night in my impotent rage at not being able to help you in your hour of need.   I’ve tried to improve what we have, I’m sorry it never seems enough.

In terms of highs, I ran my 10th Ultra, and won an age category (it was a very small race!!!), and I’ve done the Yorkshire three peaks in under 12h and finished the Fellsman.

Lastly, and most importantly;  Mrs Jiminy is my rock and my star, over the last decade my love for her has deepened and become a feeling I can’t imagine ever being without. She makes us us and I can never say I love you enough.

TTFN and a Happy New Decade!!

Paul

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