So as we all stand in the huge shadow of indecision cast over us by a current state of hung parliament in the UK… Financial institutions are warning of problematic raamifications… party leaders will attempt to strike deals to gain power… Bournemouth West (my own constituency) voted strngly for the Tories, I watched the result come in… And despite all this… This weekend that is looming has far more importance.

I am on the verge of a gargantuan weekend folks… One that sees some very important journeys culminate…

Firstly, I am running my hypnotherapy training diploma here in Bournemouth… My monthly format course that is run one weekend a month for 10 months… It is month 8 and seems like only yesterday that I was welcoming them into the fold and they were meekly setting about their journey.

How they have blossomed… I am in awe of so many of them that have transformed into incredibly talented hypnotherapists, already doing remarkable work with their case studies.  This weekend, we shall be focusing on them setting up their businesses and employing key hypnotic principles to market and develop their business – as well as lots of additional therapeutic learning, of course.

This weekend is also going to see my beloved Nottingham Forest play out the first leg of the Championship play-offs. If we emerge victorious over the two legs, we then go into the final to play for a chance to get into the Premiership. After an 11 year absence fromt he top flight, us Forest fans are more excited than ever.

Like my hypnotherapy students… The Nottingham Forest players and fans have been on some journey over the past 9 months… Last season, our manager Billy Davies took up the reins of the club when we were at the foot of the table and in the end we narrowly avoided relegation. An unthinkable thing for a club that gets more fans attend every home game than just about every other team in the Championship league. And even though we do tend to bleet about it in our post-match beers, we are a club steeped in victorious history, with top league titles and two European Cup wins under our belts. To be where we are a year on is marvellous.

The team we play tomorrow are the only team to have beaten us twice this season. Blackpool Goddammitt! I really hope we have learned from those matches and can outperform them to show why we ended up third in the league this season and they scraped into 6th spot.

Finally, and by far most importantly… Sunday is my wedding anniversary. I shall be taking my wife out for dinner after I have finished working… My wedding anniversary reminds me of who and how I am as a result of my wifes amazing influence in my life… This photo was taken a few minutes after we had been announced as man and wife and were stepping into married life together… I was jokingly and metaphorically referring to that journey and saying “on your marks.”

When I married, I knew it was for life. I spent so many years prior to meeting Katie refusing to commit if things were not absolutely right in a relationship and as I reached my 30s in age, many people may have suspected I was bound for a lifetime of being a batchelor, which I actually used to thoroughly enjoy.

Married life I enjoy more.

Much more. These past few years have represented some journey for Katie and I and we shall continue on our journey together, strongly.

Sharing my life with someone in this way is the single most precious thing to me for so many reasons. Having that constant support, love, laughter and never feeling alone – now that is living.

Katie’s phone has been playing up… She had some months to go on her contract and so I have bought her a top of the range iPhone. You’ll notice I felt the need to say ‘top of the range’ – it is because mine is the same and it is something I have grown to love… Through the ages, many men and women have fallen in love with technology… Gaming consoles, televisions, cars, gadgetry… I also love my GPS watch (my eternal running and training companion) and so Katie is going to have the opportunity to fall in love with the iPhone too… We are organising a Cath Kidston case for it to go in… My wifes favourite designer… Not untypically I would add.

So yes, some major journeys are playing out this weekend… And it is those journeys that make life the joyous experience it is… of course it is not all Cath Kidston roses all of the time! The journey is the joy, not those end results we seem to get focused upon… So many people seem frustrated in not knowing how this election is going to pan out for this country, but we’ll know soon enough.

I am enjoying the spectacle of it all… The fervour, the discussion and debate, the unity and disparity between so many of us… And observing the experience of all those other romantic journeys I am on with my students, my football team, my darling wife and you all…

Enjoy your weekend too.