20 Years Ago Today...

...I met my future wife to be Emily. It was quite by chance really. I was coerced into going to a small nightclub in Bath called Moles by a couple of friends, Nick and Soraya. I really didn't want to go and just wanted to go home, so I thought I'd humour them and go for a little bit then walk home after about 30 minutes or so. Well, I ended up chatting with "Emily" at the bar (she thought I looked like a criminal) and I gave her my home phone number on a small piece of paper and that was it. Emily, who was over in the UK on an educational trip from San Jose State University for a semester and was dared by a school chum to call me when this piece of paper inadvertently fell out of her wallet.

She called, and quite by chance I walked into my home and at that moment picked up the phone. At that time I couldn't for the life of me remember who was "Emily" because I think I had been enjoying the evening way to much when I handed out my phone number. Anyways, we arranged to meet at the Hatchetts (a small pub in the centre of town). Side note: Emily will tell you I was 45 minutes late for our date...(oops).To cut a long story short, 6 weeks later we flew to Paris, where I asked her to marry me.

We flew back and forth between the UK and USA for two years, wrote letters everyday (there wasn't any email or anything "E" at that time) and would phone once a week on Sundays (as it was cheap to call on Sundays). We ended up getting married on April 3rd at the Love Chapel in Lake Tahoe (no longer there) and we have been married for 18 years this coming April. I love you buddy!

It's not always about the bikes..

Okay, so I'm a little inside my monthly update, but I wanted to mention whilst I'm deciding on how to cook salmon before I head off to Road America tomorrow, and wanted to share this missive with those peeps lucky enough to spend some time on my site and reading this verbiage. Please indulge me.

I love my wife. Deeply. Emily is truly the most wonderful person in my universe and sometimes I wonder what I did to be in the same time continuum as someone so switched on, so smart and so alive. Well, I guess that's something for the stars.

One thing I have observed being around these bike racer types, and chats with Rachel (Hacking) and Aaron Yates wife Heather, we all have one thing in common. We believe in the end goal. It's a team thing, like a marriage should be. No one person "owns" another, nothing "belongs' to one person, it's about the unit, and working together, love and trust.

And before I descend into the deep philosophical depths I just want to say, that having Emily be alongside me whilst working, (she even took some photos AND they were sharp, and in context) was equivalent to having training wheels taken off of your Raleigh, or learning to walk, falling in love (oh wait I do that each day - to this day my tummy flips when I meet her for lunch or see her face at the airport when i come home - and we've been married over 17 years).

I love you, I'll be home on Monday and I promise I'll send you some wallpapers buddy.

Thank you for being in my life Emily. I love you.



I should add, that a soupcon of motorcycle racing photography from the AMA Superbike races at Infineon are now online, I hope you like them..

Andrew :)