Month: January 2004

I promised a review of 2003, although reading Gordon‘s, I was tempted to give it up as a bad idea. It’s hard to sum it up in a few words, but I think it is fair to say that 2003 was the best year yet, both professionally and personally.

There have been three major positives in 2003. The first was finally deciding to draw down the shutters on Croftway Nursery in its current incarnation. With my parents finding running the nursery so all-consuming that no room was left in life for the more pleasurable things, and with my brother and I both up to our eyes in our own projects, it was really a simple and natural conclusion to come to. Since that decision was made, all sorts of exciting new plans for the nursery have been made, all of which involve my parents – they certainly won’t be spending the future sitting in front of the fire with the cat, which is exactly how things should be as they are not the sort of people who enjoy sitting around and being idle. I’m looking forward to the future for Croftway, even if my part in that will be much less than my part in its recent past.

The second major positive was the creation and rapid blooming of Plants For Europe Limited. If someone had told me a couple of years ago that I’d be undertaking to set up my own business that would give me the opportunity to travel a bit, meet interesting people and see brand new plant varieties before the rest of the world, I’d have laughed. The fact that PFE has also been so well received by the industry is also extremely encouraging, such that PFE is already exceeding my forecasts (which is also the result of my prudence when it comes to spending money, my additional cash inputs and the support of my backers). The next three years will not be easy for PFE – money will flow outward faster than it flows in, but I’m confident that the tide will begin to turn, and that if all goes well, it should provide a good income for me and my family in the future.
Not only that, but PFE has also been good fun. It has always been important to me to have a job that I enjoy – I rate that above pecuniary reward. PFE is certainly that, and has included some interesting travel too, with two trips to the States (plus some add-on when I went to David and Andi’s wedding), a trip to Germany and three trips to the Netherlands, as well as several trips within England and Wales. 2004 will see still more travel, with visits to Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, Scotland and possibly more. There’ll be a lot to fit in this year.

Of course, the last but greatest of the three positives of 2003 was meeting and getting engaged to Hels. We’ve got a lot to get through in 2004 – we need to sell our flats, find a new home, arrange a wedding, actually get married and then settle in to our new life together. It’s an exciting and challenging time, but I’m loving every minute, and looking forward to all that it will bring.

grayblog is still here too, nearly halfway through its fourth year of continuous inanity. I’m surprised you stick around to read this drivel, but you do. I still enjoy creating and maintaining what you see here and, as I’ve said before, whilst that remains the case then I shall continue to keep on driveling. I still have plans to improve this site, although finally switching to MT and changing hosts was a great step forward.

So that’s it really. 2003 done with, 2004 to look forward to. I hope yours is as good as mine promises to be.