So I woke up around lunchtime again to find I had two messages on my phone that I had obviously slept through not hearing. One was from Sean, asking if I could go round and help him get his new keys sorted out for his car and the other from Helen, posting on my Facebook to ask if I could look on Freecycle to find a sofa for her.
Unfortunately, what with having no internet at the mo, I was unable to assist with Helen's request and messaged her back to apologise for not being able to help. I texted Sean back to see if he still needed help with getting a locksmith out but he already managed to get it booked in. So I decided to head for the TV in the front room.
I sat and watched the snooker for a good 3 or 4 hours - the longest I've managed to to watch since the World Championships had begun almost two weeks ago. I got to see what seemed to be a pretty decent match between Stephen Maguire and Ali Carter before it switched to Ronnie O'Sullivan against Matthew Stevens. Saw the final 3 frames of the afternoon session - and some pretty damn good ones too - before I headed over to see what was happening with Sean's car keys.
It was the Leigh Town FC annual awards night so we needed the new keys in time for us to be able to drive over to Monty's in Leigh for the presentations. The locksmiths eventually turned up at around 6pm and made two brand spanking new keys for him. It took a little longer than we had expected, due to the fact that the battery had died in the car so needed to hook it up via jump leads to the locksmith's van so he could plug into the car's on board computer to program the new keys.
We then had to jump start the car and the locksmiths left us to it - after taking a nice big wedge of cash of course. I decided it was probably best to leave the engine running for 10 or 15 minutes to get a bit of charge in the battery before we had to head out for the evening. So whilst Wes and I joined Shal to watch Home and Away with her, Sean decided to go have a bath - something that he has a habit of doing pretty much just as we're about to head out the door, but this time he actually managed to do it an hour before we had to leave.
So the time passed and Sean, Wes, Aaron and I left for the awards night. After a brief stop to get some petrol and for Sean to get himself anoher scratch card (yes, he's a little addicted) we made it to Monty's for about 8pm and got ourselves a table in the function room out the back. Most of us were expecting Sean to get either the Player's Player of the Season or the Manager's Player of the Season. Unfortunately he lost out on the Player's Player by one vote - Lewis won it instead (no prizes for guessing who the deciding vote came from, PMSL!)
The 3rd team's Manager's Player award was given to Paul for being Manager Dave's right hand man in helping him out throughout the season with team picks, tactics and for stepping in to take charge when Dave was unavailable. It was a shock that Sean didn't win anything but he was gracious in defeat. The manager of the 2nd team gave out the Player's Player award to Krys (an excellent striker who scored over 30 goals this season - he also got the golden boot award for the whole club). He then chose 2nd team captain Chad as his Manager's Player of the Season.
The 1st team, managed by Simon, had voted for Jim Marting as their Player's Player of the Year - a very well deserved vote seeing as he was the most consistent and hard working player throughout the whole season. Simon then picked Jim Patterson as his Manager's Player award recipient due to his dedication to the team and always having a smile on his face to spur the team on even when they thought all hope was lost.
The Veteran's Team voted for Rob Scholes as their Player's Player of the Season and it was definitely well deserved after putting in so many great performances and scoring a shit load of goals throughout the year. Joe then decided that his Manager's Player of the Year was a new guy to the team this season - Kevin. I've personally never met the guy before but his commitment to the team and determination on the pitch was something that everyone agreed on.
Then came the biggest shock of the evening when Simon announced the Clubman of the Year Award. He said this award would usually be given to either a player within the club but this year the guy receiving it doesn't even play for the team. He also said that the reason they had decided to give this award was because the recipient had given up his spare time every Saturday to drive some of the players and even the Manager to the games throughout the season. I instantly knew he was talking about me and quickly started moaning at Dave for putting me forward for it. I'm not one of these people who takes praise and recognition very well and I absolutely hate getting up in front of a crowd or having my photo taken so it was an extremely embarrassing moment for me.
So I eventually made it up to the front of the crowd to accept my Shield and Silver plate from Simon and the club Chairman - apologies, but I still don't know the guy's name, haha - and posed for a few photos, most likely to end up on the club website, ugh!
This also put me in the situation where pretty much everyone in the whole club now knows who I am, whereas before it was pretty much only the 3rd team players and the odd one or two players from the 1st, 2nd and Vets teams. By this time, I've got everyone coming up to me, shaking my hand and congratulating me on my award - hugely overwhelming and totally embarrassing.
See the thing is, I didn't set out to earn myself an award for helping out here and there - I just thought it made sense for me to pick Dave and Lewis up on the way to the matches seeing as I was already driving Sean there anyway so it's not as if I was going out of my way or anything so I really found it hard to understand why I was chosen for this.
If anything, I would have expected someone like Big Dave to get it for coming out of retirement to help the team out with his knowledge, expertise and experience within the game. The guy made such a difference when he came into the 3rd team squad and showed some valuable lessons to the younger players who had recently joined the team.
Dave's wife said "what about all those times you've had to drive all the way back to our house because Dave had forgotten something?" Tibbs said it was because of all the times I stood behind the goal during the pre match warm ups, retrieving the balls whenever anyone didn't get their shots on target. And Dave said it was for all those Saturday's when I was there by his side to help out whenever I was needed.
OMG, I've seriously rambled on about this far too much now but it's still just such a huge shock for me. I'm not the sort of person who receives awards - I'm the sort of person who hides in the background, trying my hardest not to get noticed, hahaha. However, I am truly grateful for the award and I will treasure the fact that the club think so highly of my contributions so thanks guys, it is appreciated.
So moving on, after my big night of receiving my awards, we headed back home. We dropped Aaron off at his house then I dropped Sean and Wes back at Sean's house. I went back to mine and sat myself in front of the TV. I eventually fell asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours before once again waking up at around 2am. It's now after 7am and I still haven't been able to get myself back off to sleep and my head is pounding - thankfully I managed to eventually find some ibuprofen in my backpack and have just taken 3 of them.
Time to try and get myself back to sleep for a few more hours. See ya soon!
James!
xXx
Unfortunately, what with having no internet at the mo, I was unable to assist with Helen's request and messaged her back to apologise for not being able to help. I texted Sean back to see if he still needed help with getting a locksmith out but he already managed to get it booked in. So I decided to head for the TV in the front room.
I sat and watched the snooker for a good 3 or 4 hours - the longest I've managed to to watch since the World Championships had begun almost two weeks ago. I got to see what seemed to be a pretty decent match between Stephen Maguire and Ali Carter before it switched to Ronnie O'Sullivan against Matthew Stevens. Saw the final 3 frames of the afternoon session - and some pretty damn good ones too - before I headed over to see what was happening with Sean's car keys.
It was the Leigh Town FC annual awards night so we needed the new keys in time for us to be able to drive over to Monty's in Leigh for the presentations. The locksmiths eventually turned up at around 6pm and made two brand spanking new keys for him. It took a little longer than we had expected, due to the fact that the battery had died in the car so needed to hook it up via jump leads to the locksmith's van so he could plug into the car's on board computer to program the new keys.
We then had to jump start the car and the locksmiths left us to it - after taking a nice big wedge of cash of course. I decided it was probably best to leave the engine running for 10 or 15 minutes to get a bit of charge in the battery before we had to head out for the evening. So whilst Wes and I joined Shal to watch Home and Away with her, Sean decided to go have a bath - something that he has a habit of doing pretty much just as we're about to head out the door, but this time he actually managed to do it an hour before we had to leave.
So the time passed and Sean, Wes, Aaron and I left for the awards night. After a brief stop to get some petrol and for Sean to get himself anoher scratch card (yes, he's a little addicted) we made it to Monty's for about 8pm and got ourselves a table in the function room out the back. Most of us were expecting Sean to get either the Player's Player of the Season or the Manager's Player of the Season. Unfortunately he lost out on the Player's Player by one vote - Lewis won it instead (no prizes for guessing who the deciding vote came from, PMSL!)
The 3rd team's Manager's Player award was given to Paul for being Manager Dave's right hand man in helping him out throughout the season with team picks, tactics and for stepping in to take charge when Dave was unavailable. It was a shock that Sean didn't win anything but he was gracious in defeat. The manager of the 2nd team gave out the Player's Player award to Krys (an excellent striker who scored over 30 goals this season - he also got the golden boot award for the whole club). He then chose 2nd team captain Chad as his Manager's Player of the Season.
The 1st team, managed by Simon, had voted for Jim Marting as their Player's Player of the Year - a very well deserved vote seeing as he was the most consistent and hard working player throughout the whole season. Simon then picked Jim Patterson as his Manager's Player award recipient due to his dedication to the team and always having a smile on his face to spur the team on even when they thought all hope was lost.
The Veteran's Team voted for Rob Scholes as their Player's Player of the Season and it was definitely well deserved after putting in so many great performances and scoring a shit load of goals throughout the year. Joe then decided that his Manager's Player of the Year was a new guy to the team this season - Kevin. I've personally never met the guy before but his commitment to the team and determination on the pitch was something that everyone agreed on.
Then came the biggest shock of the evening when Simon announced the Clubman of the Year Award. He said this award would usually be given to either a player within the club but this year the guy receiving it doesn't even play for the team. He also said that the reason they had decided to give this award was because the recipient had given up his spare time every Saturday to drive some of the players and even the Manager to the games throughout the season. I instantly knew he was talking about me and quickly started moaning at Dave for putting me forward for it. I'm not one of these people who takes praise and recognition very well and I absolutely hate getting up in front of a crowd or having my photo taken so it was an extremely embarrassing moment for me.
So I eventually made it up to the front of the crowd to accept my Shield and Silver plate from Simon and the club Chairman - apologies, but I still don't know the guy's name, haha - and posed for a few photos, most likely to end up on the club website, ugh!
This also put me in the situation where pretty much everyone in the whole club now knows who I am, whereas before it was pretty much only the 3rd team players and the odd one or two players from the 1st, 2nd and Vets teams. By this time, I've got everyone coming up to me, shaking my hand and congratulating me on my award - hugely overwhelming and totally embarrassing.
See the thing is, I didn't set out to earn myself an award for helping out here and there - I just thought it made sense for me to pick Dave and Lewis up on the way to the matches seeing as I was already driving Sean there anyway so it's not as if I was going out of my way or anything so I really found it hard to understand why I was chosen for this.
If anything, I would have expected someone like Big Dave to get it for coming out of retirement to help the team out with his knowledge, expertise and experience within the game. The guy made such a difference when he came into the 3rd team squad and showed some valuable lessons to the younger players who had recently joined the team.
Dave's wife said "what about all those times you've had to drive all the way back to our house because Dave had forgotten something?" Tibbs said it was because of all the times I stood behind the goal during the pre match warm ups, retrieving the balls whenever anyone didn't get their shots on target. And Dave said it was for all those Saturday's when I was there by his side to help out whenever I was needed.
OMG, I've seriously rambled on about this far too much now but it's still just such a huge shock for me. I'm not the sort of person who receives awards - I'm the sort of person who hides in the background, trying my hardest not to get noticed, hahaha. However, I am truly grateful for the award and I will treasure the fact that the club think so highly of my contributions so thanks guys, it is appreciated.
So moving on, after my big night of receiving my awards, we headed back home. We dropped Aaron off at his house then I dropped Sean and Wes back at Sean's house. I went back to mine and sat myself in front of the TV. I eventually fell asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours before once again waking up at around 2am. It's now after 7am and I still haven't been able to get myself back off to sleep and my head is pounding - thankfully I managed to eventually find some ibuprofen in my backpack and have just taken 3 of them.
Time to try and get myself back to sleep for a few more hours. See ya soon!
James!
xXx
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