A Seagulls Life
Blog
This is a glimpse into my world, a Seagull`s life.
I`m Johnny. `The Seagull’.
Read on, it’s going to be interesting….
"You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." C.S. Lewis
Would you walk away from everything?
From everything you owned? I mean EVERYTHING; your car, your home, your very well paid job, friends, pets, family, your social network? To make a decision to leave it all behind and within a space of one year it’s gone. I did. Along with Justine and our two sons and we set off on an adventure of a lifetime.
The Seagull takes flight
But before I explain why I walked away from everything I want you to join me on a flight. A flight that starts over 17,000 kms away, halfway around the world. In an inner city suburb surrounded by crime and grime, with an angry raucous soundtrack of Punk music punching the air. This flight takes us from England via France and eventually landing in Australia.
I have a passion for life, for self perfection and pushing for continued improvement. For never accepting the way things ‘should be’ and an unwillingness to conform, continually pushing boundaries. I was once likened to Jonathan Livingston Seagull from a book by the same name, a seagull that is trying to learn about life and to not settle for the ‘norm’. The name stuck and from that moment I became known as Johnny ‘The Seagull’.
A Seagull’s life: the beginning
My life-clock started to count at 09:53hrs in October 1968 and it was evident life was going to be interesting from a very early age. Born to a musician and artist father and a mother from a publican family was the perfect start to a ‘chilled life’, or so one would think and at first I had no complaints.
Dad played the Manchester and Liverpool music scene and even played with the Quarrymen before they became The Beatles. He had his own tattoo ‘studio’ operating from the front room of our home with all sorts of people coming and going at all hours of the day and night. And that’s where I received my first tattoo, at the ripe old age of one, yep you read correctly. Told ya it was going to be interesting and this is just the beginning!
Punk life
Things deteriorated, the marriage became violent and mum fled with me and my younger brother. We moved around a lot, never staying in one place for too long. During this time Punk was smashing it and being a young kid in Manchester without direction it was easy to get lead down the wrong path. I loved the music and the culture. I was a young punk, a VERY young punk mixing with those older than myself and getting involved in things I probably shouldn’t.
Things escalated and soon police were involved. Mum and her new husband ‘tried’ to disciplined me and I deserved it. But they would always blame my dad and in return he blamed them and so it went all through my youth and teenage years, never really being disciplined and so I kept on going, doing daft stuff and being a dick.
A Seagull`s Life: not much of a life
I went to school because I had to and it wasn’t a surprise when I left with nothing. In truth I never went back to find if I’d passed my exams or not because I knew I hadn’t put any effort in…being a dick again…
Not long out of school an amazing thing happened. I met Justine. God only knows why we ever hooked up, but we did and I’m very thankful it happened, perhaps it’s the fate Justine believes in.
Punk moved to ‘Shoegazing’, which moved to ‘Madchester’ and then BOOM, Rave/Dance came along. WOW, that was a trigger to ramp things up. By now alcohol was being consumed in ridiculous amounts and getting out of hand. I’ve lost too many days and nights which I’ll never get back, bad memories which I can’t erase and it was about to get worse.
An unexpected life
Justine was 18 and I was 20 when a baby came alone. What the!!! We decided we had to buy a home for our new family, but Justine was a student nurse and I was doing all sorts of crappy factory jobs so it was tough. We were broke. I was still clubbing, drinking and at that time off my head on ‘recreational’ drugs.
I remember times when the hot water system broke down or when our little one needed to move from a cot to a bed and we had nothing and had to borrow from our family. And the worst thing, I was using our max’d out credit card to pay for drugs. Man I was a mess and looking back at the photos from that time I looked in a BAD way.
Things hit rock bottom. I became ‘blacklisted’ for failing to make car loan repayments. The car was repossessed and I had to cycle everywhere with our young one on the child seat as I took him to and from child care. A close friend committed suicide and my ‘rave friends’ started to disappear. I realised I didn’t really have any friends, we just used each other for the next ‘hit’.
A Seagull`s Life: the turn around
That was my turning point. I knew I had to get out of this life and do something different. And as quick as that life ended my new one began. I became a mature aged student, studied hard and obtained a degree which lead to greater prospects and better paid jobs. We saved like bloody crazy and bought a nice home in a village in Saddleworth, high on the Pennine Moors of North West England.
I focussed on my fitness and became a successful mountain biker, getting sponsored to race for a couple of teams in the UK. The trails that crisscrossed the Moors where literally two minutes from our front door. Hundreds of kilometers of trails to mountain bike and run on, heaven for those that love the outdoors and this is where my real passion kicked off.
En France
Things began to pick up and we started to travel. France was our destination of choice. We visited there whenever we had the chance. We travelled extensively and fell in love with the regions of Brittany and the Loire Valley. Late 2002 whilst holidaying in Brittany we had a crazy idea to buy a property there, we even met a real estate agent and went to look at some idyllic French country farmsteads. They were stunning and I could see us living there growing veggies and shooing chickens out of the kitchen.
We return to England with a long term plan to move to France. New Year 2003 we decide to follow that plan and as fortune had it we heard about an ‘Emigration Expo’ in Manchester. We visit the expo with vague plans to move to France.
A Seagull`s Life: new beginnings
...and in March 2004 we landed in Melbourne!!! A snap decision to ‘start again’ on the other side if the world. At the expo we learnt that Australia wanted trained nurses and Justine was the perfect fit.
A few important points to note:
- 1. we had never previously visited or had any friends or family in Australia
- 2. I struggled to cope with an English summer
- 3. we had no idea what we were doing
Fantasy’ had taken over and before we knew it we had sold up everything, jacked in bloody fantastic jobs, said goodbye to everyone and left Manchester on a cold -5 degree morning. To arrive in Melbourne on a balmy March evening and sweltering in the 30 degree heat!
And so on to another interesting chapter in my story.
As a family we have worked hard whilst we have been in Australia, very hard. It’s been tough and we only had ourselves to fall back on. But we made new friends and networks and it didn’t take long for Australia to become our new home. Our boys have grown into young men and are settled. Justine is smashing it in the health & wellbeing world.
A Seagull`s Life: right here, right now
And me? Well, I continued to mountain bike for a while on a trusty single speed and again gained sponsorship. Then moved on to obstacle racing and won some events and cash doing that. At the end of one particular race my buddy and I turned to each other and said “that was a bloody awesome trail run ruined by obstacles, let’s start trail running”.
That’s where my passion for trail running really took off and I’ve never looked back. This is ‘it’ for me I’ve found my calling, I love the discipline, the pain and the pleasure that a trail run can give you. It’s you against Mother Nature and no matter how often you think you’ve won, you haven’t, she always has the upper hand and I love that challenge.
I will never conform.
I still continue to challenge myself and those around me, I find boundaries and cross them, I learn from every experience and from every person I come across, people like you. My experiences have taught me a lot and it’s time for me to ‘give back’. I feel my purpose now is to teach and tell stories that will help, support, encourage and inspire a million people, no, a billion people.
"Life`s challenges are not supposed to paralyse you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are." Bernice Johnson Reagon
I`m Johnny.
`The Seagull’.
And this was just a glimpse into my world, a Seagull`s life.
There’s loads more to share so I invite you to find time to contact me, we’ll sit next to a roaring campfire and talk about life with a bottle of my favourite whisky, it’s my shout, so get in touch now.
P.S. I love Justine for all the shit she has had to put up with.
Peace, Run and let’s BOUNCE!
Interested to know more??
I`ve been a guest on a couple of podcasts which give you more of a glimpse into my world, they make for an interesting listen so check them out.
