At the end of 2018 - December 28th to be precise, HMV went bust and for the 2nd time in 6 years my business faced potential ruin.

Hundreds of thousands of £ gone.  Owed to me.  Sales made that I've never got back.  Five years ago I had to make three people redundant and thankfully found an investor to help me through it 

This time, with the industry I am in, going through a massive change where people don't buy DVDs anymore and unless you are Disney you can't get the cinema screens you need it looked more terminal.   My Distributor decided to close its doors, meaning I needed to find another one quickly and had to pay to move hundreds of thousands of DVDs from one warehouse to another and also destroy significantly more DVDs at more cost to the business.

In my personal life I finally was able to sell the old family home and allowed my ex to move her and my two sons to Newbury as she wanted to move closer to her family.  I have had over the past three years had to take my ex to court just to get access to my son and nearly 2 1/2 years since separating my ex still refuses me access to see my other son (who is now 18, with learning and social difficulties - but is not my blood son as it is from her first marriage).

I let my wife have all proceeds from the house because it meant she could buy the best house possible when she moved and I couldn't afford to pay any more legal fees.

With everything going on, I decided to change my life and I moved North to Derbyshire in April.  My new partner (whom I met on a dating App - see other thread for the upsides and downsides of them) lives there and runs a business from there.  I began commuting three days a week into London.

In May of this year the biggest deal I've ever been involved in for my business went South.  A Chinese company promised and contracted with me significant films just disappeared and moved to Hong Kong.

That was nearly the final straw.

It had been a shit first few months.

The move to Derby changed my life.  My son and I now have a brilliant relationship.  He genuinely adores my new partner.  I escaped to Dubai in May on a trip I was lucky enough to win.  I watched Charlton win the play off final in a pub where I was the only person supporting Charlton.

In the past 5 months I've had three legal cases all involving the Chinese and slowly but surely I've won each stage.

Three days ago I found out I'd been awarded the damages.  They have to pay within 14 days.  I got 50% of the cash today.  

I have had to make 3 people more redundant this year.  We downsized offices but the team is smaller but more safe.  I got engaged in August of this year.

Today is my birthday and Charlton have been bought.

Why the point of this post?!  Well, just like supporting Charlton, life can be shit at times.  But if you genuinely care about those around you, your family, your friends and you look after your own health and sanity, things CAN change.

You can be happy.  You can enjoy life and supporting Charlton .  I haven't been here half as much as I used to be - I've been more active on the NFL thread rather than Charlton ones.

My partner and I are sponsoring the Derby v Charlton game over Christmas and I'll get to take my Dad and my son out onto the pitch and meet the players.

Now we have our club back I don't care if we spend millions or not - the press release I read was music to my ears. 

I am looking forward to 2020 

Thanks 2019 you started like a wanker but you've given us all some genuine hope for the future.