Who says life can sometimes seem to be just one long party?
Well, it certainly seemed that way for me at the end of the summer when September
brought us back home from our holidays with a bang. Almost as soon as I returned from a
wonderful three weeks away with the rest of the Buttons, it was straight into preparations
for Cleve Chiropractic’s big 20 th anniversary bash!
In all honesty, I didn’t really have too much to do with the party planning – thanks to the
hard work put in by my colleague Catherine Quinn.
While I was sunning myself and enjoying mai tai cocktails in the south of France, Catherine
was running wild to get things organised and, with access to the company card, she was
clearly enjoying herself. Joking aside, she did a wonderful job – apart from some last-minute
trips to the supermarket for fizz and blowing up a few balloons, it was all sorted.
It’s funny how I seem to treat everything as a job and often forget to just enjoy the party.
However, as soon as the guests began to arrive for the celebrations at the clinic, I started to
relax. From the get-go, I was feeling a bit humbled by how lovely everyone was and how
kind it was that so many people came to mark the occasion with us.
We had a great mix of patients, friends, family and colleagues and it’s always fun to see
everyone get along. I have always been blessed by being surrounded by lovely, kind and
generous human beings.
When Catherine gave me fair warning about a few special guests she had invited it put me
into best behaviour mode. This month Catherine and I are travelling to the World
Chiropractic Assembly being held in Australia. The head of the World Chiropractic
Federation who run this event is our friend and colleague Richard Brown. I couldn’t believe
that he had accepted the invitation to come to our little party in Mangotsfield… I
immediately re-read and rewrote my speech.
She also invited our friend Peter Dixon who has been the head of every major chiropractic
organisation in Europe for 40 years… I decided to wear a tie. Then, for the icing on the cake,
I discovered that Alan Martinovic, my old deputy head teacher at Colston’s School – and one
of the country’s most successful schoolboy rugby coaches – would also be coming… I
rewrote my speech, pressed my suit and polished my shoes.
So no pressure then… Catherine kicked off the speeches with what could have been my
eulogy. I didn’t expect to be so moved by what she said but I guess, after all these years of
seemingly sprinting uphill to create the modern clinic we have today, it finally got to me.
Those who were there would have heard it in my voice when I started to deliver my heavily
rewritten response.
After not being able to cough, or slow the annoying emotional lump in my throat, I panicked
and did what I always do – I told a joke that I had thought of earlier and decided not to say…
‘Listen’, I said, ‘Everyone understands that you can’t do this without a huge team effort and,
as you have all heard before, there is no “I” in team… however, if there was, it would sound
a bit like Tim’. Only kidding!
At least people kindly laughed – probably at me – but I could talk clearly again and managed
to say some nice things and didn’t forget to thank all the important people. So after a
wonderful few hours that felt gloriously self-indulgent for me and my beautiful family but
also a great ‘thank you’ exercise for the greatest multidisciplinary staff team in the world, I
felt thoroughly happy, relaxed and looking forward to the next 20 years supporting the
people of Mangotsfield and beyond…
For some of us, though, the party wasn’t over, as we went out, out in Bristol… but that’s
another story.
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
