Saturday 29th May

Whew these are busy times! Had a press interview yesterday morning which went well, and there are lots of other things in the pipeline for the future. For now though, have a look at this http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/8191042 (Search for Granddad!) Oh well, I’ve been called worse! I’ve really hit the rebound training hard at Golds this week so will be glad to have a long weekend resting before, yes, hitting it even harder next week, then after that - Mexico! Here’s a pic of me at the Body Power with IFBB Pro James Llewellyn and John Kidd who competes in the over 40’s. It's really not for me to say whether I beat the younger man but everyone seems to think that I did so thanks for that! All the Body Power pics should be added to the gallery next week. Have a great Bank Holiday weekend!

Wednesday 26th May

Another brilliant rebound session at Golds today. After just a few days there I feel and look so much better, it's like I have gone from the 4th division to the Premier League, I'm more confident than ever for October now. The only other gym that I've trained at that is better than there is another Golds, the one in Venice, California! I hope that you like the website updates, check out the latest video & photos from the London show. Finally, I spent the afternoon with Caden at Willen Lakes today, when we do that life really doesn't seem like it can get any better, we played for hours and had two lots of ice cream, I ate all of mine but as you can see from the picture I cannot say the same about him!

Tuesday 25th May

Rebound training is now well underway and it feels good. I have moved to Golds gym in Bedford, it is a brilliant gym and it is air conditioned too! Many thanks to Carlo & Daniela for being so helpful, I'm already well settled in. Moving there is the best career move that I could have made, I had to leave Atlas, the owner decided to put a clear plastic roof on the place thus turning it into a greenhouse with no fresh air. Training in that will do more harm than good so both Marc & I have left. I will miss all of the people that I have helped there but Im working on a way to carry on helping them at DW gym in Bletchley soon. Here's a pic from Saturday of me with Cecil Croasdale, an absolute giant and an absolute gentleman!

Sunday 23rd May

Despite being underprepared, underweight and posing against an opponent 10 years younger than me I still won at the Body Power Expo yesterday. That's 2 wins and a new sponsor all in 1 week, especially pleasing as I was told by Atlas gym in January to "take the year off from competing to get a bit of meat on my frame" I ignored the comment due to my "golden rule" which is when someone offers you advice, see what they look like and what they have acheived and ask yourself if you aspire to be like that person. The people offering the advice in this case did not fit that description so I ignored them. I did get some good advice yesterday though from the likes of Daz Ball and Cecil Croasdale in between posing for countless photos with people that I had never met before. Had a great day and then went to the wedding of Maria & Neal in the evening, and yes, this time I did eat some wedding cake, lots of it!

Friday 21st May

Well the stomach is still getting better and although I will delay my decision until tomorrow, for the first time this week I'm slightly confident of competing. Shortly I will head off to Birmingham but it's a strange feeling. I was going to the expo anyway so that's fine but I've packed my show bag and had leave out a lot of the normal things. If I do compete I won't be bringing my "A" game and that will be a first. I've hardly trained, done no posing practice and my diet has been far from right all week. The website will get a lot of updates next week including the official photos and video from Sunday. Steve will of course do it, here is his daughter, my Princess Lilybelle. This is the look that she gave me when I dared to interrupt her lunch yesterday, she definitely has me & Steve's genes!

Thursday 20th May

All good news today! The stomach is definitely improving and the UKBFF have given me until 10.00 am on Saturday to make a decision. That is great news as I will be going to the Body Power Expo anyway so I can now delay my decision until I wake up after a restful night in a nice hotel in Birmingham. Marc and I are now sponsored by a brilliant Bodybuilding clothing company, please check them out ASAP and when you place your order please mention us! www.bodybuildingwear.co.uk/p/option_page/1/ Finally, I spent some time with Caden, Colby, Lilybelle & their mums today. It was absolutely fantastic! Here's Caden, his muscles seem to be growing really quickly, must be the chocolate cake diet!

Wednesday 19th May

Well the stomach is still very unstable and I may have to pull out of the Body Power Expo. A final decision will be made on Friday morning but after long discussions with Eddie and some straightforward advice from Angus I am never going to deplete and carb up again, the parts of my stomach that are only just over 2 years old simply can't handle it. So I am on my clean diet and light training and it is improving but if it's not 100% then I won't compete. Thanks to everyone that has been so concerned over this, I never knew so many people cared so much and I am deeply touched, and Natalie, I'm sorry I made you cry, I promise I will be OK. Right, enough of that, here's the before and after picture of Marc, click to enlarge and be amazed!

Monday 17th May

What a day yesterday! Marc looked amazing and won easily, thus ramming the words of both his critics and mine firmly back down their throats. I will put his show photos on here as soon as I have them, I am so proud of my number 1 protege, he has a great chance in the British finals in his first year of competition! I won easily too, but did the show dosed up on painkillers as my stomach completely blocked up & swelled up, it does pick it's moments! Afterwards I was violently sick and that helped to clear it temporarily but the doctors will make a decision in the next 24 hours about whether I can do the body power show as it is still very unstable. Anyway, here we are with our winners trophies!

Saturday 15th May

83/84 So its finally here. Marcs prep has gone superbly, despite him being ill recently he is now carbing up and will come in at just under 70 kg as planned. Nobody will believe that it is his first show and he will certainly take a lot of beating. I have my usual carbing up problem, my stomach still struggles to digest a lot of carbs after the surgery in 2008 so I will stop eating them at 9 pm tonight which gives me 18 hours to digest everything. I will compete at 108 kg (17 stone) which is much heavier than last year but my condition will be just as good. We are both looking forward to it and whatever happens I will post the results on here on Monday.

Wednesday 12th May

80/84 Feeling better today because of two strange events yesterday. Firstly, the legs appear to have come through early and secondly Eddie gave a huge smile when he looked at me and said that he was very happy! I am full of confidence now and so is Marc, I saw him today and he looks great, he is at contest weight so now we will carry on depleting and getting him under weight a bit longer before carbing him up. Eddie takes his last look at me tomorrow and I will do the same for Marc on Friday. It's all going to plan again and we are all looking forward to Sunday more than ever!

Monday 10th May

78/84 Feeling so tired, the depletion diet has started to hurt today. Marc is suffering more than me and I have to pick him up daily but I know he will be OK. I will see Eddie tomorrow and he will keep me going. The thing that I do to get through the hard days is to make a few plans for the near future. In the short term I will have a large Cuban cigar and a glass of Scotch waiting for me after the Body Power Expo. Then, after some solid rebound training, my girlfriend and I are off for a well deserved holiday at an absolutely amazing hotel, the Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico http://www.moonpalacecancun.com/. This place is pure luxury, with a 2 person jacuzzi in the suite, a private balcony, ocean view and restaurants with food that defies belief. Oh yes, each of those will do as an incentive!

Sunday 9th May

77/84 An excellent weekend. Marc is looking good even though he has now started carb depleting and I saw my posing coach Kev Simonds today who was impressed at how well everything has come through. Marc & I are both a bit flat because of the depletion so no photos today! Congratulations to my good friend Adam and his beautiful new wife Shelley whose wedding we attended on Saturday. Caught up with a lot of old friends including Angus who I haven't seen for a while. Eddie was there too, he is a great laugh when we go out, although I'm sure that he took some sadisitic pleasure in making sure that I didn't eat anything all night! I didn't even take a bit of wedding cake home, how's that for willpower? It will all be worth it by this time next week, of that I have no doubt.

Friday 7th May

75/84 Well finally, after a long wait we now know. It has been a long hard road but yes, Tottenham will play in the champions league next season! The election was a bit of a joke wasn't it? So if you get the most seats and the most votes you still don't win if the others decide to gang up on you? Great thing this democracy. Marc has had a slight relapse today so tomorrow I am having a look at him and we will have to make some decisions from there. My preparation is going well, here's my chest, the latest part to come in right on time. I'm carb depleting now so I feel flat and tired but this time next week I'll be carbing up and then we can see if all the hard work has paid off.

Wednesday 5th May

73/84 Just to answer a few questions today. Yes that was my son Steve winning £50,000 on "The whole 19 yards" on Saturday and no he won't lend you any of it. Marc is much better and will be back in the gym tomorrow. I don't know who I'm voting for yet but please make sure that YOU vote tomorrow, or you can't complain about the result can you? And finally a couple of people have asked how the abs are looking. Well apart from the scarring and a little bit of water that I will shift next week they are not bad for a 51 year old!

Tuesday 4th May

72/84 Happy Star Wars day - May the fourth be with you. Well I've been waiting for something to go wrong with Marcs preparations and on Sunday he called me to say that he was very ill, today he is still no better so we have a race against time now to make him healthy as soon as possible. On the plus side all of the hard work has been done so it will just be a case of re tuning him when he is recovered. I am feeling fine, just a bit tired, but it is worth it as the legs have now started to come through at exactly the right time, this picture was taken last week and they are looking better every day. If the legs are good and Eddie is happy with them then I am happy too!

Sunday 2nd May

70/84 Todays blog is dedicated firstly to my Mum, who would have been 70 today, love always Mum. Secondly it is dedicated to my good friends Tommo and Perry who both got into the best shape of their lives for yesterdays NABBA South East Britain. Tommo won the over 40's and Perry came second in the class 3 but was only beaten by a top quality opponent and would have won any other NABBA class 3 contest that I've seen recently. Well done to both of the guys, they have worked so hard over the winter and it has paid off as you can see in the photo. So they have set the bar high for Marc and I at the UKBFF show on May 16th, but both of us are confident and just can't wait to get on stage!