Not meeting David Beckham…
I didn’t meet David Beckham last week.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, why would you expect to?”
It’s not that I was expecting to, more that I was living in hope. Last Tuesday, I was in Waltham Abbey, sitting in Tony’s Pie and Mash shop enjoying, unsurprisingly, pie and mash.
It just so happens that this particular shop is one David Beckham is known to visit.
Unfortunately, the stars didn’t align. But there was plenty of evidence that Becks had been there before.
Tony’s was the last of three pie and mash shops we visited that day as it was round two of the now-famous (unofficial) pie and mash tour.
For my dad’s Father’s Day present last year, I organised the first tour, which essentially meant visiting five different pie and mash spots across London. It was a very calorific day, to say the least but thoroughly enjoyable. We scored each place we visited and ended up with an overall winner: Noted Eel and Pie House in Leytonstone.
Round two, this year’s birthday present, saw Noted go head-to-head with T.J. Kelly’s in Debden and Tony’s in Walthamstow to decide the ultimate champion. It’s safe to say no breakfast was eaten on Tuesday and no dinner was needed either. Three servings of “single, single” (one pie, one mash, one liquor) is more than enough food for a day.
The verdict? It’s a very, very close call between Noted and T.J. Kelly’s.
Three generations enjoying pie and mash!
I’m very aware that this is my first blog in a little while. A few weeks back, I spent two weeks covering shifts at the new gym I’m working in. It was a real eye-opener. I definitely spread myself too thin, taking on as many hours as I did while trying to juggle that with my full-time coaching role, college, studying and working on my assignment.
Safe to say… the assignment didn’t get much attention.
But as I said, it was an eye-opener. Sometimes, you have to push beyond to properly understand where the line is and figure out what’s actually sustainable.
And I think that’s something a lot of us are guilty of, especially in 2026. We expect ourselves to operate at 100% in every area of life, all at once. Work, family, health, social life, personal goals… we try to give everything our full energy, all of the time.
The reality is, that’s just not how it works.
There are only so many hours in the day and more importantly, only so much mental and physical energy we can give before something starts to slip. And when something does slip, our first reaction is often frustration. Like we’ve failed or we should’ve handled it better.
But maybe it’s not failure. Maybe it’s just being human. Maybe it’s just taking on too much at once.
Those couple of weeks taught me that just because I can take on more, doesn’t mean I should. On paper, there was time but it became apparent very quickly that from an energy perspective, there wasn’t.
So if there’s one thing I’ve taken from the past few weeks, it’s this:
You’re allowed to have limits.
And you’re definitely allowed to protect your energy and health because without that, none of the rest really works anyway.
Talking of energy, there is plenty of energy going into training for this year’s Spartan event. There’s quite a few of us taking part this year and it’s been good to have something big enough to train for but not as daunting as the marathon last year… (I’m still not quite over that!)
The college assignment did eventually get finished and it’s been handed in on time. We only have a handful of college weekends left of this academic year and attention is starting to turn towards getting my placement sorted for September. I am starting to feel less like a complete novice and more so someone that could say they are indeed a student counsellor with some skills that have been learnt and practiced.
One of my favourite weekends of the year is coming up. The clocks going forward and the evenings becoming lighter makes such a difference to energy and mood. Last week, with the sunshine, it felt like peeking behind the curtain as to what is, hopefully, to come in the next few months.