I can't speak for Nat or the others who, like me disappeared from here so I'll simply stick to explaining my own absence.
First in the last three years I have had a stroke then two heart attacks. Since I was ordered to avoid stress and Wendy felt the football was way too risky for me to watch I had to sneak peeks at the internet just to know if we were playing.
Joking aside things have been difficult to say the least since I had the stroke and I spent much of my time in therapy and rehab (physical not addiction therapy and rehab).
On the bright side I also became a granddad and especially since the 2nd heart attack which happened on New Years Eve (31/12/23) I have spent every possible moment with my family and closest friends. I love posting on here but frankly I was determined to reach out to as many of the people I had lost touch with such as old school mates as possible.
Lastly I genuinely didn't realise how much time had gone by since my last post until the play off final and was shocked when I saw how big the gap was. I am glad to be back and even happier that things on the personal front at least have improved to the point of me having both the time and ability to relax and enjoy life a bit more. Since our youngest daughter is now married it's just Wendy and me at home and we've moved into a much smaller, easier to manage house.
Sorry to ramble on a bit but I guess the short version is a lot of stuff happened in real life that sent football way down my list of priorities at the time and it's only recently that I've been both healthy enough and had enough time to really pay attention to it again.