I realised the reason that I was having trouble finding a flat, especially as I had so many friends already working in London, was the amount of money I had on my own. The £10,000 prize money, which was supposed to be the final payment for working my notice and going back to England, wasn't much, but it wasn't just that. 'I was finding it difficult to find a home to rent because they were saying I was overpaying because I had so much money,' I said. 'I had a friend stay with me for a while because she couldn't afford to live in London. She moved back to Scotland soon afterwards.' David seemed to understand the situation, and suggested that I contact an estate agent he knew. He thought it would make the whole experience easier if someone else was looking after the place. 'OK, but we have to make sure that when we find somewhere to rent, you will be first on the list,' I said. 'There is no problem. If I tell you about a place to rent you are the first person I will call. No one has told me that your money is tied up or anything like that. You can pay me as much rent as you can afford and whatever you cannot afford we will sort it out.' 'Thank you, David. Now that I am going to get a bit more serious about finding a home in London, I am happy with your plan. I have been thinking about this for a while and realised that it is not the same to be house-sitting or renting from friends for a short time as it is to live somewhere long-term.' I was glad that David had been as straightforward with me as he had. There was no reason why we couldn't look for a place of our own, as long as the finances worked. The following week I was due to fly to England for the first time since leaving the Royal Marines. We had decided to split the remaining money from the win at York between the three of us. This time, no amount of money had been mentioned, but I knew that this would be the last time we would ever spend it together, so we decided to buy a house we could all live in and then use the rental income to keep the flat, which we were already sub-letting to James, so that he had some income from which to make rent payments. I didn't want to hang around much longer, but in the meantime I thought it was worth it to travel up to Scotland and spend time with James and his girlfriend. By this time I had met them both at a few gigs and social events. I was glad they had moved back from the south of England, as it was easier to see them now. As before, it was a bit awkward, because we couldn't put any pressure on James about anything except his music. That week David and I were watching Match of the Day. Someone who was a guest on the show had apparently signed for Manchester United. I asked David who he thought they would buy. He said he thought it would be someone like Steve McManaman or Paul Scholes, because they were the best players in the world and would suit the way Man United play. Then he thought for a moment and said, 'What about Peter Crouch?' 'Yeah, right. No way,' I replied. We started watching the recording again, and it was another guest who had signed for United. David didn't look surprised. He knew the show and it looked like they were trying to set up a move for Crouch. David, though, was more interested in the football side of things. 'David, you and I would have a much better chance of pulling off that move,' I said. David laughed, but agreed with me. I hoped it wouldn't come to anything but the club might want a better deal. If we got offered a few million pounds, though, they would probably need to ask me first. * * * I always said that, of the three people from the team of five, I felt I had made the biggest contribution to the success of Team GB and more than deserved the reward of being named captain of the Olympic 4 x 400 metres relay team. David Moffat and I had been training together for a long time and had known each other for many years. We had both become interested in martial arts. We were both going to a black belt in karate when the Olympics came along and had planned to train with each other. That changed when we were both selected for Team GB. I was really pleased for him. There were a lot of strong athletes who could have made the team. His selection was deserved recognition for his ability and his work ethic, but I felt that he had let himself down by not applying himself a lot more to training. It had surprised me how much effort he was putting in now, though, and I couldn't have been more happy to see him get selected for the squad. Our coach, Kevin Roberts, was the only person from the team I felt really supported me when I had some problems with my feet. He told me to think of the team as a group of six, and I knew that if I let him down he would never tell me about it. The same went for Matt Pritchard, the assistant coach and the man who told us what we needed to do to qualify, although he was never much help. The week before we were due to leave for London, David asked if we could go out for a few drinks together. It had been another very long and stressful day, and I wanted nothing more than to stay in and watch a film. After having a drink, though, we ended up going out to a club. I wanted a little bit of fun, and while I felt it would be weird seeing David drink and dancing, I knew he was a good person. I knew he would never put himself in danger or anything, but if that was what it took to make him feel better about himself then, to me, that was fine. We had been out for a couple of hours and it was getting late. The train back to Surrey was leaving soon, and I still had to find out what accommodation I could afford with the money left from the win at York. It was going to take some time to find somewhere. I knew we were in town, because I had seen a place where I thought we could live when we were there with Mandy. It was off the beaten track and I had no idea where it was. As we got closer to the centre of the city, though, I couldn't believe how big it was. Even thinking about it, I realised that since then the number of people in London had probably doubled. As we got closer, I started looking up at the buildings, and when we went round a street corner, I thought I saw John Cleese, but when I looked again, I couldn't work out who it was. We walked into a little side street and I couldn't believe how big the place was. I couldn't even see the top of the buildings, and they were probably twenty or thirty storeys high. There must have been three hundred flats, with one of them at the far end, which was a little bit more luxurious. 'I know it's right over here,' David said. 'I told you it was.' As we started to walk through the streets, I was sure we had passed it. Then we turned a corner and I could see the entrance. We were a little bit higher up than it was on the ground, so I didn't want to enter on the stairs. 'I'm going to walk around and see what I can see,' I said. I walked up to the door. 'I can see you are doing great things,' David said. 'I'm jealous you have a flat in London.' I walked in and it took a while for my eyes to adjust to the light. It was nice to be able to see the sky after not having had that for a while. As I looked out, I could see the backs of tall buildings that we had just walked through. I could imagine the view that you would get as a child. I walked to the window and looked out to see if it was possible to see any landmarks. David joined me, and I pointed out various things. We looked at the river, and as I leaned out the window and looked down I saw the London Eye. I didn't say anything. I was thinking of what it would be like to be able to see the river like that every day, and how far I had come. The only thing I would change would be to get a flat with the view. We walked back through the entrance and found the lift. The moment I sat down I realised it wasn't moving. I stood up and shouted at the top of my voice. I pushed at the door. I couldn't work out what was going on, but I was so angry. I thought David had put the lift out of action. He just shrugged his shoulders. 'Can you fix it?' he asked. 'I don't know, but it's probably quicker if I walk down the stairs than wait for it to come back up.' 'OK, sure. Well, have a great night.' We took the lift down and waited for the next train to come through. The train stopped about half an hour later, and in that time it had started to rain. I got on the train to head to Sur