COLIN, 35, PUB OWNER
By 2006 Andrew and I had been working in the same bar for a couple of years, and we’d been together for three. We heard of a local pub that had come up for sale in Whitby, North Yorkshire, and decided to run our own business. We finally took over in January 2007. We had a lot to learn about running a business and about working and living together 24/7. That was tough, working and living together in one building the whole time. We annoyed each other (sometimes on purpose), we argued, and lost our tempers but the good times far outweighed the bad. We rebranded the existing pub with cask ales and live music and we got busy fast. We were proud to win numerous awards and we were in the perfect place to celebrate. We’ve hosted weddings, festivals, birthdays and a few seances in the cellar! The BBC even used our pub to report on the gay marriage vote. We have planned and executed all this together. We have stayed up all night painting the walls, worked together on the bar without killing each other and I have let Andrew fix blocked toilets alone for the past 10 years. Seriously though, it’s always been a joint effort and I know that I could never have done it without Andrew. I rely on him to be cool headed when I am an erratic monster. I’ve learnt so much about our relationship and we are strong enough to face anything the world throws at us.