Mask, paper silhouette table decor from engagement party

When I first started dating my wife, Natika, I thought something must be up. She was beautiful, with a great personality - why did she like me!? I thought there must be something wrong with her. Once I’d confirmed that I was in fact just incredibly lucky, I took her on a surprise holiday to Venice and proposed to her there. It went really well!

Natika’s Dad is Turkish which, for us, meant that we had two weddings - one in the UK and then an extra reception over in Turkey with all of her family who couldn’t all get VISAs to

come over here. The culture in Turkey is a bit different and a lot of Natika’s family are Muslim. I think most of her family thought we were already married when we were dating because we were already sharing a hotel room! The dancing at our Turkish reception was different too - I tried to keep up but I think it was a bit like a drunk person trying to do Irish dancing!

Accordion, tin whistle

It was my Grandad who got me into Irish music - he moved here from Ireland when he was young. He played the accordion really well and he taught me to play. I remember him driving me down to Irish Music Society Comhaltas on a Tuesday night. I just loved the vibe down there, there were a couple of kids a bit older than me that I looked up to.

I play more tin whistle than accordion - it’s quicker (more efficient!) to learn! There was one player in particular who really inspired me. I ended up coming third in the UK Championship one year.

When I was younger, my parents didn’t have time to play music but they’ve started learning in retirement! My little girl, Ayla, has learnt to, “blow bubbles,” into the tin whistle now, too. My Grandad would have been proud to have inspired three generations of Irish musicians!

Chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise sandwich, bottle of ketchup, Pepsi Max, Cherries and Berries squash

I absolutely love food but I’m a bit finickity with it. I used to have ketchup on absolutely everything - and lots of it. I’ve got a bit better now but I still have it on most things. If I’m eating out, by the time I've opened and squeezed enough sachets of ketchup onto my meal, it will have gone cold. So I cut out the sachet drama by bringing a bottle of ketchup along with me.

My signature dish is a chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise sandwich. My mum first got me onto them to try to get me off the ketchup. For maximum efficiency, I make them on tin foil so there's no washing up and, instead of slicing them, I add filling to both slices of bread and then fold them over.

A Pepsi Max completes my lunch. Failing that, I’ll have berries and cherries squash. I take a litre bottle of the squash on holiday with me just in case…

Selection of Danny’s fancy dress outfits and props, trike, playing cards, group themed photos

I’ve got a bit of a reputation with my mates for having fancy dress birthday parties. I’ve not done one in a while but, for about six to seven years, all of my birthdays would be fancy dress pub crawls with a theme. We’ve been commandos, firemen and Olympians! One year, we went round all the pubs on kids’ bikes!

I’ve done it for stag dos as well - I had the stag dress up as Bo Peep and we were all sheep... Quite often, my costumes don’t survive the night!

When I’m not entertaining Coventry’s nightlife with my gaggle of lads in Hawaiian skirts, I’ve got a few magic tricks that I do in bars. I love watching magic - me and Natika even had a magician at our wedding! And I definitely get a kick out of impressing people with my own few tricks…

Suit, groomsmen flask, ring box, headset

I’ve made lots of friends throughout my life who I’m close to. I don't take this for granted - not many people are blessed with having such great people around them!

I still see a lot of my school mates because we all stayed around Coventry. I have another group from an impromptu holiday to Zante where we clicked and formed a great bond after just a week. Now we all hang out together - I often play the organiser who makes sure all of our mates meet up.

I’ve always been a gamer and, over lockdown, a group of us started playing video games online together to keep in touch. It meant I didn’t go stir crazy with isolation like some people did.

Probably because I’m quite organised, I’ve been best man three times (so far). I’m very close to all my friends and I think they know that I’m going to show up and plan a good stag do!

Fridge magnets, ski goggles

It’s true that teachers have long holidays - and I’ve had some good ones over the years. When I was single, I did a lot of skiing holidays. It started on a school trip in year 10. They took us to Austria and none of us had done it before so we just spent a great week falling over and laughing. Now I’m pretty good at it, and pretty competitive with it too!

I used to go once every two years or so in February half terms, and I was excited to go skiing again on a stag do more recently.

My holidays with Natika involve less competitive skiing and more relaxing! We’ve been on a New Year Caribbean Cruise, a trip to Croatia, and a holiday to Seychelles, and we’ve got ambitions to travel even more in the future and to show our daughter more of the world as well. I feel really lucky that we’re able to go on so many nice holidays together.

Football jersey, trophies

I’ve always been pretty competitive and pretty sporty. In my school, my uncle held this running record that he’d set when he was at school. I ran myself into the ground trying to beat it and I was gutted when my friend beat it instead!

Football was my main thing, I used to play Sunday League.

I got most competitive when the other players weren’t my sort of footballers - they were the sort who would swear at the ref and stuff. I’m not like that but I ended up playing on teams with them as well as against them. I remember once losing a penalty playing on a team with guys like that. It really hurt.

Since I injured my knee, I can’t play football as much. For a while after, I was gyming like six times a week but now I have a family, I don’t have time for as much so I just try to keep in good shape. Sport is so important for me and I’m looking forward to my daughter, Ayla, being old enough to play.

Various sports equipment, whistle, PE uniform

I come from a family of teachers - my parents taught and two of my siblings teach too! You’d think that’s what got me into it but, if anything, my parents’ huge workloads put me off! I had some great PE teachers who inspired me in school - I thought, “that’s what I want to do.” I flirted with being a firefighter but the closest I’ve got to that is dressing up as one on a pub crawl!

I love teaching kids who try their hardest. I enjoy motivating them to start a new sport and then helping them to improve at it. At the moment, I stay behind after school to coach two brilliant teams - basketball and badminton.

I try to be friendly and approachable as a teacher but I can be strict when needed. Every year, I scare my year sevens into looking after the badminton rackets by violently smashing up an old broken racket in front of them (all an act)... It’s efficient - I never have to ask them to look after their rackets twice!

Selection of Coventry City football jerseys through the years

I'm a lifelong Cov City supporter, taking after my dad, although I reckon I follow them even more closely than he does now! Before I had a family, I was a season ticket holder and I still try to go as often as I can to support them.

At their most difficult times in League Two, there were often less than 10,000 people supporting them in a 32,000 capacity stadium. And at one point they didn't even have a stadium! I was there through it all - once you support a club, you can't change it!

Cov City is doing way better now with new ownership and one of the best managers in English football - things have been on the up! Seeing them win at Wembley twice surrounded by my Dad, brother, friends and thousands of other passionate Cov supporters was really cool. They are memories that I will never forget!