My very good friend in Sydney Australia, Mr Andrew Todd, recently secured a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a musician called Francis Dunnery play a gig in his house.
If you’re unfamiliar with Francis, he was the guitarist and creative genius in the band It Bites (their 1988 album ‘Once Around The World’ is one of my all time favourite albums ever.) He has gone on to produce some truly sublime solo material
Andy offered me an invitation to attend the gig (it’s next Friday) and I politely declined for lots of rational reasons - cost, distance, work obligations etc. I then got a talking to by my partner Nicola and my lovely sister Katy about living life, taking chances like this when they’re unlikely to happen again and other stuff.
As a result I changed my mind and booked the flights. All of this happened before I heard the terrible news this week that a former colleague of mine from Mercedes-Benz days (Paul Bullas) had died as a result of a recent tragic accident - he was younger than me.
So, tomorrow I’m heading off to Sydney - and I’ll be heading back exactly a week later. This week has shown in stark detail how fragile and precious life is, and, if you’re able to, you really should just live life and be adventurous because the only real thing happening to you is what’s happening right now. RIP Paul - you’ll be sadly missed by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing you.