I heard yesterday that Richard Shaw, an ex-colleague that I used to work pretty closely with, had drowned in a tragic accident on Sunday, 2 November 2014.

Needless to say, I was shocked and saddened by the news. Then I started to look back at the times we had worked together, the amount of pain and bullshit that had happened and we had to go through during the course of work; it all really didn’t matter that much after-all.

I then realised that I should contact the other ex-colleagues that had worked closely with him and let them know of the loss if they hadn’t already heard about it.

It was also through the process of hunting people down that I am once again reminded about how lousy I am at keeping in touch with people. It is also a bit of a shame that it takes a tragic incident like this for everyone to get back in touch with each other.

So that said, I know some of you current and previous colleagues stalk my blog sometimes and I want to take this opportunity to leave this open message for you guys:

I do appreciate most of you and all the work that has been done, even though I might not have said anything. Contrary to popular belief, I actually do not really like to talk that much.

There are also some of you which I have had conflicts with at work. It is nothing personal. Really. I know I can be very demanding and bitchy but it was really because I wanted things to get done/be done in a certain way.

And to those of you that I used to work especially closely with:

I want to lay it out that I do appreciate everything that had been. Those were really good and fun times. I only have good memories.

No doubt that sometimes, I do wish that some things could go back to how it was but that would just be really selfish; look at all the progress that has been made ever since.

I hope all has been happy and well.

Death is certain to all but it is in the uncertainty of when it comes that makes every day precious.

So go on and live your life.