Leaving on a jet plane?

I’ve been reading about Peter Andre who is, according to the internet (so it must be true) is an English-Australian singer, songwriter, businessman, and television personality. I am not over-familiar with his work, other than a pop record he sang called Mysterious Girl and his appearance on a television show where he met the former topless model Katie Price. I was about to write that the rest is fluff, but to be fair, so’s the whole Andre/Price story. Anyway, Peter has explained to the Mirror that he’s missing his mum Thea (84) and his father Savva (87). He went on:

“Mum, you are everything. Happy Mother’s Day (even though it’s not Mother’s Day in Australia). Love you so much. We wish we could be with you. Soon.”

Poor Peter. He’s found himself in turmoil worrying about his elderly parents since COVID arrived. “It is really difficult not knowing when I’ll be able to see them again in person,” he sobbed. To which the only reply can possibly be, then why on earth did you choose to live on the other side of the world?

I appreciate that in normal circumstances, the great man could simply leap on the next Qantas flight to down under any time he liked. Presumably, the royalties from Mysterious Girl are still rolling in, as well as the repeat fees for whatever it was he appeared in. But these are not normal times.

Of course, everyone has a different view on things and unlike Peter, my parents are no longer with us, so if an unlikely employment opportunity emerged in, say, Bondi Beach, I wouldn’t have to worry about being away from them. But I’d be away from my sons and my friends and, frankly, I’d hate it. It has been bad enough being separated from my family and friends for a few months, never mind over a year. I’d be absolute desolate, rather like Peter is, if I was away from loved ones with no real idea of when I’d see them again. That’s why I wouldn’t do what he’s done.

Because, to me, family and friends are everything. I am not a material boy and money don’t impress me much, as Shania Twain might put it. And anyway, Peter did the absolute reverse of what many migrants do: he chose to leave wonderful Aussie climate behind for the near permanent grey skies of England.

We all make choices, don’t we, and sometimes choices have consequences. Having knowingly taken himself away from the bosom of his family (and let’s not have a cheap joke about Katie Price here), his is probably the bad dream come true where something unexpected has happened and he’s worried that something might happen to his folks. He absolutely has my sympathy and I do not wish him ill in any way. I’ve always stayed close to my roots and I always will. There’s always Zoom, mate, but for me that will never be enough.