Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What Can Be Done Today

Originally posted 04 March 2007

I have just returned home after spending a week attending a trade fair in Germany with some work colleagues.
I have attended this particular trade fair for the last eight years or so and each time I go my Sales Manager and good friend has always reminded me to look up an old friend and former work colleague from my early working days in Scotland.
This old friend and I first got together in 1973 when I worked for a company called Scottish Timber Products Ltd, who were building the most modern chipboard factory of it's type at that time.My friend who's german worked for a german company installing their equipment.
We stayed in touch throughout the time that I worked for STP Ltd and I stayed with him and his wife on a visit to Germany that I made whilst receiving training there.
In 1977 I left STP Ltd, to go off and work in Nigeria again building a new chipboard factory the first in West Africa.I continued to keep in touch with my old friend by way of christmas cards for some years till I lost touch one way or another.
When I joined my present company BHK(UK)Ltd, also a german company and whilst driving one day to Hannover I thought of my old friend as I passed his town on the journey.
Eventually after a few years I mentioned the story to my Sales Manager who prompted me to make contact with my german friend.
Eventually through my german colleagues we discovered his telephone number and I made a call to him.
I wanted to meet up but for some reason or another this was always posponed until this year when I eventually made contact and invited him to meet up at the Trade Fair which is only a short distance from his home town where he and his wife live.
Also at the show was my former boss from my STP Ltd, days who has always kept in touch with me and I told him that our friend would be visiting us.
Well my friend is now 79 years old and has not been in the best of health recently but credit where credit is due he made the effort to come along with his wife and it was so good of us to see them both.
We chatted about old times and the changes that have taken place during the last 30 years since we saw one another and we laughed and joked about old times.
Eventually when we parted I promised to visit him at his house this year which I will sometime in May.
It was so good to see both of them again and to know at least they are well enough to get around and I'm so grateful to my Sales Manager and good friend David Mackenzie for insisting on not only making contact but pushing me to meet up with them.
I will from now on not put off till tomorrow what can be done today as life is too short to do otherwise.