by Guest Contributor pasta paulie

So, here’s something different; I’m doing a guest posting on the Lost Girl’s blogsite. We moved to a new home in Italy from the UK about two years ago and I was introduced to the blogosphere as a way of relating stories about our new life and a different way to keep in touch with life elsewhere. The Lost Girl’s blog came onto my horizon fairly quickly and I’ve been one of those occasional ‘lurkers’ ever since. And now I’m doing a guest spot, a bit like Bryan Adams coming on to share a song at a Tina Turner concert My wife is corpsing at the comparison – yeh, yeh.

But this set me thinking about what does somebody as famous and celebrated as Tina Turner do when she stops doing the thing that made her so high-profile? How do you replace performing in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans, producing recordings which sell by the bucketful, seeing millions and millions pour in? I can understand perfectly the need to leave the rat race and relax a bit but Tina’s life was hardly a grind was it? Does a spot of gardening or spending time with the family and occasional lunches with the girls fill the need in her now? I doubt it but who knows? Perhaps she’s fully occupied on helping others or developing new talent or something very meaningful. I just never hear about her any longer. Does anyone know what she’s doing and more importantly, is she happier now?

There are so many others whose star burned brightly but are who are now seemingly nowhere in view. And not just from the entertainment world. I knew the former F1 World Champion Damon Hill fairly well. We sponsored him all the way through to his World Title. Following his retirement from the sport I caught up with him for lunch one day. He was talking about starting a programme to help develop young drivers from go-karting through to F1 but nothing seemed to come of it. Now I catch him very occasionally doing bits of media work. I know he’s a big family man but we all need to do something and he’s having to replace being the best in the world at the highest level of the thrilling and dangerous world of motor racing. How do you replace that? I hope he’s found something.

It makes you think that a life more ordinary is not such a bad thing, eh. The glamorous, exciting lifestyle seems so attractive and who wouldn’t want a bit of it but when it ends, is there an emptiness? Fortunately I’m happy to guest for the LG rather than Tina and life seems full.

pasta paulie