Over the last months in lockdown, I found myself sitting like Eeyore at the bottom of the Hundred Acre Wood, looking at the shambles of my career. Woe is me. My partner suggested that I should write down a gratitude list of all the things I could be thankful for in order to lift my mood. 

Not a lockdown. In Melbourne they take lockdowns very seriously, but in Sydney it isn’t really a lockdown when you can go running around an oval with a friend, or walk by the harbour with another friend, watching the enormous number of dogs. I have never seen so many dogs and they are always happy, which proves that having no career, no job and no mortgage might not be a bad thing. 

The Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1. What a remarkable piece of music, so simple and yet so powerful, especially in the hands of someone like Yo-Yo Ma. My good friend Baz Archer brought Yo-Yo to Australia and in a packed Sydney Opera House Concert Hall he played all six cello suites in a row,...