As you are probably aware, this blog is full of tenuous connections and name-dropping.
In that spirit, have I ever mentioned that I once lived in the same street as Terry Jones, the former Python who died on Tuesday?
Camberwell Grove in south east London was also, for a while, home to Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller.
I had no idea at the time because I never saw any of them in the five years I lived there.
Another former resident of Camberwell Grove is Joe Jackson.
Joe, I only discovered last year, lived there in the early Eighties, a few years before me.
We did meet, eventually, but that was through Forest two decades later.
On the subject of Terry Jones and Monty Python, I was never a big fan of the TV series but I did love Life of Brian which I first saw at the Capitol Theatre, Aberdeen, in 1979.
Opened in 1933, the Capitol was one of those enormous, old-fashioned cinemas that had a huge screen and seated 2,100 people. (No multiplexes in those days.)
If I remember correctly, the theatre was sold out for Life of Brian so there was a cracking atmosphere.
Compare that to the handful of people who watched 1917 at the IMAX in Watford on Sunday and there’s no contest.
The Capitol was also a concert venue. Be Bop Deluxe, the first band I saw play live (in 1977), were so loud I had a ringing noise in my ears for 48 hours.
Today all that remains of the theatre is the 1930s facade. The auditorium has been demolished and replaced with a modern 14-storey office block.
Returning to Terry Jones, Michael Palin has paid a touching tribute to his friend and former colleague.
How many of us have friends who would inspire that type of heartfelt reaction when they die?
An important factor, I think, is that they were not just friends and colleagues who shared an incredible adventure together, they enjoyed a pint and were drinking buddies.
I haven’t had a regular drinking buddy since my twenties. Life intervened and we went our separate ways, although we are still in contact (just) through Facebook.
It’s not the same, though, is it?