I lost a good friend last weekend.

My good friend Carol Armytage died last weekend.

In spite of the name, Carol was a male. He put up with a lot of ribbing and a lot of confusion from people over the years because his parents had burdened him with that name. I remember being with him on a business trip to Hawaii and he was questioned endlessly whenever he produced his airline ticket: "You sure this is your ticket buddy? Show me your passport."

We were different generations, not only in age but also in thinking, in our ideas and beliefs. But we also had a lot in common and shared many values which kept us as good friends for over twenty years after we originally met through business.

Once in a while he posted on his blog Why Is It? but more frequently he left comments in response to my posts here, using the nom de plume Caz

A while ago he had a stroke but was so fit he recovered one hundred percent and as recently as three months ago he was fit as a fiddle, playing tennis three times a week. Then suddenly cancer hit him just about everywhere, all at the same time, out of the blue.

Nothing could be done to stop it but the doctors managed to keep the pain at bay and thankfully the end came quickly.

We talked several times a week even after we moved to Dubai, sharing jokes, chatting about trivial things, keeping up with the news of what we and mutual friends were up to. As you do with friends.

Carol was well-travelled and we often chatted about places we both knew. I took some photographs in Singapore the first couple of days we were there, planning to e-mail them to him to show him how places he used to visit had changed. Then a mutual friend called to give us the news.

We regularly had more serious discussions about politics and current affairs too, agreeing on some things and having very lively debates on the things we saw differently. The debates were often the catalyst for things I posted about here.

I'll miss those chats and I'll miss a very good friend.