Go West! Paul's Christmas Journey Home

One Christmas Eve in Eastern Europe, Paul found himself on a freezing train travelling west from Romania, desperate to get home. The journey was long, chaotic, and uncomfortable — sharing carriages with strangers, livestock, and very little certainty. As the train rattled on, he was physically ill, exhausted, and counting the hours until home.Looping in his head the entire way was Go West by the Pet Shop Boys. The song became more than background noise — it was a lifeline. As he travelled west that night, sick on the train but determined to keep going, the lyrics took on a literal and emotional meaning: survival, movement, and the promise of something better on the other side.That Christmas journey didn’t just take Paul home — it foreshadowed the bigger westward pull of his life. Years later, he would go even further west, leaving the UK for Hollywood. A moment that began with a song on a train became a personal metaphor for courage, transition, and saying yes to the unknown — even when the journey itself is messy.