Andrew Sykes - a man i'm proud to of called a friend

On Sunday i received a text telling me of the sad news that Andrew had passed away.

This came as a real shock to me as i had only seen him with Lesley a few weeks previous and had been in contact with him via e-mail 4 weeks ago.

If there were to be a picture for the definition of the word "Carefree" then a picture of Andrew could be next to it.

I've known Andrew and Lesley since 2004-05 from when they had come over to the Tropicana in Argassi from Kalamaki which used to be their holiday destination until they settled down to life on Kefalonia.

Never once in all the years i knew Andrew did i ever see him fed up, complain, moan or gossip. He always had a laugh and a joke which was very often followed by the words "Who Care's, Sod it" or words very similar to that, ha, but that was Andrew. Nothing seemed to faze him, didn't really care what other people thought and just enjoyed life. This is what i admired about Andrew and always took time out to talk to them both as they would always visit every night when they were holiday makers in Kalamaki and would also call in every night on their short visits from Kefalonia.

I also have a confession, i used to be Andrews dealer.................agggghhhhhh, no its not what your thinking, i used to get Andrew his stash of John Smiths, a few cases, to take back over to Kefalonia with him for their house. A man after my own heart.
In my 17 years on Zakynthos i can honestly say that I've not met to many people as good natured as Andrew with a wicked sense of humour.
Our last meeting and contact showed Andrews wicked sense of humour, this is part of the last email i had from him:-

"Hi Kev,

Hope everything OK. On the rock legend T-shirt I ordered, can you put on lyrics from Black Dog by Led Zeppelin.

Hey hey mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.

Cheers and enjoy the rest of the season

Andy

P.S. The Lemon Song was too risque haha"

Andrew initially wanted to have the lyrics from the lemon song which were:-

"Squeeze me baby, 'till the juice runs down my leg
The way you squeeze my lemon
I'm gonna fall right out of bed"

As you can see from the e-mail Andrew was very considerate and conscious of others around him

Andrew and Lesley went from customers, to regulars, to friends and Andrew shall be missed very much by all who had met him and will never be forgotten.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Lesley and their Son.

I shall raise a pint of John Smiths in your honour sir and enjoy it while listening to "The Lemon Song".

Our loss is John Bonham's gain, he's a lucky guy.