A Guitar & Scars Story

So there I am running down a Sydney street last week chasing a taxi at 2:30am! WHY?! Cos my guitar was still in the boot! Oh yes, the trials and tribulation of touring. I was like the Terminator or T-Rex in Jurassic Park chasing that car!I was getting out of the cab and I said "just need to grab my guitar from the boot". The taxi driver chuckles, I get out, walk to the boot for him to open it and he takes off! I paused in shock for a split second, "What the!?" flash thoughts racing through my mind "Is he messing?... Oh my God, is he stealing my guitar!". Then I started belting after the taxi waving my iphone light hoping he'd spot the light in his rear view mirror. But I can't run 60km/hr. So out of breath, the taxi fading in the distance and turning right, I rung the taxi company, explained what had happened. The lady asked me to check the taxi receipt but there was no taxi ID. She tells me that she has over 2,000 taxi and there is no way of tracking him without the ID. All she can do is put a call out and hope he responds. Then she says "If we track it, are you willing to pay for it to be delivered back?" "WHAT!" I says.."He drove off with it", then I realised she wasn't impressed with my tone, so I said "Yes, of course" (in my head I said "yeah RIGHT!"). So I'm standing on a deserted Sydney street for 25mins hoping he'd realise and come back, or the lady would ring me back. Nothin...so I rang the company again, got a much nice lady, she took my details and filed a lost property report, and said to go to bed. I had a restless night wondering about it and trying to think of ways to track it, how I should have reacted quicker.Next morning I get a call from a nice young lady, she says "My Dad accidentally drove off with your guitar last night, your name & number were in the guitar case." I can hear him speaking Chinese in the background, and she says "What's the exact address?, he'll drop it off". Sure enough, one hour later, the Chinese man is outside in his own car with my guitar. He apologised and said he did eventually come back last night but couldn't remember the exact house number. I told him how I chased after him. We had a good laugh. I realised then that his English wasn't great.This Takamine guitar has gone on some incredible journeys without me. It disappeared at Abu Dhabi at Xmas when I flew Ireland. It turned up 2 days later, chipped and buckled case like someone Irish guy who'd been on a bender for 2 days. It's been played by Aslan, Damien Dempsey, Dan Sultan, and lots of sessions, played about 750 gigs over the last 5 years, The Sydney Opera House, Bluesfest, written countless songs. I've had to have an extra support brace inserted inside because it's so worn away from me strumming it ...I'm planning to play it till end up like Glen Hansards guitar...the scars and dent are stories of our journey in life.When it disappeared in Sydney, it struck me how much I'd done with this piece of wood and metal strings. I had to go to sleep and let it go and trust. And back it came. Great to have back 'Spirit'. Here's to many more musical adventures.