An early entry on the Comex repertoire, Life is Empty Without Love, is dedicated to the memory of a Croatian postman, Nikola Vrbos, who made it his duty to shepherd Comex through the Old Yugoslavia because 'he liked Comex'. His daughter, Nena, studying at Zagreb University was invited to join the Cambridge contingent of Comex 3. The song expresses some of Nikola's thoughts. (He was awarded a Green Pennant in 1997 at a reception for Commonwealth Heads of Government in Edinburgh, but was too ill to attend. When told about the Award he remarked: 'Ah! They have not forgotten me.' Nikola later died and his Green Pennant now has a place of honour in the Holy Land (on the Comex 1 route) with Nena, now a teacher in Jerusalem.)

To think, unable to express your thoughts;

To dream, and never have a dream come true;

To feel, and have to stifle all your feelings;

To know frustration and its allied anguish too.

To laugh, but hear no sound or echo;

To weep, and find you weep alone.

To hope, and watch your hopes all turn to ashes;

To discover loneliness in your own home.

To ask, and have each wish rejected;

To seek, and never, ever find;

To pray without your prayers being answered;

To see with eyes that might as well be blind.

To stand firm before each pressing challenge;

To have the will and never to give in,

To know defeat, having pitched your might against it;

To submerge the final virtue into sin.

To want to die, afraid to go on living;

To shed all faith in heaven above;

To try and try and try, forever failing;

To discover life is empty without love.

Yair Vrbos-Liebel (15) grandson of the late Nikola Vrbos, and son of Nena, (Cambridge contingent of Comex 3), playing LITTLE GREEN FLAGS at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on the Comex 1 route.