A day out with the Modern Apprentice (as was)
Three years in and still needing guidance? Either my training is poor or his ability to do the job is poor. Or both. 

Still, we plodded on, and actually it was an OK day. Then a few hours of making sense of it all (AKA report writing) before a rendezvous with various teen lads. Tom had rustled up 4 of his fellow pupils, Alex one of his and they were joined by a couple of the Binos multiverse ones from Dunblane and we all boarded a 31 bound for Bonnyrigg.

Yes the game that fell foul of Storm Bert was now upon us. And Scottish league ground number 41 (of 42) for me. 

And a guest appearance by Tall Paul. We'd messaged briefly the day before about the untimely passing of Adi which we had become aware of. 51. Liver failure. We were a squad of 6 back in the day ( early 90s I guess). All loosely Paul's friends we were. Adi was probably the one I knew least. Paul is a close pal many years, Andy I worked with in HK for 3 years, plus there was the garage band par excellence that was Uncle Dad, John still see around, Gav is another I'd run into on occasion around town, but Adi took his coke habit and guitar genius off in a London sort of a direction. On his occasional forays back north he veered between charming and volatile, you never quite knew which one was on the inter city coming up country. I drifted into family life etc and hadn't seen him years. Nobody had. Not even Gav.

So it came as something of a shock to realise he'd moved back to Doune (presumably to take over his now deceased parents' home - post Covid?) whilst we all assumed he was still in London. It was even more of a surprise to learn Gav too no longer lived in Edinburgh and had left for Tayport to look after his demented mother who also passed away a couple of years ago. So Paul and I half watched the Binos / half beat ourselves up about what shit friends we'd been to them with. 

Anyway, after a decent but goalless first half the inevitable Bonnyrigg quagmire yielded a couple of mistakes and although we scored another belter in the 92nd minute, we lost. Again.

Bus home, fetched Loki, another bus (19) home and a wee glass raised to Adi. It's what he'd have wanted. Can't help thinking what a waste....