01-06-2020, 06:49 PM
(01-06-2020, 05:02 PM)Walter Sobchak Wrote: Plz mention it again. Full story pondy!!
Och, I just wrote a tome to auld Bob over the road and I'm a bit knackered now. Suffice to say when mates went to bed I wanted to stay up and keep drinking, as I was staying just 30 yards off the Grand Place in a nifty wee Medieval style hotel. Met Khaled first night, he'd only just arrived from Morocco about a year previously iirc - pilot jacket and red leather nikes is what I remember. We were sitting fairly close to each other on a wall down near the lower part of the square just enjoying the world as it went by, then just got chatting - football mainly (I was there for the Scotland qualifier that we needed to at least get a draw from; lost 2-0). I offered him some of my beer, and we hit it off. Met him each night, drank beer, & chatted about all sorts of stuff (half joking said he should hook up with my g/f's younger sister, he said he'd happily move to North America) until the wee small hours then I'd stagger back to my hotel in time for breakfast, then go to sleep until early afternoon, then meet the lads again. The hotel staff knew my routine - only guest who'd turn up drunk for breakfast. It was a good breakfast too.
I returned to Edinburgh on the Friday after the midweek match; that was the 7th, and of course the world changed a few days later. I got an email from him, it was pretty short, a hiya basically, a couple of weeks after I returned to Canada mid Sep, and sent a reply or two back. He was a pretty decent guy, a good laugh and just like any other man his age, probably mid-to-late twenties at the time trying to get by and have a good time in doing so. He was definitely a bit of a social butterfly!