A wee aside from the normal Cigs photos I post here.

There's a lad in the Primary 7 football team I help coach who's interested in street art. I've known of his interest since the Rock 'n' Roll the Dock jam at the @marineparadegraffitiwall earlier in the year. I bumped into him there and he was wide eyed and enthralled with all the action and he spoke to me about his interest and how he wanted to paint as Bin. He showed me sketches and photos of his 'wall' his dad made for him at home to practice on.  His early attempts at painting designs. We went around and spoke to a few people I'd spoken to before (@keithfig, @shonahardie @sehven25 @chaswilliams) and he was rapt.

Fast forward a couple of months. I was cycling past the graffiti wall a couple of weeks ago and saw on the practice wall a completed piece by the lad. (I spoke to his dad at the final football fixture the team had 2 weeks ago and said they'd been down, run out of paint and had to buy more and go back and finish it the following weekend. But he was thrilled to finally get a piece on a wall; he's now got designs on the 'big wall'...!

And so to the punchline. My older lad is also in P7 and as part of their final school assembly  last week the P7 football coaches were invited to make a presentation to the team - we made up awards for best goal, best save, best defender, most improved etc. But before we got to our piece, there was an award given in memory of a pupil. About 6 years ago, a family of 4 (father, mother, 2 daughters) were involved in a car accident on the A1 that saw the father and elder daughter survive but tragically the mother and younger daughter died. Mia was a year older than my elder son. As part of the healing process, the father asked that he donate an award for creativity to the school, to be awarded annually to a pupil who showed great creativity. So the father gave a short speech to the 500 pupils about triumphing in the face of adversity. 4 nominees were called out and their stories told. But the award went to 'Bin'. He's dyslexic (I never knew; until that point he was just a pocket of energy on the left side of midfield that never gave up) but when he paints, the thoughts he has about lettering helps him with his learning and has been instrumental in helping him progress with his academic work. So I sat and listened to a head teacher tell a school of primary kids how great it was to have a pupil who found a way to learn through spraying paint on a wall. Welcome to the 21st Century! My primary school head teacher was a Presbyterian church elder and strict disciplinarian. He ran the school in a military style. But to see my kids attend a school where the lad was given an award for painting on walls is hugely uplifting and gives me hope in an era where Trump and Johnston are stealing all the limelight. 

Go Bin, go Greta Thunberg, go kids everywhere.