2020 CAN NOW SERIOUSLY GET LOST

As jubilant as we were over the US election on Saturday, we also received the awful news, that a family friend had died in a fire on Friday night.

You've probably heard me talk a lot about the time I spent up in Scotland as a kid. The short version of it is that my mum became best friends with my best friend's mum. Then one day, my best friend's dad announced to his family that, upon a visit to a small town called Golspie up in the Highlands, he'd bought a fish and chip shop, and the whole family was moving.

Consequently, this meant that pretty much all my school holidays were spent up there. First at the chip shop, and afterwards when they sold the business, and bought the house opposite . I loved it up there. Still do. There was an amazing freedom that was far removed from my suburban existence. Many of my favourite, most formative, memories were built in Scotland.

Though I haven't visited the town in some years, we've stayed in touch. The family now tends to come down here now more than we'll go up there. In fact, I saw the mum, Gloria, just a couple of weeks ago, when she was down to visit, and had been planning a long overdue drink with my old mate. On my last trip up to Golspie, his dad - Roger - showed me how he was making his own diesel from leftover oil he got from the chip shop. Sadly, it was his small back garden diesel production plant that lead to the fire which killed him. Police inquiries are ongoing, but the fact it happened around fireworks night leads to a certain conclusion.

I honestly couldn't think of many worse ways to go, and we're all in shock. As sad as it would've been if he'd had a heart attack or similar, it's the horror of it that we're left with.  Though I can't say I was ever as close to Roger as I was the rest of his family - I mostly seemed to get in trouble with him, little shit that I was (indeed, he called me a "little shit" last time I saw him!) - he was still an enormous part of my life, one way or another. Golspie was always an escape, a place where nothing bad ever happened. Now it'll always be associated with an unimaginable tragedy.

Over the past couple of years, there have been a few too many losses in my life, and 2020 just keeps on giving.

So, this is just to say... I've not done quite the full-on editing job on this week's ep of Digi as I normally would, and I might be a bit slow getting the next one out. The news seems to have hit me harder this morning than it did at the weekend, when I was mostly just reeling, so I'm feeling a bit heavy. Please bear with me for a bit.

Paul