Mr. Right In Time

Michelle Vroon

Half 6 in the morning at Inverness bus station. I've never been good at getting up early and i still felt half asleep. Seagulls were screaming from the rooftops, the air was fresh and a wee bit chilly, perfect to keep me awake.

I'd been looking forward to this day for a while. I never thought that, when I moved to Scotland from the Netherlands 3 years earlier, I would find a job as rewarding as I had 8 months ago. I support people with learning difficulties and it's a challenging, fun job to do.

This particular day I headed off to Manchester with a young man who has autism. He wanted to go to Manchester for his holidays and had asked me to support him. A big responsibility, but I'm up for new challenges and always happy to help people.

So there we were, waiting for the Megabus to arrive. Slowly but surely the platform filled up with people. I could hear people speak in foreign languages, French, Italian and Belgian. An international coming together! I like to listen to people speaking, especially when they speak in a different language. I don't listen to what they say. It's more the tone of their voice and their accent I am interested in (and speaking of accents: nothing beats a nice sexy Scottish accent if you ask me). I don't really observe people but one person stood out of the crowd and caught my eye. He stood at the other end of the platform and on the ground next to him was a big black guitar box. He was wearing shades and looked cool, without being macho. In my mind I called him 'Mr. Rockstar'.

The bus arrived and everyone got on it. Despite being sleepy, I couldn't help but staying awake and watch the beautiful Highland landscape pass by as we headed south to Perth. In Perth, we had to swap busses. Mr. Rockstar was amongst the people waiting for the Glasgow/ Manchester bus as well. When the double deck bus finally arrived (late), the young man I was supporting decided that he wanted to sit upstairs. I stayed downstairs as it was a wee bitty cooler there. As I took off my jumper and put it in my back against the seat, Mr. Rockstar said 'Hello' and sat down next to me. I said 'Hello' back and we started talking and never stopped until he had to get out in Glasgow. I asked him 'Why the guitar?' and he said that he played in a band and was going to Glasgow for rehearsals. The band's name was Wolfstone and he played the acoustic guitar. I confessed to him that I had heard of the band, but never heard their music. I said that my favourite band was Nine Inch Nails. He wasn't impressed. I told him that I liked living in Sutherland but missed going to concerts a lot. Then we both thought of a good place for me to live, that would combine peace and tranquillity with noise and concerts and came up with Glasgow. We talked about everything, from politics and vegetarianism to touring and sports. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was time to say our goodbyes.

I had really enjoyed our conversation and made a mental note to myself to check Wolfstone's music out when I returned home.

The 4 days in Manchester were very good. The young man clearly enjoyed being in his favourite English city and I enjoyed seeing him so happy.

The day after I returned home, my best mate from the Netherlands came over to spend a week with me. As we walked amongst the tourists at Eilean Donan Castle, I told him about my meeting with Mr. Rockstar. As we entered the gift shop i spotted a Wolfstone CD: Not enough shouting (for all the fans out there!) and bought it without listening to it. Somehow it felt good.

For the best part of the holiday we played the CD in the car. I loved it! It made me feel happy listening to this mixture of folk and rock. I really liked the singer's voice and what do you know, it was Mr. Rockstar himself singing.

My mate was very glad when I spotted another Wolfstone CD: Terra Firma in a shop in Drumnadrochit. Listening to Wolfstone non-stop had got on his nerves a wee bit, but he did enjoy listening to this other CD, for a day or two.

I was hooked and a new world had opened its door for me. On the Wolfstone website I found that they were playing at Glamis Castle on my birthday. This was an opportunity too good to miss!

Wolfstone headlined the festival that was made up of three bands. The concert was amazing. The energy and fun that both band and public had made it a very good night indeed. I met up with Mr. Rockstar before and after their concert and it was interesting to see him as a musician this time.

Since then I've bought a copy of each of Wolfstone's CD's. Some are more successful than others, if you ask me, but I'm glad to add them to my CD collection.

I met Mr. Rockstar once again and I'm going to see Wolfstone play in a small venue in Strathdon in November.

So there you go. Was it a special day, that Friday in August when me and Mr. Rockstar first met? That really does depend on what happens in the future. Sometimes it takes a while to realize that what seemed like an ordinary day, really wasn't ordinary at all. And I like to think that 08/08/08 was one of those days!!!!