In the past month, and for reasons which have gripped our local communities, my view of Angus has been from a more distant standpoint than the daily close-up angle of examination.
In that regard, it has allowed a further back perspective through a different prism of the work my Team Angus colleagues have been involved in.
And, in a way, it’s allowed me to examine those highs and lows of Angus life as a reader rather than a writer.
Highs like the Red Lichtie red letter days when they clinched the League One crown to cap a truly dominant season, culminating in the weekend’s champagne celebrations at Gayfield as Dick Campbell’s men finally got their hands on the cup.
What an achievement, and a breath of fresh air in the fetid world of the game that’s a laughing stock at national level and remains in the poisonous paralysis of loutish behaviour both on and off the park, much of it fuelled by racism and sectarianism.
There was the laudable launch of another pioneering Angus initiative in the Think Before You Type campaign, a hugely worthwhile anti-bullying partnership project between the authority, children’s charity NSPCC and campaign group respectme.
What a pity that within days, its admirable objectives were sullied by keyboard warrior councillors who got involved in the very thing the scheme is seeking to stamp out.
Things then escalated when another entirely unacceptable social media posting emerged from the timeline of a further elected member.
The exact details of the posts and their perpetrators’ politics are of no import; it is the principle of behaving properly in public office and the expectation that they should perhaps practice what they preach in the photocalls and press releases for schemes such as the one their pettiness has diminished.
A return to the classroom for some basic social media training might be in order.
For myself, it’s back to auld claes and porridge, and although the shadow of darkness cast by the events of Edinburgh High Court proceedings will linger long over many, we can resume our daily lives.
Not so the parents and sisters of Steven Donaldson, whose family life was so savagely altered forever by a duplicitous femme fatale and her barbaric, murderous henchmen.
May all our thoughts and prayers be with them.
