Somewhere in the world, even as I write this, someone is sitting in their local laughing and sniggering over not showing up for a wedding.
The day and the evening belonged to the bride and groom, they were the people at the centre of it all. And yet this silly-ass self-indulgent clown is sitting in the pub checking Facebook every five minutes to find out whose night has been ruined by their nonattendance.
In truth, no-one even noticed their absence until the second course of the meal … and at that point nobody really cared anyway.
For now, that’s as far as I intend to go when it comes to events extraneous to tonight’s actual big occasion, which was to honour a Celtic legend with 400 appearances and a goal every four games.
That’s what 30,000 plus fans chose to do. To pay their respects – remember that word? – to one of our own. Although maybe the term itself needs a rethink.
But like I said, I’ll get that tomorrow.
That, tonight, was all about the man himself, although the real upstaging was done by the team which played such luscious football in that second half.
What we saw in that 45 minutes should gladden the hearts of all who worried their way through the first 45, which I’m sure had placed certain of our media in mortal jeopardy as they imagined broken badge headlines; Celtic is coming apart. Civil war in the stands, chaos out on the park.
None of those things is true. They can write what they like and they will anyway.
But what we got in the second half was pure beautiful football, and I was delighted to be there to witness it, that and the necessary and justified ovation for James Forrest himself, who put in a shift until his number came up – literally – in the allotted minute.
I thought that Yang looked particularly good, and Holm has a presence about him in the middle of the park. It’s early days and I will no more pledge these guys to be world beaters than I will turn the guns on Kwon for a disappointing first Celtic Park appearance. He’s the least experienced of all of our signings, and not everyone can hit the ground running.
I thought our big Polish centre back showed real promise.
And I think our young Mr Scales has only enhanced his chances of avoiding a one way trip to Aberdeen after another excellent display.
Maybe we were wrong about him, and that should give some people pause and some others food for thought. Brendan Rodgers has certainly had some.
I was delighted for James, delighted that he got a good crowd, delighted that we put on a second half show and gave him a win and I was pleased for David Turnbull and Bernabei who got the second half goals, and for Hatate who scored the opener.
I like the look of Oh and Yang as a partnership, and expect to see a lot more of it. Every glimpse of Abada on the ball reminds us how fortunate we are to have him and particularly to have him still. It was a fine game of football, and they were especially good in it.
That was the story tonight, that was the main event. Whatever some others decided to do, those who were there honoured a great and saw a great game. That’s the fact of it.