An original BootBoy: Brendan Hunter

As I mentioned in this previous post, I was hoping to meet up with Brendan and Euan. The night before I was supposed to leave, I was able to arrange our meeting.

When I saw him, I embraced him with a hug and “how are ya?” It was moderately returned and I could tell he wasn’t quite as happy to see me as I was him. That is pretty common though, so it did not bother me. So…he came in and Mr. and Mrs. Hydro, Brendan and I chatted about what he has been up to for the past 7 years or so. It was interesting but I was impatient to get him to myself.

After an hour, we went to a Coffee Shop (he had a soccer game the next day, so no beer). As soon as we hopped in the car, I said,

“Brendan, I suspect that you are not that happy with me…Tell me, what’s up old buddy?”

That opened up the floodgates and he told me what his issue was with me (and Chris). He was very calm and under control. Instead of going into all the details, I’ll make it short… something Chris and I wrote on the original BootsnAll website hurt his feelings and was simply “not on”. Brendan mentioned that he still wears the original BootsnAll shirts to training sometimes and has fond memories of the trip. We both spoke about it and I apologized. I think Brendan knew that I was making a genuine effort to mend the bridge and with 4 years gone by, he didn’t want to hold the grudge any longer either. So within 20 minutes (hey, we’re guys we can’t go on and on for too long with this touchy feely stuff) or so, it was all behind us and we were onto more SportsTalk, remembering old times, and catching up.

Brendan is a Shipping Freight Manager for EuroPacific and plays 1st division soccer in Queensland. What that means is, he gets paid to play soccer. Yes, it’s unbelievable and he says, it’s not much. But to get paid to play sounds like a dream come true. Well, I guess I get paid to travel, which 5 years ago would have sounded like a dream come true as well…but once you get there you realize how much work was put into it. I still enjoy it, yet, it doesn’t feel like a dream since my goals are different now than they were 5 years ago….probably much like what Brendan feels about soccer.

If was great to catch up with him and most important to me, was to mend the friendship.