When Richard left Trinity he went to Napier to study electronics and although he finished the course he couldn’t find a job placement because of the corneal scarring on his eyes and he eventually found a job at Motorola in Bathgate as a faultfinder on mobile phones. He was there a year and a half and commuted back and forth, but it was a frustrating job that made him depressed and for a while he tended to shut himself away. His friends did their best to include him in everything they did, but from the age of about 21 Richard was unable to work and for a long time resisted claiming anything more than unemployment benefit. When eBay came along it was his saviour and about 8 years ago, he became a wheeler dealer, buying and reselling t-shirts and DVDs specifically aimed at motorcycle car or train enthusiasts, and he did quite well with it, even if it meant that at times the house was choked up with boxes and boxes full of padded envelopes but it kept him interested and occupied and the income gave him freedom to buy tools and spare parts for his projects. After exhausting his enthusiasm for scooters (running into an unlit skip that was parked on East Trinity Road one evening may have had something to do with that) Richard moved onto cars and for a while he drove the neighbours daft welding an Austin Maestro with his Mig welder. Over the years, he and Jamie travelled the country buying many unlikely vehicles including a Fiat Cinquecento and a motorised surfboard, and they endured many perilous adventures in the process, but what Richard really wanted was a Custom Car. He tried to build his own several times without success but six years ago he finally found the monster of his dreams. It was a gray import Mitsubishi XXXX that had been just been unloaded down south and because it was a non-runner, it was on sale at a knock down, never to be repeated price. Richard diligently did his research, discovered that it had been running before it got on the ship and being Richard, he knew precisely how he was going to get it started again. So he bought it, and after three days work, got it running again. It had been just as he’d predicted; on the voyage, salt water had corroded the chips. Richard had got himself a real bargain – everything was electric. It had a V6 engine, pop up lights, a big spoiler that came up automatically, 4 wheel drive and twin exhausts with an option for quiet or sports mode. Low to the ground, and one and a half times the size of a normal family car, it oozed power and sex appeal; everyone stopped to look at it and it was in fact in almost every way the perfect pimp’s car. Its only fault was that the radio was stuck on classic FM but apart from that, it was Richard’s pride and joy and it hurt him greatly last March that he had finally to sell it, as his eyesight had deteriorated so far that he could no longer dream of the possibility of driving it ever again.