A Not So Snowy Christmas

Exactly one year ago today (probably about now, actually), this photo was taken. I was 36,000 feet in the air, going from Paris to Salt Lake City, and the flight so happened to go over my house. It was a bit ridiculous that I needed to fly south from Edinburgh to another country, to fly north again right over my starting point, but such is life.

It is a snow-covered central Scotland, which shows the undulations of the terrain meeting a flat expanse, intersected by the main roads linking Scotland together and the River Forth. I felt so fortunate to see such a sight, and I'm glad I had my camera at hand when the sight presented itself.

Seven Minutes of Football

May, 2011. Another final game of the season, another league decider away from home, and once again, I'm parked in the stand behind the goals. Two years ago, it was Dundee, this time, Kilmarnock.

The video is the first seven minutes of the game. This is how I love to see Rangers play; with pace and attacking teams. Three or four passes to get to the other end of the pitch, and in this game, three attacks brought three goals.

I couldn't actually believe what I was seeing. We'd all had a few pints on the train down to the south west of Scotland (Johnny in particular was rather imbibed!), but it was incredible. The place erupted and the early goals made for an enjoyable and relaxed afternoon!

A Favoured Quote

Today has been a heavy reading day as I hurtle towards the deadline for the Maine conference. It has been made possible by an awesome pot of fresh coffee. However, in my readings, amongst other silly things, I found a quote by Carl Sagan which really struck a chord regarding our place in the grand scheme of things. It comes from this image taken 6 billion KM from earth (Earth is the white speck halfway down the brown band):



"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Songs about Days of the Week

There are a few of note; some good, some not so good! The list started off easy but it became progressively more difficult later on in the week:

New Order - Blue Monday


Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday


Simon and Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning, 3AM (no too many Wednesday songs about!)



Thursday is not represented on my iPod, but there is a song by Jim Croce (crochet!) called Thursday. It was either than or some fairly recent song called 'Thursday's Child by David Bowie that's not that good, or an instrumental by Brian Eno.


The Cure - Friday I'm In Love


Or you could have this monstrosity...


Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

covered famously by Nickelback also, less said the better...

Daniel Boone - Beautiful Sunday, an epic from the Safeway end at Forthbank, circa 1997