Blawing the Cobwebs aff the Blog

Ooft, this hasn't been updated in a while! I suppose the short quips of life make their way on to Facebook these days, neglecting the longer narrative which is where blogs come into their own. Man City/Everton/Arsenal treble - it was always going to be a tough coupon selection, such is the nature of the FA Cup. However, first time this year I've parted money from the bookie (only placed three bets, mind you). That'll pay for a wee malt tonight!

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

The Shortest Day

Around 11.30pm tonight, the tilt of the earth means that we will be at our farthest point from the sun (23° 26'). That will signal the turning point, and from tomorrow the days will be getting longer. That calls for only one tune:

My Top Ten Podcasts

Who remembers their first podcast? I can't remember mine, but I got an iPod Nano around 2005 and think it would have been not long after. I suspect it would have been a football one, but something inside me says comedy. Anyway, here are my top ten podcasts from past and present. The top 4 are in the right order, the rest I'm not so sure with. The more recent stuff I'm just getting in to (This American Life) may get a mention in the future.

10: Mayo and Kermode's Film Reviews - Their frank and honest analysis of the Sex and the City movie was a work of art.

9: Adam and Joe - I liked their XFM ones over the BBC 6 Music ones, very silly.

8: Al Murray - Probably the worst editing ever, but the brutality added to the comedy in my opinion. The oi oi pub landlord character is looking a bit tired and work out these days, but in 2007 is was more fresh.

7: TIME's Top 100 Albums - A musical education if anything.

6: Edinburgh University Enlightenment Series - This saved me reading a lot of books on the Scottish enlightenment, the one by Tom Devine is exceptional despite his over-articulation of words at times.

5: Exploring Environmental History - Providing environmental history material to the masses; you get them when interviews become available. Sometimes they are over the phone or over Skype which makes it a bit amateurish, but you know you are getting to know more on up-to-date research.

4: Russell Brand - Like Adam and Joe, the best ones were from 6 Music; irreverent nonsense, wonderfully delivered.

3: 5-Live's World Football Phone-in - A recent addition, wonderful to hear discussion on football which is engaging, enlightening and not a whiney rant on the English League by rank pundits.

2: Football Weekly - From the Guardian, presented by James Richardson of Italian Football fame, sometimes the pundits get on my nerves but you get a good hour and a half every week.

1: Off the Ball - Taken from the BBC Radio Scotland show on a Saturday, presented by Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove, this is sel-classified as a load of nonsense. The funny side of football is on the agenda, and regularly some of the guests are top drawer. Some of it shouldn't be on the radio on a Saturday lunchtime, but it helps keep it on its toes!