Fantasy Footie Kick Off

It’s that time of year again! The Premiership kicks off tomorrow, which means one thing - Fantasy Football! The league I’m in has been running for a few seasons now, with the guys taking the opportunity to be childishly competitive and of course to find the best name for our teams. A couple of seasons ago Catherine went for ‘Paris Hilton St Germain’, which was inspired. This year, my team is called Fiorentina Turner XI, which surely means I’ll win, being that I’m ‘Simply The Best’?!

If you’d like to join the league go to HERE and pick your team. When you’re asked the number of the league you want to join, just type in 115375-29279 and get ready for battle!

A.

Greatest Own Goal

This has to be one of my favourite goals of all time. Poor Chris Brass, apparently this most deadly of finishes broke his nose.

Andy

Proverbs 24:17

Proverbs 24:17 was repeatedly quoted to me by my minister last night, it reads,

‘Do not gloat when your enemy falls.
when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice’

I am really struggling with that today I tell you!
‘Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady Diana! Maggie Thatcher - can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher! Your boys took one hell of a beating! Your boys took one hell of a beating!’

No doubt there will be loads written in the coming weeks about who should replace Steve McLaren as England boss. Jose, Capello, O’Neill and Allardyce have all been mentioned already today. I know who I’d like to see get the job; big Berti Vogts!!

Go on then, one more time…….

Andy

Catherine’s Footie Trivia!!

What The Romans Did For Us

Andy

Ow!

I hope you’re settling down to your tea. A couple of months ago I was playing footie through in Glasgow with boots that were slightly too small for me. This was rash. These are ma wee toes today…..

Andy

Fifa Rankings

Apparently Scotland are on the verge of proving what we’ve all known for a while - that we’re a better football team that our southern neighbours. Read more…

Andy

Bonnie Scotland

What a beautiful day at Hampden Park! I had feared the worst for this afternoon’s game with Ukraine. It would have been just like Scotland to build up our hopes to see them dashed at the last moment but we fully deserved the victory. I wasn’t sure how to express how ecstatic I was at full-time, so I thought I’d make up a wee video to show you……..

Andy

Our Saturday

Our flat in Paris is booked. We’ve decided on spending the 19th-27th of December in the French capital, staying in self-catering accommodation. I can’t wait, as it seems years since we’ve been abroad. Actually, come to think of it, it has been years since we’ve been abroad! There is a cloud hanging over the holiday plans and that’s the thought of having to get on a plane again. I seem to be okay when flying on a large plane and it’s dark outside, so I can’t see how high we are, but it looks as though the trip to Paris will be on a wee plane and during the day so that’s that out of the window (perhaps an unfortunate phrase to use in that context). It may be a strange thing to say but I am not scared of the plane crashing, well, not any more so than anyone else is, it’s the height thing that kills me. If I look out of the window in the upstairs of our house I get a little freaked out, so you can imagine the terror when I’m thousands of feet in the air. Never mind, I’m sure the doc will give me some Valium and I’ll wear some eye-patches too - which will have the added bonus of making me look cool too (!)

Speaking of looking cool, do you like the pic of Catherine and her tins of soup? It was taken this morning at the National Gallery. The Warhol Exhibition is ending in the next couple of days so we thought we better get a look before it went. It was eight quid each to get in, so not cheap, but it was definitely worth it. We both love his elaborate, colourful artwork that takes up a whole floor of the gallery. The exhibition extends to another floor where his sketches and photography are displayed, but you can keep that, it was pretty dull. I find it quite difficult to imagine the impact his work would have had when it first came out, since I’ve grown up with his iconic images hanging from nearly every second person’s living room wall. In the days of Photoshop, there’s nothing special about a psychedelic Marilyn Monroe but it must have been quite something in the period after her death.

After Warhol came Mary Queen Of Scots. In other words, after having sauntered round the National Gallery, we headed for the Portrait Gallery on Queen’s Street, where a number of paintings of Mary Stuart are displayed. This exhibition is free and is certainly worth a visit but wear shorts and t-shirt - it was so hot in there that we had to leave early.

Once we had recovered from our bout of heat exhaustion, we meandered around Stockbridge, looking in a few shops and purchasing Puccini’s Turandot on LP. We decided to stop for lunch in one of the small cafes that line Raeburn Place (named after Sir Henry Raeburn I presume, who had painted so many of the works we had just viewed). The lunch consisted of a cup of coffee and a cheese toastie that very unusually was served with a great big slice of melon!? It was tasty though.

Once the cheese, onion and melon combination had digested, we headed out to Broxburn to visit our friends Jonnie and Kirsty. They have a lovely 18-month-old daughter, Lauren, who is a big bundle of energy and fun. She kept us entertained for a few hours until we decided to brave the road works at the bridge.

The most important and supremely enjoyable moment of the day came as we left our friends’ house. I switched on the radio to hear the football scores and couldn’t believe my ears. Rangers (subject of all the nonsensical ‘greatest Scottish result in Europe’ talk) nil, Hibernian one. What a result. We’re still unbeaten in the league this year and it goes without saying that we’re going to make Arsenal’s 49 game unbeaten run look positively amateurish. Which brings me nicely back to my fear of heights. I’m sure I’ll eventually be able to get used to my vertigo problem - I could certainly get used to the fantastic view from the top of the league.

‘on the Hibees!

Andy

More Photos

Woose

Okay, okay, the boy shouldn’t have been anywhere near the pitch but COME ON what a faker Dida is!! A pathetic attempt at a dive - he should have taken some lessons from Ambrosini

Andy