Sports Roundup

Fuck me! Scotland are in the final of a football tournament!

...and follow up on a couple other posts:

London Camanachd won their shinty match against The Highlanders - the first to be held in London for 50,ooo years or summat like that - 1-0. Unfortunately they'd lost the first leg 8-0. Hands up who things the Highlander's sent their second team?

And David Millar finished the Tour De France in a pretty respectable 59th place.

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Millar Time

The Best Hotels in Scotland

Recently revealed: The Scottish Hotels of the Year Awards. Anything that encourages Scotland's often appalling hospitality industry to try harder is welcome - so it's good that these awards are awarded from around 24,000 votes from ordinary punters. Here they are:

Hotel of the Year: Summer Isles Hotel, Wester Ross.
Hotel Restaurant of the Year: Abode, Glasgow.
Luxury Hotel of the Year: Inverlochy Castle.
Sexiest Hotel: Malmaison, Glasgow.
Hotel Design Award: Le Monde, Edinburgh.
Best Small Country Hotel: Cairnbaan Hotel, Argyll.

Couple of notes:
1) Only 2 of the above have online booking - the "luxurious" Inverlochy Castle service is "currently offline." It's 2006 for fucksache, get a grip.
2) How expensive are Scottish Hotels? Rooms at the Inverlochy start at £300. A midweek room in November at Le Monde is £200.

Oor Wullie picks up an English accent

Help ma Boab, and keech like that....Oor Wullie is becoming anglicised according to this report in the Scotsman.

I can't help thinking that the dialect issue is secondary here to the news that German academics get a PhD for reading Oor Wullie cartoons.

...or that Edinburgh University can afford to fund an entire Institute for Historical Dialectology.

Interview with Scotland's Chief Scientific Advisor

I didn't even know we had a chief scientific advisor, did you?

That's money well spent then!

Grandmotherfucker

Sexual disease in Scotland's over-50's has trebled.

The thought of this geis me the boak!

Sex and the Socialist

Tommy Sheridan? He and George Galloway are quite literally Scotland's Golden Generation of politicians!

I've been following the Sheridan libel case from the start with a growing sense of disbelief. Given the lurid stream of accusations, from a diverse and apparently credible number of witnesses, you have to say that Sheridan's decision to sue the News of the World looks like a Jonathan Aitkin moment. The last throw of the dice by a man obsessed with being in the public eye - puts Faslane and the Poll Tax protests in context. eh?

The poor sap is now defending himself – never a good sign. What is this emotion that I am feeling? Can it be pity? For Sheridan? Surely not!

Did you know...

The mine detector was invented in Fife.




There is he-haw else to report...anyone got anything more interesting?

Review: Harpenden Highland Gathering

UPDATE: The Harpenden Highland Gathering - why? I dunno. I got a programme full of advertising which presumably explained why, but I couldn't be arsed reading it - it was just too hot! Perhaps the Harpenden Lions Club was just looking for a way to differentiate their local fair from the one down the road. This sort of thing could escalate. Watch out for Welwyn Garden City's Inuit Peace Festival.

I have to say that I was little disappointed by the Highland Gathering. Aside from a Macaroon bar that I picked up form a stall there was no Scottish food or drink to be had. A few deep fried products would have really helped create a more Scottish flavour to things.

The Highland Games - which seem to have happened in 2005 were also absent. Replaced by demonstration by the Army Cadets, Scouts, Guides et al. A bunch of kids putting up a tent is not really the same as a caber toss now, is it? Perhaps they had trouble getting competitors?

What we did get were lots of pipers and a Scottish dancing competition. The pipers were entertaining enough - but I felt for them in the heat, which was also too much for me. I hung around for about an hour, just long enough to watch one of the birds from the Falconry display disappear over the horizon, and called it a day.

The photaes are on Flickr, if I can be bothered I might even post a wee vido of the pipers.

Raking over cold coal - English car gets smashed up in Glasgow

Those days may be passed now, but I completely missed this Newsnight report - where a car covered in England flags was left in Glasgow's East End, and within 20 minutes, and in the middle of the day was smashed up. It's also amusing as all I can remember is sunshine during the World Cup - but predictably it's raining in Glasgow during the report!

The You Tube clip is about 10 minutes long - so don't click if you don't have broadband.

God pity them...

Nicky Campbell speculates in the Guardian that the English football team could "be another Scotland"

Did we ever have a golden generation the equivalent of Becks, Terry, Lampard, Rooney et al.? Vaguely entertaining none-the-less.

Is that a model of the Titanic in your garden or are you just pleased to...

Inverness madness, yet again.

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Ebay Watch

Which city has the best Ebay shit:

Glasgow has the plate that never held chips...or tickets to see Billy Joel.

Dundee has a 6d transport token ...and worryingly a lot of Crocodile Dundee knives.

Edinburgh has a cross stitch kit of a Georgian Edinburgh town house..and a load of festival tickets.

Aberdeen has a railways of Scotland vido...and lots of fish hooks.

Perth, who gives a fuck about Perth? Is it a proper city anyway?

Scottish events in London area

When the going gets weird, the weird head to the Harpenden Highland Gathering. This is sure to be deepest Hertfordshire's best Highland event of the year - 7.5 hours of mad Teucher fun, you knows you want to...I will.

When: July 16, 10 - 17:30
Where: Rothamsted Park, Harpenden

The following weekend gives Londoners a rare chance to see a game of Shinty. London Camanachd take on The Highlanders in the Bullough Cup, whatever that might be. Up yeez.

When: July 22, 14:30
Where: Berkeley Avenue, Greenford

Cycling: Millar Time

Cycling is a filthy sport - riddled with dope and cheats.

Anyone who doubts me can read one of a dozen books that will disabuse them of any romanticism they may still lend the sport. My favourite would be Paul Kimmage's A Rough Ride. Even our own Alex MacLemon, who admirably/foolishly showed his compassion for the English football team, is convinced that 7 times winner Lance Armstrong is a cheat.

Almost all of this year’s race favourites were withdrawn days before Saturday’s start - and the remaining shameful farce of a race is currently dragging its carcass through Belgium. However, with the World Cup almost over, and Andy Murray flattering to deceive at Wimbledon my current sporting attention is turning to Scotland's David Millar.

Millar is no angel - an arrogant, out-spoken man guilty of injecting EPO...but he's served a 2 year ban and while he may not have found humility he's certainly looked it up in the dictionary. But that is fine - I’m Scottish - I’ll take my sporting heroes as I find them.

The absence of recognised stars has sent the markets into a spin. Betfair's Book % on a Top 6 finish was running at over 2000% at the weekend and David Millar was evens. Evens for a man who hasn't ridden a bike in anger for 2 years!? That may be fantasy land but perhaps he’ll give us something to cheer about over the next couple of weeks.

Buying Booze? - get in the "special" line

So here's a wheeze! Nanny thinks that you drink too much - you naughty little Scots. So Nanny wants to set up a seperate queue in Supermarkets for booze. This apparantly will "de-normalise" the purchase of alcohol.

...or you could try and do something about the crippling poverty, lack of employment and opportunity and general poor health that leads people to excessive drink - you fucking muppets.

This is a poor half-measure anyway. I say force all drinkers to wear a yellow star of david on their lapels, that'll soon fucking de-normalise the bastards!

Midges loving the smoke ban

Glasgow clubbers are not the only people having problems with Scotland's newly smoke free atmosphere. Publicans in the Highlands are reporting that midges are invading pubs now that the fug of Lambert and Butler is no longer there to keep them at bay. On Skye they are reporting swarms of the buggers inside pubs!

[Scotland on Sunday have this story in their paid archive so no link at the moment]

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