Hedgecutter

Sitting at Heathrow, hearing the call for an Edinburgh flight spoken in a SE accent as "Edinbraaaaaaugh", and pretty much every Scot within a two gate radius inadvertently saying "Braaaaugh" together.

Despite being force fed the Easter story at primary, I couldn't tell you the significance of any of the Easter days now. One of them involves a stable and a manger, I know that much at least.

Killing a bit time on my last day in Lisbon and have to admit that whilst I've enjoyed myself, I would hate to be here in the summer. It's only March and the entire city centre feels like one extended 'Royal Mile at peak season'. The most popular tram/bus are already standing-space only for 40 min trips (out to Belem for example), and queues are exceeding 30 mins. Part of me feels guilty for adding to it. Avoid the TimeOut market textbook tourist-trap like the plague and catch a quiet bus to Mercado de Campo Ourique instead, where there are mainly locals. Don't waste valuable wine-drinking time queuing for that Santa Justa elevator. Instead, just walk up the small hill and onto the bridge viewpoint for free (we went down the lift instead, joined by just two others). The 'Lisboa Card', which has saved me at least €25, is exceptional value. Granted it's made me go to some strange places to extend my my money's worth, such as the cod & tile museums, but I found them far more interesting than expected. An extension to the coach museum is in a classy former royal riding school at Belem; under the radar, hence nobody was there (polar opposite to the neighbouring monastery). My top tip to anyone with such a card: organisation and consistency are not Portugal's strong points. Some attractions require you to buy a separate ticket using your Lisboa Card whilst others accept the card as a ticket, and there's little to tell you this. Whilst the Oceanarium isn't fully on the card, it's excellent (recommended to me why a colleague from Lisbon), and I'm miffed as to why it gets so little attention on the guides. Felt exceptionally smug in Sintra yesterday after joining what I thought was the queue to get a ticket for the massive pre-paid queue, only to get in ahead of the pre-paid folk lined up halfway down the hill. Waltzed up to the Imitation Well (v.cool with the tunnel system btw) as one of the first dozen there. Pasteil de nata, even those from the shop in Belem are massively overhyped imo. The ginja shots (nothing to do with ginger) on the other hand are tremendous. If one can, I'll be seeking out a bottle of that later today. ETA: got onto the first tram/bus I could from the aforementioned Mercado after a fine feed to escape the rain last night. Turned out to be the infamously crowded Tram 28. As you can see, it's a bit quieter once folk start retiring to their hotels (we were the only ones left on this wee dodgem rollercoaster through Alfama, so just stayed on til the Metro station at the terminus):

... and there we have it formally proven tonight. Unable to get a result whenever one of the bigger teams is involved, a trait that is truly useless moving ahead. That's now a complete failure to beat Fraserburgh, Formartine, Bo'D and Buckie, having two attempts to turn over the latter. Completely unacceptable.

Eatin' ain't cheatin', You should know that sucking ain't f***ing.

Watching some of these answers come in hours apart whilst being banned from the thread is absolutely infuriating. [replace Austria with place in picture]

My mum got written out of my grans will, with the other three siblings getting a third each. Absolute grenade that caused a long term rift* when one of them wanted to honour his mum's wishes. *ie. only spoken again once since, at a family wedding years on.

It's not really. As I say, in a way it's kind of good that it forces me to go out and rely on myself. I'm sure there will be folk out there who'll have been reliant on inheritance, only to be written out of the will over some petty grievance.

My dad's* estate will now need to be split six ways rather than three after his remarriage, and what's left of my mum's (after she downsized to pay her debts) will also be six ways because of her step-kids. Gone to six people I've barely met. *same situation for him after his widowed dad remarried. Gone from three-ways to a seven-ways for him. Apparently there's a fair bit of family politicking over bits and bobs there from his step-siblings seeing as his wife had most of their estate originally.

Germans making their 1s look like badly written 7s (hence the strikethrough on the latter to stop them confusing themselves).

The pop from of a newly-opened jam / marmalade jar.

16/03/24: Turriff come from behind at Mackessack Park to finally offload the tattie after keeping it warm for a month. New holders Rothes will need a performance should they wish to quickly offload it at Fraserburgh this coming weekend... ETA: which they fail to do courtesy of a 5-0 drubbing.

Cheers. Ultimately doesn't matter now seeing as I'm stuck out in the Atlantic Ocean, and the MIL already sent herself off to Nova Scotia a fortnight. OH: She won't travel by herself, so we'll need to go with her. [1 month later] OH: she's booked herself a flight to Canada for next week.

Definitely an improvement on the previous paintwork : Eta: I didn't ask for these powers.

Is Price even able to turn this side into one capable of remotely challenging in either of the playoffs (should they even get there) between tonight and the end of the HL season? I strongly fear not.

Eh?

People who mumble something and then immediately put food in their mouth. ETA: plus obligatory hand over mouth gesture when you ask them what they said.

Not quite as good as the Elgin City fan at Ibrox, but some top moves in here. Give me this 'The Dance Show' over Strictly any day, with the routines at 1:19 & 6:05 being worthy of honourable mentions: ETA: Impossible not to smile at the 2min mark

Fixed for me. That said, I've only ever seen the 80s films and JJ Abrhams' character assassination efforts. Never bothered to watch the original series despite having Paramount. Tbh, I wouldn't bother with the Mandalorian even if it was free on my Fire stick, despite knowing the original trilogy almost word for word. I always see spin-off series as being for the type of folk that got past the first half hour of the Matrix 2 (whatever it's called).

Mac n' Cheese There have been multiple occasions whereby I've actually fancied it off the menu, but not ordered it because of the M n' C wording. Yes, I'm that petty. Petty, but principled.

Another storming of the Capitol Building probably isn't the best way of encouraging democracy and political stability elsewhere tbf.

Have they not invoiced the SFA for the Celtic game yet, or did they blow it all on an epic night out after beating the Broch?

Hmmm. Too discrete, huh. Well fear not, for I have passed 10 mins of nightshift boredom by tastefully designing a prototype club crest for any near-future club merger: In it is the Kessock Bridge; the critical piece of infrastructure that links the Fortrose & Strathspey areas. This crosses some wavy waters which ingeniously doubles as an outline for Nessie. The latter pays homage to the Loch Ness FC heritage, whilst the thistle-turned-football reflects the Strathy Jags legacy. The acronym represents the club's ambition by preparing for the arrival OF fans who may struggle to read the surrounding text.

Hence the catchy acronym.