The Mantis

Eigg

Had a bad illness so hardly been oot the hoose/hospingtal since September. Nice to see the usual suspects keeping the thread going. Here's a couple from Lewis, back in the spring/summer:

Aye, Kerso. He was pretty popular amongst people in our club but it seems to be all panamoz nowadays.

I had a lovely wee Lumix LX3 I think with a Leica lens which I gave away to my son, and I think I upgraded it to a LX7 as I was going to Canada for a big anniversary. Metal body but very compact and it took RAW and had a moderate zoom so I carted it to fitba games in my pooch. I just use the phone now as it's better quality anyway but I imagine they have reached about the LX20 by this time and it was only about £200 quid from that geezer in Fife. I don't know if he's still trading but the likes of Panamoz will be good for price. Also a lot of my friends are using the Olympus 4/3 these days although I don't fancy such a small sensor, I'm just as happy carting my big gear for all the difference they keep going on about.

Apologies for lack of randomness but Stark's is one of my favourite visits and Rovers fans won't get this view from the North Stand very often. Took the long awaited opporchancity to visit Betty Nicol's pub. Alex Samuel took the opporchancity to grab the match ball. Rovers 2 ICT 3 and a very healthy 3387 at the game.

I watch them now and again and they’ve always been fairly solid in defence, lacking any real quality in midfield apart from Currie, and obvious lack of a goalscorer as you say. This season already Horn has tried McGachie, Buchanan, Osadolor, Sutherland, Faye, Murray, Watson and even Ross Gray once, although he’s normally a midfielder. Probably not that well known is that McGachie has been getting injections in both knees for a few years now. I never thought he would score goals above LL level anyway but nice to see he still gets under the skin of people on here Just about the pitch- just under half of their points this season have come in away games, and they’ve won on the plastic at Forfar, Clyde and East Fife. I hear there’s big developments on the way involving the pitch, so the haters will have to find something else

https://shop.ictfc.com/product/ictfc-wall-of-fame-tile 20% off deal has been running since round about Xmas

The Allan Smart derby

Cheers for that, it’s a better map than the one I looked at earlier. Glasgow seems to do the edge of the zone differently from Edinburgh. In Edinburgh the boundary is not part of the zone - for example you can come in from the south side and turn left along the Meadows with the LEZ zone on your right all the way round to the West End. But in Glasgow High Street you’re in the LEZ zone anyway - to me it would be more logical to use it as a margin, as long as you didn’t make any right turns. I assume they’ve got signage up now as GSV seems to be about 3 years old.

Just a casual query, didn't want to start a new thread... Going to a gig at the Barrowlands soon and my motor doesn't fit the LEZ restrictions. If I'm coming from Edinburgh and I come off at J15, can I go in by the High Street and along the Gallowgate, or can I go part way in and jink round by the Drygate Brewery? Or do I have to avoid this area altogether?

Vale of Leithen 1 Nitten Star 6. Vale's quest for that elusive point continues. Having seen Nitten v Whitehill last week and Vale v Whitehill earlier in the season, it was kind of logical to close the circle by travelling down for this. Last time I was here they took Rosyth to the 87th and 89th minutes before conceding. Devastated to see the Traquair Arms closed until the 22nd for refurbishments. Looked forward to an excellent couple of pints from the Tempest brewery. Vale had a decent first half and 2-0 at HT was probably harsh. A lovely move led to Dean Ballantyne's opener after 8 minutes then Sean Guiney netted from the spot on the half hour. However it was hard to see anything but another drubbing once Nitten weathered the early second half storm, including a miraculous save from 'keeper Aaron Hamilton, before going 3 up.

I've seen a few fairly violent Mallard couplings where they nearly drown the female but this is the kind of thing, just showing off

Down at Musselburgh at 9.30 looking for the Black-Necked Grebe that's been hanging around at the river mouth. Never saw it but you could easily nip down. It was seen earlier in the morning but comes and goes. Only waited half an hour as it was absolutely Baltic. Also male Goldeneye starting to do their daft courtship displays. Got good shots of the Slavonian Grebe at Holyrood a few weeks back but don't know if it's still around.

Aye, traditionally Fisherrow was the village to the west of the river, which is where the harbour is, but it all seems to be Musselburgh now. There used to be a Musselburgh & Fisherrow Co-op when I were a lad...

Yeah, it's a reasonably reliable pond as well as the burn alongside, quite often otters too. Also the boating pond at Musselburgh by the racecourse, plus Mavisbank House pond near me. Plenty Kingfishers about if you have patience. A couple here from a well-known pond in Penicuik last Sunday:

Always loved the Goth, think it was in danger of closing a while back. I was last there a year ago and they had a 6.8% dark beer called Zymurgy. Lovely stuff, but this was before the Preston v Nitten game and I was surprised I was the only customer. I think pre-match, people tend to drink in the Legion.

Nitten Star 3 Whitehill Welfare 1, EOSL Div 1. A decent game in front of a healthy crowd at NVP. Another sair yin for Welfare who dominated the first half hour and on another day could have been 3 up. Right on 30 mins, Baldy Deano, as the Nitten Ultras call him, swivelled in the box and sent in a drive which took a deflection and beat Ben McGinlay in the Welfare goal. A few minutes later Conroy made it 2-0 after good work by Robertson. Kevin Keane pulled Whitehill back into the game after about an hour but their good work was undone soon after as Marc Malloy received a straight red for a rash challenge. From Fraser Neave's free kick Ferguson nodded home to kill the game. Star content to let the 10 men play in front of them and see it out. Good to bump into so many old acquaintances from WW, Nitten and EOSL days even if it meant missing a thumping 3 points for ICT down at Ayr.

Unbelievably I missed out on Barrowlands which again sold out in under 5 mins. Tickets were going on sale at 10am but at 9.55 I was apparently in a queue and there had been 2500 page visits that morning. However a nice lady on twitter has sold me one ticket as her daughter had bought one for her and she already had one. I see they sneaked in a couple of afternoon gigs at the Tolbooth in Stirling on the 30th. Jeez, you have to be sharp…

Slow progress, nae fun when your grandkids keep bringing you snottery viruses I think if we can keep it tight for the first 2 minutes we can get a result here.

Cheers. The away car park was shut last time due to roadworks, can't remember if you have to pay if it’s open now?

Any restrictions on parking at Lidl? Just got the missus to drop me off there the last time but probably be on my tod.

Vale of Leithen 0 Rosyth 2, EOSL Div 1. Vale come agonisingly close to grabbing their first point of the season but the Fifers break their hearts with 2 sloppy goals in the 87th and 89th minutes. Vale defend well with the two centre halves winning practically everything and the keeper saving them, and Rosyth miss a barrowload of crosses whipped across the face of the Vale goal. Earlier I caught some of the South Cup 2nd Round tie on the adjacent pitch. Leithen Rovers 2 West Barns Star 3.

Just playing Peter the Pedant with your usually impeccable facts, but surely we don’t have vicars in Scotland? The link below states that Churchill was an English rev who lived in Moffat but makes no mention of him holding a post. http://sfha.org.uk/churchillcup.htm

This is he Died in 1995

Aye, got an email today. Good news…