Connor1874

I think the way I'm going in this current job, I'm not THAT far away from getting to the point where I am miserable and start losing the will to live doing it. I've been down this road before in jobs and it's a right old slog trying to get out and find something new. Again, I don't have that luxury of a specific skill or qualification that can earn me a job the same or better, at the drop of a hat. If she can get herself in a good job in the near future then it would be good to maybe drop hours here, or take a career break altogether. Then like you say, I can cherry pick jobs and go for something I want to do.

Your circumstances sound pretty similar to what I anticipate mine being soon enough. Both me and my partner work in similar public sector roles, however I've been doing it 5 years with no qualifications and no real future prospects, and she's doing it as a stop gap before going for something else. She's got finance qualifications and reckons they're worth at least £30k starting. She's currently on maternity from our youngest, but has no intention of returning to her current job. Combined, we make little over £40k a year, so already my mindset is shifting to perhaps dropping hours. Like you, we aren't flashy or materialistic. Just happy to have a bit in pocket after the bills to do stuff with the kids. I'm not miserable as such in my work, and not adverse to working full stop. But the 9-5 is a bit of a grind and can't see myself breaking out of it otherwise for the next 30 years. She seems quite passionate about the type of work she wants to do, and don't doubt for a second she'll get much more satisfaction from her work than I will in my job. There is always this mind you.

My mates birthday isn't too far away, and I dreamt last night that all he wanted was to Tough Mudder for it but no one would do it with him. Being a good pal, I signed up with him. 'What's wrong with that? Seems a fairly normal and wholesome dream IMO' I hear you say. Well, for anyone that knows us, knows we are a couple of fat ****s who can't run the length of ourselves, and whose mutual interests outwith football only stretch as far as getting pished, and sampling various kebab shops. Was it an epiphany? Was it my body subconsciously telling me something? Aye, go to ****ing bed earlier probably. Although ironically, I was out fairly late last night(not the pub) so did in fact scran a kebab in bed before falling asleep. But, not even nightmares of gruelling fitness will put me off my beloved lamb meat.

Good point. The optimist in me just expects Celtic away first every season.

I'm a sucker for a collared shirt at the best of times, and retro looking shirts seems to be the flavour at the moment so I really hoped for a throwback here. The shirt reminds me a wee bit of when we had Puma. Very bland for an Umbro effort. The cobbles thing is a nice wee nod to our history I guess but a very minimalistic approach nonetheless. I think I'd prefer the cobbles to just all be a darker shade on the shirt, as opposed to the wee white line going down the sleeves. One of our original shirts was the infamous white with red and blue hoops, and while it would no doubt cause some controversy, I wonder if we'll see that reflected in any of the other tops. Although, the maroon colours came about due to the colours running in the wash, causing a sort of 2-tone maroon hooped shirt. That would've been interesting.

My daughter, and my partners wee boy just had their birthdays a few weeks ago, only 5 days apart. As an aside, her daughter and my other daughter are 4 days apart. Mother in law makes cakes and she makes good ones, but they sat debating about what to do regards to cakes for the birthdays there. Basically they wanted to have a cake for each of them. She makes pretty big cakes. 2 at once would've been way too much. I told them to just have one fairly generic cake for the 2 of them. Again, it's a cake. It'll be cut up, eaten and forgotten about in a couple of days. Wummin and cakes, man. Honestly.

Everybody loves a bit of cake now and then, aye? But at what point does a nice wee cake turn into some ****ing art exhibition? Missus was showing me photos of some cake company's work on Facebook last night. 'How cool is that?', one of them was a huge JCB digger cake for a bairns birthday. Massive I tell you. While I have to say the craftsmanship is impressive, my mind can't help but switch to thinking 'it's a ****ing cake'. How much time and effort goes into making some of these? Let alone how much money gets spent on them? Couldn't really care what it looks like on the outside, it's still sponge with a bit of cream or jam on the inside. Got me thinking about other foods and peoples fixation on presentation. 'Ohh look at this, it's 'Food A' but it looks like 'Food B' or 'look how pristine the plating is on this'. Who actually cares? Granted I don't want my meal to look like the proverbial dogs dinner, but it's about to get demolished and mashed up in my stomach in a few minutes. Just felt I had to rant a wee bit there. Feel better now. Might go get cake.

Our new top is a bit meh. It's alright, but a bit plain for our 150th anniversary shirt. Don't quite know what I expected, but not that anyway. Dundee and Hibs kits are begrudgingly quite smart. Rangers home top is one of their better efforts in recent years. Undecided on the Aberdeen one. In some lights it looks brilliant, in some lights it looks pretty weird. In some ways a brilliant shirt though.

Celtic at home will be the midday kick off on the Saturday to start the season. Potential for a Saturday evening game? Failing that it would have to be Monday but that's IF they show 2 games. Although in the past, they have showed 2 matches on the opening weekend. Dundee will likely be at home so maybe their match on TV. My predictions are: Celtic vs Hearts - 12:30 Saturday Dundee vs Rangers - 17:30 Saturday

Love the Hungarian league, both in real life and in FM. Had many a great save in that league. Enjoy.

If we were still in the hunt for this, I'd have been absolutely buzzing for it. After last night, it's all a bit meh for me. That said, it might actually be one of the more enjoyable derbies to watch (not that any **** can watch it unless you're there) as while neither side necessarily 'need' to win, both teams will really want a win. Draw does nothing for Hibs and does suit Hearts, but after the season we've had, and Naismith's last chance to prove his worth in the dugout perhaps, I'd imagine we'll be right up for this. Not happy how the season has gone at all, but I guess ending with a derby win and securing 4th is the best we can do. Although the petulant child in me thinks it would be funny if we lost, finished 5th and bottled Europe altogether just to see how the happy clappers would respond then. Viaplay Cup group stages in July baby.

I've gone full circle. From resignation and dismay at bottling 3rd, I'm going full on hope and optimism for the last couple of games. I'm excited and nervous for this one, which in its own right is weird because a trip to Glasgow is usually met with feelings of pure indifference. Still going to need some luck somehwhere over the course of Wednesday night, but it is in our hands and I'm eager to see how Naismith approaches this game. 1-1 draw, and just pray its enough.

Yup. At an age where if anything, he'll just get better. And all the laddie really wants by the sound of it is a bit of commitment. He loves it here, and loves playing for the club. If we tie him down, then we get a happy player fully focused on helping us move forward. He's got 12 goals this season, in a campaign where he hasn't always started, and is maybe wondering what his next move might be. And even if he did decide to move on, another season or 2 like this, and Championship clubs would be willing to pay a nice wee fee for his services. Not bad for a player we signed on loan in the Championship.

That has to be a job for Michael Stewart surely?

Big weekend coming up for Gelsenkirchen's finest. At home to Frankfurt on Saturday (should've been my annual trip this weekend, bloody kids) and it's really a game we need to take something out of to try and ease the final day nerves. A win, and a Stuttgart defeat will save us from automatic relegation which would be huge, but probably wishful thinking. It's a funny game to call as under Thomas Reis, you can see the players are really giving it their all, and general performance levels are good. But against the better teams in the league, we've been shown up often. I really don't expect anything away at Leipzig in the final game so if we want to keep our destiny in our hands, we really ought to win. Keep the faith!

Agree with this tbh. Listening to good commentary is nice, but more often than not I tend to zone out of the what they're talking about. I was flicking between Airdrie vs Hamilton last night and Man City vs Real Madrid. I wish Darren Fletcher and Steve McManaman were talking Gaelic so I couldn't understand half the drivel they said. Find it quite amusing though that usually the co-commentator on Alba doesn't ever seem to be a Gaelic speaker. Nice to break it up a bit I suppose for the non-Gaelic speakers, but whereas most games the co-commentator gets to point things out at his own free will, on Alba they kind of just sit their in silence waiting for their cue to speak English. Must be quite awkward.

I had a dream the other night that the kids trampoline was on fire in the back garden. I ran outside to put it out and it turned out it was a prank by Ant & Dec who poked their heads up over my fence pissing themselves laughing. Couple of ****s.

Not really anything to do with journalism as such, but regarding the chat about BBC Scotland graphics, does the colour scheme annoy anyone? The time is white letters on a bright blue background. Found it almost impossible to read in the Partick vs Queens Park games due to it being quite bright, sunny nights. When the camera focuses on the crowd or dugout to a darker background, its tolerable, but when the background is the sun or floodlights shining on the pitch, its migraine inducing trying to see how longs left.

Ours looks like Hearty Harry's laddie, back to avenge his now long forgotten Da. Another job for Gary Locke I suppose.

We've given that lot enough gifts the last few years. With nothing to play for, it's about time they return the favour.

Probably 8.

True, but realistically, that's never going to happen. Even the most optimistic Hibs fan won't have any expectation of winning the last 3 games. Even then, you would still only need a point from St Mirren to secure it mathematically.

Huge game this for both teams, but probably more so for Hearts. With 5 points separating the 2 sides in the race for 3rd, a Hearts win will keep things interesting going into the final 2 games. A draw would see Aberdeen almost over the finishing line, while a Dons win would see them confirmed in 3rd place with 2 games to spare. As huge a game as this is for Hearts mind you, it could mean **** all by next Wednesday unless our pals from Paisley do us a favour up in the granite city, but one step at a time. The away side hasn't won this fixture since May 2017, and that was Aberdeen at Tynecastle. Just don't **** it up now Hearts, please.

These ones are nice too. Only got a little bag online before but enjoyed them. Bursting with flavour.

Interesting. Thanks Mantis.