If…

Ah… Scotland.

All Done

I’ve finished my last essay of the term.  It was a report on how to conduct a critical literature review.  Hard going!!!  But that’s me all finished for this year.  Just two modules and a dissertation to go and I will be a Master!

Tomorrow I’m off to the URC Synod of Scotland minister’s conference.  They are spending 3 days looking at Risk and I’m leading a session on Thursday morning on Risk and Young People so I want to see what they have already covered.  No point in repeating!

In other news Lucky Dave is in Manchester clutching his ticket for the Uefa Cup final tomorrow night where his beloved Rangers take on St Petersburg.  I hope Dave, Marc and Sponge have a brilliant time.  It was great to see all the cars an buses heading down the motorway towards Manchester today.  Good luck tomorrow.

My team, Motherwell, have qualified for next year’s Uefa Cup.  Here’s hoping we get just as far!!!

cold day at Chatelherault

we took a very quick trip up to Chatelherault County House this afternoon for some fresh air. It turned out to be arctic air! It’s freezing today! Too cold to be out. Back home watching Ben Hur now! A much better way to spend Easter Monday.

Scotland Win World Cup

Scotland have won the World Cup… of Golf.  Well done lads!  About time too!

In other World Cup news, Scotland seem to have a decent draw for the FIFA World Cup qualifying.  Holland, Us, Norway, Iceland and Macedonia.  Not bad, although when listening to the radio after the draw someone said… ‘Holland… could be worse!’ to which Richard Gordon replied ‘Yes… because they only beat us 6-0 the last time we played them!’.  I have a good feeling about the group.  An interesting coupld of years of international football ahead.

last ‘Scotland Is Great’ post for a while…

I love how this celebrates Scotland’s political and social context in such a positive way.

another glorious failure? not this time!

Well, Scotland didn’t qualify for the European Championships next summer after losing in the last minute to Italy.  This all sounds just like Scotland.  On the brink of success only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  But to be honest it wasn’t quite like that tonight.

Scotland were in the depths before this qualifying campaign.  We were ranked 86th in the world and to be honest that was probably generous.  Scotland were dire.

But that’s all changed.  Walter Smith took over.  He brought in Tommy Burns and Ally McCoist and some organisation and pride.  Suddenly Scotland started winning.  We were in the group of death.  3 of the 4 semi-finalists from the last World Cup were in our group, France, Italy and Ukraine.  We weren’t supposed to do well in that kind of group.  But we did.  We beat France, twice, Ukraine and but for a last minute goal would have taken a well deserved draw from Italy.  Scotland got 21 points in a group we would have done well to get 18 in.

Today was a hopeful day.  We were all really excited about the game.  The whole country seems to be on a high and today was perhaps just one more step on the ladder of national confidence that we seem to be climbing.  Italy, the world champions were at Hampden.  They needed at least a draw.  We really needed a win.

Italy scored in the first minute.  But Scotland never gave up and came back from the shock and equalised in the second half.  The Tartan Army were going crazy.  But it wasn’t to be.  That we even had a chance was amazing.

It looks looks like we have some good young players coming through although we are still short if any of the starting 11 are out.  The draw for the World Cup qualifiers is next week.  Our rise to 13th in the World Rankings means we will be in pot 2, meaning we should avoid having 3 of the top 4 sides in the world in our group.  I think we might even qualify this time… but then eternal optimism seems to be part of a Scotland fan’s make up.  The Famous Tartan Army seem able to treat victory and defeat in the same way.  Never too high, never too low.  The DJ’s choice of song at the final whistle… Que Sara, Sara.  We should maybe adopt it as our national anthem… but then I’m starting to think that we might actually believe the future is in our own hands.  And it looks bright.

busy busy

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently.  It has been a pretty hectic few weeks and this week looks just as busy.  The autumn seems to be one of those busy times in the Church year when all the organisations start back after a summer break and people want to move ahead.

I’m running some basic youth work training over the next few months on the first Wednesday of the month.

Organising a training day called Connected on 24th November in Edinburgh on Digital Church with Ewan McIntosh leading a day of learning to blog and podcast and stuff.  Get in touch using the contact page if you want more details.

Teaching a Communication module at ICC

Doing my own Master in Research

Leading worship lots - Nairn this Sunday with a visit to my sister too

And trying to have a life including swimming with Ben and Jack yesterday, watching Scotland get beat at rugby and watching the Baseball playoffs.  I think I need a lie down!

Sporting Day!

Today has been a day of sports!  I’ve watched:

some golf - the President’s Cup - c’mon the rest of the world!

2 games of football (soccer) with Motherwell playing pretty well against Rangers, ending up with a 1-1 draw and Man United beating Birmingham 1-0

a college (American) football game which the Bulls won

the F1 grand prix qualifying where Lewis Hamilton is on pole for tomorrow’s race

half of the Wales v Fiji game from the Rugby World Cup where Fiji won to knock Wales out and all of Scotland’s game against Italy where we won by 2 points to proceed to the quarter finals

and I’m now watching the Phillies v Nationals in the MLB.

Who says Saturdays aren’t fun!

Scotland… simply amazing!!!

France 0 - 1 Scotland

I can’t think of anything else to say.  Simply amazing.  What a team!

TV and Scotland’s International Matches

Scotland’s international football games are all on Sky.  I don’t have Sky, I don’t want Sky.  I sure don’t want to pay to have Sky Sports.  I know I can probably pay per view online but I want Scotland’s International football and rugby games to be on the BBC or ITV.  Is that too much to ask?

So on Wednesday night as Scotland take the field at the Stade de France, top of their qualifying group for Euro 2008, that majority of Scots won’t be able to watch their heroes because they don’t have Sky Sports.

So, who’s to blame?  The SFA?  They sold the rights.  Or is it BBC or STV?  Too cheap to buy the rights?

There is a rule in the UK that certain events MUST be shown on terrestrial tv.  The Open Golf, Wimbledon, the World Cup.  Why on earth are national team games not on that list?

Oh, never mind.  It’s ok.  The ENGLAND game is on BBC.  Of course we’ll all want to watch that!!!