The Mantis

Was it only in his last season 15-16 that Meekings got injured (wiki has nothing else apart from that knee injury)? He signed in 2011, broke into the team a year later (I can remember Butcher playing him as a full-back at Motherwell and we got hammered 4-1, when it was obvious he could be a decent centre-half). I have a vague memory of him getting a serious injury before 2015 and never being the same player again. Fractured skull maybe or perhaps that was me Anyway in the early days I would have fancied him to move for decent money, maybe the champ in England.

Quite a few clubs have an amateur taking photos but plenty don't. If you show a bit of commitment to going they'll bite your hand off, as it's not only matches but social functions, ground improvements etc. I did a few years with Whitehill and the local paper started to rely on us for a match photo and report every home game, to the extent that they were phoning on a Monday morning if you looked like missing the deadline. Any old shite would do too, like most papers they weren't interested in your award winning shots of goals hitting the rigging. The Midlothian paper is owned by the Edinburgh News so with there being plenty Junior clubs in the area we'd occasionally get a staffer turning up for a while and supplying photos to both papers. But most weeks they were glad of anything you sent.

Whitehill Welfare FC (@WhitehilWelfare) Tweeted: Thanks again to @BraehillDevelop for the work they are doing to install floodlights at Ferguson Park. https://t.co/DuzbnXdy6n

I’m St-Agurred at the sheer number of cheesy puns on this thread.

Iceland again. ÍBV, Vestmannaeyjar. Different angles from the photo at the bottom of P3.

Aye, sports and wildlife are 2 fields where you need decent gear and it shows. You can get away with it in landscapes and portraiture. Pre 2004 I used to help out Bryan Munro who did the ICT programme (and County) and I would send him a couple of shots from the away games. After that ICT were in the SPL and the stewards nipped your heid if they saw a camera Anyway at that time I had an Olympus bridge camera with an EVF and the shutter lag was terrible. No bursts either. You had to anticipate what was going to happen. The best chance of a good shot was to stand behind the goals at a corner and fire just as it came in.

Once saw a shot where a player’s head was sinking into the ball... needless to say, never been able to replicate it

Pretty much word for word what I would say. I'm in a club and when anybody starts the "banter" about brands it bores the arse off me. Same occasionally arises on this forum. Quite a few people in the club have recently gone over to Oly 4/3 though. I bought the missus an Olympus Trip back in the film days and it was a fantastic wee thing. Apart from having no flash so you needed a flashgun attached. [and I lost it once. I left it on the summit of Beinn a'Bhuird in the Cairngorms overnight. My mate and I camped at a place called The Sneck and when we packed up in the morning, and climbed back to the ridge, we met this guy who had just found it. I didn't know it was lost. 5 mins later and it wouldn't have happened] My first digital was an Oly C3030 bridge camera in 2000 and my second was a C8080. Those numbers will tell you how many megapixels When it came to buying a DSLR the "must buy" at the time was the Canon 400D and it was £100 cheaper than the Oly. So like Mixu I'm a Canon USER and I have invested in the lenses. That's all there is to it. If people are honest, 99% of the time their equipment doesn't stop them getting the shot. Their own limitations do. Yet I know people buying everything that comes out, in the hope that it'll make them better.

Going through old stuff and I came across this from 4 years ago today, sadly no Gala Day this year.

No idea what that is, but it reminded me of Zlatorog which is a legendary goat in Slovenia as well as a beer.

Nice wee bit of luck yesterday morning. Went back to where I saw the Cuckoo and got this pair

Wee b*****ds. Bells should be compulsory.

Usually get them up the Pentlands Tam. I saw two at once near Loganlea a couple of years back, but you hear them calling a fair bit. The Highlands and Islands is hoaching wi Cuckoos calling from mid May onwards but hardly ever seen.

Nice wee Roebuck down in the woods near the hoose last week.

Bit of a coincidence. My first ever shot of a Cuckoo, last night Seen 3 or 4 in my life and heard loads, but never been close enough for a photo.

Ah yes. Dods and Wilson. Altogether now “Thank you very much for taking Robbo, thank you very very very much!” Mind you, pure class at Easter Road this season. Hibs 5-1 up and asking Robbo what the score was. He didn’t waste any time holding up the required number of fingers

Universally known to the Hibs fans as “Tortolanoyab*****d” to the extent that the match programme probably used it as his official title.

The fucking big wheel, January 2017. The ice is getting in the road of the reflections. P.S. @8MileBU don't try any shagging in the car park in case they lock the gates at 8pm.

We’ve been doing click & collect during the lockdown. That’s how I saw it at £24 and the offer was ending on Monday 8th. Lucky I saw it and added it to the missus’s order for Sunday.

Aye It was a few years ago so I’m a bit foggy on it. but it was up at the golf club if that’s where you mean. Top of the ski slope. Never witnessed any dogging, maybe it didn’t start till later.

More old stuff dragged out during lockdown Hell Fire

Was out the other night as I was told there was a fox that hung about the park & ride. Saw this Kestrel instead.

I’m sure we had all these nun jokes about 50 pages back... Two nuns in a bath. One says “where’s the soap” The other says “yes, doesn’t it?”.

Funny you should say that. It's always seemed obvious to me that Robert is one of those polite old English gents who loves Scotland, has spent a lot of time here, but has a very romantic view of the place. The giveaways are the stories about all his nice holidays, frequent patronising references to 'wee drams' and telling us that crossing the Minch can be quite rough or that Shetland is 'well worth a visit'. Andy doesn't come across as such a wannabe. Mind you he has years of non-league study ahead if he wants to catch up with Robert James

I always hoped Celtic would find an obscure East German called Johannes Schoppes so they could have a midfield of Glavin, Burns, Schoppes.