Le Tout P'ti FC

Absolutely delighted to be back at a game. First in 493 days! Peebles v Dalkeith. Crowd: 33.

It's Somerset*. Here's another old picture of Somerset pre-roof I've found today. Love this picture. Apparently a Killie game on 12/09/70. 1-1 draw, crowd 8,488. *Definitely maybe.

Rose Reilly at Somerset. Begging the question, when did the roof go up behind the goals at Somerset?

You might get lucky and pick up two grounds. Colony Park FC play literally next door. When I went to Inverurie, I was able to watch first half of Colony Park v Longside at 2pm, then move over to the Locos v Wick game. Quick pint in BrewDog beside the station before my train made for a good trip!

Dalkeith have an extensive collection of these, and they are not afraid to deploy them liberally around the magnificent King's Park. Rumours that these chairs are "borrowed", and that the children of Dalkeith HS have since had to stand up in their exam hall are totally and utterly true. If you don't like the witterings of the guy sitting next to you, you just pick up your chair and move out of earshot. Easy.

New brewery for me. Dog Falls from Inverness. Lovely beer this one. The blurb says biscuit, caramel and toffee. Definitely getting the toffee.

Cheers Calmac. Had booked a trip to Coll in September, timed to give me a day trip to Tiree on the Wednesday. Due to "livestock sales", they've changed the times of the boat on that one day this year, and I've now got exactly 30 minutes on Tiree instead of the planned 6.5 hours. Extra day on Coll it is. Bit of a pain, Tiree is kind of awkward for me to get to randomly from my base in rural Peeblesshire! Will just need to book another trip to Tiree another time...

You missed one.

My wee boy turns eight next month. He's allowed to go everywhere in the place we live in. That you can walk from one end of the village to the other in ten minutes makes this an easy decision. The risk of the big bad bogey man taking him away is not really paramount in my thinking. More concerned about him crossing a road. But you don't learn about roads without crossing them yourself and making your own judgements. The first few times he left by himself were pretty terrifying.

At the Slaughterhouse Coffee place at Cromarty - coffee was very very good, as ever - but today's star discovery was this cola. Tastes exactly like the coke you used to get from the ginger van. Lovely.

Cromarty lager at the Arch Inn, Ullapool. It will do me fine.

Checked into my hotel in Inverness, gasping for a pint after a day walking in the sun. The T is off, the alternative is a very flat Stella, and the pub is full of half of Lancashire watching England. And for that reason, I'm out.

Mull today. Made it no further than Langamull and Calgary beaches. Outstanding.

First day up Oban way today in a good while, no new recommendations as such. I notice a new place (The View), where they've built a nice looking terrace overlooking the bay. It used to be the horrible Skippinish Ceilidh House. Haven't been in yet. Otherwise it has only been a case so far of visiting Kerrera and Ganavan, then getting a nice chippy from George Street Fish bar. Lunch was from the seafood hut at the ferry terminal. They had the admirable cheek to both say they only took card for £20+ transactions AND sulk and ask if I had anything smaller when I handed over a £20 note to pay for our £14 purchase. First time I've used cash to buy my lunch since Covid, that £20 note has probably been with me since then. They gave me my change in 20 and 50p's. Service has never been their "thing" I suppose. Over to Mull tomorrow.

When pre season fixtures and school sports day clash, resulting in a running track being painted over the goalmouth at "Uppers".

Kerrera today. If you want to know the exact distance a seven year old can walk before having a full meltdown, it's about 200 yards short of the return journey to Gylen Castle. Full tantrum ensued. Fortunately the RNLI speeding past to recover a sailboat which had biffed some rocks enlivened matters and the tantruum was abated. Top tip from today would be get the 8:45 ferry, which we had to ourselves, as the next ferry at 10:35, and those coming after, brought waves of people. The time we had the island to ourselves was superb.

A wee sign at the site of the Ormiston railway station commenting on the football special which took spectators in from Lochore for a cup tie against Ormiston Primrose. Those were the days, special trains to very random football ties. Station closed in 1965, platform now used for allotments, if you're remotely interested. Ormiston Primrose have also been away for a good few years now.

Lesser Hampden on Monday. Wee bit work still to do to make the new stand habitable.

Hampden Bowling Club looking just braw.

Just walked past James McFadden. Sadly this is as close as I'm getting to the game today.

Near Hampden.

Too excited to post the image!

Shout out to everyone else doing the school run for 3pm. I'll be listening to Sportsound and trying not to crash my car. Just leaving Bute now and if you look closely the clouds look like Lyndon Dykes scoring with a diving header. C'mon Scotland!

West Island Way completed. An absolute beast of a day. 50,000 steps, whatever that is in real money. Far far too hot and consequently as I'm limping into Port Bannatyne now my water has ran out about two hours ago. And that was me trying to ration it. My tongue is stuck to my skull. All my bones are sore and my shoulder for some reason is clicking loudly in time to my stride. My eyes are stinging from sun cream running into them as I've sweated my way around Bute. There will be bugger all shops open here to buy a drink and I've missed the last bus to Rothesay by an hour. ^^^ Verge of actual tears. With time, I will think of this as a fun experience, but were I to have my time again, I would just do the Southern loop again instead of that tortuous Northern loop.

Cheers! Looking forward to getting up to the top, never been further north than Rothesay.