scottsdad

Am I right in thinking that ~half the folk in hospital are in the Glasgow area? If so then there should be no need to much about with the other council areas. They will, of course, as they can't help themselves. But they shouldn't.

I've said this before but I was a mascot in ~1990. In the changing room the players were all good to me, but Colin McNair was a bit funny. He picked up a ball and launched it at my head. I ducked and it hit the wall behind me and he was gutting himself laughing. I crapped myself. Stuart Burgess was the captain then and really nice.

Raphael (on the left) looks like he needs more fibre in his diet.

My niece got 100 books for a fiver from someone shifting them online. I looked through them and she said I could take what I wanted. One stood out - Star Trek Memories by William Shatner. I read this as a teenager and got it again. It's very warm and funny and full of funny stories. The one that made me laugh out loud related to Susan Oliver and the green paint. She was made up as an Orion slave girl (below) and covered in a smelly paint. She stood dancing but the paint had a pretty bad effect on her and she felt ill. The director laid her down in her caravan and called a doctor. The doctor arrives on set and is pointed towards a caravan where all he's told is "a girl is ill". He walks in and is confronted with a woman who has apparently turned green. Took a while before someone explained to the doc that it was make-up and not a side-effect of some sudden illness.

Jim Duffy...no chance, not now. To be blunt he's past it. But I still remember the team he managed in the late 80s. I had started going to games and we had some great players. He was manager when I first really watched the team. He brings back memories of Brockville for me at least. Happy ones. But I wouldn't have him back.

I checked 2-3 times a day for 5 days before a single slot opened up.

Part of Labour's problems is that they have two, competing ideas. On the Corbyn front, a return to some semblance of socialism. Raise tax, invest where needed, try to re-shape Britain to something new. On the other front, the centrist approach to use economic boost to invest in public services. It gets tetchy as this is again the Old Labour vs New Labour argument. Britain hasn't voted for a socialist government in almost 50 years, so the centrists argue that the Corbyn view is unelectable. They're kind of right - the rest was the personal brand of Corbyn himself. I honestly believe that is John McDonnell became leader in 2015 instead of Corbyn, they would have done much better. The centrists...well, New Labour had it's moment but that's gone now. The Tories can honestly be seen as the successors to Blair, even if they really aren't. This civil war between the two wings are what has killed Labour for 10 years. The ERG in the Tories are their version of the Corbyn element, but they manage to rub along together. Tories always choose power over fighting.

Years ago on another forum I called myself scottsdad. The name is pretty explanatory (ie I have no imagination). I came here and kept the name. And Scott, who was a baby when the name was made, turns 16 in a few days time. He's 6 foot 2 (won't be long till he's the same height as me), is doing his Nat 5's, and starts his Highers soon. In a year he'll be able to drive. Two and he will be looking at going to uni. Where does it all go?

Tough call between these couples...

Good to see this thread come back. I've not given an update in ages. I was on 1800 mg of gabapentin every day and the pain in my right baw caused by Dr Leatherface had pretty much gone. My GP phoned me about 8 months ago and she wanted me to reduce the amount as it is addictive. She told me to slowly reduce it as far as it'll go before the pain gets bad again. So I cut down to 1500, 1200....and so on. Three months ago I was taking a single 100mg tablet at night and was experiencing no pain (absolutely none). I thought, f**k it, and stopped taking it altogether. Since then I've had a couple of aches in those three months but that's all. The GP says that this isn't unusual, and at some stage the pain might start up again. But for now I'm taking no prescription drugs at all, for the first time in years.

That would be awesome. And might make more sense than what we have now. "East Lothian.....You drew...[drum roll]...Number 6! Number 6! Congratulations, you're in level one for the next week."

Meghan Markle's written a book about the special relationship between a father and a son. Based on Charles and Harry, perhaps?

Nope, actual mushy peas. Like you get in a tin.

Harry's at it again, I see. His timing, as always, utterly awful. When the BBC are getting a slagging about Di's interview, he comes out with his "truth bomb" interview. Manages to slag off the royal family pretty comprehensively.

My employer is giving every employee a £200 thank you payment in the July salary. Even the bampots.

I lived in South Wales for 3 years. It is a pretty poor place north of the M4, the old mining villages all ruined. But Swansea was on a different level. Went there a few times and it just struck me as decayed. Old buildings left to ruin, loads of poverty, very run down. Parks covered in graffiti. Ironically as you drive into Swansea you pass the shiny stadium for the Ospreys rugby team surrounded by the luxury flats and stuff. Big out of town shopping villages so that folk can drive from all around without actually going into Swansea. I also had the most wonderful curry at a curry house there, though oddly they put a dod of mushy peas on the side.

Schools in Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, shitting down due to "cases" https://www.alloaadvertiser.com/news/19317613.tullibody-schools-nursery-close-covid-19-cases-rise/ Jesus wept. Clackmannanshire's rates go up and down quickly as there is such a small population but, this is ridiculous.

Genuine question. If there was a manager none of us had heard of in, say, Malta, the Channel Islands, Faroe Islands or some place like that, and he got the job based on his successes there...would you be OK with that?

Yep, it's depressing. The goalposts have moved.

There was a time not too long ago when he would have been the first at a microphone or megaphone screaming about the persecution of Muslims. I remember him tearing into Tony Blair once for launching an offensive during the month of Ramadan. No longer. So long as the Muslims are living in Scotland, he's all for their forceful deportation. He's rather pick a fight - any fight - with Nicola Sturgeon that stand up for people these days. If they were being deported from, say, France I'd bet he's be all over the news.

I really pay no more attention now to "cases". Hospitalisations, ICU and deaths are what matters. These have seen a small uptick in recent days - this isn't great. But we're vaccinating like hell now.

After my jag yesterday, I spent an enjoyable hour on the bog last night losing about 2 yards of small intestine. I felt like I'd spent the night in jail with Big Bubba and his five mates. This morning, arm a wee bit sore. Not too bad overall.

My brother does work with the English FA. They have been pushing hard to reopen football at the earliest opportunity, both now and last year. Last year he thought they were going too far too fast coming out of lock down 1. This time around he says they have it right. He has been to his 10 matches in the last fortnight at various levels.

I'd be happy with him, but has he left Hamilton?

Wee touch misleading in the headline. What the dude said was that discussions about the direction of Labour were ongoing and confidential. However, any shadow minister worth their salt should have been able to reel off something. A rambling sentence including words like fairness, social justice, equality, good governance, etc. would have fit the bill.