The Holiday Song

Another vote for Utrecht as a place to stay. Because the arena is on the east of Amsterdam, Utrecht Centraal is pretty much the same distance time wise. Great wee city with plenty of bars and nice canals. (although accommodation is getting more and more expensive there I've noticed)

they had the audio of it one one of the last ones. It does sound a bit like c**t (although the Chris guy reckons it sounded like coat!). It's in the context of the Bayern manager Hitzfeld being a lucky {something] and the latest comments by folk on their instagram post reckon it's "coach", as the sentence is "you told me Hitzfeld was a lucky c**t/coat/coach", the latter obviously makes the most sense.

A "flight" in a pub that showcases different types is good. Allows you to smell the differences between the types which I think is a big part of it. Honestly, the more whisky I try, feel like the less I know what's going on in terms of what I enjoy! Which is sortof frustrating but is also part of the charm I reckon. Big thing for me in terms of what I generally like are the casks used (i.e. port, sherry compared to ex-bourbon for example). I think focusing on that a bit more when I first started drinking whisky is the thing I'd have done differently. But each to their own.

I like this photo, in the season Gullit and Cruyff played (and won the double) together at Feyenoord. As someone who grew up in the 90s I was kinda surprised they crossed over. And I also kinda like that that the way the photo is framed you don't see the sponsor on Cruyff's shirt, it's a bit (maybe very!) tenuous but adds to the two different eras coming together (also with the Dutch team starting to see people with Surinamese and their other colonies backgrounds getting into the national team).

Don't disagree with your fundamental point, but there would have been the opportunity to groundshare post ICT in 04/05 SPL season so probably could have got promotion. I have always kindof wondered if Brockville could have been turned into a 6,000 seater stadium. Ignoring whether it would have made much sense, would it have been feasible anyone know?

Dunno if anyone else had the 1992 Super Top Trumps European Club Football edition, but I always thought that was Crunchie representing Chelsea, pretty sure it is? (appreciate this might be the most boring question ever)

Had a taste last week and was quite impressed (although didn't go in with much expectation!). Good nose and easygoing taste but felt like something about it. I would have guessed it had been aged longer in sherry casks than it says (but I'm certainly no expert). Would probably buy a bottle if could find online. Had it at The Abbey bar in Edinburgh, which had never heard of before. It looks a bit like a Belhaven style pub online but would have loved to stay there for more than one as a good selection! Abbey Whisky List – THE ABBEY (abbeybar.co.uk)

And then you have too many and the day after is a dark depressing day. But totally agree with what you're saying so If anybody has any practical tips on how to keep that feeling Bairnardo is describing going over a number of hours without tipping over the edge into being blootered, I'm all ears. Actually probably more psychological tips as I know fine well why it's going wrong from a science point of view.

it took me ages and multiple, multiple rewatches to realise that the Irish guy in Jack Nicolson's gang from the Departed was played by the same guy who was Stephen the mad irishman in Braveheart. Scottish actor David O'Hara.

Had a taste of a 57 year old Glenfarclas recently. Was a sherry cask, smell and taste was liquorice and treacle. Was great to try but probably definitely wasted on my unrefined palette. I've tried a ten year old whisky that was put into a really small, heavily sherried cask for about six months and it was a similar taste to me, so not sure at what point the aging starts to keep adding taste value in line with the increase in price. Off to pick up a few samples for a tasting tonight. Don't know if anyone else is the same but part of me thinks the more I drink whisky, the less I really understand what I like and why!

If you know all this already then just ignore, but dear lord please be careful when it comes to edibles! Had a few great Saturdays eating cookies from a coffee shop during lockdown, but then one week drank a bit and didn't properly wait for the first one to kick in (the two things it literally warns on the packet) and it was by far the worst time in my life.

I've used Viagogo website for a game at Allianz, and also one at Dortmund. Worked fine enough although definitely pay over the odds! You can get 3 standing together just now for about GBP 150 each (which includes the booking fees) FC Bayern Munich vs SV Darmstadt 98 Tickets Allianz Arena Munich | Fri 27 Oct 2023 - Viagogo

I assume Sadiq will be cup tied for AZ Alkmaar? Otherwise Aberdeen might have to face him again in the Conference League

I think the big difference is how little of our games make it to live TV. The downside of keeping to the 15:00 on a Saturday model (which I wouldn’t want changed tbh).

Well there you go. That's about twenty years of me ranting and being annoyed about the SPL rules when it wasn't their fault! Will say though that that ruling really meant that Falkirk were never going to seriously upgrade Brockville because it was never going to get to 10k seats. But this discussion was also happening twenty years ago on P&B, lets not go over again!

Pierre Van Hooijdonk having to admit he had no evidence and apologise to new Ajax manager Maurice Steijn after saying on TV he was involved in dodgy dealings when Steijn was manager of Breda. First game of the season for me tomorrow (second round of games). ADO at home to Roda JC. Can't wait to get back into it but not really sure how ADO will do this year.

Had been to Frankfurt a few times and wouldn't have massively disagreed with you. But was there last weekend and went more to the south and east of the station and was a lot better than I remember. Although I also wasn't massively impressed with Dusseldorf so we're maybe just different! (totally agree on location though).

If your camera was tilted a few degrees more to the left there then would see my house (well, my mam and dads). Hopefully going up in October. Will probably take the boat (as feels more of an experience then) but always a bit of a risk with the weather. Northlink are pretty good if you want to push back a day or two but then the availability of cabins comes up.

Another potential way to get there is Glasgow to Dublin at 22:25 on the Tuesday (‪Ryanair £16) and then Dublin to Zurich the following morning at 07:10 (Aer Lingus ‪£74). Bare bones and need to sleep in the airport! Could also do it a day later and pretty much the same price. Another thing I probably wouldn't do but love looking up this type of shite for some reason.

Dominic Iorfa's son (same name) playing for Sheffield Wednesday too!

Just thinking out loud here, but there’s a Ryanair flight on the Tuesday evening from Newcastle to Milan that’s relatively cheap (£60 bare bones). Then the direct train from Milan to Lucerne the following morning for about £40. Bit of a faff but if anyone was desperate to go then a bit of an adventure. When Falkirk played in Liechtenstein I was scared of flying so got buses from Aberdeen to Zurich. Took me just over 36 hours if I mind right. It was more than a bit of a faff, a dreadful experience! Wouldn’t even consider it nowadays.

Funny how much people can disagree on things like this as Mark Nicholas is my least favourite sports presenter/commentator of all time! I'm also not a fan of TMS so suspect we just have totally different tastes (not a bad thing!).

Oh I’m sure that was the thinking, but it just seems pretty stupid with all the other variables around it. (Know you weren’t saying otherwise btw!)

This is it for me. If I remember correctly there was 7 overs left in the day and by declaring they lost 3 and got to bowl 4 overs that first evening. Effectively if they'd batted to close they had the chance for extra runs in those 7 overs and they could have declared overnight. I could have got more onboard with it if they had already scored 450+, if Root had been out or the weather conditions had been really favourable to Anderson and Broad's swing bowling, but none of those were the case. I honestly think it was hubris without any really thought to the game situation, which is perhaps the core tenant of Bazball (which I think is brilliant btw) but it opened the door to the Aussie's and indeed a draw there and it's still all to play for. Of course, easy to say in hindsight and everything probably plays out differently but that declaration was a big mistake IMO, and honestly makes little difference to forcing a result or making it a more exciting match. A 5th test decider would have been even more exciting and got people interested...

Feel England been significantly the best team this series and wouldn’t begrudge them the win (hard to admit!) but will be interesting to see how they’ll be judged if this test is a draw and so last one is meaningless. That declaration in the first test was mental and the forecast for the last two days here has always been terrible, so batting on so long today was a risk. All very well Bairstow having an amazing innings today when they’re well on top, but been a net negative for the first three tests. Great series though, so hopefully get a meaningful fifth test.