Scarlet Pimple

I H E ====Immanent  Humourous Eminence.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary further defines  our sage in the following terms:-

Immanent-- (of the supreme being);  pervading the Universe; TRANSCENDENT

It does not say, however, that His Eminence is grise-y ,  just...slippery.

:015: :notworthy01: :notworthy01: :015:

In 1959 bought a 1935 MG open tourer from some sharpie garage in Norbury South London.. Yellow with red upholstery--dazzled the young man's eyes I can tell you. Paid 100 quid and it broke down at the first traffic lights--trudged back to sharpie and demanded money back--settled for 50 quid and a black look.

I was utterly penniless at the time being paid only 500 pounds a YEAR by the Royal Bank of Scotland whilst staying in Streatham, S.London.

Moved to a Morris minor which did sterling service.Then a Vauhhall Viva SL 90 which was a terrific small car---once did 100 mph on the Glasgow to Edinburgh freeway and thought I was just flying. Sold it for  a large impressive-looking Vanden Plas Princess with a Rolls Royce 4litreR engine-strangely this one did not have a great torque but it sure rode well.

Then Canada and my cars included a beautiful-looking Pontiac Grand Prix , then mostly new Honda Civics every other year, a Ford 250 Truck (smallish truck for Canada but had guts and great acceleration), and finally a Plymouth (now Dodge )fully-loaded  minivan with a 3.3 litre engine which has proved to be the most comfortable and powerful of them all. Wife has a 2003 Hyundai Accent  which has good MPG but sparse on comfort--peppy engine though on the freeway once you get the revs up.

No use resting a car, work it hard and if nothing collapses then you can get a lot of mileage out of it--doesn't do to leave it idle in the garage or drive it slowly-it just coughs & slutters. :003:

Depends on what is in the contract signed between the Agent and Rankin. If it says a certain percentage then I don't see at all why the club should fork out anything else for the Agent. The rub is ...where was his fee supposed to come-from in the contract terms, out of the transfer fee or out of the player's Bank account? :sleep01:

Well, it's not often that IHE gets the last word since, by one of his previous admissions, he normally does not get further down the thread than one third of the way. :002:

So we should feel flattered that he has stuck to his guns all the way through and I doooo enjoy his badinage not to mention his pitchers .... :004 (either quaffing pitchers or visual images pitchers--s'up to you, shrug.... :004:)

Not to pick anyone else out but Caley D you have altogether too much talent in the pictures and graphics Department for your own good. Never being a great drawer myself so I am insanely jealous at people with artistry in their veins....grrr...and Scotty thank goodness that we always can expect thoughtful common sense responses from you to balance out all the crazies (including moi)  that seem to derive great pleasure and emotional sustenance by coming on here... geez I wonder why we keep doing that anyway it's a tonic mateys..Ha! :016:

I consulted Confucious  : he says :

Agents serve a purpose in so far as they neutralise negotiations between player and Management- i.e. it doesn't make the player look too greedy and everybody expects the Agent to try to get as much cash for the player as possible because he /she probably is on a percentage of the deal. All this understood  in a cynical , but not necessarily favourable, kind of way.

Players also may be either too young and/or  inexperienced to feel comfortable in such a situation and may also be easy to be taken advantage of (that is if you like ending a sentence with a preposition). The smarter and/or  more mature player probably would save himself a lot of grief and money by conducting his own negotiations--let's face it you can't get blood out of a stone and water usually finds it's own level anyway so what has a player got to lose by working the deal himself--unless he has signed a contract with the agent..

Hopefully tomorrow will bring enlightenment ... :003:

Kingsmills

I think you are right since my  memories are similar about the variety being greater at Nairn.

However I still went to the Bught. Shows are shows. Reminds me also of the enjoyment I had at going to Bertram Mills Circus at the Bught and being impressed by the size of the tent. :002:

Charles

Thanks for your allegedly somewhat lengthy post. Frankly I didn't really notice that because I enjoyed the detail and the accuracy etc. and since I am over the hill (metaphorically-speaking that is) and far away I am pleased that you spend your valuable time keeping things up to date for people like us. :clapping04:

Well he may be old, cheps, but he still has a twinkle in his toes and also in his periwinkle.

The reference to gay to which you allude is far from what you lot might aver--i.e perhaps someone with energy and charm but carried off with aplomb--D'Artagnan of the 3 musketeers springs to mind. Or Erroll Flynn in his young day;well, that was long before he visited the "Only" fish and chip shop in downtown Vancouver and then went off to sleep with his 16 year old gal pal. Must have exhausted the poor lad 'cos he died that night .

The word blade was inserted 'cos in sheffield they make plenty of them for shaving  faces the old-fashioned way. Swords too I believe. Gawd this is tortuous--so we move naturally to anything else that will rhyme with that, such as Gaylord.....you lads really will have to try harder in the interpretation class of 2006. :015:

Thank you Scotty for explaining the situation  to this old lad who can even  remember cut-throat razors at Scotty  the Barber's shop in Greig Street. Fascinating stuff..... :sleep01:

C'mon, Italian Joe..where are you mate?

No gripping updates yet?Ha!  :011:

Stuns me why such an issue should come up at this late stage. Surely all the players knew what financial obligations were involved at the outset re Agent's fees etc. ?

Unless the Agent is now trying to turn the screw against a comitment already made?

Sigh, life gets tejious........eh? :sleep01:

C,mon--is this game now about young 23 year-old lads with pointy hairdos hiding their big heads or is it about seasoned pros who have proven their worth, e.g. D. Dods, who deserve attention?

Point is that paying too high wages to Rankin if he is the one causing the problem may be very dangerous  and I am a little nervous of what will happen to all of them when and if they go "out of contract" either next year or 2008 and leave on a freebie with little or no financial accrual to ICT. :016: :016: Just  let's hope Dargo does not go off the boil though....

Turf him if he is to blame. No need for swell heads at ICT. :012:

ICT is a teamwork team so any new face will soon understand that it's one for all and all for one. i.e. he has support and therefore , if he is in the first team as a regular, is there any doubt that he will improve continually? Rhetorical question!

The fee is not THAT much taking into account that CC needs to spend to strengthen and I agree that the Hart, Morgan, Rankin, Black array looks awfully attractive on paper.

CC deserves all the support we can give him--- for a somewhat reluctant Manager at the outset he is actually doing great so far. Brewster?--huh! Fetai was a prima donna bust and his performance was cheesy in the short jaunts on the park that he was allowed--feta cheese no less and it grated on me.  :003:

This is a tough one for me -remembering all the street names and Italian names etc.

The Italian prisoners of war worked in Howden's Nursery,  which was over the back hedge of our home at 46 Dunain Road.--perfect for mother to hand cups of tea to them over the hedge once a day. They seemed to enjoy the cuppas so maybe that's why so many stayed on --Highland hospitality and all--anyway this is one vivid memory that remains whereas sometimes I can't remember the names of former customers of my business. Yeah, well, some of my past clients in Canada are best to forget..ahemmmmmm!

Where was the POW camp--surely not far from Howdens?

Anyone know ?

Er--I got on free at the dodgems and swings at the Nairn fair  since Mammy & Daddy knew the Herchers. That was a good memory.

Also Candy floss was a special memory, the Links at Nairn  allied to the great sandy beaches , warm , never-ending summer evenings and playing down at the suspension bridge at the River in Nairn close to the former site of the Nairne castle that once stood at that very spot (now, I understand, removed a mile or so and renamed Cawdor castle)..

At the bught in Inverness the rifle shoting gallery always took my fancy. :006: Like the bearded lady when she winked at me.... :004:

I remember the baths well but few if any exciting incidents like you all have apparently had. Alex MacLeod that was a quick one , sharp as a tack  :015: Hope your neck feels better IHE--mine suffers all the time these days --today they call it repetitive work injury. In your day they probably referred to your condition as repetitive acrobatic erotic contortions.. :002: 

A96 , I can see you took your drowning incident very seriously. One of life's little challenges I suppose. Reminds me of the time on a beach in  Honolulu, Hawaii, where I looked back at the rolling surf and thought I would catch a wave and ride smoothly in  to shore. Until I mistimed my dive and the wave hit me like a ton of bricks on the back instead. What seemed like 5 minutes later , a totally disorientated mind filled with nausea and fear, and a mouthful of bottom sand I realised that i was still alive and was still able to stand up. Another reminder , timely I might add, of the power of water.  : :notworthy01:

The girl I was with said "you handled that well , I wondered if you were going to come up". Staying calm saved my bacon -- I wondered why she was so nonchalant until she told me she was once pulled under and pinned ten feet down by a similar incoming wave against the bottom of a sea wall and thought she would never make it up again-. Suddenly the wave receded  and with the pressure off she was able to surface.-staying calm she said saved her bacon too. 

Metalgecko--no offense but you are funny. :015:Hoch! Hoch!

Alex 's book "The Lads from The Ferry" is highly recommended reading. Very funny indeed.

As for Dalneigh I would like a photo please of the last private bungalow on the left of Fairfield road (if it still exists- very close to the Bumbers lane which was opposite) which adjoins the first Dalneigh house in that row on Fairfield road which leads up to the canal. I have a feeling looking at the satellite location map that Lauraness either lives in that self-same bungalow or the Council houses next to it?

My reason for wanting this is that when I was a very young lad I had a friend, Johnny Cooper ,who lived in that house -his dad was a Major in the army. Johnny and I smuggled his rifle out of the bathroom window with live ammo to play in the sand which had been dumped there as they commenced building Dalneigh and how we did not do damage is beyond me on reflection.We somehow climbed back in the window before Dad appeared again and never got caught..whew , that would have been a real stramash had he found out and my Dad would have heard about it too I am certain. He subsequently left for Maidstone in Kent and then apparently went off to Australia  so unless Jock knows about him in Australia  I will have to wait until I die to meet up with Johhny again! :002:

Eh didn't need money for school dinners, eh went home for "lunch" on the Station square bus --or rode my  bike. Then back to the Academy via school bus pick-up at the top of Lochalsh Road, if you had a penny for the fare !!!

About the Playhouse--the lasting memory of seeing Spartacus from the lower stalls, in glorious Black and White. Saw the remake last night in my own home on DVD in colour but  not a patch on the original. Kirk Douglas was really some kind of presence on the screen in the main role; hard to beat.

Stunned by the old picture of the playhouse, never thought I would see the frontage again; remembering queuing up with Mammy amd Daddy on a Saturday night to the left of the entranceway shown there. We never had to queue at the Palace since M and D  were pally with Mr Frank taylor the owner and  the ticket box lady also was understanding of the nudge nudge wink wink situation. Sometimes , however, I felt  a bit guilty just walking past the queues. That's where Scarlet got his taste for the thrill of privilege and power I guess....... :003:

Saturday matinees at the La Scala--B & W movies like Clancy of the Mounted and Tom Mix etc.;  little did I know that one day I would be in the land of the "Mounted"--nowadays "the Mounties", as they are called in Canada, run around in large, powerful  high-price motors with the gee-gees used mostly for ceremonial duties or crowd control on occasion. On horseback in their red serge uniforms and leather leggings they do look impressive however, especially the really big lads.

Have you noticed that none have performed in an outstanding manner.

Larsson was ineffectve and ultimately was substituted. Zarkewski did a hustle or two but was also largely ineffective. Nakamura did not achieve too much in todays's game etc.There was an Aussie who plays in the Scottish first Division I think whose name escapes me but he was largely unseen for much of the game.

Which prompts the question in my mind...The standards here may be too high for the Scottish team to have any real hope of progressing past the  first round in 2010 --there just is too much elegance, finesse, pace and class on view every day. And just watching Ghanas first game performance of gleeful abandoned play which they obviously enjoyed so much was for me the best game so far for super football and drama.

So over to youse with your views. :004:

I saw some pretty discriminatory refereeing and think that some of the big teams received favourites status  with dodgy referees' decisions  going their way. In particular one was a penalty which was not one.

The other thing that made me cynical is how may players there are who seem to go down at the drop of a hat. Such as...a hard enough shoulder charge ,which nowadays seems to be a foul ,sending them rolling in agony for hours. And the players who also are not actually touched by a hard tackle because they whip their legs up at the last minute but sprawl over and over for yards and bury their head in the turf whilst clutching a  leg as if it was torn of at the hip. etc. I have never seen so many halts in the play for minor infractions alleged to be fouls actually incurred as a normal run of play hsustle and bustle.

The third thing that seems to be all too frequent is the number of yellow cards handed out, often for seemingly innocuous fouls--some very harsh. Maybe the refs have been told to be harsh to avoid injury or something but I think it just is "over the top" in many cases and all this results in a constant stopping and starting of the game.

I think Ghana will be in the final..any takers?

Scarlet :010: :012:

One thing you can say , however, is that he played with verve and had some great saves.

Gringo--I read your post with amusement and promptly mused....because I bought my wee business on 15 July 1979 and have been in it (not necessarily willingly, however, especially in the last few years) for nearly 27 years- at times it has been a wild ride just like your experience with fear and loathing intermixed with exhileration..ha!

Retirement is now a distinct possibility--any country houses in Berriedale up for sale I wonder.? Would have to have a helicopter pad, though, to assure a comfortable ride to the ICT stadium every other week... :002:

CuteCaley Chick--how about a wee interesting reply to that one then? Ha! :001:

Flattering article, made you feel really good didn't it/

About time we had some fairer press and more insightful and objective appraisal of the progress and goings-on at the Caley Thistle Park.

Well, I've now got the fixtures list pinned up to the bookcase in my wee office so we are set for the off very soon guys.  :clapping04: