absent friend

TV putting these things into our homes had given many a new sense of morality as they see the injustice the Catholic people in N.Ireland

Dangerous line you are crossing here as the said TV allowed me to witness the little child being carried, in his coffin, by his father, referrred to above - the Omagh bombing and many, many more carried out by the IRA.

Yes, there was also comparable things carried out against the Catholic people but two wrongs do not make a right!!

I was having a drink with a colleague after work in a bar in Broxburn, West Lothian. During our pint a collecting box was put round 'for the bhoys' and neither I nor my friend, a Catholic, paid any attention to it.

My friend went to the toilet, on his return he called loudly for the collecting box to be handed to him and gave a donation.

We immediately left that bar and went to the bar across the road with my pal in tears. It transpired that he was followed into the loo and told if he wanted his 5 year old wee daughter to keep her looks he better get money in the collecting box!

Where does the above events give me a sense of morality or an acceptance of injustice to any cause! It just provides me with a sense of futility at the ignorance and inhumanity that still abounds within so called 'educated' people.

Now if you want to bring up the historic argument, fine, all I can feel for is the recent history that I witnessed via the TV and my living in the midst of the bigots on both sides of the divide down in Central Scotland.

Be grateful for what we have here in the North of Scotland and encourage/enjoy it. Leave all that Central Scotland crap where it belongs with the twisted minds that goes with it.

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I think Absent Friend is confusing an AWARENESS that the likes of what he describes happens elsewhere and the FACT that Protestant - Catholic sectarianism is to all intents and purposes a non issue up here (despite the best efforts of Apprentice Boyzone with their now unfortunately annual stroll to the Portland Club.)

I at no time inferred that a Protestant/Catholic divide existed in Inverness - I just lamented the fact that the TV thrust us right into the middle of the conflict and stole our innocence and left a residual awareness of the problem that did not exist prior to that.

I also highlighted the fact that the TV also thrust the Israel/Palestine situation into our living rooms and no, I did not infer that their was an Israel/Palestine divide in Inverness either.

These songs, may they be rebels or Loyalist tunes. They cannot be counted as sectarian

For goodness sake man, the two sides of the sectarian divide in question ARE the "Rebels" and the "Loyalists"! I would have thought, with a background in the East End of Glasgow you would be perfectly aware of that and not have to be educated by people from the Highlands where, outwith the Portland Club, this kind of nonsense is utterly foreign.

I only wish that this could, as in my young day, remain nonsense.

We danced, in the Meeting Rooms to the Irish Bands - wonderful entertainers - and had no real knowledge from which side of the divide they were on, as long as their music was good.

How innocent were we - how foreign was their cause to us.

I suppose the TV in the seventies stole a lot of this innocence away and let us, sitting in front of our fires, take sides, Bernadette Devlin/ Paisley and all the rest, now 'respectable' politicians but their cause left us scarred mentally.

How can I ever forget the Saturday night when, with my weeks old son beside me, I watched a little white coffin being carried along the road in Belfast by a father with the tears streaming down his face and IRA spokesmen trying to justify what I was watching.

Now don't get me wrong this type of thing was, no doubt, on both sides but that image will stay with me forever.

I also have a TV scar from Israeli soldiers smashing the elbows of little skeletal boys, between stones, with their rifle butts and leaving them standing there, with their arms swinging held on only by skin.

We have come a long way from the Meeting Rooms days but it has been a horrible journey and don't let any bowler hat/T shirt wording say anything different!

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And, talking of that, I think after the weekends performance or lack of - maybe there is an R missing from title.

No doubt a few churchgoers, councillors etc will doctor the truth about the licence, as has been done in other areas of the country, to try and poison the minds of the general public.

Why would churchgoers or clergy try to poison people's minds about nakedness? After all did their own god not do his/her nut in because the original humans fashioned clothing from fig leaves?

Exactly!!

And said councillors and churchgoers are good producers of offsprings and they don't appear to need Ann Summers type aids!

A point to ponder - since churchgoing became less common up here, the size of the family unit has decreased - the 4 offsprings have now become 1.5(ish).

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I think this raises a little question for our 'loutish' supporters IF, in the future, Allison saves a penalty, do they

a) Boo him for being a County fan?(I don't know if he is)

B) Cheer him for saving?

c) Throw their rattle out of the pram because they are all mixed up?

I feel sure he is not the first or last County fan we will have playing for us so maybe the 'louts' should get used to the fact that football, for the players, is a means to earning a living and, surprise, surprise, you don't always love your employers but you still provide a professional service.

When he is in our colours he is one of us and deserves to be treated as such!

Grant did have a solid game on Saturday and saved a certain goal just before half time. He was my MoM ably assisted by Bulvitis. Your header is a bit misleading though.

I was hoping that this would make potential posters stop and consider - from the initial point of jumping to his defence to a considered reaction, as to the reason for the change.

I feel that there has been something positive happened and it will last for longer than just that one game.

I, for one, thought that the armband was a bit heavy for him to carry, on the park and used this as a reason for his indifferent displays of recent times.

Saturday dispelled this thinking so there must be another reason for this positive improvement.

On another thread re Captains armband, Grant is slated for his reaction under pressure 'booted clearances' type of thing.

Now Saturday performance appears to be the opposite, in command, passing the ball out, right place at the right time etc.

Could this be the result of having Esson behind him again? TB input over the preseason time? Or maybe just happier playing at a lower level?

HT 0-1

FT 1-3

Us Rooney

Them Bayne

Crowd 2941

Watching our manager give the team loads of verbals during matches, there is not really the requirement for a captains voice on the park.

What we need is a leader on the park, with passion and conviction, who maybe does pick up a card or two along the way due to this, but frightens the life out of other teams who all love to hate him, with just cause.

Managers quote " I wish I had 11 Rossco's on the park" or something like that!

Rossco it is then.

Maybe the next genius commercial move will be to play all our home games behind closed doors to save on the cost of security, policing, producing the match programme etc.

We will be on a part time basis by then - maybe 3rd div.

Does profit from sales cover cost of keeping shop running? Can it be done cheaper/better?

Is this not a time when ALL areas of expenditure must be considered and action taken, if required.

There are a lot of 'nice' people being paid off all across the country, I'm afraid.

This may only be a one season situation until our finances improve.

I see this match is now on but the result will be provisional dependent on Livi challenging the SFL.

The other matches touched by the Livi situation are also being treated the same way.

"Not only have Livi little chance of surviving but I would suggest that many teams are looking over their shoulder hoping foreign banks will return to these shores with an easier borrowing mandate."

Ironic indeed - just received an email from the Bank of China confirming their return to the financial market here!

If you toss a penny and it comes down tails 9 times the chance of it coming down tails the 10th time is.....evens!!

What has gone before has no bearing on our effort this season! We were not involved before therefore the history of others is irrelevant to us.

Of course we can go back up. the unfortunate thing is we are making predictions blind as we do not have a history with this squad and the other teams are in the same position.

On paper and in some games our squad looks indeed good enough - maybe even better than the tail end of last year - so don't be neggie, vote YES

I think what is also being missed at this time is the lack of financial options open to all clubs this year.

This time last year we had benevolent bankers opening their strong room doors to assist any club that required a bit of help.

This year - hee haa! Now try and run a football club with a ten month season, bulk of income in month one and then, if lucky, just covering costs weekly. Add in players values dropping due to lack of trading because of said lack of cashflow (Setanta money) and imagine trying to present that to a bank, in the form of a business plan at this time, to stay afloat.

We have this oil support company gone to the wall yesterday with a full order book, good historic trading but no bank wants to address the cashflow situation right now. Compare their business plan with that of a football club!!

Not only have Livi little chance of surviving but I would suggest that many teams are looking over their shoulder hoping foreign banks will return to these shores with an easier borrowing mandate.

The 'money men' backing clubs are very often the most reliant on borrowing and if one area of their financial empire crashes, like cards, the rest could follow. Unless there is a end product for injecting money into a club I don't see the same 'Saturday toy' mentality prevailing for a while so I'm afraid it is goodbye Livi.

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And the coloured (am I allowed to say that?) chap with his suitcase full of offcuts of brightly coloured material to allow mothers to run up a new dress for daughter at next to no cost.

My ancient memory is a chap called 'Kirkie'- the sweetie man. He had a bicycle with bags down the side of the back wheel for his stock and a tray in front of the handlebars for his display. As sweets were difficult to come by, he always had a good number of people around him, if not buying, at least we were able to see what sweets looked like and who the lucky ones were!

He parked his bike under the street lamp at the school gate on the back street and for that evening made some of our dreams come true by slipping us a wee treat. I can still feel the guilt that I had this treat and not shared it with the rest of the family, I'm referring to a mini penny dainty type sweet, not a lot to share round but that did not stop the guilt.

I suppose as sweets became more plentiful, he became redundant but his memory is still there.

This was the same era as Forty Pockets who used to bed down sometimes, huddled in beside the golf course tractor shed, at the top of the Fluke lane.

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It is only when you think back to those days you realise the big change in the shopping habits that has taken place.

Coming from Culcabock, the shops all came to us, especially on a Saturday.

We had the milk, the bakers, the coal man, one ancient traveling shop, but I think he only stopped for his fly cup at a house in the village, the butchers boys, the paper boys......

When we did hit the town for 'shopping' it was Lows, Liptons and the Buttercup. Stopping at the mealmill at Kingsmills on the way home.

Saturday afternoon, off to the Thistle park to the strains of the 'Rock and Roll Waltz' as I passed the golf Clubhouse.

Excitement indeed for any young laddie!

Now my memory makes me think of the big 'Wells Fargo' type, horse drawn, bakery van owned by the bakers at the bottom of Stephens Brae and 'driven' by a wee red haired man/jockey.

The bakery at Southside Road also had a horse drawn bakery 'van' but not in the same 'Wells Fargo' class.

The legendary milkman from my youth, Jock Clunas, would have had no truck with the new fangled electric milk floats.

Yes, that's for sure!!

We all know why as well. It was Jock's horse that saw him home every Friday, the day he collected his 'round' money.

A four legged friend indeed! I doubt the new fangled electric float would have been so knowledgeable and understanding.

I can remember the opening of a Hydro Scheme where, I think it was Lord Strathclyde or someone with a name similar to that, stating that this was a new era in power production and the longer the scheme ran the cheaper the power would cost(!)

I often wonder why this never came about :(

I don't know how efficient the Hydro produced power is but it must have little by-products to attack the planet.

I see the great fanfare this new invention is being heralded with and it makes me think of how far advanced Burnett's Bakery was with their fleet of electric vans. These were followed by milk floats by Stratton Dairy.

Now my memory makes me think of the big 'Wells Fargo' type, horse drawn, bakery van owned by the bakers at the bottom of Stephens Brae and 'driven' by a wee red haired man/jockey.

The bakery at Southside Road also had a horse drawn bakery 'van' but not in the same 'Wells Fargo' class.

Now I seem to think that the time gap between the horse drawn 'van' and the electric 'van' was not that long and I therefore wonder why it has taken all this time for the media to get excited about the 'new' power.

I don't remember Charles' predecessors running after the electric van with their notebooks and flash cameras and stopping the press for a headline in the Highland News, Highland Herald or even the Bulletin, of their day.

Jimmy Carr is just boring IMO saw him on TV the other night and he was nothing special at all. Alan Davies is quite good on QI but he's another one who's stand-up stuff is nothing special, same goes for Bill Bailey who just isn't funny. And lastly, even though it's at TV programme I'm going to have to nominate Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. It has to be one of the worst TV programmes I've ever seen. Not remotely funny at all.

I watched QI on either Thursday or Friday night and I have never laughted so much at any programme!

I was not full of the 'spirit' so it was the content of the show that hit the spot.

Mr Fry definately played second fiddle to his guests.

Wonderful.

Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster too?

I suppose the above is the sort of response you have to expect when this type of discussion is taking place.

My introduction to..??.. was when I went to run my wife back home from an event she was attending.

The chairs were low and my wife was having a struggle to ease herself up out of them at the end of the evening - she has two artificial knee joints - the lady sitting next to her suggested she just wait for a moment and hovered her hand above her knees, never at any time being in contact. Although my wife was wearing trousers, when her friend took her hand away the heat in my wife's knees, through the material was amazing and her ability to then use her knee joints was uncanny. This improvement only lasted that evening but it was a super surprise

I witnessed this without being in earshot and my wife experienced it without being told what to expect so...

auto suggestion is out on both counts.

St Peter's primary school going on their school trip for the day had an empty seat and asked wee Johnny, from the 'other' school would he like to join them - this is called breaking down barriers!

Bad move...Johnny won the egg and spoon race, the sack race, even the three legged race all on his own.

Time to go home on the bus so all sent to the toilet and are very slow at returning, the Sister goes to round them up to be informed that a 'pee the highest' contest is in full swing and guess what? Johnny is in the lead!

Back goes the Sister to the bus and asks the Priest to gather in the pupils and get that troublemaker, Johnny, onto the bus. Back he comes with a big smile on his face ushering Johnny onto the bus.

"My that was easy for you Father" says the Sister

"No problem" says he "I just hit the ceiling!"

I love the thought of 70 year olds head banging their way through old age.

'Now I know I used to do this'

'But not when nurse is giving you a bedbath'!