Friday Grump

Babysitting for Step A the other night was a pleasure as always.She was on good form ( for a moody teen!)and I'm pleased that even although I split from her Mum last year,the wee one is happy to sit and watch crap tv and chat away to me.They now have a kitten in their house along with a hamster and Nacho.( when he's not at my place) I said it reminded me of the old woman who swallowed a fly song and the wee one looked at me as if I had two heads! "She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,I don't know why she swallowed the fly,perhaps she'll die..." Ahh never mind!

I watched the highlights of Scotland's 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.My gran was from Portadown and I've always had a soft spot for Norn Iron.It was great to see the away support take over Glasgow city centre during the day and I hope their trip wasn't marred by the embarrassing actions of Strathclyde police who confiscated a Northern Ireland flag, believing it to be illegal for sectarian reasons! The flag was returned and an apology rightly issued.One Scotland,many cultures eh!

The Scottish national team followers are often referred to as the "Tartan Army" for obvious reasons.I don't mind that monicker at all, but ( and maybe I'm turning into an old grump!)it really does my nut in to read those fans constantly referred to in the media as "foot soldiers".Real foot soldiers fight and risk life and limb for their countries as opposed to getting drunk abroad and lifting their kilts to moon at by-passers.

A few other things making me grumpy these days are the daily newspaper headlines that state "Fears grow" or "Fears sparked by..".Not a day goes by without a paper telling us to be fearful for one reason or another.Calling arsonists "firebugs" also annoys me! Dunno why,it just does.

The newspaper stories which do make me smile are the ones where Mum has opened a supermarket pizza for example and found metal slicer/human hair/elephant.It's not so much the story which tickles me but the accompanying photograph of the family invloved all looking as glum and downcast as possible.We spent our lives being told to "say cheese" and smile for the camera and I'd love to be a fly on the wall as the papers photographer snaps the pizza family.Even the kids are made to pose as if their world has just fallen down around them.I may just start a "glum photo" scrapbook or blog..!

To the poker ( at last eh!) and I played a couple of $11,18 player turbs on Full Tilt and watched my 66 fall to A5 ( and noted that Full Tilt deck also contains 14 Aces just like Stars!) and came fourth in the other when my 88 fell to 33.( 3 on river obviously)

I fired up two Party $22's before bed and when my AK lost to K9 in the one of them,I was beginning to get that "Why does it always rain on me?" feeling.I did take 2nd in the other and hit the sack straight afterwards.

I've got Nacho until Sunday and plan on visiting the S-man this evening.Poker,watching the Gers and catching up on my sleep are my plans for the rest of the weekend...