A wee favour to ask everybody and, of course, Boa in particular.
It’s almost a year since JW and I fell out seriously on MyT and decided to settle it with a game of ‘Battleships’.
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/jwilson/jw/11615111/Scottish_Civil_War/
Given our Jockish nature, we just cannae let it go. I’ve being doing the naked triumphalism bit (no pictures available) since then and he’s been sulking big style. Continue reading “Scottish Civil War II”
Just to remind you that you’ve got until midnight tomorrow BST (and relevant variations thereof) to be in it to win it.
So far, I believe that we only have five contenders. That’ll be my fault then and the whole competition is probably doomed, which, being a Jock, cheers me up a wee bit.
The roll call is, as far as I can determine and in order of insertion:- Continue reading “Last Call for the Creative Writing Thingie”
It’s been quite a strange day.
50 years ago, I had just finished the school year at a small prep school in Salisbury. Went there two years before when Dad got posted to Southern Command. A wee Scots lad from the state system who could not understand most of what was being said to him when I first arrived. I had never heard of ‘chits’ or ‘ditty bags’ and struggled utterly to understand why the past participle of the verb ‘eat’ could or should be pronounced ‘et’ when it was spelt ‘ate’. Never been happy with ‘spelled’ either by the way. And then we had this business with the Lord’s prayer every morning when I was begging forgiveness for my debts whilst all around me were sussurating some rubbish about trespasses. Continue reading “The Home of Golf”
Ferret has suggested that I set the deadline for the CW competition too far in advance.
On reflection, I think he’s right and that I was being a wee thing Jockocentric. We’re in full school holiday mode up here at the moment so I thought that lots of people would be away. I forgot that South and West Britain are still to go there, wherever it is. As regards the other parts of the known world, I think that we are probably only awaiting one or two more possible entries and I hope that moving the deadline will not inconvenience anybody in far flung airts (look it up, it’s a braw word, in my opinion)
So, any objections if I move said deadline to midnight GMT and equivalent timezones on Wednesday 21st July 2010? I await comments.
Right then, moving on rapidly before Sir Walter rises from his grave to haunt me in perpetuity for the alleged theft of his intellectual property from which Boa has exonerated me.
My thanks to Claire for setting the competition, to Boa for judging and to all of you who were so generous in your comments on my entry. I live in hope that CO will read it one of these days and then not be completely scathing about it. And I still hope that one day she will tell us the tale that she knows I want to read. Continue reading “Next Creative Writing Competition”
She shivered, not from the cold, pulling her cloak closer round her. It lacked but two days to the Eve of St John and the light had not completely left the sky even though it must be near to midnight. Sitting there beside the fire, high on the Watchfold, she wondered at the enormity and absurdity of her plan.
When the chance had come, she knew that she must take it or regret forever what could have been. The Baron riding out that morning had surprised her. The too many years of their unhappy union had taught her he was not the man to risk himself for anybody or anything without a personal benefit. His announcement that he was going to join Arran to defend the realm against the marauding English heretics was out of character.
Val’s ‘Uninvited Guest’ post sent me scurrying to my ‘Eagle’ annuals. I was fairly sure that one of them described how what were called the Romany people in those long-gone and innocent days cooked their hedgehogs.
Could not find a reference so it must have been in one of the weekly comics rather than in an annual. I then. of course, spent a pleasant half hour browsing through said annuals and came across something that will sort the men of a certain age from the boys.
Number 6 contained this:-
Now, it had been filled in and not in my hand but my father’s. I rather suspect that it was the same thing as happened with the train set and that my Dad played with the annual before I got it from Santa, but I don’t remember.
So, I’ve rubbed out the answers as best I can to give you all a go. Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of other stuff in his handwriting and this was not a blind-raged piece of vandalism occasioned by the severe trauma which his actions should have engendered in me. At least I don’t think it was.
Enjoy!
Puzzle as solved up to Comment 40
‘Well since we’ve got this rain delay at the Auchinleck and District Ladies’ Bowling League relegation play-off semi-finals, we’ll just nip over to our Radio Jockland commentator, Jock Scunner, to see if anything is happening at that game in South Africa. Aye weel, Jock?’
‘Aye weel, Weir! You join us with 30 seconds to go in extra time, after which it will be penalties when we will, hopefully, get the usual happy ending. We’ve got a lengthy injury delay at the moment, with Crouch receiving treatment for altitude sickness. Given that Soccer City Stadium is over 5,700 feet above sea level, it was always going to be a mistake to play the skinnymalink in the first place, in my opinion – there can’t be much oxygen up there even for for his big neb.
Still, it gives me some time to describe the scene. Away to my right I can see the massed ranks of the magnificent Brazilian fans. Happy, flag-waving, samba-loving extroverts dancing the time away in true carnival style as they await the victory which any true football fan would wish them. Continue reading “Disaster for Scotland”
Landed back in the UK last Saturday and stayed overnight with friends in Leeds.
On the morn, tooled off to the nearest Tesco to fuel up for the drive North. Nipped into said Tesco to buy a pint of milk.
Now, I had not realised this before, but there is, apparently, some sort of football competition about to start somewhere. It would seem that England are playing in it. Wall to wall flags of St George everywhere.
Boadicea's Chariot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.