Synchronicity

I've just finished reading one of Ian Rankin's 'Rebus' crime novels. In the book there's mention of a newspaper headline pinned to the wall of a journalist's office. It said 'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Were Atrocious', and referred to the result of a football match. It didn't occur to me that it might have been a genuine headline.
Last night, an upcoming match between Caledonian Thistle and Celtic was mentioned, and I told Chris about the bit in the book. Today, we turned on the news to see a report of the match in which that headline was quoted. Now, I'm not that surprised to find out that it's a real headline, more that I had never heard of it before, then came across it twice in a couple of days.
Ok, it might not be interesting for most of you reading this, but I love it when things like this happen.

Oh, and here's another quote from the same book which made me fall about laughing...

'...in a voice which, had it been any more of an undertone, would have leapt up and broken into the chorus of 'Teenage Kicks'.

Warning: Approaching Rant

A quick question for you all - which do you think is the most annoying regular event on my way to or from work?

a) Seeing rabbits frisking in the fields.
b) Finding that they've run out of the free newspaper at the station, or
c) All the annoying, ill-mannered little brats on the bus?

Ok, I never said it would be a difficult question...
I'm sure that when I was younger it wasn't considered socially acceptable to play games involving the throwing of sweets down the length of the bus, or to sit on the back of the seats and perch on the shelf at the front of the bus.
No-one would be trying out all of their most irritating ringtones, or screeching to their friends sitting only a few seats away about their alcohol-fuelled antics the night before.
However, all of this pales into insignificance beside the latest teenage obsession. For some reason, teenagers seem incapable of amusing themselves for even the shortest of bus rides without playing music through their phones, at a volume that is clearly audible to all of the other passengers. It might not be so bad if they were playing music that was vaguely tolerable, but it's usually dance music that's been speeded up so that it sounds like it's being performed by chipmunks on speed. What I really want to do is throw all of their bloody phones out of the window, but they'd beat me up if I did, as I'd be severely outnumbered.
If I've got my MP3 player, then it's not too much of a problem, but I tend to forget it *sigh*

Fire and Vikings

As promised, here's some photos from the torchlit procession on December 29th. It was led by a contingent of the Up-Helly-Ah Vikings, parading behind a longship. The procession started near the top of the Royal Mile, then went down the Mound and along to Calton Hill.




Some of the Vikings lining up ready to go.




Chris and me with our flaming torches. Yay, fire!




A look back at the rest of the procession behind us.




The longship burning in a huge bonfire. We threw the remains of our torches into the fire, as did most other people. The trouble was, we then had to try and pick our way back down the hill without the torchlight. Had I thought about it, I'd have brought an electric torch with me. Oh well...




Finally, here's me posing with two of the Vikings. I really wanted to run away with the axe, but the Vikings wouldn't have liked it.

It was a great evening. There's something very satisfying about marching with thousands of other people all carrying burning torches, although I really wanted to be carrying a large sword too!