Gladstone

I think I was always on the sort of soft side of this, but having taken a step back, I can see that I said some (and believed what I was saying) embarrassing things in the past. My brother and Dad remain as delusional as ever though. A beauty from my Dad pre- League Cup final and Aberdeen selling their 40,000 tickets: Gladstone Senior: "If Aberdeen get Rangers in the Scottish Cup final, I'd imagine there would be plenty of Celtic fans in the Aberdeen end." Gladstone: "Celtic fans won't get anywhere near Aberdeen tickets - they'll be like gold dust." Gladstone Senior: "They surely won't fill Parkhead? A lot of Rangers fans won't go because it's at Parkhead, and Aberdeen won't sell that many tickets." Gladstone: "Aberdeen are on course to sell out their 30,000 for the League Cup final and probably looking for more. They're going to get nearly 3/4 of Parkhead allocated." Gladstone Senior: "Oh..." Not a fucking clue.

This I like the sound of.

Can't see Aberdeen losing the focus tonight, regardless of it being a midweek trip to Dingwall. I'll say 2-0 for that one. Robson with one, the real Rooney with the other. I didn't think Fellaini was actually any good against West Ham was he? I thought he looked like a big clumsy cunt as much as anything else. Needs a haircut too. If he got a haircut, I bet he'd almost be as good as Peter Pawlett. Almost.

Boom. Like it. It's on fecking BT Sports so I can't watch it without travelling to Dingwall. I'm not travelling to Dingwall.

What a goal from Bebe. Is he still a Man Utd player then? They should get him back. He's better than any of those losers in the team right now... So - predictions for tonight? I'm going to stick with what I said before - Man Utd after winning their last two will be a bit higher on confidence and they're going to beat City tonight. Following the theme of the weekend - goals galore - 4-3. Rooney to score all 7.

That was great. Many thanks, Gladstone.

To be honest JS, I'm not sure whose side to be on here. I don't like thievery, but really, if you put a banana in the fridge, you get what you deserve in my opinion.

Bananas in the fridge? Are you mental?

I fully support Jan on this one. The sort of music that often gets termed 'depressing' can be really uplifting at times.

Okay then.

You see - with all of these incidents, it's the simulation that's thrown in whether or not they're clipped that bugs me. You can get fouled and you go down but I don't understand why the instinct isn't to stay on your feet and the theatrics when a player gets fouled is embarrassing. I always remember a match I was playing in (amateur league) with my brother. My brother was a quick player, always getting fouled. He sidestepped this guy who (undoubtedly going for the ball) hoofed my brother right in the shin. Properly booted him. But as my brother wasn't running at the time, he didn't go down and still had the ball at his feet, but he could barely walk after a proper whack in the shin so just kicked the ball out and then sat down. No foul. The referee (typical Buchan League amateur referee): "Well, you didnae go doon ma loon." Only a foul if you hit the deck - how does that encourage fair play!? It was as blatant a foul as I've ever seen.

Best check with colb first - he makes the rules around here.

Thekthy.

Cool - I'll be sure to have a read of that at some point. It's weird - I can't imagine being able to run anything like that sort of pace for the duration of a 10k. But a year ago, I couldn't imagine running sub 40 pace for the duration of a 10k. I did some 400m intervals at sub 40 pace about a year ago and it seemed so fast. I'm now confident that I'll smash the 40 barrier at the next race now... It's amazing what some proper training does...! (I don't think I'll ever run sub 32, but you know - sub 35 probably doesn't look that ridiculous now)

Well, excuse me. I didn't know that "cafetiere" is a word exclusively for that specific coffee thing I have at home - you know I thought it maybe could have been a bigger version of something that did the same job - I don't like coffee, so have never shown any interest in how the good stuff is made, or what the paraphernalia is called. I just know that that thing we have at home is a cafetiere because it said so on the box.

Judging by that GIF. DIVE. Next.

Robbie Simpson broke the Garioch 10k course record yesterday. 31:30 I think. Mighty fast - it was very very windy yesterday. I think from 2k to 6k was straight into a headwind. That's how I remember it anyway. First 2k were fine and I was on target pace but it wasn't until 7k that I started to reel in the sub 40 again because I was running uphill into the wind.

So, my new official 10k PB is 36:20... 5th place at Garioch according to the official results! Some ridiculous shenanigans saw me and about 30 or so other runners run an extra 1.5km or so just after 9k as a marshall took ill and left his post. For some reason there was no marker at that last roundabout to point us in the right direction. I passed 9k at 36:20, so after a tough section from about 2-6km where it was all uphill and pretty much all into a very strong headwind and I thought sub 40 had gone, I'd managed to leave myself an outside chance of making it if I could push on and run a very fast last km. That came and went as the time ticked onto 40 mins, then 41 mins and I realised something had gone wrong. Ended up giving up and just shuffling over the line in 47:20 (11.23k). Some were complaining to the race director afterwards, and got asked to write our times down - I wrote down 36:20 @ 9k and they've obviously given me that for my 10k time! Not sure if it will be rectified, but my Garmin suggests I hit 10k at 40:19, which I think would have been faster had I got to turn that last corner and push onto the finish as I was feeling really strong as I passed 9k. Really disappointing end to what was a good run in tough conditions. Oh well...

Some hit by Rooney but really the keeper should have done better. Man U look like they should win this relatively easily after getting the first goal. It was probably a foul on Tomkins too.

I have no idea what you mean re: the Underkills bit...??

My wife recently bought a cafetiere for serving up coffee when we have guests. I love it when we have guests because I get to make proper coffee that smells and looks really good. I'm glad I don't like coffee or else I'd be getting well stuck in and probably be wandering about wired the entire time.

It smells great in any case, so I approve.

Is that good? EDIT: The coffee goons in here seem to love it.

I'm not a coffee drinker but I must work in a posh place 'cos there's a proper coffee thing (not sure what it's called as I have no interest in it - possibly a cafetiere type thing) that the coffee lovers have to "prepare" in the morning. Which looks like filling up a jug with water, putting some sort of paper filter thing on the top and then turning it on. I think there's real coffee loaded in somewhere - a jug of fine smelling coffee appears a wee while later. I like the smell of coffee but can't drink the stuff. It tastes boggin'.