What's the Hampden Roar

Ok so I tried hard not to mention that dreaded word: football. All during the current, mad climate of celebrating the beautiful game on the world stage. The best little country in the world is sadly not represented this time. I don’t feel bad about this as our near neighbours are busy making a fool of themselves as usual and once again, upsetting the whole world with their antics. Even many of the English themselves are growing tired of the hype. To me its like Big Brother goes on holiday. All the lowlives with too much money & very little sense & with the easiest games possible & with last minute rescues, have progressed further, than this level headed unbiased fan of the game thought possible.

Surely Portugal, even with a depleted squad, due to some wicked decisions, will sort them out & stop all this 1966 nonsense. I mean there was a National team in 1967 that taught that 1966 England team a lesson. This I will not forget along with Archie Gemmell’s later piece of magic.

I am sure the suicide rate around the world must soar now that there are so few games & such large gaps between matches.

If anyone thinks I will be supporting England in what is surely their last game, then they do not know me. I am not a big fan of the Portuguese since they cheated Celtic out of a deserved Uefa Cup, but I would rather they won than those loudmouths south of the border.

Also, I would just like to mention how shocked I was at Henry’s antics the other day during the France vs Spain game, where he held his face in an effort to get Puyol sent off. The resulting free kick caused the goal that made the difference & won the match for them. Although Zidane’s magic at the end would have done that anyway.

Although the refs have done a lot to sort out a lot of the cheating in the box during this competition, there is an incredible amount of cheating going on in other parts of the game.

Anyway, I have been disappointed in the lack of flair during this World Cup. Even Brazil have not turned it on. Maybe they are saving it for the final?

Hatfield, the Hungarians & the North

Yes, I know its been a while since an update. Too much happening in my life to deal with at the moment & so much confusion. I mean recently one of my sons played at a wedding. My wife & mother-in-law wanted to go to the church to see the bride ..etc as they knew her family. I just dressed casually, as we were not guests. Believe it or not, my son told me I upstaged the bride because I was wearing a tie-dyed, fractal t-shirt. What’s wrong with these people. What’s wrong with tie-dye?


The last month at work has been so weird too. Usually at this time of year we are winding down, before the summer holidays. However, the past 4 weeks have been so busy & with us being one member of staff short, it has been crazy.
In addition, we have had all the Hungarians spending all their free time (a lot) in the library. Not that this was a problem, we were delighted to have these visitors with us almost every day for the past month, but they had to be accommodated, when the library was very busy. The day before they left, one of the teachers, Judith gave us a couple of atonement gifts: a dvd & a hardback book showing us the area that they come from. This was a fine gesture & if I ever get the time, I will watch the dvd & leaf through the book.

I am now attempting to finish re-laying my driveway, a task I began last summer. So, instead of typing this, as it is dry outside, I should get out there.

On a more positive note, I finally got my grubby hands on those first 2 Hatfield & the North albums on cd, as well as a couple of Matching Mole albums, this has cheered me up no end.

The World of Small Things


I enjoy the quiet moments in life …..these are harder to find…….the world of small things…….the glitchy music where nothing happens…..the Derek Jarman films like blue….the Brian Eno music………when did we stop looking up @ the clouds in wonder…..sometimes you have to take yourself out or away from yourself to see the wonder & beauty in life & God’s creation……
I must admit I find prose/poetry/film/music much more interesting when you look at the cracks in the sidewalk or the in-between days……not for me the grandness & the ultra car chase/crashbang..more of everything that makes up our modern consumer world.

this attitude came to me when I was making 'soundwalks' & listening to other versions of the same idea. It is only when I was recording natural sounds onto minidisk that I discovered how entirely fascinating the audio landscape was around us & shocked by the fact that we are de-tuned to it.

it was only by wearing headphones & by using a microphone that I got hooked into the micro audio universe.

I still find this area of exploration exciting & this has stopped me doing stuff with samplers & synths & turning me to the richer sounds in our ignored environment.

this reminds me of happier times & longer summers, lying on my back staring up at the clouds or closing my eyes & drifting into slumber focusing on this aural delight.

Being a big Hafler Trio fan led me into some of these areas of sound. Chris Watson who was with Cabaret Voltaire & who later formed one half of the Hafler Trio with Andrew MacKenzie has produced some excellent work as a solo artist. In my opinion some of his best work has been recorded in Bonnie Scotland. He works as a sound recordist for the bbc & the quality of his work is exceptional.

Better to Burn Out than Fade Away

What’s new: happy highlanders dropped by on their way to Whitehaven for a wedding, Shangalang has had his hair tarted up & back to black from grey, my car has (ver)sprung a water leak somewhere…………I have to wait for a repair, because of the Hungarian delegation, who are also spending a lot of time in the library with me, although the past 2 weeks have been so frantic with us being 1 person short & the mad rush to finish projects, before the end of the academic year.

I got my opportunity to use my 2 word Polish vocabulary on Darius, who wasn’t particularly impressed. Now we have to wait to get our paper re-cycled because the Hungarians were taken to the Falkirk Wheel!

My sister-in-law has a new boiler & her neighbour took a bad turn & we were all worried as her two daughters live only a couple of doors away. One of the daughters had to go into hospital herself to get her kidney stones blasted & this was the only reason I witnessed Kenny’s handiwork on Shangalangs napper, because he was gardening at his mother in laws.

Another of my neighbours has gone to the usa so I have to remember & put his re-cycle bin out for the Council. Life is altogether very complicated.

The West Dunbartonshire book festival begins on Monday, so I am off to many of these events, missing some of the World Cup games & the cricket no doubt. If the weather changes I can get that driveway finished. It’s still half done since last summer.

On my way back from one of my Reading Groups last night, I cut through a 10k run & saw our Health & Safety man & one of the PT staff, who shouted, ‘hat trick hero’ at me. I don’t like going on about my 52-year-old Brazilian football skills especially in front of Harry from my Reading group, but I did get another extraordinary hat trick during my 5 –a-side match mid week.

All through this madness, I did get a chance to listen to these cds & that helped!