The Longest Week

Image: David Blaine

Long week it has been and I’ve not been feeling too great at all. I’m not sure if I came down with something or if I was just generally run down, but for the latter half I felt like crap. Headaches, dodgy stomach and a desire to sleep constantly, I was in bed straight from work two days on the trot. I’m feeling better today, although I can still feel “it” hanging around.

I’ve taken next week of work. I need to forget about the office for a few days, let things go and just cut it loose for a while. I think I need it and I think I’ve earned it. No plans made just yet but I’ll spend a lot of time writing and reading. That’s the plan anyway. I’m just glad the week is over—it seems to have dragged on an eternity.

Last weekend never worked out the way it was planned. I was at the League Cup Final on Sunday, and all looked great for St. Mirren as they outplayed and outfought a Rangers side that couldn’t compete. Then Rangers got two players sent off for a couple of ridiculous tackles and the game changed. Rangers gathered ranks and St. Mirren seemed unsure of how to handle the change. With only a few minutes remaining Rangers scored with their only solid attack of the match and took the cup. It was heartbreaking—it was our first cup final in almost a quarter of a century and we will never have a better chance of winning a trophy. If you like horror stories you can watch the event unfold here.

One thing that did strike me during the match was proof indeed that the Old Firm are bigoted to the core. After Rangers received their first justified sending off, their fans responded with a wholehearted chorus of bigoted chants that echoed around the stadium and through the television sets of the thousands watching around the world. Don’t tell me it’s just a minority when to a man, woman and child, “who’s the Fenian in the black” was pelted out by over 40,000 bigoted fans. It was disgusting.

I was invited to a gig on Tuesday night by a local record producer who had seen a review of another band I did a few months back. The act was Andy Knox and it was in The Ark in the east end, my first time in the club for a review. It’s come on since I was last there many years ago. The review will be online at News of the World and also in The Man in the East come Monday morning.

That’s about it for today. I’ve got a few errands to take care of and I want a tidy house and home before my days off officially kick in. It makes my writing go that little bit smoother when I’m not sitting in a clutter. To close off, here are a few pics of my day out at the Cup Final last Sunday.

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