Had a really great evening. Christine came over for tea and we made pancakes. It was such good fun! Ok, so the first one ended up in the bin but generally we were pretty good at it! Now, I've got to say I'm a very traditional 'lemon and sugar' pancake type of girl and I was totally shocked to learn that Christine has never tried that combination. Thats like the original pancake thing!!! How can she not have tried it??! She wouldn't even try it tonight! Loser!!! lol
I'm really excited cos my dad should be arriving really soon. He is staying here for a couple of days, mainly because we are planning to go to the Scotland v Switzerland friendly at Hampden tomorrow night. I can't wait! I hope that Shaun Maloney is playing because although he used to be my favourite footballer (except Ryan) I have never really seen him play as I've never been to a Celtic match before. He is no longer one of my favourite players because I learned that really he's a bit of an idiot as my cousin's cousin who has played against him will testify! But I'd still like to see him play because he is a good footballer so fingers crossed! I'm really looking forward to spending some time with my dad again - even though I only saw him on Saturday! I haven't seen Mum for what seems like ages and ages so I wish she was coming up too but unfortunately she isn't cos she has to work and she doesn't care one bit about football!! Anyway my dad should be here any minute so I'd better go!

Seeing as I have recently figured out how to put photos on my blog I thought I'd just put up some pics of my favourite footballer ever - Ryan Valentine. Oh the brilliance!!! In the picture below he is the one shouting and pointing!

Duncan Hodge - Scotland's Calcutta Cup hero in 2000 when he scored all of Scotland's points in the last game that Scotland beat England. He is definately one of my favourite Scotland players ever.
Well what can I say? I think I'll start with the simple - Scotland 18-12 England!! I started the day by catching the 12.15 train from Glasgow to Edinburgh Haymarket. My Dad was travelling up from Darlington and hadn't arrived in Edinburgh yet so I waited in Starbucks just by the station and actually he didn't arrive too much later. I had lunch there and then Dad and I just sat in the car for ages listening to the radio. At around 4pm we started to make our way to Murrayfield which is about 20 mins walk from where our car was parked. When we reached the ground Sarah (who was also there) and I were texting and she came from her seat to shout hello from the steps going up the side of the stadium. Then Dad and I made our way to our seats which were excellent and just in front of the BBC Sport box thingy. We got ourselves comfortable then to our dismay a couple came up with identical tickets to ours. So my Dad and the guy went to sort the whole situation. It turns out that it was the computer's fault. We managed to catch the anthems in our original seats then we let the couple who arrived after us (so really it should have been them that moved) stay in the West stand and the great seats while we moved to the North stand. Sarah and co were also in the North stand but were on the other side so not sitting very close. We did wave to each other though. The first half flew by and ended with a scoreline of 3-3. In the second half it was very exciting - England took the lead once but Scotland quickly sorted that out. Certainly England did put a lot of pressure on Scotland but Scotland were the ones who came closest to scoring a try when the ball was put into touch just on the wrong side of the try line. The final ten minutes of so were so stressful and nervewracking for the Scots as England put their all into trying to find some winning points. Thankfully thought they weren't able to and the final whistle meant that Scotland had beaten England for the first time in six years and finally placed the Calcutta Cup in Scottish hands once more.

Jason White, Scotland captain, raises the Calcutta Cup aloft having been presented it by Princess Anne. He made his Scotland debut against England in the win of 2000.

The atmosphere at Murrayfield was electric, it was thoroughly amazing. This was the first proper rugby match that I've ever been to and I loved it. I love how the fans aren't segregated like they are in football. There is no way that that could be the case in football. There was banter and a competetive atmosphere between the fans but it was all so good natured and there was very little bad language. I think it was just great. Football fans could really learn something from rugby fans.

Chris Paterson who scored all but 3 of Scotland's points and only one of two of the current Scotland players to have beaten England before.

Scotland: Southwell; Paterson, Di Rollo, Henderson, Lamont; Parks, Blair; Kerr, Hall, Douglas; MacLeod, Kellock; White (capt), Taylor, Hogg. Replacements: Ford, Smith, Hines, Petrie, Cusiter, Ross, Webster

England: Lewsey; Cueto, Noon, Tindall, Cohen; Hodgson, Ellis; Sheridan, Thompson, White; Borthwick, Grewcock; Worsley, Moody, Corry (capt). Replacements: Chuter, Freshwater, Shaw, Dallaglio, Dawson, Goode, Voyce.

Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland)

Man of the match: Jason White

TIMELINE:

3 – 0: Chris Paterson penalty (1 min)

3 – 3: Charlie Hodgson penalty (7 mins)Yellow card: Danny Grewcock (22 mins)

England sub: Perry Freshwater for Andrew Sheridan (blood) (38mins)

HALF TIME

England sub: Sheridan returns from blood bin

3 – 6: Charlie Hodgson penalty (41mins)

6 – 6: Chris Paterson penalty (42 mins)

9 – 6: Chris Paterson penalty (47 mins)

England sub: Matt Dawson for Harry Ellis (blood) (50 mins)

Scotland sub: Nathan Hines for Scott MacLeod (51 mins)

12 – 6: Dan Parks drop goal (56 mins)

Scotland sub: Ross Ford for Dougie Hall (58 mins)

Scotland sub: Craig Smith for Bruce Douglas (60 mins)

12 – 9: Charlie Hodgson penalty (61 mins)

England sub: Ellis returns from blood bin

Scotland subs: Gordon Ross for Dan Parks and Chris Cusiter for Mike Blair (63 mins)

England sub: Lawrence Dallaglio for Martin Corry (63 mins)

England sub: Simon Shaw for Danny Grewcock (67 mins)

England sub: Perry Freshwater for Andrew Sheridan (72 mins)

England sub: Matt Dawson for Harry Ellis (72 mins)

15 - 12: Charlie Hodgson penalty (74 mins)

18 – 12: Chris Paterson penalty (77 mins)

Scotland sub: Simon Webster for Marcus Di Rollo (78 mins)

FULL TIME: SCOTLAND 18 ENGLAND 12

I spent the day trying to recover from the visit of Beth, Sophie and Helen to Glasgow on Wed/Thurs!!! It was actually really great - I really enjoyed having them here (and I'm not just saying that because Beth is like the only person who reads my blog!!). I was quite sad when they left. They arrived here on Wednesday morning and I met them at Central Station. We went back to my flat for a while so they could dump their stuff etc and then Beth and Helen went to Jordanhill for Beth's interview. Sophie and I stayed at the flat and watched 10 Things I Hate About You (genius film!) and played with Zinzan until he bit Sophie and made her bleed. I was mortified! What a nice way to treat visitors!! Christine came round for a while in the afternoon because she had a screening in the evening.
When Beth and Helen came back we were starving so went to get pizza and garlic bread, yummy! We then watched the end of the mens curling in the Winter Olympics (LOVE IT!) and then an ultimate cheese fest film, A Cinderella Story which stars Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray.
David Murdoch, the British Olympic curling captain
As my flat is very, very small Beth and I were sharing the sofa bed but we also had to share the room with the hamster who decided that he would make as much noise as he possibly could so I didn't get very much sleep. On Thursday we went shopping. We went for lunch at Wesley Owen where I bumped into Agnes which was nice because I haven't seen her for ages. The Ainscough Ladies caught a train back home at 6pm so I was all alone in the evening and just watched TV - very boring!!
Today I went into town to buy a lemon juicer - very random but thats all I did. Such an interesting life!! CANNOT WAIT FOR THE RUGBY TOMORROW!!!!! Oh and well done Beth on getting that offer!

Hello! I'm back! I'm so excited today because yesterday I managed to get tickets for the Scotland v England rugby match on Saturday!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!! The match had been sold out but around 1000 had been returned or recovered from ebay and they went on sale at 10am yesterday. So for about half an hour yesterday I tried unsuccessfully to get through on the phone whilst trying on the internet at the same time!! Then I gave up on the phone because I managed to get through on the net. Then I had loads of problems with the website but I was able to find 2 tickets together for my dad and I and finally managed to book them!!! I was panicking though because I never got the confirmation e-mail. But the tickets arrived this morning!!!!!! YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! SO excited!
Also I thought I'd put a pic (if it works) of my hamster, Zinzan, up. He is so so cute! I know that the pic is really dark but you get the idea!