Pittodrie Stadium - Aberdeen v Ross County

I always seem to fall for losing teams. Sports are never consistent, so of course they occasionally have glorious winning streaks, but they never last long enough, or happen often enough. So it seems it may be with the Dons.

I had always found soccer less than interesting, but several months ago I arbitrarily started watching some. There was a tournament going on that everybody on Twitter was, well, a-twitter about, so I gave it a try. And enjoyed it. So when the NHL lockout left me sport-less, I asked Twitter what football team I should follow, just as a diversion. My tweep Calum told me the Scottish Premier League was the place to be, and I should become an Aberdeen fan. Since I've always found it easy to love most things Scottish, I gave the Dons a try, and immediately got hooked.

Now, months later, I've used part of my Scotland trip to see them live. And it was awesome. Well, the game wasn't that spectacular, but I'll get to that.

I arrived at the stadium to discover my seat was only a few rows up, but it was next to a column that blocked about 1/4 of the pitch. The old gentleman sitting next to me noticed how bad my view was, so when nobody sat on the other side of him, we both scooted down so that I was only missing one corner. The guy, incidentally, turned out to be quite amusing. He started out muttering rubbish, rubbish whenever the Dons' play was less than ideal, but as the game went on, his volume increased. His helpful commentary was mostly in the form of pointing his program at a player and shouting there's another clown! or you're useless! and telling pretty much everyone on the team to give it to McGinn.

Tonight wasn't Aberdeen's best outing, by a long shot. They gave up the ball too often and didn't put it toward the goal often enough. At the same time, the officiating was... what's the phrase I'm looking for... somewhat questionable? No, wildly one-sided. That's the phrase: wildly one-sided. And it's not my Aberdeen bias making me say that. At least I don't think so.

After a nil-nil first half, Ross County managed to score in the second. Despite a Dons push in the final few minutes, it ended at 1-0. Another chance to see one of my teams in person, another loss.

All in all, though, it was a fantastic time. Pittodrie is a small stadium, and my closeness to the pitch made it feel even more exciting. And by the way, those footballers are hot. I mean, HOT. I would totally do a Don.

Erm. Anyway.

It was my first live game of real football, and I think I love the sport ten times more now. So poor team showing and loss aside, I had an absolutely spectacular time.

Edinburgh. Again.

I'm a bit late writing this, seeing as I left Edinburgh nearly 24 hours ago, but it could still use a brief recap.

When I first visited Edinburgh -- maybe 3 or 4 years ago, don't remember -- I liked it, but figured I wouldn't be back. I enjoy Scotland's capital city, I just don't tend to return to places a lot unless I have a good reason.

Turns out rugby is the reason.

I've been following rugby union, particularly the Six Nations tournament, and backing Team Scotland, since I discovered the sport in the 90s. (Which is incidentally the last time Scotland won 6 Nations... 5 Nations at the time.) I never dreamed that I'd be sitting in the pouring rain of Wellington at the World Cup cheering them on in 2011, but I was there. And when I came to Edinburgh last year to see them play a Six Nations match at home... even better.

So I returned to Murrayfield this year, for the Scotland v Ireland match... which our boys in blue won, 12-8! I felt especially good about the win because I've never gotten to see Scotland win a rugby match in person. Well, they dominated an exhibition against Team USA that I attended long ago, but not a real, counts in a tourney match.

It also occurred to me that I've now been to Edinburgh three times, over at least that many years, and I've never seen it not under construction. I'm already calling this an annual rugby trip, although I won't necessarily go to a home game every Six Nations... so maybe by the next time I visit Edinburgh, the tram will be finished and I'll see the city in a new light.

No matter what, I'll keep backing blue, and flying wherever their games take me... Murrayfield and beyond.

Old Age

I've had a strange realisation lately... that I'm old.

It's not because I've officially entered middle age*, although I have. And it's not because I've stopped slowly covering my entire body with tattoos or chasing commitment-phobic twenty-something men, because I definitely haven't.

It's because I don't find it fun to binge drink for the sake of binge drinking anymore.

I do enjoy drinking a whole lot in one sitting.
And bar hopping.
And getting to such a ridiculous state with my friends that I laugh half the next day away looking at all the tweets and photos about it.

But that's not enough. I want a good craft cocktail in my hand while I'm doing it. Or a bloody mary, or a beer, if that's what fits the situation. I want quality over quantity. Even at home, I make a nice martini after work. Sitting at a bar with a way-too-stiff vodka soda just doesn't do it for me anymore.

The experience is what I want, not only the crazy drunken result.

And when I look around, I can see that this makes me old.

Or really bourgie. But I'm pretty sure it's old.


*Seriously, if I live to be 74 or less, my life is half over already. 74 isn't an unreasonable life span, people.