Strangest Places Watching A Game

[West London Bear 27]

3 hours ago, Bluedell said:

There for work, on holiday or some other reason?

My wife is Anglo Indian (but a Yank).  Her old man is 91, still runs his engineering business, but because we spend all our time between Atlanta and London, this was the only time I could find to visit, she had been there for a month before I got there.  I'm in Delhi now, flying back in about 8 hours.  Then off on a work trip, then off on a birthday holiday for the big 60   

[JohnMc 3,020]

15 hours ago, Graeme Ro55 said:

You have to be careful with such terminology now 🤣

I was once at a conference in America a few years ago and at a dinner in the evening the conversation moved to teenage music. Scottish guy I was with told a story about him and his mates meeting up in a youth club where they'd "sit round a tranny sharing a fag, listening to the charts". This sentence, which made perfect sense to me, led a guy from San Diego to get quite annoyed with him. I'm not he ever believed our innocent explanation. 

[Graeme Ro55 948]

1 hour ago, JohnMc said:

I was once at a conference in America a few years ago and at a dinner in the evening the conversation moved to teenage music. Scottish guy I was with told a story about him and his mates meeting up in a youth club where they'd "sit round a tranny sharing a fag, listening to the charts". This sentence, which made perfect sense to me, led a guy from San Diego to get quite annoyed with him. I'm not he ever believed our innocent explanation. 

My brothers and father had many a tranny, but they all changed long wheel base Mercedes Sprinters 😚 

[26th of foot 6,166]

I think I have mentioned this before?

 

The Sultans of Oman are absolute monarchs, best described as benevolent despots. During 1988, the incumbent was Qaboos bin Said and he was particularly benevolent. After attending Sandhurst in the early 60s, he served for three years in Lanarkshire's regiment, the Cameronians. In the late 70s, he financed the construction of the Royal Military Academy's olympic sized swimming pool. When you enter the building you are reminded of his benevolence by the life sized oil portrait of the Sultan replete in Cameronian number one dress.

 

The border between Oman and Yeman remains largely undefined. These last sixty years, the Sultans have been conducting a Hearts and Minds exercise based on both education and health. Concurrently, well financed paramilitaries within Yemen have been conducting an insurgency of low intensity to run interference on schools and clinics. The Sultan's counter is a grouping of controlled patrols protecting said centres and the necessary supply lines. He prefers the Company and Battalion designations to be commanded by British officers.

 

Thus, in August'88 I was leading a patrol company on a ten day visitation to villages and hamlets. The purpose was to ensure a couple of Kiwi nurses achieved access to conduct vaccinations and well women clinics(effects of female circumcision - don't ask). On the fifth evening we left a village and headed several klicks to a wadi with the intent to establish an overnight patrol harbour. I knew Rangers had played ra Yahoos that afternoon at Ibrox but, had maintained professional discipline.

 

After stand-to I returned to my basher and asked my signals Sgt to rig a whip antennae knowing I was being unprofessional. It was silent hours and I tuned to the BBC World Service for the wonderful Paddy Feeny's football roundup. The desert revealed a starry, starry night and I listened as Paddy enthusiastically narrated, "all the action from the game of today at Ibrox". The ensuing five minutes were torture as Paddy played a sequence of 15-20 second commentary sections. He began with, "we were treated to a six goal thriller" and promptly followed with the commentary of McAvennie notching the first goal. I thought we have lost six nil.

 

The next two commentary clips revealed we had secured a 2-1 half time lead. The descrition of Ray Wilkins 25 yard volley had me screaming, SILENTLY! When we scored our third, my thought was it will finish 3-3. When Mark Walters ran the fifth, I was in the Derry, the East Enclosure, the District Bar, ................ doing the bouncy whilst silently screaming. It will always remain the warmest of memories given the circumstances, even a cold scoff of tinned pilchards did not diminish my cheerfulness at cuffing ra Yahoos 5-1.

 

It was another month and a return to Muscat before I saw video highlights.

[Uilleam 6,115]

11 hours ago, JohnMc said:

I was once at a conference in America a few years ago and at a dinner in the evening the conversation moved to teenage music. Scottish guy I was with told a story about him and his mates meeting up in a youth club where they'd "sit round a tranny sharing a fag, listening to the charts". This sentence, which made perfect sense to me, led a guy from San Diego to get quite annoyed with him. I'm not he ever believed our innocent explanation. 

Wait until you have to explain

"Snow off a dyke"

to New England academics.

[ChelseaBoy 2,483]

On 17/02/2025 at 16:15, Bluedell said:

There for work, on holiday or some other reason?

Being a Sherpa, it must be work  

[ChelseaBoy 2,483]

10 hours ago, Graeme Ro55 said:

My brothers and father had many a tranny, but they all changed long wheel base Mercedes Sprinters 😚 

Not politically correct these days m'laddo  

[Frankie 8,789]

My wife and I were married on St Andrews Day, 2006 and departed to the Maldives for our honeymoon a few days later. Bad planning meant I was missing that December's Old Firm game at Ibrox and the remote Meedhupparu Island had no satellite TV whilst the internet was patchy at best and usually non-existent. 

Nevertheless, I took a hopeful wander over to the communal TV room for a look see and found a few other nervous folk asking the same question. There were three bears and one Celtic fan. We had no joy on any of the Indian TV stations we could receive before an Aussie chef wandered by and asked what was happening. He beckoned us across the small island to the kitchens and we pulled up stools to listen to a battered old radio which didn't have match commentary but did supply BBC updates. The chef found us some cold beer as well before departing to help with dinner service.

 

Celtic scored in the first half and with a Rangers team made up of Svensson, Sionko and Steven Smith, I had minimal confidence we'd equalise and the Celtic fan was jubilant. At the final whistle (we were told), us bears trooped back to our beach huts whilst the Celtic fan bounded off to the bar. My pus was tripping me at the result and the fact we were going home in the next day or two.

 

It wasn't until much later that night (the Maldives are five hours ahead), that I seen the Aussie chef with had a big smile on his face wandering up to me with two silly big cocktails. You'd be happy with that late equaliser he opened with and my mood instantly changed. Turned out he knew Mortimer from a past life.

 

Ultimately we lost the league again that season but just a few weeks after that game, Walter arrived back at the club and the following season we ended up in Manchester. My eldest daughter was also born in October 2007.  You never know what's around the corner...

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,907]

I watched the CL game versus Galatasarey (Ibrox game) in a social club above a Turkish restaurant in New York City. Went to the Big Apple Bears pub initially but the satellite was on the fritz so everybody piled over to this place near Times Sq. Place was rammed with Turkish fans and Bears. Good lively atmosphere but I'm glad it ended 0-0 😧

Edited 22 hours ago by BlackSocksRedTops

[Scott7 6,451]

9 hours ago, Frankie said:

Nevertheless, I took a hopeful wander over to the communal TV room

I doff my bonnet to Mrs F. A Saint on Earth. No chance I’d have got away with that.