breakfast at murrayfield

Ever since Chris Paterson has been ruled out of the Six Nations’ tournament due to kidney injury and subsequently also out of Heineken Cup and Magners League, this blog (not to mention Edinburgh Rugby itself, if you ask me) has lost its propelling drive.

And now I learn that he’s not even going to Argentina.

That’s annoying.

No, let me rephrase that: it’s not even annoying, it’s frustrating, it’s totally depressing, honest.

Hope he gets fit and back to play rugby soon. Meanwhile, I’ll sit here bearing a grudge — no, not against him, of course, poor Mossy, it’s not his fault. I’m just bearing a grudge against life in general, turning myself into the crossest woman on the whole planet. That’s correct, I go a step further at that than Jamie McDonald himself:

I know, I know, I’ve been neglecting this blog, mea culpa.

Still, not a single day passes during which I start wondering “when the frak is Mossy going to get back on the pitch?“.

I mean, it was bad enough he got injured on his 100th international match, so that we didn’t get to see him in Rome, it was even worse discovering it wasn’t just a bruise but actually a damaged kidney, but not seeing Mossy play for a kazillion weeks is frustrating, honest.

But, hey, he’s fit enough to go and sign autographs at Ocean Terminal Mall on Monday! So if you’re around the corner and need to supply on porridge oats, you’ll find him and Ross Ford there.

No, of course I’m not being sarcastic.

I mean, seriously, I’m not, I promise.

OK, I am.

Ah, whatever, nevermind.

Anyway, Edinburgh is welcoming Ulster this Sunday at Murrayfield (kick off at 4.05 PM — that’s 5.05 PM CET) and 23 year old Roddy Grant:

Edinburgh Rugby: 15 Ben Cairns,14 Tim Visser, 13 NIck De Luca, 12 John Houston, 11 Mark Robertson, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Greig Laidlaw; 1 Allan Jacobsen, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Geoff Cross, 4 Scott MacLeod, 5 Jim Hamilton, 6 Alan MacDonald, 7 Roddy Grant (captain), 8 Dave Callam
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Fraser McKenzie, 19 Scott Newlands, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Andrew Turnbull, 22 Jim Thompson

Eat porridge, kids, it’s good for your health!

This summer, 400 people will be biking across Ontario and Quebec for charity: one of these people is Salvo, who is a friend of sore’ and mine.

Salvo will be biking all the 608 km from Toronto to Montreal beginning on 25th July 2010.

The Friends for life bike rally aims to raise awareness and funds for the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation, so if you feel generous, instead of buying Easter eggs, please consider donating to this good cause.

Thank you!

(*) spookily enough, I was listening to Grant Lee Buffalo. Sounded appropriate.

Anyway, I’m on the safe side and hopefully will be able to keep withdrawal symptoms at bay, as my sis brought me Eureka season 1 and 2 DVDs when she visited here a few weeks ago, and seasons 3.0 + 3.5 will be in my possession sooner than you can say “ice funnel of death” (and if you don’t get the quote… shame on you.).

My alleged home country (which, as everybody knows, is a different one from my home country of choice) refuses the concept of getting yet another wooden spoon.

I remember seeing Mauro Bergamasco actually breaking a real wooden spoon after the win against Scotland two years ago, claiming with that gesture that since they’d won that game they were not going to get il cucchiaio di legno, as even Italian rugby players refuse to understand how things work, they grasp on to the (wrong) idea that they should get the wooden spoon only when losing all games.

And every year I try and explain to people that no, if you lose all games, that’s a whitewash, but if you end up at the bottom of the table, no matter if you’ve won at least one game, that’s still a wooden spoon you’re getting:

The Wooden Spoon is awarded to the team who finishes at the bottom of the table in the RBS 6 Nations held every year between Wales, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and England. No physical wooden spoon exists or has ever existed in the case of rugby, however.

Such is the stigma of the award that the ‘winners’ will sometimes claim that the Wooden Spoon should only be held by those who win no games at all, but this achievement is properly known as a whitewash.

I find it utter annoying when people are so unsportive they can’t face the truth — which is Italy totally earned a wooden spoon, again.