Saturday, February 14th, 2026
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5:30 pm - Another week...
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That's looking a bit more like it - if they can keep it up!
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Saturday, February 7th, 2026
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4:50 pm - Well.
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Without denying for a second that Scotland were shite (I think the only decent lineout was when they had two hookers off the pitch and Matt Fagerson had to throw in), I do think a lot of people forget that Italy are pretty damn good these days.
Still, you would think Scotland were most used to playing in a lake...
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2:15 pm - Mist
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"We're peering through the mist of the pyrotechnics" - well, if you were in Edinburgh you'd just be peering through the mist so think yourself lucky, Andrew.
Nice purple outfits for Scotland - on Thursday everyone ended up with bright green bottoms, so at least they'll go nicely!
current mood:  amused
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Thursday, February 5th, 2026
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11:14 pm - Here we go again
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I don't know what the Six Nations is doing on a Thursday - I've been worried all week that I would forget all about it. But it's here, although starting off with the two teams I'm most indifferent to, and the kind of match I don't particularly like!
I do mean to write about something that's not rugby some time, honest...
current mood: amused
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Friday, December 19th, 2025
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11:51 pm - Sleepy facts
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Fact 10: Rhamphorhynchus was a type of pterosaur, an extinct flying reptile.
Fact 11: The largest pterosaur had a wingspan of about 12 metres, making pterosaurs the largest flying creatures of all time.
It seems to be pterosaur season.
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Phil Cunningham's Christmas Songbook tonight, only with no Phil Cunningham. Lovely mixed up music :)
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Thursday, December 18th, 2025
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11:16 pm
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We're never going to get there if we don't have some facts.
Fact 6: Ankylosaurus was an armoured dinosaur that was around 7 metres long.
Fact 7: The name dimetodron means 'two sized teeth'
Fact 8: The name stegosaurus means 'roof lizard'
That would be a very strange kind of roof.
Fact 9: Some dinosaurs would have seen snow!
This is obviously a very exciting fact, but - surely snow predates dinosaurs!
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Last exam delivery tomorrow. Maybe I'll feel a bit saner after that.
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2025
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11:15 pm - Belated facts
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Behind with facts already. I do have news, but I'm too sleepy for that.
Fact 3: While dinosaurs ruled on the land, some very different reptiles roamed the seas. These marine reptiles included plesiosaurs that lived 220-65 million years ago.
Hooray! Only three days to the first non-dinosaur fact.
Fact 4: The name Triceratops means 'three-horned face'.
Fact 5: The name Rhamphorhynchus means 'beak snout'. Rhamphorhynchus had a wingspan of around 2 metres long.
Are spans long?
These facts are very keen on names.
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First exam of the season today, collected in whatever this storm is called. Fortunately none of it blew away.
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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025
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11:10 pm - Dinosaur fact #2
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Monday, December 1st, 2025
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8:09 pm - Dinosaur facts reprise
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I have dinosaur facts again - maybe I'll actually manage to post some this time.
Fact 1: The largest dinosaurs were called sauropods. They included the biggest animals ever to walk the Earth.
Today was the annual outing of the organ variations on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - along with some more sensible music. On my birthday there are going to be Baroque Splendours, which also sound quite good...
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Friday, November 28th, 2025
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5:07 pm - Poor alien Aberdeen
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House of Games contestant, asked where the longest bridge in the world is:
"I went over a really long one when I went to Aberdeen recently - but I don't think that's in the world."
current mood: amused
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2025
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7:41 pm - A very brief summary
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
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9:26 pm - Oh subtitles
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Saturday, March 15th, 2025
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4:30 pm - Bother
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A bit too close, that - Ireland with the bonus point, but not with the difference in score that might have kept them ahead given a tight England win.
I think Scotland will finish fourth overall regardless of anything that happens in any match today, so I don't suppose it matters what happens tonight - but I'd rather not sit through another defeat just the same!
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3:19 pm
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A very confusing day rugby-wise. I'm glad Italy are playing well, but a bonus point win for Ireland would make the rest of the day slightly less nerve-wracking!
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Saturday, February 22nd, 2025
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7:20 pm - Oh dear
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I *thought* I was feeling quite detached, in a grown up kind of way, but I was not, and burst into tears when the last try was scored. (I didn't think Finn could score that conversion today, and he didn't.)
Overexcitement rather than entitlement, I promise!
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4:50 pm - Rugby catch up part 1
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Well, that was a better start to the day than I thought it might be, although a shame about the try that wasn't quite.
I didn't see as much rugby as usual the first weekend due to rushing off to  tigger_boing's birthday party in the middle of the Saturday matches - it was just on half time and 19-9 to Scotland when I left the house, and then I looked back when it felt like half time was barely over, and suddenly it was 19-19. Fortunately it was 31-19 by the time I got to L's and stayed that way!
Not that I didn't have quite a bit of respect for Italy's efforts - taking 12 points from penalties when you're well behind takes good nerve - but I'm not magnanimous enough to be pleased for them a second time!
I saw the end of the second match in a pub, which was quite good fun - exciting ending without it ever looking like the match would be stolen from Ireland after them leading for a while.
The small dragon and I did watch the opening match, but we didn't think much of it!
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2:32 pm - Weekend three
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I meant to comment on the first two weekends of rugby before this one started, but I'm not feeling all that excited about either of today's matches - the first is too likely to be a slaughter, and England are being very... English about the second, so that we seem to have the choice of losing because we're losers, or winning solely because we're fired up illicitly with anti-English malice. I might be saving my enthusiasm for hoping Italy beat France, since I haven't seen anyone being petty about that.
We've finally managed to produce a relatively calm and sunny morning - I was going to just go down to the woods, but decided at the last minute to go off to the Botanics instead. Two and a half days of slightly warm does seem to have helped the crocuses, at least.
I am also cross-stitching some crocuses, having bought a kit with a flower for every month. I only finished January's snowdrops last weekend, but I only started them on about the 30th, and then procrastinated on doing outlining!
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Friday, February 21st, 2025
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2:04 pm - Still not spring
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It's been fairly wet and wild today, but that at least makes a change from sitting under a kind of cold grey lid, as we have been for neverending weeks. (Two weekends when I climbed hills small enough to be under the lid and last weekend when I misjudged and ended up inside it, so that's three anyway.)
It does seem to have done for the crocuses - there are hardly any, and those there are are either trodden on or nibbled. But we might still be somewhere around peak snowdrop, which is something.
I have meant to post about all sorts of things, such as dinosaur facts, rugby, Celtic Connections concerts, what I did in the Christmas holidays, and what I did all last year. But I have not.
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Sunday, February 9th, 2025
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4:02 pm - At it again
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Ball down, rest of Duhan van der Merwe in the air and over the touchline - where have we seen that before. But oh dear, otherwise!
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Saturday, February 8th, 2025
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2:21 pm - Divided unloyalties
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silly