Closed for summer, open for the season.

55,000, yes 55,000 tourist disembarked the multiple cruise ships last weekend. Luckily I live a little put of the centre so I could escape the madness of the tourists to the excitement of a new Scottish football season.

Unfortunately after the high of the cup, Rovers could not kick off their season with a win. They went down 1-0 to visitors Hamilton.  This P n B comes from that match day programme.

Enjoy!

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TEAM!



"Closed for the summer" signs have made there annual appearance upon many a companies entrance. Now we are not talking a few wee days off for a long weekend, but all of August. Most business, companies, shops and of course the local government have ground to a halt and the staff have escaped the hustle and bustle of city life for their family holiday homes. This leaves Barcelona with just a lot tourists and some left over locals. I love it. The roads are clear, supermarkets resemble le Mary Celeste and everyone is happy and sun kissed. I can't understand why so many people leave this country for the summer. Quiet a few of my friends have left Catalunya for the summer and returned to their homelands across the globe.

I must admit that I debate every year about a wee trip back home I these summer months but I love my sunshine and of course Scotland is not famed for its sunshine. Or so I thought.

Usually when my hometown of Burntisland gets two consecutive hours of sunshine my family will bombard me with text, Facebook, whatsapp and whatever to tell me that the temperature is above the seasonal scorchio of 14°. In my opinion it ain't a good Scottish summer until the Tarmac is melting and you have a scoop of ice cream in your coca cola and the bog standard verano en Escocia cannea melt butter.

You can imagine my surprise at the recent image I was treated to from home, heat wave the media were (maybe still are) calling it. The images I refer to were courtesy of Raith Rovers Abroad! Last season I and many others privileged enough to benefit from the hard work of the guys behind the scenes at RRA. We would hang out on the Internet to listen in to other latest from Stark's Park from our comforts around the globe. I have listened to Raith on the beach, up a mountain, several small villages around Catalunya, even the bath! This pre-season was to take this to the next technological level. With an investment in time, hardware and some well placed tin foil (true fact) Kirkcaldy was there for the fans around the world to see, and boy didn't it look lovely! The sunshine was glowing, the pitch was something to behold and if you really thought about it you could almost taste the pies. It was a surreal experience, sitting on my balcony in Barcelona, chatting to folks in New Zeland whilst watching the football from Fife. Made my week when I watched Grant Murray's men play whilst I topped up my tan on one of Barcelona's Olimpic beaches.

It was a fun wee test and was a big step up from just the audio. It was not just a simple wee video feed either. We were treated to well executed camera work, instant replays and of course the commentary was good old home-style banter. With the good weather and good quality glimpses of football on show it made a Fife lass a little bit homesick. I was even more how sick on the last cup weekend when there was no audio or pictures, thankfully the online text up dates were being provided to show me the goals flying in for the Rovers. 6 of them to be exact! I was so impressed that I cracked open a wee bottle of and celebrated with some bubbles.

Football is the greatest, and this season has started with a bang (and some popped corks) here is the new season and all who play in it!