Paella and Bovril

Trying to bring different sports into scottish football match day programmes. Quidditch seemed like a good idea! Paella and Bovril  Balls and broomsticks  A few years back a change in living location from near the beach to close to the mountain and river brought about some new and interesting run routes. The mountain has found me getting a little closer to some wild boar than I would have wanted. Running down the river route has offered up a variety of views, birds, butterflies and broomsticks. Of course seeing broomsticks makes one stop and look, and in this modern world, pull out the phone and fall down a google hole trying to find an answer to your puzzle.  Barcelona Eagles Quidditch team was the answer. Turns out they are one of hundreds of teams that train and play all over the world. Now to those who are not familiar with the wizarding game of quidditch made famous by J.K Rowling and the world of Harry Potter this needs some explaining. The game...

Here is another wee tapas serving of Paella and Bovril  Part of my job is to teach the “art of international small talk”. One of my favourite topics that somehow always comes up is football. Time can fly by when the exchange of of opinions and loyalties is discussed between students. When this question was asked  “Which club has drawn one of China’s largest audience’s for a player’s debut?” the immediate answer of many was FC Barcelona, a few mentioned “one of the Manchesters”. Only the author of the question seemed to know the answer  RCD* Espanyol, the “other team” in Barcelona. 40 million had tuned in from China to watch Wu Lei's 12 minutes on the pitch. For a comparison in Spain the viewing figures didn’t even make the 180,000 mark. So it would seem that this Chinese following has made Espanyol the most watched team in China. With this little snippet of football trivia now on the table this opened up the conversation to questions about supporting “the wee team”...

Well let us give this blogging thing ago again. To those that don’t know I am a Raith Rovers Fan living, working, training, in Barcelona. For the last 13 years I have made the Catalan capital my home. But this hasn’t stopped my love of Raith Rovers and scottish football. Occasionally I pen an article to appear in Raith’s match day programme and in the past I have posted the articles on this blog. Here we go again. Fresh from the paella dish to you metaphorical footballing plates. Here is paella and Bovril.   Paella and Bovril   Across the rooftops of the back of Barcelona a game kicks-off. Local residents can hear cheering, grumbling and the occasional naughty word. They know it is football but they say to themselves “però Barcelona no juga aquesta nit”. You are correct fellow Barcelonians, this is no midweek Champions’ League football, this is Scottish Championship play-off final football. This is a big game, this calls for “the works”. Projector, screen and R...

My weekends have always a been filled with sport. But over the last few years it has been more about me doing the activities rather than watching.  A few weekends ago I took part in something truly amazing.  Brief race report  Finished but not perfect.  The race was always going to be hard and I was worried that it would defeat me. I had trained throughout the winter and was the strongest I had ever been.  Being a native Scot I should have known better and remembered that even the sea swims in Scotalnd have hills! Honestly, I probably should have pushed for more hill sessions from my trainer but I didn't. The goal was to finish. Even if I had to crawl across that one at 8hours 29mintues and 59seconds I was going to finish.  On the morning of the triathlon the goal was just to get the wetsuit on. If anyone had given me even a hint of an out I would have been back in the car and home in a shot. I was nervous. But I shouldn't have been. We, and when I say we I...

Hola  Well I did it. I faced the jelly fish, spent over 3 hours in the saddle and then sang Geordie Munro around 13kms of a very very very long running course. I did a half ironman.  I am sore but so proud of getting there and I did need that motivation from TRI-ing for The Rovers especially on the run. If I could have stopped I would have!  Still time to show your support at  http://www.raithtrust.org.uk/?p=2182 Carol.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh only a few days until I do this!  Support TRIing 4 the Rovers 

Wow it has been a long time since I prepared a paella and bovril. Well I have been busy, busier than I thought I would be to be honest.  As some of you may know from previous servings of PnB I have been on a triathlon journey with Raith and this year I decided to go long, 1.9km swim, 90km cycle and a half marathon run to finish off. So 8 months ago I got back into the training routine and my word I don't think I was quite ready for the time commitment.  5 to 6 days a week either in the water, on the saddle or in my running shoes sometimes up to 5 hours a day. I just about had enough time to tune in to the Rovers during the season.  I hope this rather larger than normal dish of paella and bovril will explain a little.  TRIing for the Rovers.  Just like one Brownlee brother helped the other across the finish line I am gonna need  some help getting to mine, and thru the 7 hours it will take to get there!  Please help a me...

Just a wee tapa sized dish today. Wow I have been really crap at this blogging thing. Since my articles were no longer needed by the Raith Programme I have become terrible at blog updating. Also I have taken on the challenge of a 70.3 triathlon (half iron man distance) this has eaten a lot of my time and left me pretty shattered come Sunday nights. Hope you enjoy the back catalogue of articles and feel free to comment and suggests writing topics.

A recent trip home was always going to have a trip to see a Raith Rovers, when checking out flights the second tab one the screen is the fixture list for the coming weeks, priorities. I  wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought of seeing the Livingston game as they had been our opponents the past few times I had been back to Fife but hey ho beggars can't be n all that.  Now the Scottish game doesn't have the best, if any reputation, for quality and entertainment here in Barcelona and the only teams anyone can name are the obvious 2 (however I do have student who is a hearts fan and has a few strips he wears at our local gym) but, in my opinion, this season "his been nae bad like". After watching a recent Athletico Madrid champions league game and almost passing out with boredom comments were made that just because it says champions on the tin doesn't mean it is quality. So why are some stadium around  Scotland experiencing a dip in numbers. If teams are playing ...

First of all, a bonny welcome to 2016 to all, second I have no excuse for my terrible posting laziness. It seems that half marathon and Christmas gave me the perfect unacceptable reason to neglect the posting. Also it has been weeks since I last watched Raith Rovers play, weeks! I suppose you could say I am fair weather blogger. As a Scot can you really be called a weather wimp growing up in Scotland's interesting and variable climes.   I started to write a post about the usual weather stricken fixture list. All seemed too familiar I remember a post from back in 2013. Mother Nature was again reeking  havoc with the weekend's games and supporters were u-turning on their way to games left right and center.  A few years on and for as long as I have been a supporter of the Scottish game winter has been the main player during the months of November to March, that is a substantial chunk of the season. Wind, rain, snow and frost regular visitors to the pitches and grounds...

Well it has been way toooooo long between posts. I must admit that not having the deadline of publishing in the programme has slowed the creative juices. So it seems I work better under pressure. With that in mind I have kicked myself up the butt and given myself the goal of a least one a month. Hope the wait has been worth it...... Adios Please and Thank you Many a time I have tried to explain the 4 seasons in one day (plus some seasons you can't quiet name) style Scottish weather to the friends and students here. Recently Barcelona has decided to provide me with some fantastic visual aids, the weather here has been interesting to say the least. With the rain comes the loon-icy, pavements becomes greasy play grounds for the breaking of bones, umbrellas get put up to eye poking height at the slightest dribble from the sky, and the roads become a cacophony horns, screeching brakes and rush hour goes from 60 to 180 minutes. Some of the verbal exchanges wouldn't be out of...

Born in the U (unbelievable) S (sums of) A (advertising) Having never crossed the pond I was not going to miss the opportunity a family wedding gave me, an excuse to visit the U.S of A and “oh Canada”.  During my time here in Barcelona the accumulation of friends from different nationalities has been endless, Lichtensteinian, Panamanian, Australian and the occasional Brazilian. Being part of this group of “extranjeros” has seen a lot of people come and go. This holiday would give me the chance to catch up with some old amigos, and there was no way I wasn't going to a sporting event in America. “Take me out to the ball game,Take me out with the crowd”.  After an small lifetime on a plane across the Atlantic, a good few hours drive ( and including a pit stop at a gas station where they did sell Twinkies and leopard print revolvers at the same counter), destination one of six was reached. With my knowledge of America being drawn from ‘Friends’, movies and rather too much satirica...

We did it. #triing4therovers has completed it's 2015 challenge.  

All smiles before the MARnaton Still smiling 2000m down only 77,000 more                                                 All smiles and sweat! We did I it we completed an Olympic triathlon  Hola from unbelievably hot Barcelona, no Scottish person can help but melt in 35°.  This portion of #PaellaandBovril is a wee side dish of something new with a massive serving of seconds on a previous edition. However it is all in a good cause the  Raith Supporter's Trust .    I am almost there, the challenge of doing a #TRI of events to help raise funds and awareness of the great work of the  Raith Supporter's Trust  is almost at meta! ( for this year, who knows what next year will bring. Did someone say 70.3?) One more event then I can have that first mojito of the summer!  A few weeks back I completed a goal I set myself last year when...