Paella and Bovril

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 ...