Hibees, Hibees !

What on earth is all of that, you say ? Well, the rallying cry of one of the oldest football (soccer to those sporting heathens in North America) clubs in the world, Hibernian FC (founded 1875).

Hibs are my home team (I was born and grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland), and a passion of mine that is normally only followed from afar (via Radio Hibs on the internet!).

But not tonight... am in Edinburgh on holiday with my two oldest sons, and a friend had some tickets for the first home game of the season, a pre-season friendly, but nonetheless a game.

Hibs won 1-0 to go enter the season on an upnote. Weather about 17 celsius (umm.. low to mid 60s, and even with a 7:45pm kick off, still light at end of the game at this latitude). Quite the experience for my Caymanian kids, used to 90 degree heat and dark by 7pm.

For me, a fun bit was the 6 hour time difference, getting work emails on the Blackberry and answering them during slow parts of the game... sitting watching a football game in Europe and still clearing the emails, WAY better than being in the office.

Also spent the morning kicking a football around in one of the many, many manicured public parks in Edinburgh (the greenest city in Europe in terms of public open space), and as temps were low 60s and overcast, quite literally "no sweat".

I remember when I lived there I went mad looking forward to the maybe 5 days a year when it might be sunny and temps in the 80s (and those days were invariably during the week so you had to look at it out of the office window!).... but now that I live in paradise, I do enjoy the contrast of cool weather !

Tomorrow it is a moviethon at one of the big cinemas here (although the Cayman cinema DID finally re-open last weekend, as noted earlier on this blog that it would open in July), and Thursday am playing in an evening cricket match.

As for food, Scottish food is generally "whatever is fresh", so at this time of the year the thing to focus on is fresh "soft fruit", eg strawberries, raspberried, blackberries..... they taste unbelievable at this time of year....

Of course the national dish of the Scots is.... CURRY (well, it is the unofficial national food, for tourists we still say it is Haggis).... curry is the first choice of almost all Scots, so Indian restaurants are to be frequented on an almost daily basis when on vacation in Scotland. When in Cayman, a great deal is the nightly buffet at Bayside, across the street from Lobster Pot, all you can eat curry for CI$10 or so.... excellent food, great value !

See youz later, ken ! (Later, mon!)