posted on Friday, June 02, 2006 5:34 AM
by
Endie
Supporting the Auld Enemy
Another World Cup comes round and, yet again, Scotland will not be there. In a reversal of the position in the 1970s, we will be watching from the sidelines while England get to perform on the big stage. And conversation inevitably turns, wherever two or more Scots are huddled together, as to who they will support in England games. I, myself, must nail my colours to the mast and say that I will be supporting our southern neighbours. Up to a point.
This is not, necessarily, a common position north of the border. Even in Edinburgh, that most anglicised of Scottish cities, the default position is to support two national teams: Scotland, and whoever is playing England at the time. I, too, used to fall into this trap. I'm not proud of it, but there you go. I can only say that I was young and easily misled. Scottish politicians are asked the same question every four years, and there is no more a correct answer than there is for US politicos on Roe vs Wade. It's classic "have you stopped beating your wife" territory.
But I'll be watching the games with mainly English people. Liverpool, my team, are supplying players like Carragher, Gerrard and the incomparable, dancing Crouchinho:
He's big,
He's red,
His feet stick out the bed,
Peter Crouch, Peter Crouch...
I won't deny that it would be awfully funny if England go out in the quarters to Germany on penalties (they might very well meet at that stage, too), with Rooney missing out to decide it. But I'll be delighted if they win such a game, too.
But there is a caveat. I'm terrified of what might happen if England win. I am not sure that I could stand the tv coverage for the next forty years. England are matched only by Spain, Mexico and, erm, Scotland for massive under-achievement, so it's not very likely, but they still tend to bang on a bit about 1966. I remember discussing this with a girl I used to know, and she said i was overstating my point. So I said that she should wait a week, and see how long it took her to see a reference on the telly to the '66 world cup. By the next day, she had already seen one.
So I'll support England all the way through the group qualifiers, without a qualm. I'll back them through the quarters, too. By the time the semis come round, I'll be sweating a bit, but I'll still take pleasure in their achievements.
But if they make the finals, I am not proud to admit once more that I would back the All Nazi Baby-Eating Concentration Camp Guards First XI rather than go through another forty years of Wayne Rooney's Mr Potatohead face smugly grinning like a pale version of Shrek from the back of every endorsable product the length and breadth of the British Isles.
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Today was internal release day for our latest project (yet another subscription-only global oil supply data site). Yet another perfect roll-out: all the functionality in place on the day set at the project start: the full feature set, on time and probably under budget. A reliatively light crunch period for a fwe days was all that was needed, and I must admit to feeling pretty smug (as should be the database team who did a lot of the less glamorous but essential schema and stored procedure work). I think that's four product rollouts in a row that we've completed on or before target date. Massive re-use is the key: a total re-design of the structure to move away from our framework technology (Broadvision - horrible stuff) towards generic code and direct database access (through my own libraries).
Now I'm off on holiday for a few days, down towards the border, for some hiking (c.30km a day) in the Cheviots. The weather is gorgeous, the walking great, and by Saturday evening I'll be swimming in a burn and eating all my meals al fresco, before settling down in front of a roaring wood fire to read. I admit it's not Agia Napa - I shall not be throwing any shapes in the church of dance for a few days - but I can't wait.