The only way is up

What on earth am I talking about? Well, today is the Scottish Cup final between Queen of the South as they entertain Rangers at Hampden.

The First Division side from Dumfries are competing in their first-ever major final, while Rangers have lifted the trophy on 31 occasions.

But what are the chances of the Doonhamers beating Rangers and bringing the Cup back down the M74 tonight? Everyone knows all about their opponents, Rangers.

Well, Samson did defeat Goliath and hey they also boast of being the only team in the bible - courtesy of passages contained in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation," they read.

Queen of the South were formed in 1919. People from Dumfries are nicknamed Doonhammers. This is because when in towns in Scotland further North (i.e. most places due to the position of Dumfries on the southern edge of Scotland) they would refer to Dumfries as 'Doon hame'. 'Doon hame' being Scots for 'Down home'.

So boys, bring the Cup doon hame.

We were in Dumfries for a short time. I was offered a job there but things didn't turned up as expected. But we'd a lovely time checking out the countryside. We will always have fond memories of the beautiful red sandstone buildings, Robert Burns (1759-1796) reminders everywhere,  the Solway Firth, the Galloway highlands and thousands of starlings roosting in Gretna.

And Man United were already on their way up, crowned as UEFA Champion. They defeated Chelsea in the first all-England finals at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. It was weird to see big boys cry but seeing Lampard's 6-pack is something else :-)

The price of petrol is also up and up. We are planning to drive down to Pembrokeshire to see the tribe and shudders thinking how much it's going to cost us. Flying to Paris and staying for the weekend is much cheaper.

At work, it was compulsory for staff to do an e-learning module called Diversity at the workplace. We were given 2 hours time off to go through the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, Sex Discrimination Act, Gender Reassignment Policy, Equal Pay Act 1970, Disability Discrimination Act 1995...(yawn).

You can get distracted by the various selections that I just concentrate on the main points. A test was given at the end and you need to score a minimum of 10 out of 14. It took me 1/2 hour and I scored 14. You'll receive a cert. if you passed. There were a lot of discontentment cos we were not informed by anyone what it was for.

C'mmon guys just do it. It won't kill you and you might learn something.

Tonight is also the finals of the Eurovision contest. This year it was soo awful that I've stopped watching. And the contest is going to be the butt of jokes until the way the winners are selected revamped.

I found it very cute when Ellie told us that the parcel we sent to her for her birthday was like a lucky dip. We put in lots of small gifts and covered with shredded paper. So everytime, she dips her hand into the box, she'll pull out something. Happy birthday sweetheart.