Patiently waiting on an unlock, my new-born is looking ever more like a 269 lb paper weight (albeit a boxed paper weight).

More to come.

From modestmango.com, it's This Glaswegian Life. I'm Philip Chan. Our story today in four acts.

Act 1: Apple And Blackberry Crumble,
Act 2: Phil attempts to eat a pomegranate for the first time,
Act 3: The End Of The Beginning,
Act 4: The Dalek Cookie Jar.


Act 1: Apple And Blackberry Crumble

I had a very cultured evening last week that involved a very civilized home cooked meal, a trip to see a production of Oliver! and continual accusations of Neil being a paedophile. But back to the meal. My contribution was an apple and blackberry crumble, cooked from scratch.

Here's the recipe:

1. Get some Bramley apples, chop them up and put them into a Pyrex dish (preferably one that is exactly the same size as the one I have). Also put some blackberries in.

2. Squeeze some lemon juice over everything (but not too much, otherwise like mine did, it will taste like Jif... sorry, Cif.)

3. Put shovel loads of demerererararer sugar over everything.

4. In a mixing bowl (preferably one that is exactly the same size as the one I have) mix flour with butter, Alpen, and loads more demererarara sugar. Put all this over the stuff in the Pyrex dish.

5. Bake in an oven.

Here's a picture of dear friend and regular reader Jonny Baillie digging into the dessert.

And here's the recipe again in the style of Gordon Ramsay:

Bramley.
Chop.
Blackberries.
Pyrex.
Lemon.
Sugar.
Bowl.
Flour.
Butter.
Knead.
Alpen.
Sugar.
Mix.
Sprinkle.
Bake.

Apple and blackberry crumble...

Done.

Act 2: Phil attempts to eat a pomegranate for the first time

Act 3: The End Of The Beginning

You may remember the disc fiasco I mentioned previously that involved me moronically air-bouncing The Chameleon down a hole in the quadrangle of the main building of Glasgow University, several minutes before I had to go in to sit an anatomy exam on the head and neck.

Since then several schemes involving ropes, ladders, long poles and a system of pulleys have been devised in an attempt to retrieve the misplaced disc. To date nothing has been executed. I couldn't help but feel slightly empty without my disc. It was, after all, my very first disc and it has (had) been with me since the start of my ultimate days. Now it's probably gone forever.

But then I realised that perhaps it was actually quite fitting that I lost my first disc on that particular day. Technically my 3 months entitlement of beginnerhood is over. Now if I wanted to play, I would have to play with the big boys and the big girls.

And so I did. I was given the awesome opportunity to play for the FarFlung 2nd team last weekend in the Scottish University Indoor Regionals. I'll not go into it, since I think in the past month I've talked enough about frisbee tournaments already. All you need to know is that out of 20 teams we came 11th and the first team came 4th, just missing out on qualifying for the nationals, and that during the tournament I played my best frisbee yet.

And did I get a new disc? Damn right I did.

Glows in the dark too.


Act 4: The Dalek Cookie Jar

Last week we were invaded by what The Doctor told us was the last remaining Dalek in Scotland. It tried to exterminate us but we fought it off with battered Mars bars, copious gallons of Irn Bru, and the highest incidence of lung cancer in the world.

I know what you're thinking, and yes it is the greatest thing to ever be conceived in the history of biscuit storage. Thanks, Laura!

I'm Philip Chan, back next week, with more stories of This Glaswegian Life.

Adrian Peterson! If you don't know this guy already Tomdom, then you need to know this now - you love him.

First of all "I know what ya thinkin", the Patriots and Colts are teams that none of us support, but when the two best teams in the NFL are going downtown I gotta at least mention it. So, as McCaffrey put all those years back - anyhoo, Chris and I were sitting this weekend out but T, P, G, Nik and the Mullet were business as usual.

One team there isn't much to say about is the Lions... What can I say? They're bad. Real bad. I mean, they've only ever won one postseason game ever! Ever! But for a team that are that bad, they sure do win a lot. And they sure do have awesome wide receivers. So the Packers may have been lucky in Week 8 against the "Denver Broncos" (speech marks denote Simpsons reference), but there was no luck about it at Ford Field this week in Detroit's attempt. Then there's Minnesota. Similar to Detroit, and against a preseason Super Bowl favourite, the Vikings one-man-show steamrollered the Chargers on Sunday. Unfortunately I can say both Minnesota and Detroit suck knowing deep down it isn't true, but as for Green Bay, they actually do suck. Even their uniforms suck. (However, they too won. Sigh.)

That leaves our beloved Baby. And I'm afraid Nik and his Cowboys ended Angles' dream of kissing that Lomburrdi trophy in Glasgow. Don't worry, we'll both get them next year CD.

New England Patriots 24
Indianapolis Colts 20

Dallas Cowboys 38
Philadelphia Eagles 17

Green Bay Packers 33
Kansas City Chiefs 22

Denver Broncos 7
Detroit Lions 44

San Diego Chargers 17
Minnesota Vikings 35

On Sunday morning we arrived at Pleasance, where we would find Edinburgh University's Centre for Sport and Exercise. There, heroes would be made, hopes would be crushed; and although every single person was ridiculously tired, you could sense the excitement. The sports centre was very modern and had some amazing squash courts.

It wasn't going to be long before our semi-final match against Ro Sham Bo, and everyone was getting very psyched up. I asked if anyone was feeling nervous at all, and nobody said yes. We were ice cold. We definitely had it in us to win the match and the entire tournament, we just had to play as amazingly well as we did the day before. After a team huddle, we entered the hall to play.

Our semi-final match was by far the most intense match we played all weekend. Ro Sham had dominated the entire match, constantly leading us by two points. In the last few minutes we managed to pull it back to level, only to suffer a very gutting loss by one point when the buzzer went. It was 9-8 to Ro Sham.

We were all very emotional during and after that game. Ultimate frisbee is the first team sport I've ever properly played, and on that day I discovered emotions I had never thought even existed.

We ended the day in 3rd place after another very intense play-off against another one of the Ro Sham teams. FarFlung 1 finished 13th place after two very convincing victories against Jedi and Disciples.

Everyone was already exhausted after Saturday, and Sunday took it to another level. When I got home not only was I physically drained, but emotionally I was drained too. Good game, FarFlung.

FarFlung 1

FarFlung 2

The other FarFlung team had by far the more interesting calls during the tournament. One call involved attempting to eat a cookie placed on your forehead without using your hands. Needless to say, it took a while.

And there was, of course, bum contact.

But back to business. We were definitely shaken by the first loss against Flatball, and in hindsight, it was probably what drove us to play so damn well the rest of the day. We played better and better frisbee as the day continued, winning all of our next four games (one against a school team, who I thought were really cool for playing). I had also realised at this point how much of a psycho I can become when I play team sports. I'm talking proper schizo; my voice is actually still hoarse from shouting: "COME ON FARFLUNG!!!", "YEEEEES!!!", and "GOOD D!!!".

The day ended on a particularly incredible match. It was against one of the Ro Sham teams, and as usual, it was to be a tough match. Both teams had some very healthy representation amongst the crowds of spectators, and the chants came in loud and strong. We played incredibly, and we won. The last point had lasted a whole five minutes (this may not seem a lot to those of you who don't play, but I guarantee you it is). When the final whistle blew, I was on the floor, just a couple beats per minute away from having a heart attack. But don't feel sorry for me; feel sorry for the poor Ro Sham guy lying twenty feet away from me who had just dislocated his shoulder.

Although seeding means nothing in a beginners' tournament, it was still pretty damn awesome that from being seeded 32nd out of 32 teams, we were now seeded 1st going into the semi-finals on Sunday. Our spirits were high.