Three episodes in and I’m magnificently underwhelmed.

It’s mainly bish-bosh action and rushing on. The dialogue isn’t coming over well, at least to me. Is it the actors’ diction, or too much background noise, or am I going deaf?

And Karen Gillan ought to have refused to utter the line, “Well, I’m still here, aren’t I?”

As a Scot she should have insisted on, “Well, I’m still here, amn’t I?”

Once a year Kirkcaldy Prom gets taken over for just over a week by what is known as the Links Market. It’s a name that’s now inappropriate. While it was once apparently a market, with stalls selling clothes and such, now it’s nothing more than a travelling fair.

The locals seem to think it’s a big thing. (Well it does claim the distinction of being Europe’s longest street fair.) Local children apparently save up all year for the opportunity to splurge all their cash within an hour or so. The football authorities also make sure Raith Rovers do not have a home game on the relevant Saturday. (Policing implications, doncha know. And Stark’s Park is only a long stone’s throw from the south end of the Prom.)

It even attracts interest from folks who live in Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline – “Ur ye goin’ tae the Links, sur?” – and probably Methil and Leven for all I know.

It’s actually a bit of a nuisance. Quite apart from the phenomenon known as market weather (or bucketing down as it is also called – mercifully suspended for this year, although it did rain overnight and earlier today) the road along the prom is closed off for the duration – plus a few days either side for setting up and taking down the rides – which leads to congestion on neighbouring streets, not to mention the fact that right now the air outside my house is thick with the amplified sounds of the fairground (even though the Prom is a few hundred metres away and they’re supposed to turn the volume down on Sundays.)

I’ve said before how boring Kirkcaldy prom usually is. This is a picture taken from the south end on a dreich day.

Here’s a photo taken today from near the same spot.

“The Market” might be a relatively big travelling fair but the fuss the locals make anyone would think no other town ever had a “Shows” (as we used to call them in Dumbarton – two a year, April and August, held on Dumbarton Common) turn up on their doorstep. Hell, Burntisland – only 4 miles from Kirkcaldy – has a permanent fairground site – at least during the summer months.

Still it’s only up and running Wednesday to Monday. Everything’ll be back to normal in a couple of days.

Recreation Park, 17/4/10

Well, the worst we can finish now is sixth.

We were worth our lead in the first half as we just shaded it – even if we didn’t force their keeper into a save, goal notwithstanding.

As soon as they went down to ten men I had a sinking feeling. Given that advantage we ought to have killed it before half time but didn’t capitalise. The worst duly unfolded in the second when we let them back in the game.

It was a ridiculous challenge to give away the penalty. If you’re going to foul someone, don’t make it so blatant and ideally make it much nearer the halfway line.

Wyness’s goal was taken beautifully, well placed and calmly hit through the defender’s legs.

Chissie showed his value as a utility player. He was the source of most of our best moments in the first half and had a great volley shave their bar in the second while playing wide left and then was still effective when moved to right back. Toss up between him and Michael White for MOM.

Ben Gordon is far too lackadaisical. He and Chris Smith both are accidents waiting to happen.

When I saw Alloa during this season’s first game I might have thought they’d be in and around promotion. I didn’t think we’d win the other three against them though. It’s a funny old game.

I noted it mentally at the time but let it pass. However, Call me Dave’€™s remarks last night brought it to mind again.

His posturing over Georgia would have gone beyond recklessness if it were to be repeated in office. [I have to say here that David Milliband was as bad back then. Don’€™t they have advisers who know about this stuff?]

But not only did Call me Dave get it wrong over Georgia and thereby possibly antagonise Russia, he now wants to target nuclear weapons on Iran and China. Note Nick Clegg’€™s startled reaction in the clip.

Iran!

Iran which does not have nuclear weapons (any more than Iraq had: anyone with knowledge of the Middle Eastern psyche knows what I’€™m talking about here) and which therefore our threatening them with amounts to bullying. And nobody likes a bully.

And China!

China: with whom we have no quarrel and which has more than enough capacity to make ours seem piddling and which, therefore, it makes no sense to threaten.

Quite apart from the fact that the UK most likely can not or will not use its nuclear weapons without prior US approval and we probably only have them because the French do too (as Yes, Minister put it once) what on Earth was he thinking? Or did he just let his mouth run away with him?

Either way such talk is dangerous and does not bode well for the country’€™s international relations under a Call me Dave premiership. For you can be sure the relevant authorities in Moscow, Tehran and Beijing (not to mention elsewhere) will have taken due note. Mehdi Hassan in the New Statesman makes much the same point.

So, Dave, I’€™m not going to call you Dave.

I’€™m going to call you irresponsible.

I put Friday On My Mind first in this series only because it makes for a neat(ish) post title.

Of all the 1960s hits that were hits this is perhaps the song I always considered the perfect pop tune.

The Lovin’ Spoonful: Summer In The City

Penguin, 2006. 326p

This is an odd one. Two years after the death of her mother, Nadezhda Lewis’s father, Nikolai Mayevskyj, a British resident and 1945 refugee from Ukraine, takes up with Valentina, a much more recent – and much younger – Ukrainian with a young son. The book recounts the unfolding of this relationship, through marriage and subsequent divorce proceedings and the reconciliation it brings about between Nadezhda and her older sister, Vera, who had become estranged following shenanigans involving their mother’s will. Nikolai is also writing the eponymous “Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian” extracts from which are doled out throughout the book.

This is all treated in a knockabout style and the characters are well delineated. In contrast to the humorous aspects there is also Mayevskyj family backstory from Ukraine which is much more sombre. Nikolai and his wife lived through Stalin’s farm collectivisations (and famines) of the 1920s and 30s plus the German invasion of World War 2. The main thrust of the novel, though, is really about Nadezhda’s lack of intimate knowledge of this past and Vera’s insistence that things belong there, not to be dredged up.

Some infelicities: the marriage takes place in a Catholic church even though Valentina is divorced (but the priest may not know) and Peterborough (United) are playing at home but appear on the big screen on a pub TV. This latter was unlikely I would think – even if they did reach the Championship.

Lewycka makes great play of the traumatic past of the Majevskyj family but to my mind there was a whiff of “something nasty in the woodshed” about her treatment of it.

A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian is entertaining but ultimately strives for more than it delivers.

The Rock, 13/4/10

Mission accomplished – with three games to spare. Survival is all I ever wanted for this season.

Well done the lads, and Chappie.

I don’t like that we threw away a two goal lead, however.

Next season will be tougher, I expect, what with Livingston coming up and whoever comes down from Division 1 likely to be strong.

There’s a nucleus to build on, though, if we get in a right back and Chappie stops fielding players out of position.

I caught the preamble to Call Me Dave’s launch of the Conservatives’ manifesto today. Over the PA they were playing all sorts of songs with “change,” “changes” or “better” in their lyrics – except of course D:Ream.

Did the Tories have permission to do this?

One of the songs was Bowie’s Changes, which contains the line “Don’t want to be a richer man.”

I don’t suppose Dave does: he comes from money and took good care to marry even more.

The song also has, “You’ve left us up to our necks in it.” Was this a prediction, Dave?

Look out you rock ‘n’ rollers.

Forthbank Stadium, 12/4/10

So: this result means Arbroath cannot better our points total. We have a ten goal advantage over them but if they were to beat us by say two on the 24^th it would make things tight. But Stenny and East Fife also play each other that day making it highly unlikely all three can get past us.

Still, we can make it arithmetically secure tonight by our own efforts against Clyde.

Why do I have a sinking feeling?

Today I received the latest BSFA mailing through the post. As well as Vector and Focus it contained the expected booklet of stories shortlisted for this year’s BSFA Award.

Unfortunately this is ten or so days late as the voting was to be by 3/4/10 and the award was presented on Easter Day, as usual.

You can’t blame the BSFA for this, the time scale involved is really too short to produce and mail out the booklet before Easter. It’s a historical accdent that the awards are announced at Eastercon, too hallowed by tradition to change now. It’s only the second year the BSFA has attempted to avail its members of this opportunty to cast their eyes over the nominations and is to be applauded.

The booklet is a lovely glossy thing and I’ll let you know what I thought of Dave Hutchinson’s The Push once I read it.