After spending a lot of time driving yesterday, from Cereste to Marseilles and from Prestwick to Edinburgh, we are up early this morning for the big cup semi-final between Hearts and Hibs...
Anne is a nervous wreck about this, as is Mr James Jamieson who has apparently been dreaming all week that Hearts wll be beaten...
We leave the house at 8 and are parking up a couple of miles from Hampden by 9...
Already a few fans are milling around and we take breakfast fom one of the many burger vans surrounding the stadium...
Then we wait..
and we wait...
and we wait...
Until, at 11, the gates open and we can get to our seats - a reasonable view, in line with one of the six yards boxes but a bit disappointing considering Anne sent off her cash on the first possible day to try and secure "best" seats...
After a long build up the game begins and it's pretty much even for the first twenty minutes or so with only a couple of chances for either side...
Then Hearts breakaway as Hibs lose posession just outside the Hearts penalty box. Within seconds after a sweeping move up the pitch, Paul Hartley has the ball in the net and it's 1-0...
The nerves are reduced slightly but it's still everything to play for. The Hibs team is struggling though with many of their best players either suspended or injured. The Hearts fans are singing almost non-stop and they are the proverbial twelfth man...
On the stroke of half time though, Hearts captain Stephen "Elvis" Pressley is taken off with a head wound...
Into the second half without Pressley and, around the hour mark, Hartley, now wearing the captain's armband, fires a free kick from a wide position, straight into the net for 2-0...
Surely it's all over now but then another injury in the Hearts back four as Goncalves is knocked unconcious by his own keeper...
With 20 minutes to go, it looks almost possible that Hibs could come back...
But then a blunder in their defence lets in Jankauskis for a third goal and it's all over...
Then Hibs' former hero Ivan Sproule is sent off for standing on the back of a downed Hearts forward...
By the time Hearts get a penalty (hat-trick for Hartley) in the closing minutes and another Hibs player heads for an early bath, the Hibs end is almost completely deserted..
4-0 who'd have thought it...
And so it's Hearts V 2nd Division (in reality 3rd division) Gretna Town in the final...
Leaving the ground we bump into Anne's brother Keith and her nephew Craig - what were the chances of that happening?
They head off for a lift home and we walk back to the car and drive over to Byre's Road...
I revisit Lost in Music again and I take two more King Crimson CDs off their hands, both discs are of rehearsals of music, most of which didn't end up on the subsequent albums, "Three of a Perfect Pair" in 1984 and "The ContruKction of Light" in 2000...
Then to FOPP and I pick up the 2CD edition of Morrissey's "You Are The Quarry" an excellent tuneful album with superb lyrics as usual from Mozzer...
A swift meal in Ashton Lane follows and then the drive to Armadale to pick up Meg the Black Cat from Julia's house...
We have brought Julia back some Grenadine and it turns out to be the exact make she tried to describe to us before we went France - we thought we were making do...
It tastes great with just water and ice - the girls quaffed some wine and Julia produces some skewers of very tasty marinated chicken...
A quick final drive home and before we know it everything's back to normal as we wach the highlights of today's big game...
highlight of the Day : Hearts 4 Hibs 0
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