Unless you’re going to the football, I recommend not trying to get to Glasgow – and even more so not trying to get back out of Glasgow – if Scotland are playing at Hampden Park. From slaloming around the kilted hoards at Edinburgh Waverley at lunchtime to queuing for a train back again at night, to trying to ignore the drunk women on the slow train you finally decide is a better option screaming “I’m on the long train!” over and over again into her mobile phone, it’s not fun.

I ventured to the west for the latest Scottish blogmeet. Along with organiser Gordon and various other familiar faces, it was good to meet newcomers Peggy and Patrick.

Richard L and I played an epic game of pool, as captured on camera by Richard B. Neil disappeared off to the football, but returned later to taunt us Englishers.

Despite some transport hiccups (the first train I tried to get was cancelled, most of the FastTicket machines at Edinburgh were out of order, etc.) and a smattering of rain, it was a very pleasant afternoon/evening, so thank you all for your company. Oh, and there was table service from the bar, which was most continental.

It’s time for another blogmeet up here in the land of the Scots. Gordon has once again done all the hard work and found us a place to drink meet: the bar of the Radisson Hotel in central Glasgow (we’re avoiding the pubs because Glasgow Scotland are playing at the football). Gordon will be there from a bit before 2pm and I’ll probably get there not long after, but feel free to come along in the evening if you’re busy in the afternoon. Full details are at Scottish Blogs.

I will be setting the video for Robin Hood and crossing my fingers that it doesn’t chew the tape, as has become its wont.

This week’s excitement was a trip to rainy Glasgow for a quiz show audition – my ninth, I reckon – for a programme called 1 vs 100. It will be the new Saturday night lottery show so if I get on (no guarantees – they’re seeing about 2,000 people but it wasn’t clear how many they need) it’ll be my first foray into primetime BBC1 telly. (ITV1 is the only terrestrial channel I’ve not been on, but I can’t say it’s something I aspire to, TV snob that I am.) You can read a bit about the show in this press release. Like Deal or No Deal, it’s being made by Endemol and the format has been successful abroad.

The three-hour audition was the longest I’ve ever been to. There were sixty of us and we were given written tests (which were fine) and then short interviews on camera to show our personalities (trickier). I talked about blogging and generally sounded like a geek, but fingers crossed I came across OK. I should find out in September if I’ve got on.

Next Wednesday I have the second of my two auditions, for which I’ll be making my first trip to Leith. You go without for years and then two come along at once. This one will be for Countdown.

Spent a lovely afternoon/evening in Glasgow on Saturday with various fellow Scottish bloggers (yes, I know I’m not Scottish; neither were most of they). Having stopped in at an easyInternertcafé on the way to do a spot of blogging (and to explain the use of word spacing and capitalisation), I arrived at a pub called Babbity Bowster around 3pm. If you like a pub filled with an ever-expanding group of folk musicians playing in the corner and regular interruptions for a cappella* songs – and the pub really was silenced – then this is the pub for you. If you do.

Despite occasionally being distracted out by fiddling (stop sniggering at the back), I had a great time drinking with these complete strangers. There was organiser Gordon (hurrah for Gordon); fellow geek Richard; Gunnella, who taught us Icelandic pronunciation; Chameleon, who taught me the useful German phrase for "My friend will pay" and who, it turned out, I’d seen on University Challenge but a few weeks earlier; Peter of Naked Blog fame, who offered me what purported to be a vitamin C tablet which I gratefully accepted despite having met him ten minutes earlier; Neil, of Neil Writes the World, and Corrinne of Little Blue Teacup. Judging from the match report, I missed Steve and Svetlana, who arrived shortly after I headed off for a Chinese.

Neil has written about Saturday in his Daily Record column. Now, who could have brought up the subject of Doctor Who?

[* spelling corrected via]