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Aberdeen Trips

The Northern Lights of Aberdeen ... mean sweet f'all to me ...

Well - that's not strictly true, some of the best ever away trips with Hearts have been to Aberdeen. Usually (usually - I mean ALWAYS) they involve a lot of alcohol, and a lorra, lorra laughs.

There is no way I could do these in chronological order as I am lucky I can remember these AT ALL - never mind when they happened !! As a rule, for Aberdeen trips we always travelled with the Ace of Hearts supporters club and left at 9am and stopped off in Stonehaven for three hours on the way up. We used to always go to a wee pub called the Star Inn. We would drink for a couple of hours and then panic saying ‘Omigawd - there’s only an hour’s drinking time left ..’ then spend the last hour drinking many vodkas.

Usually we would go to a pub in Aberdeen for a few drinks and I'm ashamed to say that there have been two or three times when we have checked the teletext and seen Hearts getting beat, that we haven't bothered going to the game at all !!

Vague Memory #1      Vague Memory #2     Vague Memory #3     Time we got the Train Home     One with the Flowers !!

Grant's Greatest Aberdeen Trip - Ever

Vague Memory #1

We all walked out of the pub together and within 2 seconds we had managed to lose each other (???), I remember stumbling along in the general direction of Pittodrie and somehow I found it, I managed to find one of my pals, Deek, who is wandering about towards the sea ....

I decide that I am soberer than him (marginally) so we go up to the now closed turnstiles and I tell Deek not to say a word. I slur to the steward that I have just driven up from Edinburgh and got lost so can we please get in ?? (I am 16 - can't drive, and also very, very drunk). 'Sure' he says, opens the gates and lets us in - free of charge !! How did that happen, anyway, we find some of the other boys, sit down and Deek falls asleep (there will be a trend developing here). Twenty minutes later, the other guy, Dode wanders in, completely soaking wet - 'What about that rain' he says, 'What rain ?' we all ask. It is a bright, sunny day. We still don't know exactly what happened to him. I think that this was the game that Hearts were getting beat 2-0 then came back to draw 2-2 and Deek slept through it all, even the mad goal celebrations. What a guy.

Vague Memory #2

One of the trips that we watched the game on teletext in a pub. Hearts got beat (probably hammered actually), no idea when this was. We manage to get back to the bus in time, Cammy Hay comes round asking for man of the match - 'Craig Levein' says one of our boys. 'He wasn't playing' Cammy informs him. 'Eh., well, Willie Bauld ....'

We also sometimes sang stupid songs all the way back, except you are not allowed to swear etc on the Ace of Hearts 'picnic' bus. So there were lots of chants like 'we jolly well hate hibees .. ' and the like. For some reason we used to sing 'All together now, in no mans land - together' for about half an hour at a time, also songs like 'McKewans is the best buy, the best buy in beer..' for equally long lengths of time. The inevitable Beatles, Drifters etc songs from the old timers would come out and we'd start singing Hearts songs again just before we got to the Forth Road bridge.

Also, the boys sometimes got involved in immature things like locking people in the toilets for an hour, hiding the bog roll, throwing people's socks out of the window. One time I turned round to see a really guilty look on one of the boys faces, on further inspection I see lots of my make up all over another guys face (and most of expensive face powder over the floor of the bus !). Great days indeed.

Vague Memory #3

(Some Statto might be able to tell me when this was ...) We had been humped 5-0 at Pittodrie, about 8 of us hadn't bothered going to the game at all - a few went but left very early on. Scotland beat Wales at rugby this day.

So - coming home from Pittodrie after a 5-0 defeat normally makes for a long journey home but coz almost everyone in the bus had just spent the last hour and a half in the pub - on top of the three hours in Stonehaven then we sang and had the greatest laugh. Hearts fans are great in defeat coz we are so used to it ! We were singing '5-oh. 5-oh, 5-oh ...' and the Hawaii 5-0 theme tune etc all the way home.

When we got back to the pub we continued our singing and had a really god night. There was a Welshman in the pub acting very depressed about the rugby score and when we asked him to give us a song he replied 'It's all right for you lot - you won 5-0 today !!'. OH NO WE DIDN'T......

The Time we Got the Train Home

Sometime in the early nineties. A guy who works for BR drinks in the Mill and offers us seats for the last train home from Aberdeen (free of course). we gratefully accept (the last train at that time was 9:15pm).

We done the usual getting really drunk in Stonehaven, going for a few drinks in Aberdeen. Some of made it to the game at half time, the rest didn't - but we arranged to meet in a pub afterwards and then go for a few more beers before getting the train home. Unfortunately I was one of the drunken few that didn't go to the game (shame on me).  We ended up in a really dodgy pub with some really dodgy characters, and somehow got into a game of pool with these two skin heads (very HARD looking skinheads). I expected two of the guys to play them but the cowards made me (a female who had NEVER played pool in her life !!!) be one of the players. Well, we were so bad that the skinheads decided we should split up so I was playing with this tough lad. It got to the stage that the guy had to move my arms for me I was so bad at pool. Anyway we let them win then moved on. I think Hearts got beat (the reason we hadn't went to the game was that we had checked teletext and we were getting beat 2-0 within the first 20 minutes - terrible behaviour - we've not done that for a few years now).

We met the guys who had been to the game and then went on a big pub crawl, we ended up in some and it was full of blokes. There was a massive video screen with a video of a lassie dancing really sexily and I commented that it was strange that no-one was watching her and eventually managed to convince the boys we were in a gay pub !! They were going to the toilet in pairs to protect each other and everything, it wasn't a gay pub - just full of blokes after the football talking about the game but it was a laugh for me to see my homophobic friends get worried !

So went to a few pubs, had a great night, then ended up in a brilliant (but slightly dodgy) pub with a DJ and all, so were dancing away to Abba, the Nolans etc. One guy whipped out his Hearts scarf at one point but I grabbed it from him and shoved it down my top ASAP - we were still 'asked' to leave by the bouncers. Then we went to a pub were we were the only people so the bar man was quite lenient with us, a few wee Hearts songs were sung, and then I was quite scared to see two of the boys slow dancing with each other to 'By the Light of the Silvery Moon' .... they still get slagged about that every now and then.

We decided it was time to head to the station and met some teenagers who were trying to open a bottle of wine they had - they asked us to help and all I can remember is us running away after having successfully polluted their wine with cork ! We got to the station with about 1 second to spare and were put into first class by our mate. I don't think the other first class passengers were too impressed with us, we'd been drinking since 11am so we were well gone. Most of the boys fell asleep and me and one guy sang songs all the way back to keep us awake (we had a carry out for the train as well). When we got back to Edinburgh we got a taxi to the Mill and we wandered in - we were the sorriest looking lot ever, we didn't have a penny between us either. And that hangover lasted for a few days - still, one of the greatest Aberdeen trips.

The One with the Flowers

This trip happened probably about 1989 sometime. We done all the usual stuff but when we got to Aberdeen I went straight to the game !! This miracle happened because my newish boyfriend came with us and emotionally blackmailed me into going straight to the game. Anyway - can't remember the score exactly but we were getting beat. At half time there seemed to be some commotion coming from the sheep end (where the casual used to sit). Then some Jambos appeared, the Hearts support started singing 'hearts fans, Hearts fans give us a wave..' and that was when I noticed it was the rest of the boys ! They were waving to the Jambos and they were put into the Hearts end, so we went down to where they were. They were awfully bloutered, They said that the away end was closed so they hid their scarves and went into the home end, then brought their scarves out in their as they knew they would get put in the Hearts end.

One of the guys had a bunch of flowers with him (as you do at a football match ??), I asked if they were for me - I was the only lassie, but he said 'No, when Hearts scored he was running on the pitch and giving them to Henry Smith'. Well, Hearts did score and he did try to run on the pitch to give them to henry - but henry was at the other end and he was arrested long before he got there ! On Scotsport the next day you could see the flowers lying on the pitch ! And he spent the weekend in Aberdeen courtesy of the local nick. Also - for that same goal one of the other guys twisted his ankle and was off work for a week. The demon drink eh.

Grant's Greatest Aberdeen Trip

Oh what a night.....

Some people remember where they were when Kennedy was shot...
some when the first man landed on the moon...

Me? Well I will always remember May 2nd 1998. Why I hear you ask? Well Hearts were playing away at Aberdeen and as you all know the trip up to sheep worrying country is always one of the highlights of the season but this was one was even better than normal. This was the day that many of us have dreamed about, it was the day that Hibs were relegated...here's my diary (all of which I swear is true) of a great day in Aberdeen. If I had to rate it out of ten I would give it eleven.

The day started of as most trips to Aberdeen do. A long journey, a few lager shandies, some even had a lager tops! Then we got ourselves booked into digs round the back of Union Street, just time for a few more shandies then we headed of for the game. The game was ok but the highlight of the match was the roar that went round the Hearts area of the ground when the radioheads within our section announced the demise of the Vermin. The look on the police woman's face, who was standing beside me (Yes standing as Aberdeen had made an arse of the ticket allocation and there weren't enough seats to go round) was brilliant...she didn't know what was going on and was looking pretty worried!!

I don't think anyone who was there will ever forget the Gorgie version of we'll meet again...just picture the scene...4000 jubilant Jambos all standing waving there hands from side to side...pure class!!

Now this is where the story gets good...after the game we went back to our digs for a quick shower and a shave. When ready we hit the town and our first pub was a small bar/restaurant called Goldies. We sat down and there was only one other guy in the bar sitting at the table next to us with his girlfriend. He looked gutted, but since he had a skinny build, red hair and freckles we never really thought anything of it. After a while the barman shouted over to him "Haw! McLeish...are you playing football for the pub team tomorrow" His reply was "No I'm gutted....I'm really feeling for Alex". Then it clicked, after a quick check with the barman, it turned out that of all the tables, in all the bars in Aberdeen we were sitting next to Alex McLeish's brother. His worst nightmare was just about to come true as 6 drunken Jambos started signing "Cheer up Ecky McLeish....Oh what can it mean....to a sad Hibbie...etc etc etc.." Needless to say we were soon asked to leave the bar as Bro McL eish sat with his head in his hands....BRILLIANT!!! It couldn't get any better or so we thought!

BUT yes it did!!!

Later on after c opious amounts of Lager, we hit the new club in Aberdeen called Amadeus. If you are ever in Aberdeen give it a go...its superb, probably the best club that I have been to in Scotland. At a guess I would say it holds about 2500 people and there were about 1 million birds in there that night...Frank MacAvenie would have had a field day. There's not a lot else to tell about the club apart from the free buses that they run back to the city centre.

Now this is what really made the day for us.

There we were 6 drunken Jambos, full of bevvy dreaming of bed and that drunk that even though there were about a million girls in that club we were left birdless. The bus was Jam packed and there wasn't even standing room left when from the back of the bus someone starts belting out H E A R T S...Hearts Hearts Glorious Hearts...etc etc This started us of and by the time we had started moving I guess that more than half the bus was signing the Hearts song. I think every Jambo that had stayed in Aberdeen was on that bus....what a laugh...as we went through the whole Hearts song book...we started stand up if you hate Hibbees. I stood up and started jumping about and guess who I was standing up and jumping about next to......

JIM HAMILTON

Unbelievably 150 miles from Embra at 3 in the morning on a public service bus going through Union Street about 50 people are signing stand up if you hate Hibees and Jim Hamilton is leading the choir.

What a day...what a night..

But still it gets better...we got of at the same stop as Hammy and after a quick natter we walk away and shout "Cherio Hammy" just as a couple of girlies (very nice young girlies but also pretty naive) walked by. We get blethering to them and they ask us how we know Hammy....In our drunken state Craig, one of the guys I was with, chipped in just before I told them that we were Hearts fans, telling them that we had just signed pre contract agreements with Hearts and that we had been up to watch them play today.

Needless to say an invite to breakfast followed soon. So Nikki and Lisa if you are reading this, and I am sure that you are not, I'm sorry but Grant and Craig haven't really signed a pre contract agreement with Hearts. Thanx for brekkie anyway!!

What a day..what a night...and oh what fun you can have being a professional footballer. (even if you are only pretending.)

Thornie

Mail to Grant Thorburn
grant.thorburn@ukonline.co.uk

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