Male, 29, seeks minority sport

So, at uni, some of us are being gently reminded to write about subjects other than football. Yep, it's in my best interests. Understood. Crystal.

Don't get me wrong, the course I've been on this year has required us to write about all sorts of topics. It's just that when we get a free-choice assignment, there's always four or five individuals clambering towards the beautiful game.

It's not a crime. It's what we know. But I acknowledge there's no harm in being able to write indepthly about another of the sports I like to keep one eye on.

So what's it to be then?

Here's three potentials, with their justification.....

Golf

Hopefully it's only a matter of time before I start playing golf. Maybe this summer actually.

I flirted with it mid-teens before entering a ten year period of taking nothing more than a fleeting interest in who won the majors.

But the dormant golf volcano within me is rumbling. The last two or three years have seen me closely follow the sport and I find watching it on TV both enjoyable and relaxing. Can't beat hearing the bird-song in the background at Augusta.

Pangs for the fairways and greens only multiply when playing putting in Portpatrick.

Portpatrick Putting Course - where friendships are put on hold

So, golf's a serious front-runner.

American Football

Aged five, I sat my parents down for a chat and decided education was the best route for me. Enrolment at Bothwell Primary was a formality.

There I developed a real aptitude for eating Quarterbacks, the 10p cheeseburger flavour crisps. A love for American Football was born, and I especially liked this American Football lark when I got a small broken crisp from the bottom corner of the bag which had an over-abundance of flavouring.

I stuck with my studies. Primary 1 became Primary 2, which became Primary 3. It remained Primary 3 for six years until I was ready to cut it at Primary 4. But, the graft was worth it, and before I could say 'touchdown', I was in Primary 7 with responsibilities like 'monitor'.

In Primary 7, I think I was the only person in Scotland to have a stab at completing the Panini NFL sticker book. I soon soaked up a solid knowledge of all the teams, colours, crests and players. Having no-one to swap with was the collateral damage.

Since then American Football and I have been complete strangers. Almost awkward at times. It'll take a lot of patience and hard work but I reckon we could be ready to pick up where we left off.

A good friend of mine supports the Chicago Bears. They're from Chicago.

Cycling

Used a bike for paper-rounds. Rode around Millport within 24 hours. Can sometimes cycle one-handy. Only needing the single stabiliser these days.

So that's a start.

Couldn't work out why this one didn't work, so took it back to the shop

The Tour de France has turned my head. July dinner times are enhanced by the catchy tune of the one hour highlight show - I had it as my ring-tone for a three year stint.

The tactics, the teams, the sprints, the jersies, the crashes, the scenery. No complaints writing about that. Click here to see an infamous crash from the 2011 Tour.


Now that's just three potentials. I must say I'd be open to bringing cricket, motorsport, tennis, snooker, darts and rubgy into the mix too, but you folk must have homes to go to by now.

Where do you think I should channel my writing energies then?

My first Firstbus bus card

So what’s better? Firstbus or Scotrail? There was only one way to find out…

Fight? No. I had to try them both.

My opening week as a MA Multimedia Journalism student was compounded with the weighty decision of deciding what means of transport would best cater for my needs over the next year.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I opted for rail travel.

This meant a ten minute walk to Cathcart train station. The stroll was fairly straightforward, granted an awareness was maintained as to the ongoing possibility of pavement-side puddle splashes from buses travelling along the main road. (Please note that any other potential routes to Cathcart station were ruled out instantly on the basis that they were non-newsagent passing)

Rain fell heavily on the Monday morning, and despite being miserably umbrella-less, I tried not to let that cloud my judgement at such an early stage of the decision making process.

Superlatives were not required to describe the station – it doesn’t try to be something it’s not. Clientele were largely standard, although certain individuals in the fairly numerous group of teenage school children waiting on the 8:10am to Queens Park did tend to make a nuisance of themselves – I’m not one for ‘tig’ on the platform, perhaps in days gone by.

The driver did an sterling job of keeping the locomotive on the tracks each day and the ticket officer did not let an uninspiring manner hold her back from checking zone-cards and traversing carriages.

Well cushioned seats made the going ’soft to good’ for newspaper reading.

All in, rail travel had served me well and I would have no problem supplying a reasonably positive reference to someone else in my position.

So then, to Thursday and Friday.

In honesty, bus travel was starting on the front foot in relation to my transport experiment, simply due to a lower ten-week card price than the train. However, there are some public travel factors money can’t buy, so Firstbus would still undergo a rigorous and fair assessment.

Realising I could basically do a three point pivot from flat, to newsagent, to bus stop was a noteworthy observation, as was the fact that on boarding the number 44 bus, I had completed the beneficial metamorphosis of ’splashed’ to ’splasher’.

As would be expected, the going was not so good on the bus, which was securely in the ‘firm’ bracket. Nevertheless, this did not impede on my ability to deal with unreplied texts and absorb part of the i newspaper.

I was keen to see the extent to which the bus filled with passengers as the journey progressed. It transpired that occupation of the top floor of the double decker, where I was, plateaued at approximately 75% capacity. Therefore I reckoned a decent chance of a double seat to myself for the duration should always exist.

Alas, on the basis of the close proximity bus stop and a significantly cheaper ten-week ticket, I was content to part with £80 for my first Firstbus bus card.

The acquisition of this physical bus card has had other unforeseen perks. How refreshing and foolproof a motion it is to quickly show the driver a bus card to gain access to the vehicle, in comparison to trying to explain where you want to go and fiddling about for the correct change.

Also, the bus card does have a touch of the L.A.P.D. police badges about it, and to date I am feeling like I walk the mean streets of Glasgow with slightly enhanced authority.

At least I can focus properly on university now….