Well this feels a bit odd doesn't it? Like you, I was told last month that 'The Leither' was to be incorporated into 'The Edinburgh Times' without so much as a by your leave. I wasn't sure if that meant that 'The Leither' was to be tucked inside 'The Edinburgh Times' and given away as a freebie or it was to disappear altogether. Anyway, as we are both reading this at the same time we now know what the powers at be meant. I will let you know if I am to be paid the small fortune I deserve for producing this load of old tosh for you every month, wish me luck. I promise my regular reader that I will continue to bring you my usual high quality comments and insights (an insightful football fan, apparently that's an oxymoron) from the wonderful world of fitba' but we should bear in mind that Hearts fans may now be reading this so I will try to keep it simple. We Leithers must also remember that not all the citizens of Edinburgh are fortunate enough to live in Leith so I will try not to gloat too much about our temperate climate, wonderful cultural venues and night-life. It is no coincidence to Leithers that one of our most popular restaurants is called 'The Radge'. Even our DSS office has a stylish waterfront setting and nestles beside the Royal Yacht Britannia - now just how classy is that?

Anyway, back to football with a quick review of the more important events of Y2K shall we? Played three, drawn two, won one and an aggregate score of 7-3 in favour of Hibs. Pretty much the complete domination we enjoyed last season isn't it? I was given the video of 'The Demolition Derby' by Santa for being such a true and loyal Hibbie and it has been watched a few times I can tell you. To get to this stage of the season having enjoyed such memorable occasions as defeating Dundee 5-1 at the start of the season and also disposing of the Huns at Easter Road was wonderful. Did I mention the 6-2 crushing of Hearts? I hope Hearts can get their act together and scrape into the top six as it will be fun to get them back to Easter Road one more time to administer yet another thrashing. By this time everyone was expecting the Old Firm to be in first and second places in the league with the other teams making up the numbers. However, Hibs have confounded all the doubters by hanging in there and looking like a team that will surely win a European place from their efforts this season. If, as expected, Rangers overtake Hibs and finish second to Celtic this will be fine by me as the Old Firm are a complete irrelevance to Scottish football anyway. Real football fans know that the SPL is a league of ten and Hibs will finish at the top.

I was glad that I was given the 6-2 video for Christmas as, per usual, the telly was pretty poor. On Christmas night I watched a film called Titanic, which was about a ship. When the film started and I saw this huge boat and all the smug faces boarding it I just knew it was going to sink, and right enough it clatters an iceberg and down it goes - predictable or what? When not watching the Hibees I am a big film fan and get to the pictures whenever I can.

My criteria is that if a film does not include car chases and explosions then it is probably not worth watching. Here's a wee quiz for you? What was the film where Clint Eastwood acts really hard and shoots loads of people? What was the Jim Carey film which is really rubbish and all he does is pull faces. Answers on a twenty-pound note to the usual address. One programme I did watch at Christmas was 'Walking with Dinosaurs' but it turned out that it wasn't about Rangers and Celtic fans after all. It was about these lumbering, not very attractive, aggressive predators roaming the countryside and terrorising all the peace loving and more intelligent creatures it came across. Eventually these brutes disappeared to be replaced by the likes of you and me.....wait a minute, now I understand.