What's the Story?
These were the items needed to get me through a match at Tynecastle as a child.
I had absolutely no interest in what was going on on the park.
I didn't really understand it.
I liked comics, juice and sweets.
As I grew up, or grew older, I began to develop a genuine interest in the game itself. Not just the game...the crowd, the fashion, the rivalry, the passions and the pain.
Eventually it became an obsession.
Saturday afternoon meant I was going to be at Tynecastle...still with my dad but now without the comics, juice and sweets. Actually, that's not true...I still had the juice and sweets but no comic.
In recent years though something has begun to change.
Where before I looked forward to a Saturday afternoon with genuine excitement and a fair sense of hope I now began to dread it. It appeared that my club was in near terminal decline both on and off the park. A, seemingly, never ending parade of third rate footballing mercenaries filtered in and out the doors contributing nothing other than making me think more and more often about what I could be doing with my time and money instead of this.
Last season there were times when I saw the fact that we were losing in the first half of games as a good thing...I used to tell myself that if we went two goals down then I would leave and go and do something else. I didn't want to be there. I wasn't enjoying it. It had become a chore and nothing more.
On more than one occasion I heard myself saying; "There must be better things to do on a Saturday afternoon than this". When I made the decision not to renew my season ticket I decided that I would put this to the test...and so "Better Things To Do" blossomed from idea to blog!
The Rules
I will not attend any home league matches for the season 2009-10
I will take the cost of a Platinum season ticket and use this as my budget for the year
I will undertake another activity every time Hearts play a home league match
I will not undertake any activity more than once
Where Do You Come In?
Your role is to make suggestions for activities for me to undertake instead of attending home league games over the course of the season. It doesn't matter what it is or where it is...the only thing that matters is that it can be done on the same day as a Hearts home league match and that the cost is comparable with the average price of a ticket.
My first activity will be to attend an appearance by the author/journalist Will Self at the Edinburgh Book Festival on the same day that Hearts play host to Rangers in our first home league game of the season. After that it really will depend on what you and I can come up with to fill my time!
Why?
Well, is it true? Are there "better things to do" on a Saturday afternoon than attend matches? I have a feeling that there might be...but that that will depend very much on what goes on inside Tynecastle on a Saturday. If we win and I'm taking a sewing class then the answer to my question will be a resounding "NO" but if we get beat by Hibs while I am abseiling down the side of the Eiffel Tower then the answer will...still be "NO"!
