What a difference a week (or so) makes. Mental note to self: after not having blogged for many blue moons, avoid doing so when you're still getting over a rather sore defeat in a cup tournament. The path trodden by Jambos is a turbulent and frustrating one, that's for sure, but this week we definitely have something to smile about.

One of my new year's resolutions was to try and update this blog more often than I had managed in 2009 but to be absolutely truthful, it's difficult enough to entertain brief conversations about Hearts with sympathetic friends never mind finding the motivation to sit down and actually write about them.

Well, here we go. I've decided to stop feeling guilty for lack of bloggage in recent months and just accept the fact that sometimes, life just gets in the way. To those who manage to write every day – kudos to you all, I have no idea how you manage it.
So let's just jump right in...where are we?

div style="text-align: justify;"A proper blog entry is long overdue and I hope to get one done by later on today but in the meantime, I thought I'd mention that we're now trying to get our heads around this Twitter thing and have begun using it to provide updates on HeartsFCnews website entries. It's all a work in progress and sometimes I just forget about it altogether but in time, I'm sure it'll become a useful tool for HeartsFCnews.

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.aecinfo.com/1/product/25/52/36/pr30.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 319px; height: 423px;" src="http://www.aecinfo.com/1/product/25/52/36/pr30.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /div style="text-align: justify;"Okay, so it's not quite the heady mix of nerves, nausea and excitement that afflicted me before the cup game and it's not as if the result of this particular game has any sort of specific and meaningful outcome, but nonetheless I'm already looking forward to tomorrow.

Just when you think it's all quiet on the Eastern front, Vladimir chucks another curve ball into the mix. It would appear that when he's not dancing on the telly, outing McMafioso or dressing monkeys as journalists, he's quite into his politics.
After having a chinwag with Ruben Palazuelos a few weeks back, it didn't occur to me to note whether or not there was a knowing twinkle in his eye when he informed me that El Presidente was in the building.

Maybe I don't remember details as clearly as I should. I can barely remember who scored in any fixtures which happened longer than 2 weeks ago, I can't remember specifics about most transfers and I don't have any real recollections of specific comments made in television or press articles over the past few years.

Having watched the debate unfold on Jambos Kickback regarding Hibs and their current predicament, I have to admit to experiencing the strangest feelings about it all. I don't want them to end up in the bottom six. Not at all.
According to some, it's not the done thing to have anything short of utter contempt and hatred for your local rivals and this is something I've always found a little difficult to comprehend.

David Obua seems to be a name which crops up more often than anyone else on this blog at the moment, but again, it was our erstwhile Ugandan who inspired the comments which in turn, inspired this blog entry. According to Colin Duncan of the Daily Record, Obua was celebrating our win against Dundee United by dancing like a 'proper pecker'.

So I was sitting here reading back on some of the earlier entries and as is the way with blogs (and football), I found that time has changed my opinions on many of the things I've written previously. With most issues, it's simply a case of hindsight but when it comes to David Obua it's more than just revising and updating opinion.

When Hibs fans blethered on about the youthfulness of their squad we tittered in amusement, and we were quite right to do so as for a while, claims of inexperience were their favourite way to excuse mediocrity. But in the aftermath of this weekend's debacle against St Mirren, I've heard plenty of Jambos using much the same reasoning in their defence of what was quite simply a rubbish performance from the boys in maroon.

The title of this blog entry may not get us many hits for Hearts related content, but I really couldn't think of anything more appropriate following the events of the weekend. So yes, we went to Easter Road and we won. How tremendous was that? The atmosphere in the Hearts end was just brilliant and having now watched the highlights again on the telly (about 4 zillion times), it was great to hear the Jambos outsinging the Hibbies yet again.

If the match reports don't make gloomy enough reading, I thought I'd add some more grumbles to the mix in the wake of today's chaotic fixture at Pittodrie. WHAT was that all about? Two red cards, a handful of yellows, players kicking each other, players kicking doors, bills for broken glass. Our players weren't just useless today, it would seem that they were also somewhat bereft of anything approximating Christmas spirit.

Despite a less than illustrious start to his career in maroon, occasional flashes of footballing ability and a growing faith in Csaba's judgement had ensured that David Obua wasn't written off quite as quickly as might have been expected by a nervy Hearts support. Some neat passes, a decent first touch and talk of his versatility had reassured onlookers that given time, there was a chance that the South African player of the year and former Kaiser Chiefs star could become a useful addition to the squad.

When the club reported that Juho Makela was injured, I have to admit that I was disappointed but only because I was concerned that it might lessen our chances of shipping him out come January. Rumours of £5k per week and the same again in appearance fees did little to soothe growing concerns that signing him had been one of the biggest mistakes of the last few years, and the brief glimpses of him that we've had since his return from FC Thun have served only to emphasise his lack of goal scoring ability.