If there's a better way to celebrate your birthday than with a trip to Cowdenbeath's Central Park then I'm not sure what it is.
Obviously seeing your team winning on said trip would be something of a bonus but that's in the hands of Pat Fenlon and his less than merry band. Drink shall either dull the pain or intensify the joy.

A January weekend to cast off the shackles of league pressure and revel in the romance of what is, at this stage, the most egalitarian of our competitions.
A Scottish Cup weekend. Breathe in the fresh air of potential shocks and brace yourself butchers, bakers and candlestick makers making SPL defences look like part-time amateurs.

Fuck it all, doom merchants! (that's you by the way) Right. So that's me back from international duty time to catch up on all that's been happening while I've been away not paying too much attention to events concerning our beautiful game. Let's see. Our clubs are out of Europe (well, not quite. Ah [.

Not technically the Fringe this one. Rather the Edinburgh International Book Festival in the capital's posh Charlotte Square.
The stars: Stuart Donald, author of On Fire with Fergie, and Daniel Gray, writer of Stramash: Tackling Scotland's Towns and Teams.
The format will be familiar with anyone who has visited the annual orgy of literature before.

The GameDunfermline make their SPL return with the TV cameras in attendance for the unveiling of last season's championship flag.
I can't truthfully make a prediction without admitting that the game has already started. It's 0-0 right now.
I'll back - despite the evidence of the opening stages - both teams to score and take a point each.

We were here a year ago for the same fixture and for the same reason the first division play-offs. Last year they met in the final rather than the semi, and both sides were going for promotion. Cowden won it then, achieveing their second successive promotion despite a backdrop of off-field problems which resulted in further budget cuts this year.

Frontman of Glasvegas, James Allan once played as a winger for Cowdenbeath, East Fife, Queen's Park, Gretna, Stirling Albion and Dumbarton, making 105 appearances in the Scottish Football League. He was part of the Cowdenbeath squad that won promotion as runners up in the 2000–01 Scottish Third Division.

Floodlights illuminate Central Park, home of Cowdenbeath F.C. in Fife, Scotland. Cowdenbeath play in the Scottish First Division.

Photo credit: Neil9014 on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

Floodlights illuminate Central Park, home of Cowdenbeath F.C. in Fife, Scotland. Cowdenbeath play in the Scottish First Division.

Photo credit: Neil9014 on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

A difficult Saturday afternoon for Cowdenbeath, shipping three goals and losing their derby with Raith inside the first half hour.
There have been better times though.
As Daniel Gray writes in Stramash:

"Central Park is a relic that binds. If its pensionable walls could speak, they would talk of 1920s glory days and mention the first team of miners that won promotion in 1924 and the following season finished fifth in Division One.

Ayr, Alloa, Cowdenbeath, Coatbridge, Montrose, Kirkcaldy, Greenock, Arbroath, Dingwall, Cumbernauld, Dumfries and Elgin.
Twelve towns offering a fair snapshot of Scotland's social and industrial history in the last century.
And twelve towns that keep the ever threatened flames of lower league football in Scotland just about alight.

Bizarrely enough Kenny Milne, once of Hearts, Cowdenbeath, Partick Thistle and Falkirk, is given the full Wikipedia treatment.
The entry begins:
Milne endured a difficult upbringing in life and was raised and looked after by a pack of wolves in the Scottish Highlands. The wolves are meant to be the only remaining one who still remain in Scotland and the bond created between the wolves and Milne was said to have stunned the experts who continued to watch this amazing real life Jungle Book story until they felt it was safe to remove Milne from his adopted parents and move him onto human parents.

Thai Port have signed a Scottish player for the 2011 season. His name is Steven Robb and he used to play for Dundee, Dundee United, Raith Rovers and St Mirren.
For those people who don't know Scottish football was first invented by English pools companies to fill out the coupons. The one proviso they insisted on was that the team names must be as daft as possible.