Just back from Scotland where I spent four days combining business with 'pleasure'.
I began by driving 430 miles to watch my team, Dundee United, play Queen of the South. Naturally they lost, 2-1.
It's a far cry from United’s Eighties heyday when they won the league, reached the semi-final of the European Cup and the final of the UEFA Cup.
On Saturday I made a small contribution to a fund that is aiming to raise £75,000 for a statue of the famously irascible Jim McLean who managed the club from 1971 to 1993 when he became chairman.
To put United's current plight in perspective, when McLean was manager he once refused to pay the players a bonus after they beat Motherwell 6-1 in the belief that they could and should have played better.
Supporters today can only dream of results and performances like that. Frankly, I'm pleased with any win, whether it be 1-0 over Dunfermline, or 2-1 against Alloa.
On Friday Scotsman journalist Alan Pattullo, a Dundee fan, noted that it is 25 years since McLean 'last sat fuming in the dugout'.
I agree with him that a 'Jim McLean statue would be fitting tribute to one of our greatest coaches'. Silly though it sounds, the former United manager is responsible for some of the happiest days of my life.
Although I'm far less involved than I used to be, I shall never forget the day in May 1983 when United won the Scottish League championship for the first and only time in their history.
On the last day of the season three clubs could still win the league – Celtic, Aberdeen and United. There were several permutations but if United won their game the title was theirs.
There was a delicious irony in the fact that United's final match, which they won 2-1 in front of a sell-out crowd (I was there!), was at the home of their near neighbours and fiercest rivals, Dundee.
When I say 'near neighbours' I'm not joking. As many football supporters know, the two 'stadiums' (I'm being generous) are separated by just 100 yards.
Frankly, in the modern age, it makes no sense for a city the size of Dundee to have two senior football clubs, each with an average attendance of around 5,000 and both struggling on and off the field.
As a supporter I appear to be alone in this but I have long thought the two clubs should merge, but it has to be a proper merger not a takeover of one club by the other.
There has to be a new stadium (costly, I know) and a whole new identity.
Some years ago a web and graphic designer created a 'visual identity and fan infographic for Dundee City Football Club, a conceptual SPFL side created by the merger of Dundee FC and Dundee United FC'.
I loved the concept but whenever a real merger is mentioned it always get shot down by supporters of both clubs who see only problems rather than opportunity. A bit like Brexit, in fact.
Meanwhile nothing would give me greater pleasure than seeing Dundee relegated in a play-off with United at the end of the current season.
Having been relegated in 2016 following a defeat by our 'near neighbours', the football gods owe us that, surely.
Below: In the background, 100 yards from Tannadice, lies Dens Park, home of Dundee.
