It is derby weekend again! The second Edinburgh derby of the season, this time at Easter Road. It’s especially important for Hibs. They need to win. The Hibees have 14 points, Hearts exactly the double: 28. If Hibernian don’t win, then we can write them already off for the title race after eleven games. Of course it’s important for Hearts as well. The feel-good factor is very high at the moment and a win can keep that going. After this week, there is the Scottish Cup (without Hearts and Hibs, but with 6 other clubs from the Championship). So the next game is two weeks away. A win will be very good for the moral in that quite period. In addition, the gap with Rangers (who have a game in hand) stays nine points than. So there are enough reason to send Sebas a letter.

Hi Sebas,

Already looking forward to the derby next Sunday? I must say that I do. Derbies are the best games of the season. This will be my fifth Edinburgh derby. The first one was at Easter Road, Sunday exactly 6 years and one week ago. Funnily I was in the away end that day. It was an awful game. The worst derby of the four I’ve seen. Both keepers had a woeful performance and it was only thanks to the bad performance for the rest of the players that it ended in 1-1. It’s the only time I haven’t seen Hearts win a derby.

Will Hearts win on Sunday? I really can’t tell. Hibs are so inconsistent, so a prediction is hard to make. If you only look the last five games, the Hibees turned out a true nightmare for gamblers. At home against easy opponents as Raith Rovers and Dumbarton they draw, but at the same time they’ve won tough away games against Ross County (0-2), Rangers (1-3) and Livingston (0-4). I’m very curious what ‘Hibs’ will turn out on Sunday. Still, I give Hearts a good chance to continue the unbeaten sequence. At times the football the Jambos are playing is very impressive. Rangers have the bigger names, but Hearts are playing much more impressive. I’ll really give them a good chance to won the title, especially if they win the derby on Sunday.

It strikes me here that most Jambos look at the derby with a relatively high confidence. Not surprising when you consider that Hibs only two of the last nineteen league games won by Hearts. Even last year, when Hearts almost died, the Jambos won four of the five matches against Hibs. I think it’s a remarkable phenomenon. The first derby of the season was pretty even and then Hibs got a penalty. The crazy thing is that even I had a feeling that the guy would miss him. I was precisely what happened and Hearts won again. It’s a phenomenon I reallly can’t explain. It seems something in the DNA of both clubs at the moment. How are you looking at the derby? Do you think Hibs will win? Or is the trust in a good result totally gone?

Did you have not lived for a while in Edinburgh? The longer I stay in the city, the more I’m going to appreciate it. Of course, the center is beautiful (but I knew that), but I also rated the areas outside the centre. I always had the feeling that Gorgie was a bit of a rundown area, but it’s actually not that bad at all. It’s quite okay staying here. For me this is the real Edinburgh. That’s not a dig against the city centre, which I love, but it’s a very good choice that I’m staying here in Gorgie and not somewhere in the centre. What I said, I quite like Gorgie. You see few tourists here, which I understand. There is not much that appeals to tourists of course, but actually here you have everything what you need. There are numerous shops, pubs, supermarkets and just about every country is represented by a restaurant here. It’s a very good place to live.

This week it was the first time I visited Lochend and Leith since I’m staying here. It was six years ago that I was there for the last time. But to be honest, I can’t remember a lot of it because I was quite drunk. I know the bad reputation Leith has (you always think it’s like the Irvine Welsh novels), but I think that’s not correct. Especially Leith Street is quite okay, with a lot of restaurants and bars. I also like the location of the ground, sandwiched between the houses. And it’s great that you can see Arthur’s Seat when you walking through Easter Road. One big difference between Gorgie and Lochend are the Neds. There are far more from them around Easter Road as here. I think because you have more houses for families in Lochend. In Gorgie most of the buildings are tenements where singles or couples live. What do you think about Leith, Lochend and Gorgie? Or have you never been in Gorgie?

Cheers, Joris