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However, it's not only that is suffering during this freezing weather.

Our old rivals at Dalbeattie Star are having difficulty getting their Scottish Cup tie replayed and I see this morning on the that the game with Forfar has been postponed for a fourth time due to a frozen pitch.

We are due to play next Tuesday for a rescheduled fixture but another date will now have to be found.

The Annan players are lucky in the fact we have a decent all-weather surface training facility at the ground so our training and preparation hasn't really been affected.

We also managed a friendly up at Lothian Thistle on Saturday.

I won't kid you on and tell you it was our best performance but we won the game 5-3 and the majority of the first-team squad got at least 45 minutes.

I was certainly glad of the run out as it was the first match I had played since our defeat up at East Stirlingshire on 12 November.

After the game it was off to the Big Smoke for our Christmas night out.

I mentioned last week that I had organised the hotel for the lads and from the original 22 names it ended up with only 12 of us staying!

Along with the Glasgow boys we had 18 in total, so I suppose that wasn't a bad turnout.

Oh, and big Keith (Kevin) Neilson ended up going - even though he stayed at his girlfriend's after I gave him his £40 back!

All in all it was a really good night, sensible but good.

I'll tell you about the worst dressed man as well as the drunkest men.

I'm going to apologise to Darren Johnstone as he's been getting some serious stick for his choice of attire at the weekend.

But seriously big man, did you really expect anything else?

I know the denims were Versace, but deary me they looked as if he had been painting and decorating in them!

Don't even get me started on his knitted camel sweater!

As for the drunkest men, I give you Derek Townsley and Piedro Baldotto - yes that's correct, the assistant manager and coach of the club.

Now, unfortunately, I never actually witnessed their actions but have it on good authority from two players and I believe them 100%.

Degsy (Townsley) and Peds (Baldotto) couldn't even remember what floor they were on never mind the room number.

Eventually they guessed the right floor (after falling out the lift) and Peds decided to go for pot luck and tried his key card in every door until he eventually got a green light.

"Degsy, Degsy, we're in lad, we're in," he said.

Right enough they were in - shame it was the cleaning cupboard!

I suppose I better tell you that Degsy won the poker game. See, it's not all bad big man!

Anyway, a good time was had by all and we had a laugh and a joke at training on Tuesday night.

I want to finish my column this week away from football with a special mention for a couple of friends.

My mate Darren Logue is off to Washington on Thursday to serve his country once more.

Daz only recently came back from a six-month stint in the Falklands and is off on Thursday for another two years.

Take care pal, until next time.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the future Mr and Mrs McMenamin on their recent engagement.

I'm delighted for the two of them and that's a wedding I certainly can't wait for - oh and good luck Loopster!

See you next week.