2008 end of year post

Gambling

Overal Profit/Loss: -93.74

Profit/Loss before I started work at end of March: -128.77

Profit / Loss since then: +35.03

This clearly shows that I was gambling out of boredom/frustration for the first three months of the year. These figures are also peanuts, probably because at the start of the year I had no money and since April my mind has been a bit distracted.

I'll be starting 2009 with a poker balance of $170 and a Betfair balance of 23 GBP.

Personal

- Another year of being single, but I actually like this (honestly)

- Been working for BA for nine months. That has flown by (dreadful pun not intended) though it is getting kind of monotonous now and I feel like I need a new challenge. It only seems like yesterday that I was saying I'd been unemployed for eight months. Now I look back on those days with a strange affection. Yeah I was depressed but I still had a lot of fun times back then. Still, plenty of good times to come I guess, even though it's getting harder to co-ordinate things with people working now / slaving away in their final years at uni.

- Two holidays, one to Tenerife and the other to Los Angeles. Also one semi-holiday to Bournemouth.

- Can't really think of anything else to mention at the moment.


Reflecting back on this time last year

I remember writing a New Year's post this time last year on my old blog. It said something like 'maybe by the end of the year I'll be a policeman and will have developed things with Marie-Claire'. Lol, no success whatsoever on those goals then!

Setting goals for this year.... it's a shame because I can't actually think of anything big. Of course I'd like to develop things with Marie-Claire so that's one. But other than that, I suppose the major goal will be to move on work-wise in one way or another. Another thing is to travel to a few more new places in 2009, that will be exciting. Gareth and I are currently on the cusp of organising a trip for February but no announcements yet.

Let's get those gambling bankrolls swelling in 2009 J.

Ok folks, happy new year

Newcastle v Liverpool

I've backed Liverpool to beat Newcastle at 1.77

Update: float now at 22.59

Monopoly

I'm just about to go and whoop my family's asses at Monopoly (hopefully). My uncle's up for Christmas and it's become a tradition over the last few years to play a fair bit of this game. My dad's always drunk by the time we start playing (he was trolleyed early this afternoon) and it gets nice and competitive.

Merry xmas

Christmas Eve

I'm still ill but a bit better. It's moved down from my throat to my chest and I have a really annoying, tickly cough and I'm short of breath - though I prefer that to pain every time I swallow. I might pop down to the tennis club for a short while later for a couple of Merry Christmas drinks with the boys, then home early for bed as I have a 4.45am shift tomorrow. I'm not too fussed about that though as it's my last day on and I'll be able to enjoy most of Christmas Day.

These last few days I've been trying to organise another trip away in late Jan / early Feb but I can't get anyone interested. Grmmph.

Well, merry Christmas everyone!

Expect my 'looking ahead to 2009' post soon.

PS. I really like that Killers song at the moment, 'Human'. Can't get it out of my head

LA: final comments

As I'll probably enjoy reading this blog back in the future, I better finish off my write-up of the LA trip. I'll just do a few bullet-points.

-It was only on the second day (Sunday) that Daz and I found out that we could get anywhere in LA on the metro for $1.25. This price is crazily low. In London a day travelcard costs somewhere between five and eight quid. If only we'd found this out the day before, we could have saved ourselves a 20 mile walk to and from Hollywood (twice)!

- Daz desperately wanted to go to the beach on Sunday whereas I wanted to venture Downtown. Being the decent guy I am, I relented and we went to the coast. We went to Santa Monica beach, and it was shit. There was a thick sea fog that engulfed the whole coastline, and you couldn't even see the ocean from the top of the sand. We burnt a bit of time at some little funfair where a big swingy dragon ride (similar to Mr Monkey's Banana Ride at Thorpe Park) was pretty enjoyable but the 'rollercoaster' was a major disappointment.

- Sunday evening we went to hit the bars on Cahuenga, which had been hyped up by three different bartenders. Apparently this road was 'full' of bars and was definitely the place to be seeing as there were some big NFL games on. We walked up it and passed two bars, which both looked empty. We went a bit beyond them up the street but there wasn't anything else interesting in sight. All of a sudden I desperately needed a dump, so we just decided to go in the bar which looked the least exclusive of the two we'd passed.

$10 to get in, and it was absolutely empty inside. I left Daz at the bar whilst I legged it to the toilet. Now I don't know if this is just an LA thing or if it's common across the whole of the US, but all the toilet cubicles I saw on the trip had massive gaps between the door and the doorframe, meaning passers-by could easily see you doing your business. Obviously there must be a big problem with people doing drugs in the toilets or something, but surely the gap could have been a BIT smaller?! Anyway I had no choice, so I shut the door and let rip. I noticed some liquid splashing on the floor in front of me whilst I was sat on the toilet. It was only me and the toilet attendant in there, so my first thought was that this guy was throwing water over the top of the cubicle for some reason. Nothing happened for a few moments before more liquid hit the floor. I felt quite intimidated and unsure what to do before I suddenly realised that the toilet seat had a gap at the very front, and my schlong was hanging out of it and I was urinating all over the floor! I hastily concluded my business and left (without tipping the attendant, poor guy).

Daz and I sat over in the corner where there were a few others sitting down and a couple of girls dancing. After about ten/fifteen minutes the place was beginning to fill up and we then realised that literally every person in there apart from us was Oriental, drinking bottles of water and dancing in a very chemically-induced fashion. I felt a bit guilty because I think Daz wanted to stay, but I made him leave. Further down the road we reached the other bar we'd passed earlier, and there was a huge queue outside it where every single person was black. This was one of the biggest impressions LA left on me, I knew it was ethnically diverse before I went there but honestly we felt a bit out of place as white guys! We then gave up trying to find somewhere new and just headed back to the bar we'd been to the night before, had a few drinks then cabbed it back to the hotel.

- On Monday when we were due to leave, I asked reception to book us a cab for 12 o'clock to the airport. No problem. Daz and I were in the lobby at 12 when our driver came in and called us. He grabbed our bags and took them out the front, where there was a slick black limo waiting for us. Daz and I exchanged confused glances and then just hopped in. We bottled it and missed the opportunity to check how much it was going to cost us and before we knew it we were on the road to LAX. There was no metre in this limo, just us and the driver. The rear windows were all 100% tinted and the interior was pristine leather. There was discreet classical music playing and we were suddenly bricking it that we were going to end up paying an arm and a leg for this service (I was running very low on cash by this point). This nervousness resulted in us sitting in more or less complete silence for the whole journey, to the extent that the driver broke the ice by asking if we didn't like each other! We laughed nervously. When we arrived, he lifted our bags out and there was an awkward pause. "So.... how much do we owe you?" I asked. The guy looked surprised and replied, "what, didn't they tell you?" At this point, my heart leapt and I thought he was about to say it was complimentary. But alas, it was $60, but I was hugely grateful it wasn't more.

-One final funny. On the flight back we slummed it in economy and had a very gay flight attendant serving us named Philippe, with an immaculate goatee beard and beautiful cheesy grin. When dinner came around, he asked the gentleman in front of us if he wanted the chicken pasta or the beef hotpot. The passenger asked what the beef was like. Philippe then gave his signature grin and replied, 'oooh, beefy!' For whatever reason (I can't actually explain why) we found this hilarious, and the other people within earshot were also chuckling. The guy in front asked no more questions and took the hotpot.

Ok, that should do!

In case I don't post before Christmas, everyone have a good one! However, last year I did a reflective post on Christmas Day so this year I might do the same.

Cold

I'd gone the whole of 2008 without being ill, so what happens - I get a cold for Christmas, great stuff. I've got to go to work in a minute, even better.

Maybe Arsenal can cheer me up by beating Liverpool this afternoon, who knows...

A bet...

I've put a fiver on Bolton to beat Portsmouth at 2.06

Update: float back up to 18.93 GBP

Concorde and dreams

It's a great shame that Concorde doesn't fly anymore. I hope that someone somewhere is working on a new supersonic passenger aircraft because it seems a bit backward that there isn't one in operation anymore. I understand that it wasn't making money any longer but still, there must be other options to explore.

A great video of her: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QHe8R4tx_eU

The iconic silhouette, the afterburners, the incredible noise, it's all pretty inspirational (for me anyway).

I had a pretty funny dream the other night that went like this.... I went to some airfield where they were flying vintage World War II aircraft and I hopped in a Spitfire and tried to take off. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and crashed it immediately. Somehow I was completely unharmed but the plane was destroyed, and needless to say everyone at the airfield was really annoyed with me. Then some guy handed me the end of a long piece of rope. I looked up and it was attached to a Lancaster bomber which was way up in the sky, and the guy told me to "help her land". So I gave the rope a tug and the guy screamed "NOT THAT HARD!!" and the Lancaster began to plummet nose-first towards the ground where it crashed and blew up and everyone on board died. This time everyone at the airfield went crazy and a lynch mob came after me with the intention of killing me. I hid for a while amongst the outbuildings at the airfield and then fled into the forest. A couple of times I was found by a member of the mob, but I killed them before they killed me. This went on for a while before I just woke up.

There you go, not your normal blog entry!

Sorry for not blogging

Just did a decent post but it got deleted, Blogger is so shitty sometimes.

1. Went to BA xmas party last night, was average. What's the best response to give if a wasted girl says to you, "I have a boyfriend but I think you're hot, do you fancy me?"

2. The others went to the Victory last night and there was a big fight with chairs, glasses and knives. They managed to get out thankfully. Safe to say I'll never be going there again.

3. More of my LA trip report will probably come at some point.

4. Going to London tonight with Alex and Daz where some of Daz's uni mates will be there too.

Sorry this is in bullet-point form but can't be bothered to write it all out properly again.

LA: Saturday afternoon

Continued from last post

So we were walking south back towards Wilshire and took a slightly different route by turning down Cahuenga instead of along Normandie like we had come earlier. We were soon walking through a very, very nice residential area around Melrose which was exactly the kind of typical American street you see on TV. Massive houses and huge front gardens, you could just imagine a paper delivery boy chucking a newspaper from his bike. Pleasant as it was, we were beginning to tire, big time. Our legs had begun to hurt, and stepping up kurbs was an effort. Counting down the roads towards Wilshire, the gaps between 6th and 5th, then 4th.... all seemed to be getting progressively bigger and it seemed like we'd never get back. When we finally hit Wilshire, there was still a couple of miles left to go.

We stopped at a 7/11 to get some booze and ice lollies (which I dripped all down the front of my white shirt), passed yet another Denny's (which was only 10 mins away from the hotel, if we'd walked this way earlier we could have eaten such a nicer meal) and finally got back to the room. We collapsed on the beds and opened some enormous cans of Fosters (each one was over a pint, and this was standard). We quickly finished those and then moved on to a curious drink we'd decided to get as well. It was called Sparks, and also came in a massive can. It was like Red Bull with all the caffeine and taurine and what not in it, plus it was 7% alcohol. We drank a can each, chilled out for a bit watching the college football then headed to Denny's for dinner.

We were both sat in there with wide eyes and feeling a bit spaced out; this was definitely something to do with the Sparks. I couldn't finish my burger and chips, which is very unusual for me, and we then set off for a night out.

Now, for some stupid reason, it didn't cross our minds to get a cab or bus or go on the metro. We walked it again back into Hollywood towards this bar that a barmaid had recommended to us earlier. This time, the walk was LONG. We were limping, constantly in pain and cursing our injuries. Daz had blisters on his feet and my calves were in a bad way.

At long last, after a seemingly impossibly long walk, we found the bar at the junction of Sunset and Orange. We showed the bouncer our IDs and walked in. The bar was to our right, and a table with some chairs was to our left - we took the chairs. We just collapsed on some stools, fantasically grateful that the walking was over. A rep from the bar soon approached us and asked if we wanted table service, to which we gave a resounding yes.

A few hours later we were moved off the table because they were packing up. We stood at the bar for a bit and asked one of the staff if the place was closing. He gave us a bit of a strange look and said 'no, we're getting ready for the night ahead'. We then asked him the time and it was only 10pm! It sure as hell felt a lot later than that. Shortly afterwards I found my eyes closing and I could barely stay awake despite the loud music and being stood right in the middle of a bustling bar. Daz and I agreed to call it a night and jumped into the first cab in sight.

Back at the hotel it was straight to bed, straight to sleep.

LA: Saturday morning

Continued from last post....

So we began walking north from Wilshire Blvd in the direction of Hollywood, with no specific plan or route in mind. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt whilst Daz brought along a jumper as well - I warned him that it was probably going to get pretty warm but he brought it anyway. One of the first things we noticed was the amount of people just hanging around on street corners - not necessarily in groups, and not at bus stops - just Hispanics on their own hanging round on corners with no apparent purpose. Weird, seeings as this was 6.15am on a Saturday. They'd just stare at you as you went by, not that intimidating, but definitely weird.

We crossed Beverley Blvd and the road started to go uphill. It would seem that this increase in gradient marked the end of the more run-down area and the beginning of the slightly wealthier bit. The houses were nicer and there were less people on corners. Eventually, after about 90 minutes of walking, we caught our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign and reached Sunset Blvd. We were slightly dismayed to find that the street was still... well, pretty grotty. We carried on north and reached Hollywood Blvd where we turned left, following our noses towards where we assumed the glitzy bit of town would be. We were getting increasingly annoyed because we were starving and couldn't find a single place to eat! We were in Hollwood for Christ's sake and couldn't find somewhere to grab breakfast. We crossed Highway 101 and things began to get a bit better. The stars on the floor symbolised the beginning of the Walk of Fame and we convinced ourselves that food was not far away. The Hollwood sign now seemed like it was a stones throw away on our right and we were in the heart of showbiz land. We passed the Kodak Theatre BUT STILL COULDN'T FIND A PLACE TO EAT other than Starbucks or McDonald's, no thanks.

Eventually we stopped at this little diner place a little further down the street and just ordered their breakfast. We were expecting the typical American deal of bottomless coffee and huge portions. Instead we got a polystyrene cup of shitty coffee, some awful hash browns and some hugely disappointing eggs and 'sausages', with plastic cutlery to top it off. As we were finishing up I noticed a sign on the wall saying that the place had featured in Million Dollar Baby - my God, the director must have been specifically looking for the lousiest restaurant in the world for that bit of the film, and boy did he get it.

We got out and carried on walking. By this time we'd also started to notice the abundance of tramps/hobos. There were loads of them! But not how they are in the UK. These guys walk around with trolleys full of their worldly possessions, speaking and ranting to themselves in an unintelligible dialect. They all seemed to be crazy. Daz and I wondered if they'd had too much time in the sun, and that the reason there were so many of them is because the weather was so nice. In the UK you'd freeze your bollocks off if you were a tramp for the winter, but here it was pleasant all year round.

We got to La Brea and hung a right towards the hills, our aim being to walk in the general direction of the Hollwood sign. We soon found ourselves climbing an impossible gradient with some spectacular houses all around us. With tall trees and bushes each side of the road though, we had to keep guessing which rough direction the sign was in. Now I was sweating badly, and Daz was moaning about what possible reason he thought he'd need a jumper for. All we were talking about was maybe buying some shorts in the garage sales we kept seeing advertised, along with a glass of home-made lemonade (we laughed at the stereotypical vision of America we had gained from TV).

Finally we reached the top and the road curved round to the left, where we thought we'd finally see the sign.... well we did see the sign but it was about half a mile further on, but the road was a bloody dead-end with no other alternative but to walk all the way back the way we'd come! AAAAAAARGGH!! So back down the hill we went, all the way back to Franklin at the bottom, and then back onto Hollywood. We did actually pass a garage sale and were seriously tempted to go buy some shorts, but bottled it at the last second.

So, we were back on the Walk of Fame and the time was about half ten. It seemed like it was mid-afternoon. Oh well. We bought a soda (use the lingo J) and sat on a kurb outside the 7/11 to drink it, hobo style. When in Rome and all that. Daz commented that he really fancied a beer, and I agreed. However there was still a fair bit of the morning to go, and we thought we should at least wait until afternoon to start drinking. So what did we do.... you guessed it, started walking again.

We went south on La Brea and turned left onto Sunset to explore the nicer end compared to the grotty bit we'd been on earlier. We immediately saw an International House of Pancakes and two Denny's diners. Why couldn't we have stumbled across these earlier??!!!! Never mind, we thought, we'll go there tomorrow.

We got back to 101 and sat down for a bit on a bench. Daz lay down on it which I thought was very hobo-like so I took a picture. Being unable to resist, I also had a go and Daz took a snap of me in my best hobo-pose. Good times.

Afternoon was now approaching so we decided to walk back in Hollywood (no short walk) for a beer. About half way, I realised I didn't have any ID on me - bad news. The Yanks ID absolutely everyone and I was under no illusions that I'd be an exception. Cue a foul-mouthed outburst all the way to the bar. Daz ordered a Bud that was poured into a frozen glass. God, I could have killed for one of those. If I'd had my ID we probably would have spent all afternoon in there, but as I didn't I kept pestering Daz to hurry up so we could get back to the hotel and I could get my driver's licence.

So Daz finished up and we began the walk - yes, the walk - all the way back to the hotel.

Thanks for reading, tune in next time for the story of Saturday afternoon.

LA day one

At LAX, after a Korean guy tried to con us into paying $55 for a cab (we ended up paying $16 each), we eventually arrived at our home for the next two days, the Wilshire Plaza Hotel. We were both starving so made the short trip over the road to McDonald's, brought it back to the room and scoffed it down. Eager to do a bit of exploring, we took a short walk around the block. Daz immediately got asked by someone where Normandie was (the road we had just crossed), to which he replied that he didn't know (I don't think Daz had seen the street sign). I directed the guy, who then turned round and called Daz a bitch. Nice welcome, we thought.With darkness beginning to fall and our tiredness getting the better of us, the roads we were walking on began to seem a bit sinister. Everyone kind of looked shifty, and the backstreets didn't look as attractive as the main roads advertised in all the holiday brochures you might read. We came to the hasty conclusion that the area where we were staying was a shithole, and quickly retreated back to the hotel room.Here the jetlag really gripped us. We both realised we were absolutely shattered, and agreed to take a nap. The time was 5.30pm (so our bodyclocks were on 1.30am) and we set an alarm for 8.30pm to get us out of bed for a bit and to beat the jetlag. We both woke up at 8.30 and agreed that the thought of doing something other than sleep was out of the question.I slept well and woke up ready to start the day. Then I looked at the clock - it was only 11.30pm. Aaaaaaaaargh!! So for the next five hours I tried to force myself to sleep, and only succeeded in napping for short periods of time. At 5am I turned the TV on and watched the highlights on ESPN of the Thanksgiving NFL. Come 6am and I had had more than enough. I got Daz out of bed and soon we were walking towards Hollywood at 6.15am, the sunrise lighting our path....The story of Day Two will come next time.

Had to delete post

I had to get rid of the last post because this blog might have a slightly larger readership than I imagined.

It would seem that saying anything positive about BA these days is akin to admitting you're a Nazi.

Haven't felt like blogging

I just haven't felt like blogging much lately and I can only attribute this to having another 'jaded' episode after coming back from LA, similar to the one I had when I got back from Tenerife but not as bad. In fact 'jaded' probably isn't the right word, 'frustrated' is more appropriate. Having got back from the US, I really want to go again. I want to try to organise a trip to Las Vegas for sometime early in 2009 but for some reason lately it's been hard just to organise a night out at the pub amongst my mates.

Fair enough, because a couple of them have recently started new jobs and others have dissertation work to do or are busy in general. I just keep thinking back to this time last year though when Mondays and Thursdays were guaranteed great nights. Yes I was unemployed but hey, I look back on that period with affection. I was a bit depressed at not having a job but boy did I have some good times whilst I was free and able to attend everything that was organised in our group.

Anyhow, my chin is up because it's that festive time of year again and hopefully this will rectify the lull in banter. Happy holidays!

PS. Gambling float = 13.90

Burnley v Arsenal

I've put a fiver on over 2.5 goals at odds of 2.0

LA baby

Sorry for not updating this last week. I got back from LA this morning and will do a proper blog post about it shortly.

Three days off report

I have half an hour before I leave for work and have nothing to do, so I thought I'd give the star ratings for this week's days off.

Wednesday: Finished work early, went to gym with Daz. Went to the Victory in the evening to watch the football. A fairly decent turnout as well. Rating: 3.5/5

Thursday: Old school banter at the RE Bar. Carl also made an appearance having come home from Bristol for a couple of days. Rating: 3.5/5

Friday: Went into London with Carl to see Daz and his uni mates. Ended up at someone's house in Bermondsey. Uncomfortable night on the floor. Long journey home. Rating: 3/5

Saturday: Watched the Villa v Man Utd game at the RE. Then headed to the tennis club for the darts tournament. I didn't play but just watched. Quite enjoyable. Rating: 3.75/5

Overall star rating: 13.75/20 = 69%

Next week will see some transatlantic action so should be pretty high-scoring!

Need to get organised

Last night I went into London with Carl and met up with Daz and some of his uni mates. It ended up with us three guys spending the night on the floor of someone's flat in Bermondsey. It was a long night due to the hard floor, lack of pillow and mattress (two cushions had to suffice), Carl's snoring and the relentless farting. On the way home this morning there was a lot of engineering works on the tube, which resulted in a long journey on the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines.

I've just got in and I've been overcome by a feeling that I have a lot to do. Therefore I'll make a list right here of the things that need doing / on my mind...

1. Have a wash and a shave; I stink and look rough
2. Need to get dollars for LA at some point
3. Need to go to gym tomorrow morning; was meant to go today but staying out last night ruined that
4. Need to think of an excuse to pull out of a work do in a couple of weeks

The last point is probably the one that is on my mind the most. I really need to cook up a decent excuse, any suggestions welcome.

I think we're heading to the RE Bar late this afternoon to watch the Man Utd v Aston Villa game.

One last thing, thanks to those who commented on the last post. Mark Bellew - great story! And John the Gambler, many thanks for writing nearly a whole blog post on my grumpiness!

That's all for now

Observations

Ok, here are some random observations I've made over the last few days.

Old people and basic technology
Before I start, I will be using the term 'old people' a lot. This might not be a politically correct term but I don't know what the correct term is so sorry if it offends anyone.

The other day I had to make a trip to the bank. In front of me there was a queue of five or six people, and two more people being served at the desks. I must have been in there queueing for about fifteen to twenty minutes whilst those ahead of me got their problems solved by the clerks. The woman directly in front of me was an OAP (a fresh OAP, not a really old one) and when her turn finally came, all she wanted to do was withdraw £40. Now, she could have saved twenty minutes of her life by simply using the cash machine outside and finishing the job in seconds. I bet if someone suggested this to her, her response would be that she prefers the good old-fashioned way and someone at a desk can give her the money. Or something like "I don't like machines".

I can fully understand why old people have an aversion to using machines. They weren't brought up with machines and why should they start using them now? I'll tell you why you should. The world is changing. Technology is the way forward whether you like it or not, that's the harsh reality. Well, 'harsh' is actually the complete wrong word for it because technology makes life better. It should be embraced, not avoided, and this is the simple concept that old people should take on board.

I want to make it clear that this is not me venting a frustration. It is illustrating a competely logical and practical point. This will probably be interpreted as me having a dig at geriatrics, when in fact it is the complete opposite. If I explain the above situation to somebody in person they will probably say "oh let her be, she's old and not used to machines". That is not a helpful thing to say. But if just one OAP reads this (I know they won't but hey) then at least they'll have read an important lesson and there's a small chance that it will have helped their life.

This has become a bit abstract now, but this fear of technology is something I encounter every day at work. At the airport I can understand it a bit more, because the passenger has forked out a lot of money for their ticket and should be able to get checked-in by a real human being at a desk if they want it (having said that, that option is not available at Terminal 5). However, the people who use technology and check-in online will always win. They will get to pick their seats before those who choose to check-in at the airport. Fact. So it's no use complaining to me at the airport that all the seats have gone and that British Airways is the worst airline in the world - if you'd used the options made available to you by technology (just like most people) then all would have been hunky dory.

One more thing. I'm not talking about brain surgery here. The examples I've used (using a cash machine and checking-in online) are two extraordinarily easy tasks to accomplish. So come on old people (and technophobes) - get with the programme.

Dithering
I was in a supermarket the other day and was waiting patiently in the queue at the checkout. The woman in front of me was being served. When the guy at the till told her the bill, she looked up as if she had forgotten where she was and that the idea of actually having to pay for the goods was completely alien to her. Then the painfully slow process began of reaching for the handbag, rummaging through the handbag, withdrawing the purse, getting a fiver out, realising that wasn't anywhere near enough to cover the cost, getting the credit card out, inserting the card into the machine, struggling to remember the PIN number, and finally completing the transaction. This is dithering, and it's poison to the human race.

Fair enough she might have had something on her mind or whatever, but let's just assume that she was in perfect mental and physical state. She was totally unprepared for the task that she knew was coming - paying. Her epic struggle to come up with the money wasn't just a trial for her - it was for everyone in the queue. At the outset I was pretty frustrated, but as the debacle continued I found it increasingly amusing. I looked behind me at the queue however, and there was a long line of extremely irritated people. Heads were being shaken, tuts coming out of every mouth. Deep sighs in between. A young child was getting restless in its pushchair and I don't blame it. By the time the woman had finally completed the transaction and packed everything into her trolley, people didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I heard both chortling behind me and a lot of bitter grumbling.

Message to all ditherers in situations similar to this - please, please just spend two seconds on thinking ahead of what is about to happen.

Days off
Something completely different. Just for the sake of it, I'm going to start giving a star-rating to each set of my three days off. So, starting with the last three...

Monday night: I finished work early and went to the tennis club. Good friendly barmaid and a reasonable group of people turned up (Loz, Covey, Lauren, Simon, plus Hodgson and McDermott randomly). Rating: 4/5

Tuesday: Went to gym with Daz. Then went to Arsenal game. London was dead afterwards though. Rating: 3/5

Wednesday: Very boring during the day. Ended up at the Victory in the evening with Gareth and Daz which saved it. Rating: 3.5/5

Thursday: Sore throat during the day. Woodman that evening with Loz and Daz. Rating: 3.75/5
Overall star rating: 14.25 / 20 = 71%

Reflecting on this post
Reading this back, I sound like an exceptionally grumpy bastard.... I'm actually in an really good mood!!

Thanks for reading

Back in black

This blog is back to being black, after Arsenal lost 2-0 at home yesterday to Aston Villa. I was hoping they'd go on an extended run of good results, which I could attribute to my blog being red, but that run lasted for a whole one game.

I should be doing a proper post soon. I've made a note of a few specific things I want to mention, rather than me just prattling on about how much I had to drink last night. Hopefully I can keep it quite light-hearted in contrast to my recent postings, which attracted some criticism from my reader(s)! All comments are welcome so thanks to John the Gambler for frequently adding his thoughts.

I have work to go to so bye for now.

Sore throat

Woke up this morning with a sore throat. I haven't been ill so far in 2008 (that I can remember) so this is a bummer. All day I've been drinking a hell of a lot of water (must be on the fifth pint now) so I can try and rinse it out of my system. I'd planned to go to the gym with Daz this morning and I really didn't feel like it when I got up, but I did it anyway and it was quite a good workout.

It's currently 2.16pm and I'm bored. I played a bit of poker earlier and won a small amount, and have been watching a few stupid but entertaining videos on the Tube. Now I'm beginning to feel a bit tired but I don't want to have a nap because I always end up feeling groggy when I wake up. I'm tempted to ask Daz if he fancies a Starbucks but the weather is looking decidedly grim outside. My activities this afternoon are yet undecided...

This evening is the last night at the Woodman before it shuts down. Loz, Daz and I are the only ones from my lot going I think. My sister might be making an appearance too.

Last night I went to the Victory in Pinner with Daz and Gareth and it turned out to be quite a good night. £2 a pint on a Wednesday night ('Sexy Wednesdays') which is reasonable and a new venue asides from the tennis club. The music was a bit on the loud side (and a bit on the shit side at times) but the hot barmaid made up for it.

Time for some more water.

Boring day

This day off seems to have slipped by quite quickly even though I've hardly done anything, which is frustrating. Last night it was good to see the Arsenal win, though when we went out afterwards everywhere was dead. We obviously go to the wrong places. Ended up getting home nearly 100% sober after getting the tube back - how I wish the underground ran 24 hours. I know the others feel the same way, in particular Daz, who has said before that he is tempted to write to Boris Johnson about it!

Tonight I don't know what is happening but I'm up for something. I sent a message round on Facebook and texted everyone but only a couple replied. It's annoying when that happens.

Whilst on the subject of going out, lately I've been getting a bit bored of the local circuit. At the tennis club I really resent the latest price increase. Only yesterday was the news dominated by how cheap alcohol is but the club still raises the prices despite everyone paying membership subscriptions. Apparently the club coffers are in pretty good nick as well, which is even more annoying. Then there's the RE Bar. This time last year we all used to head down there every Thursday night and there would be a great turnout week in week out. I'm not quite sure why but it doesn't feel the same in there any more - there's been a refurb and they've got rid of the nice big red sofa. Gareth's also raised the point that the beer in there doesn't seem to be as good as it once was and I think he's right. Moons is always an option but it's a bit of a trek compared to the tennis club and the atmosphere is always going to be lacking in there. And that's about it. The problem is there's nowhere else to go really, unless you're going to make it a 'big one'.

Lawrence has just replied to my text and it's bad news; he's not out tonight. There is good news though; he's up for the Woodman tomorrow. That should be a good night. A pub nearby is closing down and tomorrow is the last night - I'm hoping that they'll be giving stuff away or at least reducing prices. My dad's band is also playing there, as it was the pub that gave them their first break.

So it looks like the lineup for tonight is me and Daz. What will we do. Who knows.

Gambling. My Wigan bet obviously lost yesterday so my kitty is down to £18.90. I can't be bothered to give the detailed breakdown of this challenge any longer as it's getting a bit tedious formatting it every time (cutting and pasting on Blogger results in everything being stuck together in one massive sentence, completely eliminating any formatting).

Long, rambling blog entry comes to an end.

Arsenal v Wigan

So I'm off to the game tonight with Daz and Gary and we should be heading out afterwards in the capital.

Wigan know what they have to do to win tonight. Play rough and nasty, push the kids around, somehow get a goal, then put all eleven men in defence.

I'm going to put my next bet on Wigan to qualify, £5 at 3.75. I guess that's kind of an insurance bet in case Arsenal don't win so I don't get too down in the dumps. But I'll look at it this way; I'm more than happy to pay an extra fiver for the Gunners to win when I go to watch them!

Daz will be calling round mine shortly as we're off to Moons for some pre-lash.

Going to LA

Over the last few weeks I've had several conversations with the boys about going away and have sent several messages around with suggestions of destinations. There was a lot of chat and I was growing more eager to go somewhere with each passing day. Finally today, following a prolonged conversation on MSN, I booked a small trip to Los Angeles with Daz at the end of the month. I'm already hugely excited about it but also pretty nervous! I spend all day dealing with passengers' probems at work and I really don't want to turn into one of those disaster-prone travellers who I ridicule every day!

Tottenham beat Man City earlier - nice for me to win my bet, but not so nice that they're off the bottom. Humph.

I could really do with a nice winning streak to help pay for this LA trip...

Bet 9 result: +3.61

Starting kitty: 20

1. Aston Villa to beat QPR: -5
2. Inter to beat Werder Bremen: -5
3. Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66
4. England v Kazakhstan over 3.5 goals: +4.04
5. England to beat Belarus: +2.09
6. Newcastle v Man City over 2.5 goals: +4.27
7. Arsenal v Fenerbahce over 2.5 goals: -5
8. Liverpool clean sheet v West Brom: +3.23
9. Man City v Spurs over 2.5 goals: +3.61

Overall: 23.90

Bet 9 (third post in one day)

Man City v Tottenham
Over 2.5 goals
£5 at 1.76

Bet 8

Liverpool to keep clean sheet v West Brom
£5 at 1.68

Liverpool have played West Brom six times in the Premier League. They have won all six and haven't conceded a goal. This season, West Brom have only scored twice away from home in the league in five games. So, Liverpool clean sheet please.

Update: Back to winning ways!

Bet 8 result: +3.23

Starting kitty: 20
1. Aston Villa to beat QPR: -5
2. Inter to beat Werder Bremen: -5
3. Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66
4. England v Kazakhstan over 3.5 goals: +4.04
5. England to beat Belarus: +2.09
6. Newcastle v Man City over 2.5 goals: +4.27
7. Arsenal v Fenerbahce over 2.5 goals: -5
8. Liverpool clean sheet v West Brom: +3.23

Overall: 20.29

2-1 to the Arsenal

Those who booed at the Emirates during the week should be ashamed of themselves, even if Arsenal had lost today. What a load of idiots. I might do a separate post condemning them at some point but for the time being I just want a celebratory entry on beating United!

I caught the last ten minutes of the game at work and it was absolute torture. It would have totally destroyed me (and the team) if there was a repeat of the Tottenham nightmare. However, it's all over and WAHEY! Just as I put Berbatov and Ronaldo into my fantasy team and removed all my Arsenal players. I also predicted a 2-0 United win in our little predictions contest, but that doesn't matter in the slightest! I'm off to the Emirates on Tuesday with Daz and Gary to see the Carling Cup game against Wigan and can't wait.

I also decided to make this blog red in tribute to the Gooners!

Looking at Alex's blog he's been making some good bets and is well ahead in our challenge. Keep it up mate!

Quick roundup of where I stand:

Bet 7 result: -5

Starting kitty: 20
Aston Villa to beat QPR: -5
Inter to beat Werder Bremen: -5
Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66
England v Kazakhstan over 3.5 goals: +4.04
England to beat Belarus: +2.09
Newcastle v Man City over 2.5 goals: +4.27
Arsenal v Fenerbahce over 2.5 goals: -5

Overall: 17.06

Oh dear

A 0-0 draw at the Emirates, how often does that happen?

Oh well, a minor setback but no disaster.

Next bet

Arsenal v Fenerbahce: over 2.5 goals
£5 at 1.74

Arsenal's last two Champions League games have been 5-2 and 4-0 wins, the 5-2 one being away to Fenerbahce. So that's an average of 5.5 goals a game, or 4.3 goals a game if you include the 1-1 draw in Kiev as well.

If you look at Arsenal so far this season, there have been 60 goals in 17 competitive matches; that's 3.5 per game. If you take out the 4-4 against Spurs and the 6-0 against Sheffield Utd that's still 3.1 goals per game.

As for Fenerbahce, they have played three games since their 5-2 loss to Arsenal in which there have been 12 goals; so an average of 4 per game.

Asides from the mathematics, Fenerbahce coach Luis Aragones has said "''Our only aim is to beat Arsenal.... We want to progress, and in order to do that we need to win this match". So we can expect them to go for it; which should result in either some goals for the Turks or their defence being left exposed (or both).

On top of this, Wenger might field some of his younger squad members due to injuries to big players sustained at the weekend. Vela, Ramsey and co are very confident attacking players and I'll be surprised if there aren't a few goals tonight (at both ends perhaps).

Good weekend

On Saturday night the boys and I carried out an experiment whereby we all met up in Piccadilly Circus, had a few drinks together and then split up for two hours and went our own ways, having agreed to meet back up at Eros later on. My personal experience was pretty boring compared to some of the others', but I still enjoyed it. There is something quite therapeutic about enjoying a few drinks by yourself; I seem to get some good thinking and reflecting done when I've done this (not too many times but I can only assume it will happen more often from now on)! I only stayed in one bar for my two hours (Cheers on Shaftesbury Avenue) but some of the others managed to frequent seven or eight bars each!! That's a great effort.

The night culminated in a fantastic WWE-style wrestling match between myself and Lawrence which I will look at as the spark for a possible career in 'sports entertainment' (as I think professional wrestling likes to describe itself).

Gambling... I haven't been very inspired in the last week so nothing to report.

Football... it's been brought to my attention that Tottenham have already brought out a DVD of the 4-4 game with Arsenal. What the hell? Only Spurs could do that. A whole DVD dedicated to one match in the league which wasn't even a Spurs win! It wasn't even a cup game! And they're still bottom of the table! Can you imagine if every football team brought out a DVD for every decent result they got away from home. And I'm also fed up with hearing about this David Bentley goal. Yes it was brilliant but come on, all these pundits saying it was the best goal they'd ever seen?

There are loads of similar/better goals, but here's one from Clarence Seedorf just as an example...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PK78PGlwFbY&feature=related

The North

Above: Me, Alex, Daz

Apologies for not posting sooner but I haven't had a moment in the last few days where I've felt like I'd be able to write a decent entry. That's not to say that this post will be brilliant, but..... you get the picture.

So, the main things that happened when Daz and I went to see Alex...

Traffic
It took Daz and I seven hours to travel about 250 miles. We encountered two accidents on the motorway and an unavoidable set of roadworks about half way. Then we met one more massive jam when we were right on Alex's doorstep. Although it was long, I still enjoyed the drive. Plenty of Annie Mac on Daz's sound system kept us going. I think we got a slight case of cabin fever during our seventh hour in the car without a pit-stop and ended up in fits of hysterical laughter when Daz mentioned that the only other thing that could go wrong was if he "hit a raccoon or something". Poor old Daz had also been complaining that he needed a piss from before Nottingham - that's a long time, and he legged it straight into Alex's toilet when we finally arrived.

Omaha, Nebraska
From previous trips and outings, a common frustration has been that we get loads of photos taken but the picture-taker inevitably misses out. This time I took to asking random people (ok, girls) if they would mind taking our picture, but using a thick American accent with a variation of the following line; "Hey there, my buddies and I are out here on an excursion from Omaha, Nebraska and I'd be mighty pleased if you could take a photograph of us". It had surprisingly good results (see photo above)!

The smell
On the Saturday, Daz ate a can of baked beans for lunchtime and boy did the rest of us pay for it. This was probably a taste of my own medicine but my God the smells he was coming out with were just vile. Several times he cleared space in the pubs and bars, leaving innocent bystanders struggling for air.

Football
We watched a lot of footy over the weekend and played a lot of Pro Evo but I don't really want to talk about football at the moment after Arsenal-Spurs last night.

Random quotes
Daz: "... as long as we don't hit a raccoon or something".

Me on the way home [in a conversation about how people grow into their ears/feet when they're kids]: "I always had to grow into my dick"
Daz: "I'm still growing into mine"

Alex: "Does anyone know Wray Ashman?"

Eastern European girl [when she saw the Nebraska technique being used on another unsuspecting victim]: "Is that your chat-up line?"

These quotes will sound awful to everyone who wasn't there, sorry for that.

Thanks for reading nonetheless!

Going North

Today I'm going up to Yarm with Daz to see Alex for the weekend which will no doubt be a crazy couple of days. I need to relax after the stressful events of Wednesday so this little sojourn will hopefully be a good tonic for broken alternators.

Only a quick post as I need to get my stuff together, go for a dump and have a bath before we set off. Last night I went to the RE Bar with Daz, Chopper and Lauren and afterwards the three men shared a family meal from the chicken shop - this was stupid, it was so much of the stuff and today I feel immensely guilty for eating it.

Haven't done any more bets since Monday's football as I couldn't see anything which tickled my fancy. More to come after the weekend. I need to get cracking because this alternator won't pay for itself...

Looking back over some recent posts there are some comments which I failed to spot at first and didn't reply to - many thanks to John the Gambler and Mark Bellew a) for reading this and b) for commenting; feedback makes it much more satisfying to write!

Ok, I'm Northbound.

Costly mistake :-((

Got out of work today at 12.45pm, was in a good mood because the sun was shining and I had the whole afternoon to relax. Got in my car, it wouldn't start. Not even a whimper. I'd left my bloody lights on. The bloke in the car park office offered me a jump start but it didn't work. So I had to call the AA out. £130 straight off the bat.

Vital statistics: the battery has had it, and so has the alternator. Unusual for both to go at once but they had definitely both gone.

New battery: £40
New alternator: £120
Labour at the garage: £70
AA: £130

Then VAT on top of all of that.

So it's nearly a fortnight's work just to pay for that costly error of mine. IDIOT. Plus all the hassle and stress from the afternoon, and the effort to get it to the garage and so on...

I'm still worried that I might leave the lights on again, because my car doesn't make a noise if I open the door and they're still on.

I have work at 4.45am tomorrow which is too early for the tube and the car will be out of action for the next few days. Which means I have to try to find someone who's nutty enough to give me a lift at 4am.

Not a happy boy :(

PROFIT

Bet 6 result: +£4.27

Starting kitty: 20

Aston Villa to beat QPR: -5

Inter to beat Werder Bremen: -5

Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66

England v Kazakhstan over 3.5 goals: +4.04

England to beat Belarus: +2.09

Newcastle v Man City over 2.5 goals: +4.27

Overall: 22.06

PS. Formatting on Blogger is SHIT

Bet 6

I am surpised to see a high price of 1.9 available on over 2.5 goals in the Newcastle v Manchester City game tonight. Both teams have played 7 games each so far. There have been 20 goals in Newcastle's games (2.9 per game) and 30 in City's (4.3 per game). Overall that's an average of 3.6 goals per game which would suggest that the price should be lower than 1.9, and even worth a punt on over 3.5 goals which for some reason is at odds of 3.3. I'll stick to just the one bet though seeing as I'm still not yet in profit.

So there you have it, bet number six, £5 on over 2.5 goals at 1.9.

Betting, fantasy football, travel

Betting
I've been struggling to find a good bet this weekend. I am tempted to back Spurs this afternoon seeing as their price is above evens (against Stoke! hahaha) because they are going to get out of this hole sooner or later, though I sincerely hope they don't. It was funny enough them losing on the first day of the season, but seven games on the fun is still going!

I was also tempted to get involved in the Madrid Masters but my track record with tennis betting is dire. Murray's price to win it this afternoon is also very short, so doesn't look like I'll be having a bet today.

Fantasy football
I really enjoy doing this and I actually put quite a lot of time into it, but my team is doing so badly. On paper I swear it is a quality lineup but it just never seems to perform. This week I was also rocked by injuries to Martin Skrtel, Ashley Cole and Patrice Evra (basically my whole defence). Or, when I think I've had a good week, I get onto the computer only to see that everyone else has Rooney or Lampard as their captains and surprise surprise they've both scored and had seven assists or whatever. 30 points if you had Rooney as your captain this week!! I had him in my team for a month at the start of the season and he did nothing so I transferred him out. Oh well.

Travel
I'm itching to book a trip somewhere seeing as I recently acquired my staff concessions at BA having worked for them for six months. For some reason though I'm delaying in deciding where to go. I'll also have to pin down those who have expressed interest in coming with me and get a final go-ahead before I book anything.

That's all for now.

Clawing the way back

Bet 5 result: +£2.09

Starting kitty: 20

Aston Villa to beat QPR: -5
Inter to beat Werder Bremen: -5
Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66
England v Kazakhstan over 3.5 goals: +4.04
England to beat Belarus: +2.09

Overall: 17.79

I had also been tempted to put a bet on Theo to score, not sure what the price was but thankfully I didn't.

Weighed myself this morning and it was 84kg, so 2kg gained in the last week. Only 2kg to go to match my heaviest ever. That's probably not a good thing, but I'm so bored at home these days that going to the gym and eating are the only things that are keeping me sane.

More soon.

Time to chill out

I haven't seen any of the guys now for nearly a week; all I've been doing is working. I had another night in yesterday and have caught up on all the sleep I lost doing the early shifts, so I'm raring to go for tonight. We're going to to the tennis club to watch the England game, and have agreed to have a Smirnoff Ice each for every goal scored (on top of everything else). We did this last year for Arsenal's Carling Cup games, which resulted in some pretty severe drunkeness. Having said that, now it's probably going to end up being a boring 0-0 affair. It's also important to make sure that everyone sticks to the agreement; no pulling out of the challenge on the third or fourth goal. Goals in quick succession will also make for great entertainment.

Apart from that... the weather is very dark and wet and gloomy, which I need to change because I have to go down the road and buy myself a steak for later. I was meant to weigh myself this morning to see how much I've gained since last week but I forgot and had eaten something by the time I remembered. Will try to do it tomorrow.

One more thing. Some Welsh girl at work keeps flirting with me and will be interesting to see where that ends up.

Ta ta for now.

Bet 5

England to beat Belarus

£5 at 1.44

Why oh why didn't I back Taylor to win the darts...

Wahey

Bet 4 profit: £4.04

Two winners in a row eh, whatever next. Not too much longer until I'll be a millionaire. England did have me slightly concerned in the first half though...

Starting kitty: 20

Aston Villa to beat QPR: lost 5
Inter to beat Werder Bremen: lost 5
Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66
England v Kazakhstan over 3.5 goals: +4.04

Overall: 15.70

Bet 4

England v Kazakhstan

Over 3.5 goals

£5 at 1.85

Come on Ingerlund

Fishing for a bet

I see Alex made a post this afternoon and he's been up to exactly the same thing as me; looking around for bets to make. This is not a healthy pastime and I was nearly tempted into gambling on the Rotherham v Leeds game tonight in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy (???), something I know absolutely nothing about. Thankfully I didn't wager anything. There's still a lot of tennis on, so I'll probably be casting my eye over the coupon in the next hour or so. I have a mountain to climb now seeing as Alex is in profit and I'm still nine quid down.

Away from gambling. I'm back lifting weights now and hopefully I'll be able to keep it up. I made a post a few months ago about getting back in the game but that was really short-lived. Now that I'm more familiar and comfortable with my routine at work maybe things will work out better. I had a look back at my calendar from last year where I chronicled my weight whilst I was taking the lifting seriously (being unemployed left me with literally nothing else to do apart from lift and eat). At my heaviest I was 86kg. Presently I am 82kg, so it will be interesting to see how quickly I can return to that weight if at all. I went to the gym this morning with Daz and then made an immediate trip afterwards to Karahi buffet with him and Chops. Good way to kick-start the old anbolism.

That's all for now.

-J

RESULT!!!!!!!

Bet 3 profit: £1.66
Would you believe it, a win!

Starting kitty: 20
Aston Villa to beat QPR: lost 5
Inter to beat Werder Bremen: lost 5
Ancic to beat Rochus: +1.66

Overall: 11.66

Still plenty of work to do though obviously!

Bet 3

Like Alex, I'm turning to tennis in the absence of football.

£5 Mario Ancic to beat Olivier Rochus at 1.35

This stands to make me all of £1.66.

So......

..... I haven't been updating too often, which is poor. Apologies for that. I had been hoping to go on a winning streak with the gambling challenge and to be making gambling-related updates all the time, but obviously that hasn't happened so far! Just ten pounds left in the kitty with zero winning bets made. There's not any decent football on for the next fortnight either so I'm unsure what I'll be looking towards to punt on.

Saturday we all went out for my birthday, and I ended up being pretty damn wasted. Started drinking in the afternoon and then headed into a bar in Camden. There I had a fair few Jagerbombs and what not, and that was where I began to succumb to the alcohol.Unfortunately we split into two groups towards the end of the night. The others went to some club (apparently) while I went to another bar with Sam, Daz and my sister. It turned out to be pretty crap so we headed back to my sister's halls at UCL where we ran riot. For some reason I told my sister to set her alarm for 7.30am, and we all woke up at that time covered in toilet roll. Sam had nicked a couple of industrial-sized bogrolls from somewhere and had given us each a blanket of tissue paper. My sister was in her bed whilst the three of us were all on the floor, and Sam said it was probably the most uncomfortable he'd ever been. We said farewell to my sis and then trudged back to Euston Square in the pouring rain and made the miserable, hungover journey home.

Hopefully I can catch up with the others tonight to find out what they got up to after we split up.

I should be posting sometime soon with my next bet.

Oh, and Spurs are still bottom of the league, ahahahahahahahahahaha!

-J

Worst gambler in world?

Probably.

Bet 2

So it's time to put on my second bet in the little gambling challenge I'm doing with Alex. I see that he put on a courageous double last night that didn't come off and is left with only £12 in the kitty. Let's see if I can make a step forward.

I've been having a look at tonight's Champions League game between Inter and Werder Bremen, which is a very interesting clash. Looking firstly at Werder Bremen, their domestic results this season:

Drew 2-2 v Arminia Bielefeld (A)
Drew 1-1 v Schalke 04 (H)
Lost 3-2 v Monchengladbach (A)
Won 3-0 v Energie Cottbus (H)
Won 5-2 v Bayern Munich (A)
Won 5-4 v 1899 Hoffenheim (H)

As you can see, a pretty disappointing start to the season which was revived by a wild result against Bayern Munich and an another strange one lately against Hoffenheim. However, they had another disappointing result a fortnight ago in the Champions League by drawing 0-0 with Famagusta (a ghost town in Cyprus).

It's quite obvious that there are some weak teams in the Bundesliga, and also that Werder have a tendency to concede a lot of goals. Yes they seem to be able to score a lot (sometimes) but I don't think that will be the case when they play away against Jose Mourinho's Inter, who have had a solid start to the Italian season and in Europe with a 2-0 win away to Panathinaikos. Indeed they lost in the Milan derby at the weekend (which will have pushed their price up a bit for today) but knowing Mourinho, who is not a loser, he will have his team fired up for tonight to get them right back on course. Italian teams are notoriously hard to break down and I think Werder will struggle.

Inter's Domestic results:

Drew 1-1 v Sampdoria (A)
Won 2-1 v Catania (H)
Won 3-1 v Torino (A)
Won 1-0 v Lecce (H)
Lost 1-0 v AC Milan (A)

So, tonight's bet:

Inter to beat Werder Bremen
£5 at 1.56

Typical

I couldn't have posted two worse bets up on here, what an idiot!! That's the story of my gambling career!

Scrap that

I just read Alex's blog and he had put the City bet on before me, so I'm going to have to do a different one!

Aston Villa to beat QPR

£5 at 1.54

First bet

Manchester City to beat Brighton in the Carling Cup this evening.

£5 at 1.53

Challenge

Alex and I have agreed to do a little gambling challenge where we each start with a £20 kitty and see how much money we can make from doing £5 bets. Each bet will be published on our blogs before the event in question takes place, and if we go broke that's the end of the challenge.

Just a little something to break up the monotony of my blog!

Curry later, but have to get up at 3.30 tomorrow which is a shame.

-J

Arsenal v Sheff Utd

I'm taking my mum to the Emirates this evening to see the Carling Cup game. She's never been to a football match before so I thought it would be a nice treat (I don't think I've ever treated my parents to anything ever before). Alex alerted me to the fact that tickets for the game were on general sale (a rarity) last week, but by the time I checked it out all the ten quid tickets had gone, so I had to get some twenty quid ones in the upper level. It's a shame that I have an early start tomorrow otherwise we could have got a few of the lads together and had a big night, but on this occasion mumsy will have to do.

I was thinking of putting a saver bet on 0-0 just in case of a boring, shitty game so I could get my money back. However I really don't think that will be the case; in these kinds of games absolutely anything can happen. I was a bit disappointed to see that Nicklas Bendtner is the only player in the squad tonight that my mum will probably recognise but hey.

I do want to put some kind of wager on but just can't decide what. The odds all seem to suggest that there will be a lot of goals, and that virtually any player on the pitch could score. The half-time/full-times all look to be crappy odds so they're out the window.

An interesting thing I saw on Betfair today was Kevin Keegan at 2.0x to become next Newcastle manager.... surely, surely that's a lay?! I've never had much luck on the manager markets though so I won't pull the trigger just yet.

-J

Back to the grind

Yesterday was my first day back at work for over two weeks, and I definitely wasn't excited about it. I knew it was going to be a bitch going back, but I didn't forsee just how low my motivation would actually be. That will teach me for taking time off! Once I was there however, it wasn't that bad.

I don't have anything big to look forward to at the moment, so it looks like I'm going to have to book another break for some time in the not-too-distant future. I find it hard to operate in life without having something to work towards, like a holiday or big event or whatever. I was talking with the boys the other day about our holidays in the future. I told them that I felt I was 'past it' with regards to the classic lads holiday (sleeping all day, drinking all night every night nearly to the point of death) and suggested that next year maybe we get an all inclusive deal at a nice hotel. We'd splash out a bit more to begin with, but at least all the food and drink in the place would be free. This would definitely result in a bit more relaxation taking place, though the opportunity to get drunk would still be there with the free bar and all that. This is definitely the kind of holiday I want to do next time I think.

Darts. Gareth dominated me the other night and although the final score was 16-12, there wasn't really a moment where I felt like I'd win. I went 3-0 down straight off the bat and I never saw any light in the tunnel from there on to be honest. This weekend is the 'UK Open', a knockout tournament which will be held on Sunday afternoon. We did the draw on Saturday and let's say some people have a much more favourable draw than others!

Gambling - I just placed a bet on Strictly Come Dancing (I know, I know) as posted on Kickingbets.

Thanks for reading

-J

Yoga

Boy, reading that last post back to myself I sound utterly pathetic.

I just looked up some basic yoga on the internet (I know, what the....!) and did a little bit and it's actually very relaxing. It has definitely eased my stress a little bit, I thoroughly recommend it. Be careful on shoulder stands though; I nearly killed myself.

I think this stress has been brought on by boredom, getting back to work will probably do me good.

Jaded

I'm still extremely tired from holiday. My body still feels kind of beat up, and mentally I'm feeling quite disillusioned and distracted. It feels like I need another holiday just to get over this one. The thought of going back to work is depressing, and it feels like I need a change in life. Another fifty years of this is not on.

On a positive note, I won my semi-final in our long-running darts contest last night. The final is against Gareth tomorrow night in a first-to-16-leg clash which is sure to be very demanding indeed.

I feel like I have a lot to say, but I don't know what. It is as if life is just playing itself on a video in front of my eyes at the moment and I'm just watching it happen.

Maybe I just need to get back to work and give my body a bit of a detox.

What a depressing entry!

I'm back

Thanks for all the comments on the last entry, it's nice to know that people are reading.

So ends my holiday for this year. I don't think there'll be a separate blog about it, as there would be just too much to write. I suppose my personal lowlight was getting with a girl who was engaged, and as she was staying at our hotel I had to spend the whole of the next day trying to avoid her as she kept following us and coming up to our room etc. Thank God that bit is over.

Getting back home from holiday, I really don't fancy going back to work. This has re-lit the fire I used to have in my belly about running my own business / doing a job that is actually exciting. Last time I felt like this was when I was in the unemployed chapter of my life, but I didn't do anything about it. I would like to do something about it now, and I've got another week left before I start work to think about it.

-J

Holiday time

Well we leave for Tenerife tomorrow morning, flying on one of the first flights out of Gatwick. This means I'll be getting up at 2.15am, but this shouldn't be too big a problem due to the shifts I've been doing at work lately.

A point of interest is that apparently our flight is being used for a new TV show called 'Celeb Air', where a selection of Z-list celebrities will be the cabin crew. Alex has said that they'll probably only be dealing with certain passengers who have already been briefed, but maybe this could be my 15 minutes of fame if I fall ill on the plane and force an emergency landing or something, with Michelle Marsh being my nurse.

The weather for tomorrow is set to be absolutely diabolical - I'm hoping our flight won't get cancelled (I've been working all week with cancelled flights). I'm also going to be walking round to Alex's for 3am, so rain definitely won't be appreciated.

The weather forecast for Tenerife is set at around 27-28 degrees every day, but Monday has a black cloud symbol next to it - hopefully this will change....

I'm sure there'll be a few photos and stories to blog about when we get back.

Until then, adios.

Wet

Yesterday one of my mates split up with his long-term girlfriend and wanted a big night out on the piss, so I ended up going to Watford with him and Alex. I had never been to Area before, and will never go again. It was ridiculously busy (MUST have been flouting health and safety regulations) and the queues at the bars and toilets were just stupid. Just getting to the toilet was a half-hour excursion across the 'dance floor', pushing past people and squeezing through tiny gaps. It was impossible to stand still in the place because everyone else was always doing the same; trying to push past you. So word of advice, never go to Area.

Now as some of you will know, I really resent paying over the odds for cab rides. Seeing as most cabbies will charge you over the odds, this often presents a problem. When you put me together with two others who are also against getting a cab, this will result in the prospect of walking home - all seven miles of it. Of course, five minutes into the walk it started raining. Then it started pouring, and it stayed like that until literally the moment we reached Pinner. We were as wet as you could possibly be, although I was quite proud because we set ourselves a target of getting back at 4.30 (2 and a half hours), and we arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule.

Alex took a series of videos on the way back which I think he'll be putting up on YouTube, so maybe I'll post a link here later.

I'm slightly concerned about the state of my nice shoes which I only bought recently; they're currently drying out downstairs. They're kind of suede as well which I hope won't be ruined. Talking of shoes, I went to Eastcote Sports the other day to look for some new trainers (my trusty Adidas ones are approaching the 'unacceptable' stage, though many will argue they've been at that stage for years) and I was shocked at the prices of the bog-standard-looking trainers. Fifty quid at least. Consequently I bought no shoes, and I'm taking my good-old Adidas ones on yet another foreign adventure on Friday.

Three days until Tenerife.

Anti-big-night-in-London

No blog entry for nearly a week. Apologies for that but I've been at work for the last seven days, so there was really no point.

Today's post concerns a debate which frequently rears its head within my group of friends: the big dilemma of whether to head into central London for a night out (and spend a fortune) or stay local and not spend that much (but run the risk of it being monotonous). The topic always leads to some heated discussion, because some of my mates are really pro-central and the others are nearly always happy to keep it nearby. As you can probably tell from the title of this entry, I fall into the latter category!

With nothing to better to do, I'll just outline what I think to be the pros and cons of each.

The big night in London

Pros
- We live in a famous, busy and fantastic capital city and are lucky to do so. We must not take this for granted, and must use London's many lovely drinking venues as frequently as possible.
- Going into central London provides a refreshing break from the repetitive routine we have on the local circuit.
- Central London provides a hive of young, free and single girls who are stunning in looks and loose on morals (amongst other things). This point is a swaying factor for some of my friends a lot more than others, but for those of us happy with our own company it still makes for some nice eye candy.

Cons
- Be prepared to spend; it aint cheap.
- Getting home. A cab is an unwanted extra expenditure.
- Lack of weighing up to expectation. I think I can count on one hand (perhaps two) the number of times I've been into town and, looking back on the occasions, feel as though they were worth doing. Come the end of the night, it is rare that the amount I've spent comes to something I would consider paying again for the same experience, or would much rather have spent on something else. More often than not, my thoughts normally resemble 'I could have spent half this amount locally and had just as good a night'. It is worth noting, however, that when a night in London does go well, it tends to be brilliant.


Going out for drinks locally

The pros
- Cheaper, although this does depend where you go
- Lack of effort required
- Can do it at the drop of a hat
- No weight of expectation

The cons
- Can be boring
- Shortage of potential girlfriends / one-night stands / girls to sit in the corner and chat to all night / nice things to gawp at
- If you can think of any more, answers on a postcard

I'm just rambling here; this post has no real conclusion. Reading it back, it has quite a negative ring to it and resonates with that grumpy old man vibe. This is strange because I'm actually in quite a good mood, it being my last day at work and all that!

There you go anyway.

-J

Feeling a bit dodgy

I got up at 4.30am today for work and felt a bit dodgy in the car on the way back this afternoon. Shortly before dinner I was feeling a bit faint, and went to bed straight after I'd eaten just to relax. I got up again at about seven and felt better. I have to be up at 3.30 tomorrow though, so hopefully this trend doesn't continue.

Covey is playing Gareth in the final group match of our Premier League darts tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that.

That's all for now, I know that's a really boring update. This blog is really bad at times

Taylor to go undefeated in 2009 Premier League

Just seen this bet on Kickingbets, and 10/1 is indeed an absolutely enormous price - anyone who saw Taylor destroy Wade in the World Matchplay will know he is playing at his best at the moment and 10/1 seems crazy!

Murray to win US Open?

I have to agree with John the Gambler that Andy Murray is worth a bet at 14/1 (I got him at 16/1 on Betfair) to win the US Open. As much as I dislike him, he's shown that he can at least compete with the big three at the top, though there's not much hope if Nadal plays at his outstanding best. Indeed it's asking a lot for him to win - Federer and Djokovic would have to continue their mediocrity, and Nadal would have to slip up, but I think it's worth a shot at the high price.

Standard blog post

I'm aware that a lot of my blog posts must sound the same - I've been working, then I've been out drinking on my days off. A few bets in between, along with some darts.

Well surprisingly enough, I'm on my days off at the moment and yesterday involved a lot of fun and drinking. I went to Camden in the afternoon to meet up with a couple of girls I knew from Durham and it was good to catch up. The bar we went to was very nice, it was called the Lockside (I think) and was right next to the water. I ordered a Heineken to begin with and the barman pulled a glass out from a freezer and then pulled the pint, so it was literally ice cold and was the nicest beer I'd had in a long time. I proceeded to have a few more of them and then helped the girls finish off their cocktails when we decided to head off.

In the evening I had the boys over for drinks, and my sister had her mates along as well. I had to stay off the booze for the first hour or so because I was already pretty drunk and didn't want it to get messy in my own home. I soon got back into the swing of things though, and by the end of the night I must have had a pretty obscene amount to drink for the day.

Today Gareth is working the bar at the tennis club from 3, so I'll be heading down there around that time for more (snippets from this blog will probably appear on the AA website). It's the Arsenal game in the late kickoff today so hopefully today will be enjoyable as well.

Next week it's back to work for seven days before I have the whole of September off. I won't end up taking it all off, but at the moment it's there if I want it. And of course, it's not too long until I'm heading out to Tenerife with the boys!

Right, it's time for me to have a quick bath then head out.

-J

Under pressure....

.... to post on my blog because my fellow bloggers have suddenly started updating all the time. I still have a couple of days left at work before my days off though, and my best posts normally come while I'm bored at home on those days. Will update regularly and properly soon, promise!

Hang on a sec...

I've just seen the news of the British 'Gold Rush' in the Olympics, and for the time being GB are third in the medals table?!

I need to get back on my medication

Relaxing on days off

I'm back to work tomorrow after having my first set of three days off for weeks. I've been taking only two off for this last month or so in order to accumulate my time off in September. I have two weeks left and then the whole of September off - I probably won't have it all off, but at the moment my schedule is clear for that period.

On my three days off I haven't really done anything interesting. Normally I'd finish the blog post here, but I'm feeling in a writing mood so I'm just going to blabber on for a bit and go through the stuff I've actually been up to.

Tuesday: I finished work at lunchtime and got bored pretty much as soon as I got home. That evening I watched the darts match between Chopper and Bot, and Bot actually had darts to draw the game. Incredible stuff. I somehow got quite drunk on just three ciders and a beer, and was even a tiny bit hungover on Wednesday morning. This is quite something because I never usually get hangovers unless I've really caned it.

Wednesday: had a curry for lunch at Karahi with Chops and Covey. That evening I played a couple of sets of tennis in the club session with Chopper, won both of them, then went inside to play Covey in my final group match in the Premier League. I won 8-5, which was good.

Thursday: Played darts at the Woodman with Gareth. Drew 7-7. The landlord asked us if we wanted to play on the pub team. We gave no definite answer. Watched a bit of the Olympics and marvelled over the physical strength of the gymnasts. Gareth was working behind the bar at the club later so I headed down there with Chops, Simon and Lauren for company. Good stuff.

Today: played about half an hour of tennis with Gareth before we headed inside to play darts. Simon joined us as well. When he had to go back outside to do some coaching, Gareth and I had another 7-7 draw. This time I came back from being 5-1 down, which is the greatest comeback in the history of the LDC so far.

What am I doing for the rest of today? Good question. I'm eating my favourite dinner in a minute, my mum's spag bol. Then I don't know. It's the weekend again and I have nothing to do. No one is available, for varying reasons. I'm back to work tomorrow and don't want to waste another possible night out. Maybe I'll go to Blockbuster and rent The Wire, seeing as I've only heard good things about it. But I probably won't do that because I can't be bothered to walk down to Pinner.

Who knows.

-J

Not ready for new season

The new Premiership season is about to start, and I'm not ready for it. Last season was the most emotional one I've had for years, and there were a lot of downers at the end of it (the Champions League semi against Liverpool in particular). It feels too early to get involved in it all again. But, I have no choice.

Arsenal have their first competitive game this evening against Steve McClaren and FC Twente in the Champs League qualifier. Seeing as I'm still feeling the pain of last season, a bad result would be just awful. And what's all this I'm hearing about Manchester Utd going after Thierry Henry? What the....?! Surely Thierry could never do that. We'll see.

Tonight I'm playing a bit of tennis and then having my final Premier League Darts group match, which is against Covey.

More soon.

-J

Update on 'Barry to stay'

After laying Gareth Barry to leave Aston Villa the other day at 1.2, I just backed it at 1.7.

I've kept all the green on him staying, but won't incur any loss if he does go.

Best bet I've made in a while.

So. Come on USA in the Olympics!

I need a holiday, part two

This afternoon I've REALLY felt like I need a holiday, due to a particularly nasty journey home from work. I was driving down towards the M25 when I saw a police car pulled across the width of my sliproad. I had no option but to take the other sliproad which led south rather than north, taking me in the complete wrong direction to get home. I got off the motorway at the first exit, but this led me onto some roads that I'd never driven on before and I had absolutely no idea where I was.

I know some people take to this kind of situation well, but it only served to really piss me off. On top of that, I was seriously low on petrol and was starting to think of horrible worst case scenarios in my head, seeing myself breaking down in the middle of a duel carriageway with no hard shoulder etc etc. Eventually I found my way back and treated the car to some nice Premium Unleaded petrol to reward it for not dying on me.

Cue the onslaught of 'I need a holiday' thoughts, and this takes me back nicely to my series of holiday memories.

Holiday memory two: McDermott loses all his shoes
Destination: Las Americas, Tenerife
Year: 2006

You might have noticed a recurring theme running through my two holiday memory posts so far; that of lost footwear. I'm not absolutely why, but there's something that greatly amuses me when people lose shoes.

We came back from a particularly heavy night out, and holiday debutant Dave McDermott was the last one in. The last we'd seen of him he was absolutely battered, and by the time he got back we were all in bed. During the night I kind of remember him coming into my room and fumbling around in our safe, which lay near the foot of my bed. Then I must have fallen back asleep.

In the morning he told us that he'd got a cab back from the bars but when it arrived at the hotel, he realised he didn't have any money on him to pay the driver. So he left his brand new trainers in the cab as a deposit (he'd bought these trainers especially for the holiday). Then he came back to our apartment and tried to get some of his money out of the safe, but couldn't access it (too pissed to remember the code to the lock). So in his drunken state he picked up his other pair of trainers and brought them back to the cabby as payment, forgetting that he'd already left his other pair in there. I think at that point the driver must have had enough and just drove off, with all of Dave's shoes in his car.

That day Dave had to go out and buy some flip-flops, and for the rest of the holiday they were his only set of footwear and they completely tore his feet to ribbons, ahahaha!

Oh boy, bring on Tenerife 2008.

-J

So bored

I just got in from work about 45 minutes ago and already I'm excruciatingly bored. It's Saturday night and I have no one to play with. And the weather is shit, what is wrong with this place? It's so dark and it's only seven o'clock, and outside it's pouring with rain and has been all afternoon. This is the height of summer.

Where is everyone? My sister's even working at the tennis club and still no one's around.

I'm in a very bad and irritable mood

I need a holiday, part one

Above (left to right): Me, Daz, Chopper and Gareth shortly after Chopper's return

I've only realised these last few days that it's not too long until my holiday with the boys. We've had it booked for a while now, and it's always seemed like it is miles away until we actually go. Now it's less than a month to go, and I'm really looking forward to it. Having been working for a few months it's also the first time I probably 'deserve' a holiday, so my eager anticipation is being fuelled even more.

This has prompted me to write a post looking back on holidays gone-by, and this theme will probably turn into a series of posts. Each one will look back on one specific incident and I'll recount it as best I can. I was trying to think of my number one holiday memory of all time, but it's just too hard. There are too many to pick from. Anyway, here goes. This one just came into my head first, for no reason in particular.

Holiday Memory One: Chopper goes missing
Destination: 'The Pit', Gran Canaria
Year: 2007

We were all enjoying ourselves the hub of Gran Canaria's drinking district, which we coined 'the Pit'. Literally a hole in the ground filled with bars, this was probably our favourite haunt whilst we were there. We'd been to a few bars before arriving at the Pit, and had just tucked into a stash of about 24 Buds that we'd ordered from 100% Orange. We suddenly realised that Chopper wasn't with us. I think most of us just assumed he'd gone to the bog or something, and then forgot about it. A while later though Alex then went to look for him, and soon returned with the man in question. He found him in a nearby car park, without his shirt or shoes. Alex luckily found the shirt, but not the footwear. The two of them returned to the Pit, and Chopper was completely spaced out as if he'd just landed on earth. It was a classic scene, Chops stood half naked in the middle of the Pit, simply shaking his head. We asked him where he'd been and what had happened, but a shake of the head was all we ever got. The next day, we found him asleep in bed with his feet completely black from all the dirt he must have stood in without his shoes. To this very day, dear Chops still can't remember what happened. We suggested that he could well have been violated, but the truth will forever be in question!

Barry to stay

I've just been browsing through all the different football markets there are at the moment, and I've ended up laying Gareth Barry to leave Aston Villa at 1.2.

There have been various transfer sagas this summer, and none of them have (yet) come to anything more than gossip. Ronaldo traded as low as 1.14 to leave Manchester United, but nothing has happened (he's now 1.64 to stay). Lampard traded at 1.4 to leave Chelsea, and now he is 1.04 to stay. Berbatov traded at 1.09 to leave Spurs, and 1.82 to stay. The moral of the story is that these transfer markets are completely all over the place. Nobody knows what's going on, so you'd have to be crazy to back any of these short odds.

So, Gareth Barry, please still be registered as an Aston Villa player at 1pm on 3rd September so I can win this bet!

-J

Another Olympic punt

KickingBets is throwing up a lot of bets at the moment, but I keep missing the good prices. I've followed Chris on his Paula Radcliffe selection for Sports Personality of the year. So she'll need to win the Olympic marathon, which basically makes this an Olympic punt.

Today the weather is grim. This is how we pay for having a spell of sunny weather.

I'm tempted to introduce some new features to this blog, such as some photos to jazz it up or even a 'vlog' (video blog)... we'll see how bored I get.

7.5 hours left until drinks and darts at the club

-J

Career high at darts

So my prediction the other night was slightly off, and I managed to beat Gareth 8-1. I had a practice match with Covey yesterday afternoon too, and managed to win that 9-0. This is definitely the best I've ever played at darts. I seem to be hitting the doubles within two to four goes every time, and after I've warmed up my scoring is getting good too. I managed to get down to 261 after four darts against Covey yesterday, which was incredible for me! Normally I find myself behind in legs as my scoring is pretty mediocre, and it's my doubles that save me at the end. Hopefully I'm improving a bit on that front.

Anyhow. There hasn't been much action on this blog lately because I've been living a very boring existence. Work, work, work, getting up at 3.30am and being tired the rest of the day. Yesterday I got out of the bath and had to have a sleep on the bathroom floor because I was too tired to move any more. I have two days off now before I'm doing another seven on. Stupid thing is, I'm already bored and I've only been up a couple of hours. Just counting down the seconds until tonight when I'll be going to the club for some drinks and another Premier League match, this time against Chris.

Tomorrow I'm the MC for a big night of darts, which is shaped up to be a big one.

My God, this post is simply awful. Well done if you've made it this far - future posts can only get better than this one!

-J

Darts tonight

I have a Premier League game against Gareth tonight. I have a horrible feeling I'm in for a whooping. Even Chris managed to get two legs against me yesterday.

Update to follow.

Olympics punt

It's well known that I'm a fan of KickingBets (link to the right), and this is another bet I'm making which is inspired by Chris Trinder.

I have layed China to win the most medals in the Beijing Olumpics - full analysis is available on the KickingBets site.

Tell me...

... if this video doesn't make your eyes well up.

I'm exposing my softer side here but this is such a beautiful clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U&eurl=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4407100.ece

Bournemouth

After enough dithering, I thought I'd try to write the entry for this blog which covers Bournemouth. Sometimes I think I force entries, and that results in the content being somewhere between mediocre and completely unreadable. It's a shame when that happens because I enjoy writing and often have some mildly entertaining things to say, so I thought I'd wait a bit until I was 'feeling it' before writing the next post. I'm just going to write some random snippets from what happened last weekend, and hopefully there'll be some alright stuff that comes out.

- In the car on the way down we suddenly pumped out One More Time by Daft Punk and it resulted in spirits surging through the roof and loud hand-clapping from the three of us (me, Alex and Chops), even from Al who was driving. When we came across the first roadsign for Bournemouth, a spontaneous chorus of 'BOURNEMOUTH, BOURNEMOUTH, BOURNEMOUTH' broke out (to the tune of 'Rooney, Rooney, Rooney'); a chorus that was to be much repeated over the weekend

- I managed to inadvertently rack up a 120 pound bill with a stripper (before you ask, no I didn't)

- On Saturday the others went to the beach for a bit but Chops and I opted to visit the pool and jacuzzi seeing as the sun wasn't out. At some point during that afternoon, the phrase 'let's get out of this shithole' was born [that definitely won't come across as funny in this blog, but I'll include it so I can look back on this and laugh]. We then went down to the pub for a bite to eat and hooked up again with the rest of the crowd in the park. They were playing mini golf, but Chops and I again decided to go our own way. The sun had come out, and we ended up walking around saying hello to as many girls/women as we could. Again, this will sound completely un-funny and pathetic, but at some points we were actually rolling around on the grass with laughter. Phrases which were particularly funny at the time were...
>>> 'Alright girls.....' [one of the girls looks round] '..... Are you alright?'
>>> 'Hello ladies' [the way Chops said it was classic]
>>> [Chops nearly stops a couple of girls by putting his hand in front of them, before saying in a really seedy voice....] 'Hi girls'
>>> The next day, Chops greeted another couple of girls in this way only for them to walk off and cry 'what a weirdo', ahahahaha!

- A waiter in the hotel, who wasn't English, brought out one too many beers at dinner. Nev subsequently said to him, 'if that's spare, I'll have it'. The waiter paused for a second and replied, 'no, this is Carling'. A roar of laughter erupted from our table and I have to say I felt sorry for the waiter. Nevertheless, it was funny to see Ian ordering pints of Spare for the rest of the trip.

- I went back to our room just before dinner on one of the evenings and had a bit of trouble with the lock. Nev was also with me. We entered, only to find Alex on the floor with his feet up on the bed, only wearing his boxers. It turned out that he thought it would only be me coming in, so he'd play one of our customary weird jokes. Chops said that when he saw Nev five minutes later, Nev was saying something about Alex being a 'strange one' or something like that, hahaahahah!

- Lawrence also had an interesting story about Nev entering the room when unexpected, but I can't really say any more than that.

I know this entry doesn't do justice to the trip, but at least it's something.

Thanks or reading, even if none of it is interesting to you!

-J