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.