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.