Showing posts with label William Hills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Hills. Show all posts

Wednesday 30 January 2019

A Big Freeze


I don't know if it's me getting older or what, but the frosted white cars and rooves and the biting burning cold this morning just made me want to get into the warm again. As a kid I'd be wanting snow and would go out in a T-Shirt and make snow angels. That would definitely not happen today. Is colder or is it just because I am older and more susceptible to the cold. I really don't know.

Another unrelated thing is that we have a new security entry system where I work amd it makes a two beep or three note noise when you go through whatever door or barrier, and those three notes trigger a musical sequence from Jethro Tull's "Passion Play" every time I come in or leave. While I think "Passion Play" is rather good I could do without it playing in my head every time I walk through a security door or barrier. It's an almost Pavlovian reaction to the three notes and it just happens every time.

Last night Newcastle United beat Manchester City 2-1 and my local branch of William Hills were offering 50/1 for that result, but I thought it would just be money down the drain. It turned out that my actual bets were the ones that actually lost . C'est la vie.

The lack of cloud is what's driving the temperature down, though we have had no snow .... yet. So I think maybe I need to share a bit of "Passion Play" with you although "Frozen"by Madonna was a possibility as well as "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" by Bruce Springsteen, but we shall have a bit of "Passion Play" that is not "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" which I featured in this post here.

Saturday 28 November 2015

Black Friday Has Gone (Hopefully Forever)


Well Black Friday has come and gone , retailers would have the rabble spending money they haven't got on things they never needed. Black Friday to me was the Stock Market crash in the late eighties when we let the idiot traders freed by the idiot right wingers have computers so then could predict how they were going to mess up so much faster. My biggest ever financial loss came when I bought shares in Lastminute.com and some other company that bombed on recommendations from Morgan Stanley, and I bet at Ladbrokes and William Hills. Stock Market Traders aren't that much different than the guy who goes down th ebookies except they are paid to do it with other peoples money.

I Will Be Here Soon
Anyway you what I did yesterday after work. I spent a great night with friends who I hadn't seen in ages , laughing chatting , drinking eating and catching up , and that put a huge huge smile on my face and theirs. The only money that was spent was on food and drink , and a couple of expensive taxis. That is the way to have a Friday , having a great time with great friends laughing and giving hugs.

Obviously only one song for this , and John Scott will hate me for it. Black Friday by Steely Dan.

Have a brilliant brilliant weekend everyone , CSI Ambleside is calling and you know what that means..


Saturday 6 December 2014

Frozen ... December Is Here



Just got up and all the cars are frosted up. Looks like I got back up the road just in time (not a fan of driving on ice).

 Reminds me of a couple of years back when in a William Hill's shop a couple of old guys nearly came to blows because the racing had been cancelled at Newcastle. They blamed the Council. they left the shop moaning and under protest and probably better off than they would have been on a normal day. The thing is there was still racing going on elsewhere , but that wasn't acceptable to them. It is strange how sometimes people have to have something exact when there perfectly suitable alternatives.

Ice Road Baby
Also driving on Ice makes me think of The Ice Road Truckers program. I don't follow it but will watch the odd one and am still amazed to see these people will to drive articulated heavy lorries across frozen, but very deep lakes, Amazing stuff.

This week I also started watch Disney's Frozen which is well up to their normal standard and everyone has heard Let It Go, I've been subjected to it ever since the film came out from certain people who shall remain nameless who were hooked from day one. I'd love to inclde the video but we know Disney won't allow it on Youtube so I'll take Madonna's song of the same name for today's video.

So you all wrap up well and stay warm and enjoy your weekend.


Monday 10 March 2014

Back Now

And off to work soon. I've spent the weekend driving back and resting and not really doing much bar watching some catch up TV such as the brilliant Elementary, Blacklist and Arrow and the truly atrocious Hostages (good idea for a film not a TV series but although it's not been recommissioned it'll be a staple of daytime TV in future ). I am watching Hostages just to see how bad it can get, apparently based on an Israeli TV series, like the excellent Homeland, which went off the rails after the first series but still kept your interested to due to excellent scripting and compelling characters.

Also noticed in the proliferation of betting shops a "Set Your Limits" campaign. Don't they realise that anyone addicted to slot machines, daily lotteries , or the proliferation of betting options will not do that , the only people who will are those in complete control. Then you add the facts that William Hill are looking to open shops 24/7 because slots and electronic casinos are open 24/7 , then combine this with one staff member per shop, and Paddy Power  taking bets and joking about the Oscar Pistorius , see this Guardian article, and it shows that they are only interested in one thing.

Tonight I have a meeting at my local practice' patient forum (details here) so am going to away from the house for 13 hours again today , but it's good to be involved with these things and you can't complain about things if you don't get yourself involved.

Anyway I know that this is not my normal sort of blog post, and I apologise, but when I get home tonight hopefully I can post something more positive and uplifting. Still enjoy your day, I know I will.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

How To Win At Bettin ...

..be a bookie.

My biggest winning bets have always been on the most random selection criteria. The nearest thing to a certain winner is a five horse race where the favourite has odds of about 1/20 , the second favourite 20/1 and the other horses about 100/1.

A five pound each way bet on the second favourite would pay thirty pounds a 200% return if it cam second and be hundred and thirty five pounds if your horse won.

Thing is I've seen that twice in 15 years of betting.

I'm just amazed and the number of guaranteed systems that people are selling. If they worked they wouldn't need to market them.

So if you feel the need to bet just go with instinct , its as good a method as any. You can actually work out high probabilities but expect to put in 15 hour days. Chip Taylor writer of "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning" among others took time out from the music industry to become a professional gambler, and was successful, but returned to music as it was more profitable and less stressful.

So when you are next passing by William Hills or Ladbrokes , dont go in unless you can afford to lose the money

Sunday 24 February 2013

Snow Still Here

Front Window
Across The Road
 Just thought I'd let you know that we have lots of snow. My next door neighbour made a snowman. It is melting but so much came down the garden still has a white carpet.






The snow is still everywhere , covering the gardens , footpaths and lots of the local hillsides and parks.



Whickham
Trees at the back

Was quite funny, in my local William Hill's two old numpties going apoplectic because the weather had caused the cancellation of Newcastle Races . I'm not sure whether they were blaming the Government , the Council or the betting shop manager



It was quite an amusing interlude. These are the same guys who try and push you out of the way to put a 25p each way bet on the greyhounds!!

 
Anyway it almost feels like Christmas ..... but it's nearly March!!

Monday 7 May 2012

Cheltenham - Good And Bad

Last week I had my first visit to Cheltenham . One of the recurring themes of this week has been my inability to find a William Hills to cash in a winning bet !! Cheltenham was no exception , despite haveing four William Hills Shops I couldnt find a single one. Ladbrokes , Coral , Betfred , no problem , but William Hills seemed well hidden. I Eventually got my money on returning home!!


Royal Crescent Cheltenham - Pity about The Busses

Anyway Cheltenham has some magnificient buildings and wide streets although the beautiful Royal Crescent is marred by the fact they have put a bus station in front of it , very fitting!! It is amazing how some city planners have no sense of propriety , but the Royal Crescent is an impressive sight.

Clock Scupture in A Cheltenham Shooping Centre
One of the shopping centers has an amazing Clock Sculpture which also tells the time.!! Not a fan of shopping centres as such but they serve a purpose and Cheltenham's were not too bad. Also in the Beechwood center came across another Rise Records which caused me to aprt with more money. In an interesting flash of synchronicity the had a display of Frank Turner Cds and my friend Carol was seeing him in Cairns , Australia that very night at The Jack - Time differences allowing , so England Keep My Bones was among my purchases!



Seated Creature Comforts
On the Promenade which featured lots of expensive shops and street stalls selling exotic food I came across this weird sculpture , and I'm all for for interesting street scuptures. Although my favourite was the alarmed lion atop a hotel frontage in the same town.




Alarmed Lion

I definitely didnt have time to do the place justice , but will be visiting again . It vaguely reminded me of a big Southport but without the beach, although they are probably about the same distance from the sea!!




To finish an excellent Frank Turner video:



Tuesday 2 March 2010

Charlie Brooker: Danger Man!






Just coming home I noticed a human derelict on the steps of our local William Hills drinking from what looked like a 2 litre bottle of Strongbow and bumming cigarettes from anyone entering or leaving the establishment , which , for a change , today wasn't me (entering the establishment that is not being the human derelict!). I mention this only as an aside and for the fact that the titular Mr Brooker would have undoubtedly written a decent article based on the situation.

I'm currently working my way through "Screen Burn" and this is a dangerous thing to do in a public place. Before you read Charlie Brooker it helps to have a good dose of misanthropy and disdain for the scum that seem to impinge on our daily lives, and if TV and Charlie Brooker are to be believed make up about 95% of the population. TV is his target , which he hits as unnerringly as Kevin Costner in the undiscarded takes of Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves.

Anyway if you read him in public the people near you are going to thing you are mad as you continually burst out laughing , you have become the loony on the bus, YOU are the one they don't want to sit next to. I managed to sidestep this by warning the person I sit next to that I'm going to be laughing for the next half hour at a very funny book , so at least they are warned.

In the book Brooker admits he's an arachnophobe and no amount of "They're more scared of you than you are of them" will sway him. Charlie , this is the thing with spiders:
  • They keep the insect population from getting out of control
  • Any creature that's smaller than us and has more legs than us that we can't kill frightens us
That's it!!




Another thing Charlie Brooker hypothesises the Joe McElderry / Rage Against The Machine situation , suggesting that we buy "Ace Of Spades" by Motorhead and make it the Christmas Number One. At the time the competition was from Popstars and Fame Academy. It's a though and you could do worse than downloading it here!