Yawn

Aaagghhhh…

Where did that 10 months go??

Well, sole remaining reader, welcome to the rejuvenated 2012 version of the blog – new title, new template, new location, new random thoughts!

It’s been a busy time, and thankfully we’ve (Mrs B and I) managed to achieve most of what we wanted to from 2011. Lichfield is a distant memory, the city crashpad is presumably re-let to someone younger and trendier than I, and the locals now follow The Eagles rather than The Brewers.

So here’s my new South London-based blog. As noted previously, I started the blog at a time when my main income was (hopefully) being generated via the betting exchanges after what is remembered as the 'credit cruch' decimated the housebuilding industry. The blog has changed along the way in line with my life. I expressed my thoughts on blogging in one of my latter posts -

Obviously, the blog seems to have taken a back seat. I started writing at a time when Betfair dominated my days, betting full-time. Whilst I returned to work a month or so afterwards, I've generally had something to write about on a regular basis. With sport ( and Betfair ) taking up less of my thoughts, the blog has suffered. I'm finding that I still have plenty of ideas to write about, but most are off the subject area. Regular readers will have noticed my tendency to wander from the 'designated' subject, and it's been noticeable that I get little feedback when I do stray. This suggests that the 'betting blog' community is really only interested in reading about sport and gambling. So what should I do? :-

i. Carry on the blog and say 'sod it', I'll write about whatever I want.
ii. Keep the blog for occasional posts when I do find something worth saying in the betting/sports field.
iii. Start a new blog, hoping to find a new audience for a more random 'popular culture' themed blog.
iv. Go back to Lichfield and get that Betfair screen working for me.

I'll have a think about it in the next few days. ( I'm not seriously considering iv. )

Well, the blog returns, and option 1 it is. I may be leading myself into writing for no-one, but I enjoyed blogging, yet simply don’t have enough worthwhile points to make on one subject. With my life hopefully now settled, it feels like a good time to resume writing. So I’ll be led by whatever interests me, and hope the results are enthralling enough to gain a readership.

I’ve regularly noted my enthusiasm for rock music, particularly new music and artists. So let’s begin with, er, a song from 25 years ago!

Suspended!

Rather than just let it disappear off people’s listings, I thought it better to let readers know that I’ll be suspending my blog for a while.

In the main, I’m not spending enough time on Betfair and, probably more importantly, not spending enough time thinking about sport and betting to come up with much interesting to say at the moment. Like a few bloggers recently, I’m finding interesting things to write about difficult, but it’s mainly the case that my daily routine is very different from when my blog was at it’s ‘peak’.

It was reading back my own blog that brought me to this decision – I was surprised how good it used to be! Recent posts have tended to be just occasional updates, with not too much variety or insight. They’ve been written whenever I get a chance to write, just for the sake of updating everyone. When my routine was different, I often had ‘future posts’ sitting around in my head waiting to be written. Recently, life and work have taken over that spare brain space. Most of my better posts were written around midnight after a day’s Betfair session was finished – I’m usually tucked away in bed at that time nowadays.

I’m still badgering away on the exchange when I get time, looking to maintain that elusive £1k bank where I feel I can play comfortably ( my bank currently sits at £886.43 ), and trying to stick mainly to football. My life hasn’t stayed constant for very long over recent years, so it may well be that things change again. The blog is therefore suspended, not closed.

Until the next time, good luck to everyone.

Overdue Post

Ahh, my blog finally springs into 2011 action. Well, ‘action’ is probably not the most appropriate word - stuttered into 2011 fits the analysis better.

My major issue has continued to be lack of internet access. I’m struggling to justify paying for a phone line for the limited time I spend at the London flat, and the internet dongle was, as expected, rubbish. So I’ve had limited access to Betfair, but enough to give me a nasty loss in January - within fifty quid, a complete wipe-out of December’s profit. How? – being ‘unlucky’.

I’ve mentioned ‘unlucky’ before. This is an alternative word for ‘inconsistent’ or ‘reckless’. January was an unlucky month in that a few lays at large odds went down, and a couple of footy games went unexpectedly, leading to all-red trade-outs. But the decision to place the lays was in most cases ill thought through, and often was just a lazy push for quick profit. On a couple of weekends, an element of panic seemed to set in. I’m playing with a fairly small bank and the results will have no material effect on my life. Yet instead of leisurely nudging my P&L forwards, I felt the need to use every rare minute of internet access to make hefty profit, often well beyond a natural level for the bank size. I’ve proved to myself so many times that, with a little time spent on research, the bets will come to me. But often my impatience leads me to search for ways to gamble. I also tended to stray into laying at higher odds, which is dangerous on two counts, firstly the damage each failure does to your bank balance, but also the psychological damage of having hours of small wins evaporate in seconds.

One bonus from January – a profit from tennis. The last twelve months left me disillusioned with the sport as a betting medium, hit hard by my poor trading skills and an evolved market that made my profitable years seem long ago. But I had a near 100% record picking winners pre-match. My only loss came from a rare in-play trade when, as so often happens to me, I chose to go all-red when things swung against me. I seem to have little trouble holding my nerve during football trades, but the speed of turnaround in tennis continues to fray my nerves.

A note of caution for bloggers not aware of Google Reader. A successful blogger of recent times, John O’Dwyer, has hit one of those inevitable bad spells. Presumably in a fit of despair, he posted an ill-advised blog a couple of days ago, and then promptly deleted it, along with it’s predecessor. However, the post still shows up on Reader, so many of his followers can see the deleted posts. Best to post only after a moment for reflection!

The photo? I was around the Wembley area yesterday afternoon, and as my own team are unlikely to be participating in a cup final any time soon, I thought I’d have a walk up Wembley Way. It’s a pity the legendary Twin Towers have gone, and the arch isn’t as impressive in daylight as under floodlighting, but worth the ten minute detour. I’ve never had much inclination to attend an England game, but I may have to look for an opportunity to see some sporting event at the stadium.

And finally, minor celeb spotting update. Er, celebrities don’t come out in January – it’s cold. So just the one name for my roll-call – Spurs slightly iffy left full-back, Benoit Assou-Ekotto. Hopefully, the remainder of February may be stronger, celeb- and profit-wise.

Minor Celeb Spot ( Midlands Area )

Guess who I came across in Birmingham earlier today? Yep, you cracked it – only the previously mentioned Central TV weathergirl Emma Jesson!

I nearly commented upon how I felt she and Ken Barlow made a lovely couple. But didn’t.

Little new to say on the Betfair front. On the basis that New Year’s Eve involves a trip down the M6 and M1, followed by a couple of hours stood in the cold in the hope of seeing the Thames-side fire works, then my current P&L will become December’s final figure. I can’t be bothered to count the total number of transactions, but the final profit comes in at £476.99. I’ll put together a post summarising ‘where I’m at’ betting-wise after the holiday, but the overall feeling is positive.

May I wish a happy new year to all, and good luck in 2011.

Quiz Answers

Current king of the sports betting blogs, Cassini, is also smart enough to land the spoils from my quiz.

Q1. The Brown’s superb response was as follows :






















Q2. Bored of those multiple choice questions where one of the possible answers offered is patently rubbish? Well, this is the opposite. Yes, the answer is Ken Barlow. Or, more accurately, 78 year old actor William Roache. To paraphrase someone wittier than I – what attracts Emma to the millionaire Mr Roache?

Q3. The club founded in a district within the Isle of Dogs, East London, that subsequently moved south of the Thames to Bermondsey, was Millwall F.C.

Bored?

For those struggling to fill their ‘twixtmas’ days whilst wading through a sea of turkey and chocolates, I offer you my ‘Nameless Bank Holiday’ 3 part quiz. Answers in my next post.

1. The following letter of complaint was sent to American Football giants the Cleveland Browns back in simpler times in 1974. Just guess how the Browns responded. ( Thanks to the Frank Turner twitter feed for spotting this ).























2. Here’s Central TV weathergirl Emma Jesson. I’ve been following her progress closely for ten years or so. Which of the following is she currently dating ?






























Jonathan Trott?











Marcus Bent?











Ken Barlow?


3. There is a metal plaque embedded in the pavement outside my new apartment block denoting the place where a football league club was founded in 1885 by workers from J.T. Morton, a food processing plant and cannery. They moved to their more famous (infamous?) home in 1910, and on to their current stadium in 1993. To get from their place of origin to the current home requires a trip one station along a tube line, and a short walk, or a slightly longer walk and a precarious swim for the more adventurous. Name the club.

Good Luck.

Bye Bye Hotel Room

The Basildon Travelodge is history, and I now have what is known as a ‘London crashpad’. Whilst it would be nice to see myself as being the occupier of both a ‘London home’ and a ‘Country home’, finances ensure that I am much more aware of being the owner of two whacking financial commitments each month. Whilst the income from my current contract covers my costs, the next stage will hopefully be to sell up in Lichfield and make a permanent move to the South-East. I’ve no guarantee of ongoing work, but my feeling is that there are more long-term opportunities in the South than the Midlands. My big pain at the moment is that I’m committed to some Saturday work in the Midlands for the next few months, so I’m trecking up and down the motorway on Friday and Sunday evenings. Mrs B has coined a nice positive phrase for it – ‘investing in the future’ – better than my idea – ‘flogging my nuts off'.

The flat has been an internet-free zone so far, and as I’m only looking to stay in this particular location for a 6 month period, I’m not looking to have a fixed phone line. So I’ve obtained a Mobile Broadband dongle, with low expectations based on various web reviews. If it turns out to be hopeless, weekday internet use may be limited to the free WiFi at McDonalds and Café Brera.

In turn, my Betfair usage is at it’s lowest level since I opened an account. My actual December stats to date are as follows :

Markets entered : 52
P&L : +£202.56

Anyone reading the blog regularly will have worked out that this has therefore been a fairly decent spell, taking into account my relative inactivity. Certainly, I have been pretty relaxed and patient during my limited time in front of the Betfair screen, and that does seem to be my recipe for profit. None of my sessions have been particularly long, and history suggests that over a longer day I become frustrated and my judgement wains. So maybe this lack of Betfair time may have it’s benefits in terms of profitability.

One side effect of London living is the tendency to come across minor celebrities ( this NEVER happens in my home village near Lichfield ). December’s roll-call to date – James May, Rav Wilding and Big Brother’s Chantelle Houghton and Victor.

I’ll hopefully be back soon with more minor celeb spots and minor exchange winnings.