Early Summer in Devon


As mentioned in my previous post I had arranged to visit a couple of very good old friends down in Devon and for once the weather did not disappoint!

Surprisingly the trip down there only takes just over 2 hours so we were in Exeter just after 16:00 on Friday which gave us plenty of time for a couple of beers on the veranda followed by a forced march into town and another couple of beers and a pizza.

On Saturday we took the train to Exmouth for more walking and a few more sherberts. In the evening we popped out for a meal and even more beers in a nice boozer and yet more walking! I also had the chance to have a play with my new GoPro camera and here's my first go at doing some editing ...





The weather was absolutely glorious on Sunday so we made the most of it and took the train to Topsham for yet more walking followed by a nice little beer session sitting outside a boozer overlooking the river Exe.





It was blistering hot but luckily I had packed the factor 50 and 6 or 7 pints of Amstel also helped to keep us cool!



25/05

+£141.51. Steady daytime trading but the late evening didn't really produce any decent results.



26/05

+£221.17. More steady trading today with a nice little surge in the early evening period which helped accrue a few holiday beer tokens.



30/05

+£233.05. Despite it being a Bank Holiday I only managed to trade 30 races. It's always nice to get a half decent day in after a short break and that helped pay for some of the trip expenses.



31/05

+£152.74. I had a good start to the day and was over £100 up after about 30 minutes. Then pretty much nothing happened all afternoon until I dropped almost £100 on the evening racing only to get it all back in the last few races of the day!



01/06

+£275.88. I've caught the GoPro bug so while looking around on YouTube I noticed an interesting attachment known as a gimbal. It helps keep the camera steady when you are moving around so I thought 'well if I can win some cash today I'll get one'. I was pottering along and then had a couple of good wins so it was straight on to Amazon for a Prime one day delivery ... just in time for the weekend.



02/06

+£274.73. A nice steady day today with no major losses or fuck-ups.



03/06

English summertime bollox ....



We had booked a couple of days down in Ramsgate way back in February and sod's law the weather was pretty fucking crap! However, we had a great time and I had a chance to have another play with my new GoPro camera and gimbal ...







05/06

+£105.85. Sunday back from the coast and I only managed to trade 23 races so a fair result I suppose.



06/06

+£11.33. One of those fucking frustrating days where I just missed cracking entry points by a gnats cock and spent all day in front of the fucking screen for fuck all!



07/06

+£229.49. Today was very very slow and then late on in the evening I managed to knock out over £100 in one race and I then had the total arsehole! I sat there muttering 'wank fuck cunt bollox wank vagina prick nob twat' to myself as I'd just spent another day stuck in front of the screen and was about to end the day with less than I had in my pocket in the morning!

Now in the last race I backed the leader in the NH flat race as it had a very easy lead and yet the price didn't contract as I thought which led to more mutterings of 'fuck this bollox I don't believe it! What the fuck is happening?'. However in this scenario I sat tight as my selection was seemingly cruising along in the lead. As they turned for home he legged it off into the distance to be greeted by several 'oi fucking oi' screams from my living room!







08/06

+£89.48. Another one of my brilliant starts to the day when I backed a 1.05 loser! Ho hum, I cracked on as usual and managed to scrape a few quid back and end the day in front, if somewhat frustrated by my general incompetence.



09/06

-£21.93. It seems to have been a real tough week so far and I really struggled today. I once again managed to get myself behind by over £100 early doors and then spent the remainder of the day slowly recouping the losses.



10/06

+£318.77. I was literally winning pennies here and there for the first couple of hours and then things gradually picked up and I had a good late afternoon and evening.



11/06

-£202.86. It was probably one of the busiest days of the year today and I had a nightmare start. I hammered one late on in the place market when it jumped into a clear third place jumping the last and plenty of 3.2 was available. In fact I thought that someone had made a big mistake or that Betfair was stuck so I clicked a few times and then about 10 seconds later the fucker went past the post in fourth place doh! I was pretty much almost £300 down after 30 minutes of trading! I then had a cracking afternoon and had the loss down to less than £100 and then had a complete mare of a late evening and ended up over £200 down for the day doh! What a nob!





12/06

+£92.68. After yesterdays debacle I was looking to get any sort of winning day under my belt and I made a lovely start and was almost £100 up after 2 races. It was then a very frustrating Sunday afternoon where I couldn't get anything matched and then late on I managed to lose over £100 in 3 races and I was back to square one!! It get's so fucking annoying when that sort of thing happens, especially on the back of a shite Saturday. However, I pulled one out of the hat in one of the last races of the day and therefore managed to post a profit instead of what would have probably been a small loss.



13/06

+£114.17. Only traded 18 races on a wank of a day but only had 1 loss so can't complain.



14/06

+£156.43. A bit of an up and down day with some of the markets recently being unplayable as there's no fucking money in the queue once the race turns in play. The end is nigh ....














What's It Going To Be Then Eh?


With the Summer upon us it's time to get ready for sun, sea, sex, beer, cakes and burgers! As Caan has mentioned many times it's hard to resist the lure of the boozer and a cold beer when the currant bun is shining!




Apparently the weather all depends on this 'El Nino' bollox. Now depending upon what site you look at we're either going to have the hottest summer on record ... or the coldest! These nobs can't even predict tomorrow's weather accurately so fuck knows what they are doing try to predict weeks, months or even years into the future. One thing is for sure, when that bun shows itself I'm fucking off to the seaside!

The quote above ('What's It Going To Be Then Eh?') comes from the absolutely fantastic book, and film, 'A Clockwork Orange'. I usually take a couple of books when I go to the coast by myself and there's nothing better than sitting in the sun with a cold Hoegaarden, reading a good book and chatting to the locals. This pastime can then be repeated in the evening, minus the sun of course. Sitting there reading a book like this makes you seem like a really well educated bastard, although last year I was flitting between that and a couple of Dave Courtney books! However, if you read too many of these then you end up joining the ICF and looking like this ...





We have already booked a couple of days on the coast for early June and I'm also heading off to Exeter with some friends for a bit of a jolly and some walking if weather permits. Now back in the old days we would have given it some large on the alcohol intake but like many other old farts I think that we'll be having a slow stroll, plenty of munch and maybe a beer or 2 here and there!




13/05

+£288.93. I started well and had a pretty steady day today. Nicking a few quid here and there and avoiding big losses is obviously the best way to play as you can just cruise along with the minimal amount of stress.





14/05

+£294. 59. A cracking afternoon session followed by a very mediocre effort in the evening.

After my anniversary celebrations and having a few beers and a bit of munch last weekend my weight increased by a couple of kilos and I've been working hard to get to sub 80kg and hit the 79kg mark. I'm hoping to hit 79kg by 18/05 so that I can have a re-feed day and then squeeze in 2 more leg sessions (usually 5 days apart) before I journey to Exeter. I'm dreaming of carbs and can't wait to get stuck into cereals, muffins and reduced sugar Frijj drinks! In the mean time I'm using Koko dairy free coconut oil and it's bloody great!




Tastes absolutely fantastic and is super low in calories which all helps ..... and I've just found out that they do a chocolate version (as above) oh yeah roll on 79kg!



15/05

+£199.77. No fireworks today, just very steady trading. In fact, for all of you old fuckers out there, I was the BF trader equivalent of this guy ...





Back in the Exchange days I always fancied a nice watch but I found that when I had enough cash the urge to get one subsided. I really fancied one of these ...






Now I think that they were around the £2K mark at the time but I didn't really want to walk around my locality with two grands worth of bling on my wrist plus I'm a clumsy bastard and would have knocked it or scratched into within a few hours of getting it on my wrist!

Fast forward a few years and the urge for a watch has risen again and now I fancy a Luminox ....






Still a nice watch in my opinion and not so expensive at around the £250 mark. However, when browsing around online I came across this one ...





£14.99 from Argos and I also get a 10% discount!! Job done ...



16/05

+£414.92. I must have spent at least an hour today trawling the shelves of my local Asda in search of low fat/high carb food sources. I'm a real short sighted fucker so I had to hold each carton/packet/jar right up to my nose and peer over my glasses to check the relevant values per 100g. I felt like a right old codger, but eventually came away with Cornflakes, cinnamon bagels, pancakes, chocolate coconut milk/oil, honey, pasta, rice cakes, etc. Roll on Wednesday 18/05!

As  for the trading .... well I only traded 34 races (it was a Monday) but traded like a beast and only had 1 loss! Well happy!



17/05

+£205.97. I hit the gym this morning completely drained of carbs/glycogen and when I weighed-in I was sub 80kg at 79.7kg. That's the lightest I have been for many years, maybe at least 20 years or even more!

I couldn't resist having a quick journey to Home Bargains, Iceland and Poundstretcher to see if I could pick up some more carb laden foodstuffs and came away with a nice pack of scones ... refeed day tomorrow!

I was just trundling along today and then had a £100+ win late on in the evening which made the day a bit more respectable.



18/05

+£187.67. I ate SO much today that I felt ill! A shed load of carbs went down very nicely. In fact I ate 13 meals all spaced out over a 24 hour period ... yummy!



19/05

+£243.58. I had a bit of munch left over from yesterday so it would have been rude not to finish it off! I also decided to have a day off from the gym and get ready for another big push over the next week before I go to Exeter.



20/05

-£44.44. Back to the diet and training regime!

I had a terrible start to the day and before I knew it I was almost £300 down! However, this is going to happen every now and then and it's just a case of remaining calm and cracking on as normal.





I don't set targets as such but I had it in my head that I'd be happy if I could get the loss to below £200 by the close of play, so it was just a case of playing carefully and chipping away as per normal. As soon as I got a few small wins under my belt I was back in the groove and was happy to finish the day with a loss of less than fifty quid.



21/05

+£123.66. No matter how many races you trade over the years you can still occasionally get 'caught in the headlights'.




Sometimes you can find yourself in a nice green position but almost paralysed as you try and decide whether to take the green on offer or hold out and wait for more. I've had a couple of races recently where I have either bailed out way too early or held on too long. I still have a lot to learn and my mouse dexterity and speed (fucking old codger git) needs to improve a bit ...



22/05

+£156.96. A fairly quiet Sunday and only 23 races traded so not a bad result.



23/05

+£4.41. What a fucking complete waste of a day!



24/05

+£35.93. A VERY frustrating day! So I thought 'fuck it' I'll buy myself something and decided to go for a new video camera. I've been thinking about getting one for quite a while now and have been looking at the GoPro range. I looked around at a few reviews and decided on the Hero 4 Silver and then remembered that Caan did some GoPro capture of his snowboard holiday and after speaking to him he confirmed that he also has that model ..... so off to Argos I go!

Caan also has the 'Pre-Race Trading Guide' promo currently going at the moment which gives you three months of 'The Geeks Toy' for free if you part with £39 which can't be bad at all!

I've just noticed that the promo ends on 27/05 but if you ask him nicely he might extend it to the end of May?

In fact I might even offer an in-running training course myself, although it would be a lot more expensive than £39!



















Binge City



I managed to hit the 80kg on the 30th and I was well happy! However, the following day was my wedding anniversary so it was a case of guzzle as much beer as possible.





We had a damn good afternoon/evening session and I think that I had at least 8 pints, a curry, champagne and some slices of cake!




I can't remember what I munched when I got home but I do know that over the next 2 days I munched the remainder of the curry, jacket potatoes with cheese, crisps, cakes, milkshakes, several bowls of cereals, tuna and chicken. I just couldn't stop eating!

It was back to the gym and diet on 04/05 and much to my surprise I had only gone up to 81.3kg. Apparently the 'cheat' days increase the metabolism back to normal levels, after dieting for weeks, and therefore the body starts to burn the calories more effectively and doesn't try and hold on to as much fat and carbs as when you are dieting. In fact I stumbled across the use of 're-feed' days and found some interesting videos on YouTube. Apparently it's good to load up on carbs every 7-10 days during your dieting (or whenever you feel drained) as this kicks the metabolism back in and you actually lose weight more effectively. They are brilliant videos to watch when you are on a strict diet and feel absolutely knackered and fatigued!






I'm going to diet down to 79kg eating mostly protein and then have a re-feed day and smash into the weetabix, muffins, bread, chips and anything else that is tasty, low in fat but high in carbs!



29/04

+£115.92. I had a great start to the day, then lost most of it, and then chipped away to nick a few quid.



30/04

+£297.93. A right mixed bag of results today but one cracking trace in Ireland saved the day!


This is what Jurgen Klopp would look like if he was 80kg!






02/05

+£169.19. I didn't fare too well in the first few races of the day but then had a steady Bank Holiday afternoon.



03/05

+£214.14. Nice steady trading today.



04/05

+£198.51. It was back to the gym this morning for a lovely quad workout followed by a super steady day of trading with loads of small to medium sized wins.



05/05

+£328.52. I had a cracking start to the day but flagged a bit in the evening and gave some back doh!



06/05

+£108.76. One of those days where every time I won I would give it back a few races later! Strangely enough I fared better in the evening and managed to make some sort of profit on the day.



07/05

+£121.07. I wasn't going anywhere fast today and was drawing a blank until I had a decent win before giving some back again doh!



09/05

+£154.17. I had a day off yesterday as the weather was so fine and I indulged in a few beers and a bit of munch in the garden in the sunshine.

I had a nice £120+ win in the late afternoon but gave almost £100 back in a couple of subsequent races so all-in-all I did well to finish ahead on the day.



10/05

+£322.53. I had a really good start today and traded well all afternoon. Things seemed to quieten down somewhat in the evening but I still managed to nick a few more quid here and there ...



11/05

+£214.60. Another poor start put me behind early so I had to knuckle down and chip away to get myself back in front. I then kicked on in the late afternoon before winning practically fuck all in the evening session!



12/05

+£240.95. I had a cracking start to the day and then pretty much won fuck all in the evening doh!