It's Fucking Nips Again!

It warms up a bit and it feels as if Summer is close and then it gets fucking nips again! To be honest I don't give a shit at the moment as I'm too busy in the gym busting my bollox trying to go sub 80kg. I think that I'm looking pretty sharp but everyone is telling me that I look ill and malnourished! With 7 days to the end of the month I'm currently at 81.8kg. So sub 80kg here I come and then I can re-assess where I need to be to achieve that super ripped physique.

This was me at the start of the year ....

If I can get pussy looking that fat then the Thanet girlies will be like flies around shit once I unveil my chiselled bod down on the coast!

So when I'm shredded and sooper tanned I'll look damn good bowling along the beach in a pair of these ...

I've had that urge to spend some cash and treat myself to a couple of small things so got myself some Nikes from good old Amazon. Unfortunately, unlike moneybags Caan, I can't yet afford holidays in the Bahamas etc!

As usual my house is looking like a pikeys caravan as my living room is full of clothes, kitchen cupboards and work surfaces, chairs, bikes, guitars, etc. I'm in the process of tidying up our small kitchen and after removing the old floor tiles the surface of the concrete base was all over the shop.

Luckily as I was busting my nuts on the cross trainer in the gym I heard on the radio that Wickes were doing 3 bags of cement for the price of 2, so off I went. While there I had a mooch about and spotted kitchen cabinets being sold for £9.99 each in the clearance section. Fuck me ... I bought four of them! All I need to do now is move the remainder of the shit (tall fridge, tall freezer, more cupboards, tumble dryer, etc) out of the kitchen so that I can lay a concrete base (as long as my cement mixer is still working). Watch this space for the fun and games that are about to ensue ...


The trading has been a bit hit and miss and that's probably down to the start of the flat season where it takes a while to get into the swing of things. It's particularly hard trying to trade the sprints as things change so quickly and quite often the camera angles on some tracks don't help either.



23/04

-£13.07. I had a relatively big loss early on where I nicked a few quid in the win market, switched to the place market late on and had over £300 on the third only to realise that the trainer had 2 runners in the race and some cunt had decided to switch the cap colours. I backed the blue hat close home only to find out that it was the other fucking horse! What a prick! I didn't feel too happy but surprisingly I didn't scream or shout (probably because I was too knackered from my gym and diet). I knew that I would get it back over some period of time so just continued as normal. Once I had got the loss to under £200 I felt slightly happier only to lose another £50 odd and go back to minus £220+. In the old Xchange days we would often equate this to swimming in the ocean and being swept out to sea by a big motherfucker wave. You then start to struggle against the tide and gradually make your way back to shore only to find that when you are almost there another fuck-off wave comes and sweeps you back out again!

I put my head down and plodded on and had a bit of luck in one of the Irish races and got the loss back to under £100 and from there it was a case of just chipping away @ Wolves, nicking a few quid here and there and jumping on the spinning bike in-between races.



24/04

-£18.20. Struggle Sunday!



25/04

+£316.61. Probably my busiest day of the year so far with 59 races traded. A nice steady day with minimal losses.

I was watching a few inspirational weight-loss videos on YouTube and realised that I could add a few things to my diet so I scooted off to Asda's and picked up the usual gear (chicken breasts, eggs, bananas, etc) but also bought some rice cakes, high bran cereal, lactose free milk, coconut milk and yogurt.

I'm currently down to 81.2 kg from 95.3kg at the start of the year. I'm going to go down to 78kg and then re-assess my diet and training program in order to retain weight and hopefully shed a little bit more bodyfat.

Pictures of me in my pants to follow shortly ....



26/04

+£256.00. I had a good steady start to the day but come the evening I had other things distracting me and also felt absolutely knackered. I didn't make much progress and actually quit and hit the sack ultra early.



27/04

+£95.71. A bit of a hit and miss day today with plenty of wins and losses.



28/04

+£210.25. I didn't make much progress in the early afternoon but then improved in the evening and managed to nick a few quid.

My Name's Dave and I'm a Wagon Wheelaholic!

.... but I haven't had one for a week (round of applause!). However, I have now become a big fan of Weetabix and I am munching down dozens of the fuckers! I know that they are supposed to be relatively healthy (low sugar, high fibre, etc) but they are sooper high in calories and I'm chomping down four at a time and still coming back for more!

When you can get a pack of 72 for £4 in Asda the it's silly not to buy at least 2 packs, even if you already have a pack of 48 indoors!


Now in the last couple of weeks the Betfair live video service has been at an all-time low with either stuttering pictures, pics switching to ATR (which is as much use as a fucking chocolate teapot) or just not working at all. It can be real frustrating when you are trying to trade and the pictures are wank. In cases like this you just have to try and remain calm and even refrain from trading in-running when the service is so degraded. Add to this that the volume level on RUK HD for some strange reason is set for the hard of hearing, along with the fact that Lydia H seems to prattle on faster and faster these days it can be easy to go on tilt and I must admit that I have felt well tilty on 1 or 2 occasions over the last couple of weeks. So as mentioned above ... stay calm and don't get suckered into trading when you are not feeling level headed.




30/03

+£130.04. I had a good steady start to the day but faltered somewhat early evening. Sometimes I can feel knackered as the day progresses and it gets a bit harder to keep your concentration.



31/03

+£101.84. A poor start to the day today but I just put my head down and plodded on and just about made it into 3 figure territory.



01/04

+£3.03. I traded 45 races today but it was a right mixed bag of results. The only positive is that the more that you trade, the less of the thieving, robbing, cunting, piss take of a premium charge that BF can steal from your account each Wednesday.

We decided to have a much needed Spring cleanout in our gaff so I put one of my old bikes on eBay along with the wife's foldup bike. I said that I would buy her a proper mountain bike so started to have a little look around on the internet (as you do). Before long I was eyeing up a full suss bike for myself (although I already have one) and it looked like a bargain at around £1K. I decided to pop along to Lakeside and have a butchers and started in Evans as I really should be wearing a decent helmet. Unfortunately after trying on a few lids my hair became 'un-gelled' and I was left with a whispy mop of now pinkish hair on my crust! Now this was not funny, but luckily there was a Home Bargains store, so I shot in and purchased some hair gel for 99p. Now when I reached the till the woman rang it up and said 'That'l be £10.99 please'. I almost fell over and looked at her in astonishment. I was like 'What ... £10.99 .... eh!' when she came out with the classic line ... 'April Fool!'. Oh how the staff and customers found it so amusing, she did me like a kipper. The thing is that I would have gladly paid £10.99 as my barnet was all over the shop and scaring little children!



02/04

+£259.53. A much better day today. I only managed to trade 26 races but only had one small loss.

One of the kitchens was being refurbed where my missus works and they were about to chuck a perfectly good kitchen on the skip so we decided to do the right thing and take it apart and transport it home. It went quite well but we now have several kitchen units, work surfaces and a cooker sitting in our living room on top of all of the other crap that we are currently housing for each of my 4 kids.

We also took the opportunity to go back to Lakseside to test out bike sizes for the missus. Now she is a short arse with short legs that don't bend too well, so seeing her attempting to mount a tiny 16inch MTB in the shop was quite funny. It was even funnier when she couldn't get off the thing!

We ended up at Halfords where she tried a few junior bikes and we found a nice one that fitted her, so that was my treat.



03/04

As the weather looked OK we decided to bugger off to the coast for our first visit of the year (apart from New Years). The currant bun was out in the morning and we settled down outside for a few pints. It was sunny but the wind was slightly nips.

I had forgotten my shorts, which turned out to be quite lucky as when I woke up after our afternoon sleep my bugle, ears and forehead were a lovely shade of pink and my purple'ish hair had gone blonde in the sun!

As we hit The Belgian Bar in the evening for more fun and merriment Milos behind the bar exclaimed 'What the fuck is that on your head' when he cast his eyes on on my blonde locks (I've always had no hair on my head whenever I've been down there previously). Despite it being a Sunday night it got quite lively with one or two local guitarists belting out some tunes accompanied by some of Thanets finest drunken singers.

We pretty much just drunk beer for 2 days and had a great time. There was also a fantastic storm on the second night which at one point felt as if it was going to destroy the Travelodge but once the rain stopped it was good to stand outside for a bit and watch the storm over the coast and sea. I actually finished the night with a pot of tea instead of a Hoegaarden!



05/04

+£208.23. 26 trades and only one small loss which helped pay for some of our small break.

Sat outside The Belgian Bar in the morning with another pot of tea and it was very nice indeed, just sitting there in the warm sun. We did have a similar day last year, albeit in the height of Summer, where we had all of our stuff packed for the return journey but thought 'Fuck it let's book another B&B and stay for another day' ... that was good. Although we didn't go too mad on the beer front we still had quite a few and surprisingly I felt quite refreshed after 2 days on the piss .... must have been that tea!



06/04

+£58.41. A real skinny day today.



07//04

+£260.90. Only traded 23 races today but it was one of those days where some medium sized wins added up nicely at the close of play.



08/04

+£142.74. One of those up and down days today.



09/04

+£617.92. I traded 47 races today and it was one of those days where everything just fell into place and it seemed impossible to lose. If only all days were like this!



10/04

+£352.34. One of my most consistent days of trading today where I was picking up medium sized wins left, right and centre, which felt quite strange but very nice indeed.



11/04

-£38.55. I was chipping away on a most un-inspiring of Monday's when I made one of the most stupid bets that I've ever made and dumped over £100 in one race which put me behind on the day. Ho hum ...



12/04

+£58.36. Felt like a bit of a struggle today.

I've managed to get my weight down to 83.2 kg and my bodyfat reading of 24.8% (on my scales which are obviously crap at assessing bodyfat percentage because I must be closer to sub 15%) however that's down from 32.3% at the start of 2016 so I'm well happy. If I get to below 80kg by the end of the month then £50 goes to cancer research and if I don't then £100 goes to cancer research!

The sun finally made a long overdue appearance this morning and it fely well hot even though the temperature was probably only around the 15 degreee mark. I put my old La-Z-boy recliner in the garden and soaked up some rays for over an hour and bot it felt good! Roll on the summer and cycling and beering down by the coast.

Something like this which was one of my cycling efforts last year. Outside the Belgian Bar at 07:40 before catching the train to Whitstable and cycling back ...

13/04

+£103.84. A bit of a rollercoaster today ...



14/04

+£153.13. I had a good afternoon and was coasting along nicely but then I had a relatively poor early evening and gave some back doh!



15/04

-£155.96. Traded 58 races today and I was struggling from the off! Unlike one of my good previous days I found it impossible not to LOSE and I had bad trade upon bad trade. However, you're going to get bad days like this and loss limitation is key.



16/04

I was out on the piss today on 'The Major's' stag celebrations. There were a group of about 16 of us on a guided pub tour down around Leicester Square and it was a real crack. Started at 15:00 and I was safely home at around 22:0  being the sensible chap that I am!



17/04

+£304.09. I only traded 20 races today (Sunday) but managed 2 or 3 good medium sized wins which added up to a nice total and helped numb the pain of Friday losses.



18/04

-£22.10. I was chipping away on a typical boring Monday and then I ran into a few losing trades and ended up down on the day, which was frustrating to say the least. I did however go out for a beer (I took my own Bavaria 0% Wit Beers) to celebrate my brother-in-laws 60th birthday, so all was not lost.



19/04

+£53.19. Today was SO fucking frustrating!! As usual I started like a right wanker novice and was soon £150+ down and struggling. I then struck back with 2 lovely trades and then backed a short one in the place market and the cunt of a jockey didn't ride it out and it got done on the line doh! I fucking hate bent or completely useless/incompetent/thick jockeys. At the end of the day I had traded 49 races and felt as if I had been struggling in quicksand!



20/04

+£431.87. Traded 50 races today and had plenty of good trades and should really have won over a monkey but a few loose trades let me down late on in the day.



21/04

+£40.05. I spunked over £150 mid-afternoon on a horse that fell at the first fence and spent the remainder of the day and evening chipping away to finish slightly ahead.



22/04

+£394.13. Traded 57 races today and only had a few small losses here and there so it worked out quite well!

Some Fucker Nicked My Toilet Roll!

In my quest for a super chiselled body I've taken to walking instead of jumping in the car every time that I need to go somewhere. My local Asda is only about 1 mile away so with the recent nice weather I've grabbed the opportunity to do plenty of walking to and from Asda with my shopping in my small backpack. Sometimes I take a detour via the local parks to extend the journey and burn even more calories.

So there I was last Friday hunting out the bargains in my local Poundstretcher when I spotted a shed load of toilet rolls for £5 ..... what a bargain! I had already loaded my backpack with nutrients from Asda and had another plastic bag with Wagon Wheels and Penguins etc for the grandkids so it was convenient that the packets of bog rolls had little plastic handles.

So armed with all of these goodies I strolled across the car park to Home Bargains to get some crisps for the missus. When I got outside I had to hoist my heavy backpack onto my back so I plonked the loo rolls on the shopping trolleys and put my plastic bag on the floor. After successfully loading up I trudged home carrying the 20kg of shopping. It was only later in the day that I realised that I'd left the fucking toilet paper on the trolleys! I was gutted that some thieving bastard had probably legged it off with my bargain £5 buy! On my next visit to Home Bargains I asked if anyone had handed in my loo roll and obviously they hadn't ... gutted!

18/03

-£111.70. I had a poor start early doors as the market went violently against me in an AW race at Lingfield and then I backed O'Faolains Boy to place in The Gold Cup when Cue Card fell, only for it's legs to fall off after 2 out! So pretty pants really ....



19/03

+£2400.59. I had my biggest single race win today. I backed the 100/1 winner in one of the Irish races at 1000 on BF at the start of the race and gradually traded out for a £2200 profit ... happy days!

20/03

+£343.56. Buoyed by yesterday's success I charged into the markets today with renewed vigour and had a cracking day. I played more aggressively and despite a few losses I did quite well.



21/03

-£11.68. I tried to continue my aggressive strategy today but it was a typical Monday's racing and opportunities were few and far between. I probably would have made a small profit if I hadn't forgotten that I had pressed the pause button on my Sky remote control and therefore in one race on RUK I was watching pics that were about 40 seconds behind what was actually happening!

I decided to venture out for a few sherberts in the evening. Monday night is karaoke night in my local so I thought that I would break my curfew and test my reaction to a couple of beers. In fact I had four pints of Carling and didn't feel too bad at all. Unfortunately the beer eroded my discipline and I smashed into the Wagon Wheels and Penguins when I got home!

At 106 calories per bar you can do some serious damage to the daily calorie intake .... and I certainly did! I'm not too sure exactly how many bars I scoffed but it was quite a few!



22/03

+£138.49. I jumped on the scales this morning fearing that I'd gone back up over 85kg and much to my surprise I was at my lowest weight for over 20 years at 83.7kg!! Seems like I have discovered a new way to lose weight .... drink Carling and eat Wagon Wheels and Penguin bars!

I did a Google search for 'Carling Pissed' (to find a suitable picture) and hey presto I scrolled down a page and came across this pic from back in October 2013!

23/03

+£29.33. Today was a day of 'what could have been'. I noticed that Back By Midnight was about to poach a crafty early lead in the 16:00 @ Haydock so I stuck a few quid on and then traded out a bit just before the start. BBB did in fact jump off in the lead and as the price tumbed I started to phase out my position. However, the suspend monkey wanker at BF hadn't turned the race in-play and then decided to suspend it after a few furlongs, so I was left with just over £100 on BBB at 11.0 +. Now this beast was cruising along nicely in front but as they turned for home instead of kicking on the dopey cunt Nick Scholfield sat like a fucking statue and let the 2 challengers, both being driven like crazy, go bowling past. With stats like this I shouldn't have been surprised that he was so fucking incompetent ...

I pity any of the poor fuckers who might have decided to have a fiver on each of his mounts over the last 5 years!

For a second I thought that the horse must have gone wrong as he was making no effort. Then jumping the last he decided to start waving his arms about a bit and drove BBB up the backside of the one in front, before switching out and rallying near the line to finish a fast closing 1/2 length second. So instead of winning over £1K I did over £100 all because of that dozey fucking useless wank jockey Scholfield.

I'm not lying when I say that this guy (see above) could have got the horse home! So a word of warning .... Scholfield is crap!

And now a picture of Holly Willoughby ...

24/03

+£137.20. A day of plodding along ...



25/03

-£33.96. Only the 2 meetings today and I played everything incorrectly and somehow managed to lose! To be honest my concentration levels were super low as I was fucking about with other things during the racing. Poor effort really!



26/03

+£204.69. A good aggressive day today with some good wins and also 1 or 2 annoying losses.

I've picked up this annoying cold so my training has taken a back seat and my diet has come completely off the rails! Fucking Penguins and Wagon Wheels Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!



27/03



28/03

+£125.48. Small losses and wins.



29/03

+£115.92. Only one small loss today but the wins were also small!



30/03



31/03

Summer Here We Come!

Yep once again I've been lacklustre in updating my blog. My daily activity during the Winter months usually follows a set pattern which is currently: walk to the gym, train, walk home, have something to eat, tidy up, do some washing, put on the PC and trade. The evening is usually a mixture of trading, if there is evening racing, burning calories on the spinning bike or watching crap on the PC.

My diet and training have both been pretty much spot-on this year and I have gone from 95.3kg at the start of 2016 to 84.0kg.

I'm aiming to get down to at least 80kg although I'm trying to retain weight but gradually decrease my bodyfat percentage. I'd guess that once I am down to sub 80kg I'll be looking quite lean.

The trading seems to be going OK and so far we haven't had too many cancellations which always helps. My attitude has also been much more laid-back and I very rarely have a clue as to how much I have won or lost on any particular day. When I update the blog I do get quite a few nice surprises where I find that I had days much better than what I actually thought I'd had at the time!

Hopefully once I get out and about during the Summer months I'll have more interesting topics to chat about!



27/02

+£48.60. I got involved today but a few medium sized losses cancelled out my good trades.



28/02

-£162.36. Wrong weightcloth on my horse meant that I did my bollox (see previous blog entry!!!). Unfortunately this is part and parcel of the in-running game and sometimes things conspire against you that make you want to get a taxi to the track and kick someone in the bollox. However, you just have to take it on the chin and continue as normal and avoid chasing losses and possibly digging an even bigger hole!



29/02

+£240.51. A nice trade in the last race @ Wolves helped me retrieve yesterdays losses. Note that I wasn't trying to win my £160 back from yesterday I was just trading as normal, which is very important.



01/03

+£78.48. Not much happening today with mostly small wins. If you get a day like this where you feel that nothing has really happened remember that daily profits like this soon add up, especially if you can get one or 2 nice days where you can win an above average amount (whatever that may mean to you personally).

I decided to keep a real close eye on my calorific intake so spent some time compiling a table of the number of calories in each type of fruit/veg etc. I've also swapped my car for walking and now I walk to the supermarket 3 or 4 times a week.

I pick up bits and pieces and lug it all back in my backpack. My max weight carried home (approximately a mile) has been 30kg!

I chuck a load of it in a blender, add some protein powder, give it another blend with a hand mixer and hey presto goodness in a glass! Tastes bloody lovely as well!



02/03

+£162.84. Three medium sized losses cancelled out by a couple of nice wins.



03/03

-£24.44. An up and down kinda day. Having losing days is part of the game and the important thing is to try and remain calm and keep losses as small as possible. Avoid going on tilt at all times!



04/03

+£249.98. 43 races of nice steady trading. Steady, stress free trading always beats an edge of the seat style!



05/03

+£236.35. A poor start followed by some more nice steady trading. If you make a poor start to the day then don't be tempted to up stakes or chase early losses.



06/03

+£248.39. Only 21 races traded today but that included one nice win which made all of the difference.



07/03

+£145.26. Another day of unspectacular yet steady trading.



08/03

-£21.30. Up and down day of pants trading!



09/03

-£48.94. I had one of those trades today where the market flew against me in a 5F furlong sprint and I did my whole stake without being able to retrieve any of it in-running! I was probably too stubborn to take a £60+ loss and instead sat on my hands and knocked out the full £120 doh!



10/03

-£20.77. So my third losing day in a row!! Once again I had a market go violently against me in one race and I fought like a madman to keep the loss to just below £100. Now when you experience this kind of bad run it can seem as though the world and his dog are against you. Whatever you touch turns to shite and you can't buy a winning trade.

In this scenario you need to keep steady and possibly even err on the side of caution instead of going in guns blazing. At the end of the day these losses have only set me back 3 days so although it's frustrating it's not the end of the world!



11/03

+£317.00. 45 races traded today so the wins soon added up quite nicely and the angst of the last 3 days was soon forgotten.



12/03

+£177.77. Another steady day of trading.



13/03

+£128.49. I had a good start to the day and then nothing much happened!



14/03

+£131.41. A bit of an up and down day, but fortunately mostly up. These are probably the ideal kind of days for me as the higher percentage of losers to winners (and yet still achieving a profit) helps the burden of the weekly premium charge.

Now I have been growing my hair this year but it has reached that stage where it becomes a pain in the ass and I'm tempted to shave it all off! However, I decided to try something new, wild and wacky ......

Yep I dyed my barnet Punk Purple! Now the original idea was to try silver but that didn't take to my hair so I decided to go for something a bit bolder.



15/03

+£99.70. Steady but small wins equals nearly £100.

And this was me after paying a visit to my local barber and also having a shave!

I did notice 1 or 2 of the MILFs in the gym giving me a look (and obviously undressing me in their imagination). It's only when you get the odd person staring at your crust that you remember that your hair is bright purpley pinkey!



16/03

I've already chosen my next colour! Something like this ...

17/03

+£396.62. The sun came out with a vengeance today so I hopped on the bike and went for a jolly good cycle around my old haunts. It was even warm enough to stop for a cuppa in the park!

I traded 44 races today and finished the day with a good total ... well happy!

Thick Jockeys and Thick Trainers Get On My Tits

It's Sunday 28th February as I add this post and today, once again, I lost money because of some thick cunt putting the wrong weight on a horse!

How hard can it fucking be? The trainer in question claimed that he got distracted and was fined £500. Are you having a fucking laugh? I'd be puttting the wrong weight on a horses back every fucking time if I was only going to get fined a monkey!! Anyway rant over ....


I've been plodding away as normal and to be honest February hasn't been as bad as some previous Febs that I've experienced. There haven't been that many cancellations but this has been offset by the fucking wanky service that Betfair call Live Video. They easily have the worst customer service of any company that I have ever dealt with!

I'd prefer them to come clean and say 'to be honest we don't give a flying fuck about live video'. At least we will know where all we stand. Anyway rant over ...

I did manage to up my stakes on a few occasions and this worked well and hopefully I can continue into March and beyond. If I can also find the motivation to do my flat racing notes again then that'll give me that extra edge that helped me have a few nice wins back in 2014.

Aside from that my training and diet have been spot on and I've lost almost 10kg since the start of the year. The sun actually made an appearance in early Feb so I jumped into the thermal underwear and went for a good morning walk (the first of many hopefully) to burn some extra calories.

If I can kncok off another 5kg in March I should look quite lean and be ready for a Summer of sun, beach, sex and booze!

So let's catch up on my daily progress ...



14/02

+£166.24. 23 trades and only 2 small losses.



15/02

-£1.15. One of those up and down days with nothing to show at the end.

 

16/02

+£89.19. There were only 2 meetings today so any profit was more than welcome.



17/02

+£67.08. I had a hospital appointment during the day so only managed to play a handful of races in the evening so once again any profit was received with open arms.



18/02

+£91.71. Another day of win some, lose some.

 

19/02

+£83.84. Today's wins were minimalistic with my best trade being a win of just £20!

Once again I jumped into the thermal underwear and went for a long walk around the local attractions, one of them being a nearby park that I've probably only ever visited a couple of times in over 25 years of living here!

20/02

+£125.32. Finally back into 3 figure territory!



21/02 

+£373.46. For me this kind of win makes the week worthwhile and certainly helps pay for the shopping and the gas and electricity bills!



22/02

+£25.10. And the above result helps on days where you only manage to win £25!!



23/02

+£126.46. Only 17 trades today but my 2 losses were tiny so all worked out well.



24/02

+£142.05. Steady trading today although Kempton's evening card was a waste of time. I think that I've mentioned previously that back in the day Kempton AW was one of my favourite cards but over the last couple of years it has become almost impossible to play IR there on RUK and win any decent cash.

I stumbled across this picture of the on-course in-running boys rushing to get to their corporate box seats before the start of the first race!

25/02

+£44.40. If you keep losing every time you've just had a win then you win fuck all at the end of the day!!


Today was the day to oil the cogs on the bike and venture a bit further afield and see what was happening down by the canal and burn some calories in the process.

26/02

+£131.94. I started well and finished well but had a poor middle, unlike my abs which are starting to bloom!

It was another fine morning so once again I jumped on my bike, put my head down and cycled. before I knew it I was out in the sticks and it was a very pleasant ride indeed.

27/02



28/02



29/02

I'm Lee Marvin!

For all of those not familiar with cockney rhyming slang this means 'I'm bloody starving hungry!'.

My diet and training went REALLY well during January and I started February in great fashion, walking to and from the gym (clad in my new thermal long johns) instead of taking the car and cutting back to an almost zero carb diet. It definitely made me more irritable and tired but so far I have lost 15lbs since the start of the year! I'm hoping to shift another 5kg and the associated bodyfat during February.

As mentioned previously I have increased my trading stakes and have found it to be quite straightforward. The racing, as expected, has been quite sparse during the winter months but I've managed the odd good day here and there which is great to keep the motivation high.

The weather doesn't lend itself to going out on the piss so I'm hibernating and trying to build a stash of beer tokens for this year's assault on the nudist beach and south-east coast drinking establishments. I'd like to do a bit more cycling this year along the coast so that's another good reason to jump on the spinning bike for an hour each evening. 



01/02

-£104.76. Oh what a fine start to the month! The damage was done in 2 races where I had to exit both positions when the market moved suddenly against me doh!

02/02

+£58.92. It's important to try and get a winning day on the board after a losing day, even if it is small win as it helps you get back on the straight and narrow.



03/02

+£221.49. Steady trading boosted by one nice win in Ireland.



04/02

+£463.12. I started the day poorly but then traded well and had a cracking late afternoon. I traded 46 races so there was plenty of opportunity for a Thursday in February!



05/02

+£85.87. Another day of steadiness.



06/02

+£245.87. Today was a day of mixed emotions. One of my boys fancied Leicester to win 2-0 or 3-0 so I had a fiver on each and greened him up for £170+ so he was happy.

I also had a good trade in the Hunters Chase at Leopardstown where the brave You Must Know Me bravely led from start to finish only to collapse shortly after the winning line. That kinda threw me a bit and to be honest I felt quite sad.

07/02

+£173.38. Not a bad day at all for a Sunday.



08/02

-£168.17. So I managed to give back all of yesterdays profits! I went behind early with one of those trades where all of a sudden my exit point had disappeared followed by a similar, albeit smaller loss, after which I tried hard but just couldn't recoup any of my losses doh!


 
09/02

+£99.80. Once again I had a terrible start to the day! However, I sat tight and stuck to my normal strategies and managed to finish the day in front.



10/02

-£16.14. Yet another poor start to the day but at least I won £4 on the footy!

11/02

+£453.16. Thursday's are fast becoming my favourite day of the week!



12/02

-£3.71. Whereas Friday's are becoming somewhat frustrating! I had the grandkids in the house today and true to form they screamed, shouted and made noise all day long. They were especially noisy during the 19:30 @ Dundalk where I clicked twice instead of once, vastly overstaked and scrambled to get out with a loss of just over £100, whereupon I did my own screaming and shouting!!



13/02

+£85.95. Today was a struggle. I tend to find Saturdays quite tough, in fact if you read back over my last few posts it seems that I tend to find most days tough these days!

Freezing My Bollox Off In Brighton!

Wow how time flies! I usually update my blog an a daily basis but it seems as though I've been a right lazy boy of late! To be honest I've been making a big push on my diet and exercise and work on my blog has taken a bit of a back seat.

The trading has been a mixture of good, fair and a waste of time. To be honest this is probably the leanest time of the year due to the lack of racing made even skinnier by cancellations due to the weather, so it's largely a case of patience and take what you can  ...



26/12

+£238.45.



27/12

+£100.59.



28/12

+£203.55.



29/12

+£104.87.

Ramsgate

We embarked on our normal New Year excursion to Ramsgate and this year we smashed it to pieces on the alcohol consumption front!

This year we spent three days by the coast and as usual most of our time was spent in The Belgian Cafe where I slurped down as many Hoegaardens as is humanly possible.

The weather actually wasn't too bad at all and once again we had a cracking time. Although we drunk quite a bit we didn't stay out extra late on most nights as we didn't want to get too mangled and all-in-all it was a great policy as we had 5 or 6 great sessions over the 3 days.

OK, so it wasn't exactly T-shirt weather and I did get some strange looks as I stood proudly outside The Belgian Cafe but it certainly freshened the body and head ..... leading to the ability to drink even more!

And after the first 2 days of our food and beer assault I was weighing-in at a fatty arse 95.3kg!!

02/01

+£41.21.



03/01

+£66.37.



04/01

+£2.45.



05/01

+£21.07.



06/01

+£159.36.



07/01

+£32.06.



08/01

+£75.81.



09/01

+£242.05. Today was slightly frustrating to say the least. As they lined-up for one of the Irish races I noticed that Peter From Paris looked as though it was about to get an easy lead. At that point I recalled that I was sure that this horse had won me over £1k in a race maybe 2 years ago (see 20/10)

Anyway Peter strides out, I back it and it's bowling along nicely in front. As the race progresses my green starts to look nice, then very nice and then damn good. I stood to win over £7k on Peter who still led turning from home so I held my position in anticipation of a bumper payday. This time around poor old Peter runs out of energy with a couple to jump, still looking to hold every chance, and I lose £20+ on the race. When I look at the Geeks Ladder I could have greened for just over £1K!!! Aggghh I was not too pleased! What a fucking greedy nobber!



10/01

+£872.49. I was still cursing yesterdays missed opportunity when I dragged myself out of bed. Sunday's don't usually yield much so I nick what I can but I had a nice surprise in one of the Irish races where someone layed me the wrong odds and I managed to nick a few quid! Kinda made up for yesterdays missed oppo.



11/01

+£117.31.



12/01

+£46.03.



13/01

+£149.85.



14/01

+£67.01. I knew that we were heading off to the coast for the weekend so it was just a case of nicking what I could that could be spent on alcoholic refreshment.



15/01

+£111.98. My diet and training have been top notch and I've already managed to lose 5.4 kg since the start of the year!

Brighton

So we're just back from a couple of day down in Brighton (birthday treat from the missus) and we had a right cracking time. We did our usual tour of the local boozers (and there's literally dozens to choose from) but we didn't go too mad. We had an early start on Saturday and unfortunately the Wetherspoons was the only boozer that opened early enough!

After having a livener in there we marched down the side streets and ended up slurping a couple of pints of Caledonian Three Hop in The White Rabbit.

The early morning beers were then  followed by the most delicious burger that I have ever tasted from a place called Burger Brothers.

In the evening we hit the town again and stumbled across a wit beer named Camden Wit in The Royal Sovereign.

Here I am on my third pint and looking a bit red in the face! In my opinion it might even rival Hoegaarden as my favourite tipple! It was great to sit in a really nice boozer with an open fire going with a cracking pint of lager.


On the way back to the B&B we stopped in for a quick Guinness in The Fiddlers Elbow.

We were up at the crack on Sunday and had a livener in The Pump House. We then decided to stroll along the front and into Kemptown as it seemed a good idea at the time.

Fuck me it was bitter and it felt as though my lugholes were blocks of ice! We stumbled up the steep stairs from the promenade and into the high street, trying to take our time as we were a bit early for The Barley Mow (opening time 12:00) and my first pint of Hoegaarden. This is the place where I sampled my first ever pint of Hoegaarden, a few years back, and last week I contacted them via Facebook to make sure that it was still being served, to which they replied 'yes'. Well I was absolutely bursting for a piss and luckily The Golden Cannon was already open so we popped in for a quick one.

The place is decorated with dozens of pictures of racehorses, jockeys and trainers etc and I think that the guv'nor owns a horse or 2, although I never got to ask him about it. It filled-up quite quickly with regulars and it seems like a cracking boozer with a very pleasant and efficient barmaid as well! We then scooted down to The Barley Mow, I order a pint of Hoegaarden to which the young barmaid replies 'we don't have any!!!'. I couldn't fucking believe it! I asked if they had any other wheat beer to which she replied 'no', so we fucked off down the road to The Hand in Hand for a pint of Hacker Schorr.

The weather was slightly milder in the evening so we strolled along the front again, this time past The Grand and setup camp in front of the fire in The Royal Sovereign again and slurped more Camden Wit ... oh joy! A fantastic couple of days down in a very chilly Brighton!

18/01

+£49.01. Only the two meetings today so any profit was welcome.



19/01

-£51.65. The obligatory losing day where once again we only had the two meetings.



20/01

+£197.64. Four meetings today so a better chance of making some cash.



21/01

+£210.06. I was in a nice groove today and felt happy throughout the day.



22/01

+£180.85. Another steady day of trading today.



23/01

+£195.91. Yet another steady day of trading with my profits bossted by wins on the footy and dogs!

24/01

+£20.72. Sunday & only 2 meetings = small profit!



25//01

+£114.68. 18 trades and only one small loss, so not too bad for a Monday.



26/01

+£94.65. Another steady day.



27/01

+£431.68. I had a cracking start today and then settled down for some steady trading to boost the profits.

28/01

-£78.82. Not such a cracking day today! I dropped over £100 in one race on 2 bad trades in the win market followed by a lousy bet in the place market doh!



29/01

+£281.23. Plenty of racing with no spectacular wins or losses added up nicely at the end of the day.




30/01

+£200.19.



31/01

+£221.25