Even MORE Gambling

Seeing as I have suddenly got back into betting due to the increased temperature affecting my brain presumably I shall carry on discussing it.

Today Roger squeeeezed past Haas keeping my bet from yesterday alive, I may lay him now seeing as he was slightly shaky although I haven't checked who he has next so may leave it for now.

At this stage of the French betting gets harder as the odds are much more realistic therefore chances of good wins from outright betting goes out the window, there is obviously still money in in running matches but as I am working all day it makes it pretty difficult. I have therefore turned my head to Wimbledon to see if there are any interesting prices before either someone does really well in the French and before the draw is made.

Although I can't state this as a fact as I simply don't know I am guessing this is the best odds in recent years you could get on the realistic candidates to win Wimbledon...that probably doesn't make sense but over the last few years Federer has dominated and therefore made it pointless wasting your money on him in case he doesn't win. Now there is realistic threat from Nadal, Murray and to a lesser extent Djokovic and a few big outsiders the draw opens up a bit. At the moment here are some of the prices:

Federer - 11/5
Nadal - 14/15
Murray - 9/2
Djokovic - 10/1

Am I the only one who thinks these are really good prices? Of course picking one is slightly more difficult. Outside of the 'big four' here are a few of my picks.

Roddick - 35/1 - Roddick admittedly not at his best at present still has a huge serve, knows this is probably his best chance of winning a grand slam these days and given the right draw could easily sneak through a few rounds.
Verdasco - 79/1 - A real overachiever last year, beat Murray and some other big players but was poor in the French. Is a bit of a gamble as he could be one of these players that doesn't like grass blah blah blah but I think he has the potential to go far.
Soderling - 84/1 - Wouldn't have dreamt of putting him on this list until he beat Nadal at the French but... he beat Nadal at the French meaning he is either the luckiest person in the world or actually quite good. Big server, not bad at the net and some huge shots which could punish anyone on the grass.
Monfils - 299/1 - At the moment is still in the French and doing well, he won junior Wimbledon not that long ago and has been hanging around the top 10 for the last couple of seasons. Surely this price is far too large?
Berdych - 399/1 - A personal favourite player of mine, the Czech is a big server and decent player to watch. May have been off the boil of late but at this huge price may be worth a punt. If he can get a good draw he could easily pick off some of the lower seeded players, fingers crossed he can avoid the big four early on though.

I still haven't decided quite yet what to go for but will report back as soon as I do. I definitely feel a few little bets now and a few more once the draw is made may be a good shout. Let me know if anyone is still reading these blogs now I don't put photos up everyday now!

Two Betting Blogs in Two Days!!!

I am just watching Rafa playing pants in the French and it has left me with a betting dilemma. his odds have gone down to 1.65 for him to win against Soderling which is about as good odds as you will ever get for Rafa to beat anyone these days but he is still playing badly and is 2-1 down so should I back him.

Alternatively should I back Murray to win the tournament now, with the potential to lay him off if he gets quite far? His odds are 13 at present and with Rafa potentially about to go out it would certainly open up his half of the draw, although I realistically can't see him winning the French.

Final thought is whether to back Fed now? He was my pick at the beginning of the tournament although I didn't actually back him, Djokovic has since gone out leaving him a (relatively) simple route to the final with the potential to play either a very out of form/tired Rafa (if he even wins this match) or a Scottish tosser who will probably be out by this stage anyway. What to do....???

Betting

Tonight involved a bit of betting. I watched a bit of the tennis which I thoroughly enjoyed, bet on Chelsea to win the FA cup after they went a goal down and also had a Chelsea & Rangers double which came off. Unfortunately I ended up making a loss by betting on a bloody reality TV show in Britain's Got Talent. It was my own stupidity which lost me the bet which was even more annoying. Having watched a bit of it this week and hearing some rave reviews about a Saxophonist (or whatever they like to be called) I felt he was a good bet, also he was on as the last act of the final (and traditionally the later on an act is the more they are remembered, hence more votes). I stuck some money on him thinking that he had a great shot of being in the top 3. With SuBo as a huuuuge favourite she was bound to be one of the top 3 the other spot could be fought out amongst the two big dance troops and maybe a young singer. So I felt it was a good shot particularly as his starting price was 14/1 which got even higher by the time I got the bet on.

Anyway to my amazement Betfair then suspended betting as the final 3 was announced. All my plans to lay him as soon as he was named in the final 3 went out the window so knowing he was unlikely to actually win I was kind of hoping he wouldn't be named in the top 3. He was. Rubbing salt in the wound as he was named the third best. Anyway enough rambling hopefully everyone is enjoying their sunny weekend, it certainly brings a smile to the face of everyone which can only really be a good thing, even at the time when I am really starting to regret doing this damn masters. Far too much work...and to think I have a whole dissertation to start is not a feeling I like at all. Today I thought of what my day may involve in 2 weeks time when this placement is over. Wake up, go to the gym, play some tennis do some dissertation, do some back rehab (I am now in intensive training to fix my back which has been buggered for far too long now) and then get plastered. Hopefully this fitness regime will carry on for as long as I don't have a job, and the drinking regime will go on for as long as I have someone to drink with (although this is not a necessity).

1 Month ago, 1 Month ago, 1 Month ago, 1 Month ago

J aside, 1 Month ago seems to be popping up on my blog a lot at the moment, where have all the bloggers gone? Surely dissertations, final exams, work and other things haven't got in the way of a 5 minute blog space? Anyway I'm still not enjoying myself on placement here is a prime example of what has been happening. Every day we have a 20minute break at 10:30, after doing bugger all, all morning my boss finally said let's go rehab one of the patients together at around 10:25. We went to see him and he was drugged up to the eyeballs and not ready to do anything, so she said just do some basic stuff while he's asleep finishing at 10:40, she would see another patient and we could then all go to break at 10:40. 2 minutes later she reappeared stating that her and the other physios were going to break now and would see me down there. I finished up had to walk the long way round to the staff room as she has the only key to get through the short way. Poured myself a cup of tea, had one sip and was told it was end of break and had to get back to the ward. I made a point of not pouring it away and washing it up, leaving a full cup on the sink, she asked if I was going to wash it up so I said I would come back and finish it at lunch and walked off. I think she gathered I was pissed off. She then spent the rest of the day either shunning me or involving me in their shit hen weekend coming up. I really can't take much more of this.

Well no one seems to have blogged about the weekend where I think we all had a great time, the darts banter was quality. I lost my voice completely the next day, which made communicating with patients rather tough, but I had that sexy Georgie Thompson quality to my voice which makes me very hot. Had another couple of incidents with a couple of the student nurses, very very strange.

United lost to Barca yesterday and as much as Utd supporters and some neutrals will slate anyone for having a go at Utd's achievements I am still going to enjoy the moment. Sometimes I don't think these fans understand what the rest of us go through. I was supporting Barca from the start as will surprise no one. Yes I am bitter Utd were there instead of us, no I shouldn't support the English team as I am an Arsenal fan first and foremost and and England fan next. All other clubs are irrelevant, and supporting a rival club that should they win that extra success would lead potentially to more success is stupid. I won't go into the match too much but it was nice to see Sylvinho and Thierry picking up the cup, both were loyal players for the Gunners in their respective spells with us. Sylvinho was sold due to us having Ashley Cole and Thierry asked to leave. Normally players who leave Arsenal for success fail, I can't think of one who has been successful since leaving. Arguably Vieira won a Serie A with Juve (rescinded due to match fixing) and a Serie A with Inter this year (he didn't play much) but who else has been more successful than they would have been at Arsenal. Congratulations Thierry a true Arsenal legend who deserves success wherever he goes.

Banter

Banter is the only word that can describe my fleeting visit home, not got time for a long post as I am absolutely shattered. I did not enjoy getting up at the ridiculous time I had to in order to get back up here for work at 12 but I did it, didn't fall asleep/crash the car and made it into work so all is good. How good were the last few days by the way! I'm sure plenty of blogging will be done about it by everyone shortly and I will as well as soon as I'm more sorted.

There were over 250 photos from Saturday and a lot from Monday so they will get up on facebook at somepoint but not all of them as that is a ludicrous amount of pictures to take, God knows how we found time to drink with all that snapping away!

Placement Day 1 (again)

1st day of my new placement (placement 6 of 7) and I’m on an acute neuro ward. Lot’s of Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Brian tumours, Spinal surgery, RTAs, Motor Neurone Disease and numerous other disgusting conditions and injuries you wouldn’t wish on anyone. I can’t say I was overly looking forward to it but I certainly wasn’t dreading it as much as I have with some of the others and I also have the plus points of coming back for a long weekend over my birthday and the summer to look forward to. Anyway I arrived this morning to find I am in a team of women (Physio is a profession that has been dominated by women, particularly in the NHS only recently beginning to change). Sometimes this can have its plus points, a gentle bit of flirting, sometimes even looked after as the only male on the staff but other times it can be bad, very bad. I fear this is going to be one of those times. Today my supervisor who I quite simply have nothing in common with at all made me follow her around like a puppy watching her do things ‘the right way’ soooo infuriating. At break she said, we don’t mix in with the other physios in the staff room we generally all come down to the neuro room to have a catch up as it’s better in here with less distractions and the tea and biscuits are free. Lovely I thought (as I do like my tea) except I will be missing out on one of the only times of my day I can escape them, talk to other people including other staff I actually get on with and students. The conversation topics in the 20 min break covered the following topics and I swear there was nothing else mentioned and I’m not making this up:
· This is everyone on the neuro team (meet Linda, Barbara, Shirley, Denise……..) 30seconds
· Dirty Dancing 6minutes
· Linda’s new blue dress with a big bow 5minutes
· Shirley’s hen do 6minutes
· Men suck 2 ½ minutes
In the men suck conversation topic they commented that the last male student they had with them used to get a paper and sit in the corner of the room on his own because he disliked the conversations. They then continued to slag him off saying how he never made an effort to integrate and they enjoyed giving him a poor mark.
So tonight along with research into polyneuropathies and my brain anatomy I shall also be reading Heat and OK cover to cover so as to ‘integrate’ tomorrow! Oh the joys of physio!

The Group

What better way to finish my 7 days blogging than photos of the whole group. Here are my top 10 group photos in no particular order. The only condition I set myself was that it had to have more than 4 people in the photo and it had to preferably be random.

Here we go!!


Alex & Daz's 21st - Look at the number of heads (admittedly some are slightly random) but just squeezing that much bent into one picture is quite impressive. Shame I couldn't be bothered to open my eyes for the picture though. Gary looks slightly more interested in grinding one of the girls but I'm sure it was Kieron who got his end away at the end of this night.
Liiiiiiverpooool - After Lawrence started slashing his wrists whilst chanting the echoey tune of Liverpool it soon caught on. A classic photo down the pit of Gran Canaria.

Summer BBQ 2004 - A huge summer of pre university bent, lots of Budweiser drinking, raping the tennis club and I think I speak on behalf of pretty much everyone when I say this was one of the best summer's ever. This included two BBQs at my gaffe where Carl went off his trolley and a huge amount of alcohol was consumed. Here is a brilliant photo where everyone seems to be having a lot of fun.

Tenerife 2006 - As far as randomness goes, this is a classic. There is so much going on in this photo there is a lot to take in, from boiling water being poured onto plastic plants to TV tuning and spanish sounding names on the back of everyone's shirts, good work guys.

Alex's 18th - I tried to find some old ones to squeeze into the blog and this is about as far back as my group shots go. Even Sarka managed to get into this one. Good facial expressions from Lawrence and Gary on the end make it an interesting photo, but have I shrunk since I was 18?

Bent - So good a photo that Chopper has it as his screensaver. Only J opted for a normal pose, while some absolutely mental expressions take the faces of all others. BENNNNNNTTT.

Ghetto - Back to Tenerife 2006 and we stumbled across the ghetto, some typical Tom posing was obvious but the gangster style poses make this a very random and slightly scary photo.

Gran Canaria 2007 - If I said the similar Tenerife photo was random this one beats it by a country mile. The task... to find the most stupid pose, I think we are all winners. Just sit back and enjoy this one boys!

Old Man Night 3 - On our third and final old man night at the last time any of us were to visit Destiny we were walking along the street discussing our next 'fancy dress' we came to a decision that a monkey night would be hilarious. Then as if by magic a fully grown monkey came up asking if we wanted to go into a club, or buy a banana or something.

The Jac - In possibly the nicest accommodation we have managed to get our hands onto, we even had our own Jacuzzi. So what better to do than all squeeze into it and gay it up. I seem to remember the talk that showing a picture of this to girls would increase pulling chances 'Come back to my Jacuzzi pretty girl' I think one sight of this would have sent them running even faster than they probably were already!

Well that is the 10 best group photos I have managed to find but couldn't end on that so I have squeezed one more photo in to typify Lowlands bent, the best turn out the club has seen in years and a feat that we all hope will be repeated ever so soon.

I hope you have all enjoyed looking back over the photos in the last 7 days and continue to come back and read the blog, even if it will be photoless for the foreseeable future. Get your blogs going again guys and don't forget to comment!