Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[technolog]

Would you rather...

Have the ability to fly, or X-ray vision?

Fly - 100%

[RED-DOG]

Would you rather....


Be able to control your dreams.

Be able to watch your dreams on video the next day.

[RED-DOG]

Would you rather...

Have the ability to fly, or X-ray vision?

Fly - 100%

So would you just fly about all day having fun or do you have something constructive in mind?

[pokerfan]

THat reminds me Red - been meaning to post this for Tikay for ages: the old station house down at the bottom of my road has been completely renovated (ie down to the walls and re-roofed the lot) and is now a holiday let.

They did a beautiful job, but it's still right beside the railway.....

http://www.sanquharstation.co.uk/stationmastershouse_today

How wonderful, thanks Rod.

Whilst in the West Highlands over Christmas, found a similar thing, though this was a self-catering affair, at beautiful place called Plockton. For non-Scots, Plockton is on the shore of Loch Carron, just south of the Applecross Peninsula. I'm bound to say, it was the greatest holiday I have ever had, & I'll be booking my next trip up within the next few days.

I holidayed In Applecross as a youth, a local couple bought the pub up there ( the only one iirc) Was the nut worst holiday for a teenager, abso nothing to do. You couldn't even get a newspaper until it was a day old.
But for some reason I've sort of got a yearning to go back, now I'm old enough to appreciate it like.
The drive was hellish as a kid but I'd love to drive up that mountain now and take in the views, sit outside that pub just looking over the bay, doubt the kids would thank me though.

The bloke who took the pub was a family friend, Bernie Fish, he was a character back in the day.  He once fought my school mate Garnett Wraggs dad in a charity boxing match outside the local boozer, knocked seven bells out of each other for about fifty quid, Mr Wragg obv knew he was on a loser, he was giving up about two stone in weight and six inch in hight to Bernie but gave a good account of himself at least.

May I ask how old you are (ish) Mr Fan?

36 Mr Dog  

[RED-DOG]

THat reminds me Red - been meaning to post this for Tikay for ages: the old station house down at the bottom of my road has been completely renovated (ie down to the walls and re-roofed the lot) and is now a holiday let.

They did a beautiful job, but it's still right beside the railway.....

http://www.sanquharstation.co.uk/stationmastershouse_today

How wonderful, thanks Rod.

Whilst in the West Highlands over Christmas, found a similar thing, though this was a self-catering affair, at beautiful place called Plockton. For non-Scots, Plockton is on the shore of Loch Carron, just south of the Applecross Peninsula. I'm bound to say, it was the greatest holiday I have ever had, & I'll be booking my next trip up within the next few days.

I holidayed In Applecross as a youth, a local couple bought the pub up there ( the only one iirc) Was the nut worst holiday for a teenager, abso nothing to do. You couldn't even get a newspaper until it was a day old.
But for some reason I've sort of got a yearning to go back, now I'm old enough to appreciate it like.
The drive was hellish as a kid but I'd love to drive up that mountain now and take in the views, sit outside that pub just looking over the bay, doubt the kids would thank me though.

The bloke who took the pub was a family friend, Bernie Fish, he was a character back in the day.  He once fought my school mate Garnett Wraggs dad in a charity boxing match outside the local boozer, knocked seven bells out of each other for about fifty quid, Mr Wragg obv knew he was on a loser, he was giving up about two stone in weight and six inch in hight to Bernie but gave a good account of himself at least.

May I ask how old you are (ish) Mr Fan?

36 Mr Dog  

Mwahahaha! You're slipping over to the dark side.

[pokerfan]

Ha, deffo.

[technolog]

Would you rather...

Have the ability to fly, or X-ray vision?

Fly - 100%

So would you just fly about all day having fun or do you have something constructive in mind?

I just think it'd be an amazing thing to be able to do. Nothing constructive in mind, just a few super-swoopy pleasure flights and perhaps the daily commute into Leicester.  I used to regularly have dreams of flying when I was younger and they were fantastic.

X-ray vision just seems to pale in comparison. What are you gonna do after you've ogled a few tiddies? I suppose spotting friends & families medical problems could be nifty, but no, gotta be flying for me.

[pokerfan]

Btw Mr Dog you can get the R5 thing on listen again through their site or the iplayer?

[RED-DOG]

Btw Mr Dog you can get the R5 thing on listen again through their site or the iplayer?

Will check it out as soon as my busy schedule allows.

[RED-DOG]

Would you rather...

Have the ability to fly, or X-ray vision?

Fly - 100%

So would you just fly about all day having fun or do you have something constructive in mind?

I just think it'd be an amazing thing to be able to do. Nothing constructive in mind, just a few super-swoopy pleasure flights and perhaps the daily commute into Leicester.  I used to regularly have dreams of flying when I was younger and they were fantastic.

X-ray vision just seems to pale in comparison. What are you gonna do after you've ogled a few tiddies? I suppose spotting friends & families medical problems could be nifty, but no, gotta be flying for me.

Ogling tiddies never crossed my mind young man. Seeing through cards at the WSOP did though....

[technolog]

Ogling tiddies never crossed my mind young man. Seeing through cards at the WSOP did though....

O RLY?

Don't you think poker is a bit 'last decade'? Can't ever see tiddies losing their popularity. As I wrote the word 'popularity', it made me think of tiddies popping. I might need to get out more.

[RED-DOG]

Ogling tiddies never crossed my mind young man. Seeing through cards at the WSOP did though....

O RLY?

Don't you think poker is a bit 'last decade'? Can't ever see tiddies losing their popularity. As I wrote the word 'popularity', it made me think of tiddies popping. I might need to get out more.

Poker might lose it's popularity, but a multi-mirrion dollar WSOP winners cheque buys a lot of tiddies.

[technolog]

I couldn't buy tiddies. I made a half-hearted attempt once but couldn't follow it through.

[RED-DOG]

I couldn't buy tiddies. I made a half-hearted attempt once but couldn't follow it through.

I don't know about buying them, but you seemed to be taking a decent stab at growing them the last time I saw you.

[RED-DOG]

I bet loads of you are familiar with this man's story. I've never heard of him, but I'm definitely going to buy his book. It looks like a cracking read.



He’s a former Highbury Grove schoolboy who became a millionaire bookie and then lost it all in one ghastly day at the races.

Gary Wiltshire, 54, is the BBC TV horseracing pundit known as the “belly on the telly” due to his roly-poly 20-stone girth.

He has written a fascinating and thoughtful autobiography, Winning It Back, which is a perfect read for these debt-ridden times.

He lost a million pounds to various big bookmaker organisations and punters all in one day at Ascot – September 28, 1996.

In an event virtually unprecedented in the history of horse racing, regarded as the bookmaker’s nightmare, jockey Frankie Dettori won all his seven races.

Unable to pay out all those with whom he had done business, Wiltshire at first was paralysed by fear and despair over his losses of more than £1million, representing everything he had worked so hard for.

It was then that he decided to take inspiration from his much-loved working-class parents.

They lived at Copenhagen Street, Barnsbury, and were stallholders at Leather Lane and Chapel Market. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, they said, but you always pay back what you owe.

He would, he decided, over a five to six-year period attempt to pay back every penny he owed.

With two young children and another on the way, Wiltshire, and his wife Sue, who stood by him throughout the ordeal, sold their large house in the country, trading down to a smaller property.

They sold their racehorses, expensive jewellery and the great symbols of Wiltshire’s extraordinary financial success – two Mercedes cars.

Then he went back to being a market trader, something he’d done with his parents as a young boy, to earn cash.

Posh meals at Italian restaurants were replaced by the occasional takeaway fish and chips.

It was a tough time, but everyone eventually was paid what he or she was owed.

The book is as much about growing up in Islington in the 1960s and 1970s as it is about being a bookie.

Wiltshire’s first school was Goswell Road primary, which he describes as grim and like a concrete prison.

Later, at Highbury Grove, he remembers being caned by the legendary headmaster, Dr Rhodes Boyson, who went on to become a Conservative MP.

Wiltshire and his friends had been spotted by teachers hanging about outside bookies in Upper Street, trying to get adults to place bets for them, when they should have been at school.

“We were paraded in front of the school assembly,” he writes, “then made to line up, hold out our non-writing hand, wait for Boyson to raise his long cane, then Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! for as many times as he fancied.”

As a young man, betting took such a hold that Wiltshire decided to join Gamblers Anonymous in an effort to kick the habit.

The group met at a church in Old Street, but it didn’t work out.

Wiltshire couldn’t keep away from bookie shops and race meetings.

In the days before credit cards, hard-up families would take valuables to the pawn shop in Seven Sisters Road to get extra cash.

“Say you needed £50, you might take a ring worth £100 into the pawn shop, and they would lend you the £50 in cash against,” writes Wiltshire.

“When you were back in funds, you’d go and redeem it, for the £50 plus interest.”

Speaking this week, Wiltshire admitted that Dettori’s “magnificent seven” was a great learning experience from which he ultimately benefited.

“The publicity surrounding my losses attracted television bosses,” he said. “I had done some work with Sky TV and now I was being offered a pundit slot on the BBC TV horseracing programme. I have also written this book, which has given me a wonderful opportunity to talk about my life and the business.

“There is also talk of a film. Who do I want to play me? Cockney actor Ray Winstone, of course. I’m still a bookie and I’ve won all my money back. But these days my feet are more firmly on the ground.”