Gambling
As I sit here on a glorious Friday morning - with a clear blue sky and a good forecast for the Father's Day weekend - all seems well and we should be in good shape for the vital summer months to come.
But are there dark clouds around the corner as various facets out there gamble with their destiny?
The news that oil refinery workers across the country are on wildcat strikes this morning is far from encouraging and past experience tells us that this could very quickly escalate into something much more serious - and damaging for us all. Add the postal workers disputes and the ongoing tube issues in London and my fears for a summer of crippling strikes are I hope overstated. The various sides are gambling their cards - lets hope we don't all suffer as a result and that common sense prevails.
Then there are the growing statistics surrounding swine flu - to date the media are handling it very responsibly - taking the sad first UK death and the upgrading to a pandemic in their stride - but how long will their nerve hold and for how long will life carry on unaffected if the numbers continue to grow - especially into the more dangerous winter months?
The world of Formula 1 is gambling with its destiny on the eve of the showcase (and last) British GP at Silverstone - there is so much money slushing around the world of F1 racing that you sort of hope that they are not shooting themselves in the foot (or should that be wheel?) by virtue of their resistance to a budget cap - albeit quite a healthy budget cap! Hopefully they will not gamble themselves into oblivion as I am enjoying FI back on the BBC!
And what on earth is going on with MP expenses - just when we thought it was safe to open our papers again to read real news we are faced with vast blocks of blacked out text, etc. We now all know what "redacting" means (but I had to loook it up!) and the whole issue again has exploded - how can we take this seriously when honesty and openess is needed and promised - and we get vast swathes of blacked out text - what is going on? If I was a gambler, this could be the final straw for an impatient electorate!
And on the subject of gambling, my wife and I had a great day at Royal Ascot on Tuesday and we actually backed 4 winners! But given that the extent of our ambition is to bet £5 each way and given that we tend to play fairly safe - we come away with only a small pot of winnings which was quickly lost on tea, racecards, drinks, babysitter, etc! It is frustrating as we backed an Aussie horse in the second race which romped home as favourite - on the basis that it had not come that distance just for the ride - but I singularly missed applying the same logic in the last race as a horse from America romped home at 33-1 - what an idiot as that would have been an excellent end to the day and would have left me well up overall - but hey - thats gambling!
And so into the weekend - good luck to the British Lions, good luck to Jenson Button and Brawn in his home GP, and good luck to all fathers - enjoy Sunday - it's the one day in the calendar when we really can sit back and be waited on by friends and family with a clear conscience!
And on the subject of gambling - Wimbledon have given up gambling on the weather and have invested heavily in their sliding roof for Centre Court - don't you just know that we will now have a glorious two weeks with no rain!!
Post a comment
But are there dark clouds around the corner as various facets out there gamble with their destiny?
The news that oil refinery workers across the country are on wildcat strikes this morning is far from encouraging and past experience tells us that this could very quickly escalate into something much more serious - and damaging for us all. Add the postal workers disputes and the ongoing tube issues in London and my fears for a summer of crippling strikes are I hope overstated. The various sides are gambling their cards - lets hope we don't all suffer as a result and that common sense prevails.
Then there are the growing statistics surrounding swine flu - to date the media are handling it very responsibly - taking the sad first UK death and the upgrading to a pandemic in their stride - but how long will their nerve hold and for how long will life carry on unaffected if the numbers continue to grow - especially into the more dangerous winter months?
The world of Formula 1 is gambling with its destiny on the eve of the showcase (and last) British GP at Silverstone - there is so much money slushing around the world of F1 racing that you sort of hope that they are not shooting themselves in the foot (or should that be wheel?) by virtue of their resistance to a budget cap - albeit quite a healthy budget cap! Hopefully they will not gamble themselves into oblivion as I am enjoying FI back on the BBC!
And what on earth is going on with MP expenses - just when we thought it was safe to open our papers again to read real news we are faced with vast blocks of blacked out text, etc. We now all know what "redacting" means (but I had to loook it up!) and the whole issue again has exploded - how can we take this seriously when honesty and openess is needed and promised - and we get vast swathes of blacked out text - what is going on? If I was a gambler, this could be the final straw for an impatient electorate!
And on the subject of gambling, my wife and I had a great day at Royal Ascot on Tuesday and we actually backed 4 winners! But given that the extent of our ambition is to bet £5 each way and given that we tend to play fairly safe - we come away with only a small pot of winnings which was quickly lost on tea, racecards, drinks, babysitter, etc! It is frustrating as we backed an Aussie horse in the second race which romped home as favourite - on the basis that it had not come that distance just for the ride - but I singularly missed applying the same logic in the last race as a horse from America romped home at 33-1 - what an idiot as that would have been an excellent end to the day and would have left me well up overall - but hey - thats gambling!
And so into the weekend - good luck to the British Lions, good luck to Jenson Button and Brawn in his home GP, and good luck to all fathers - enjoy Sunday - it's the one day in the calendar when we really can sit back and be waited on by friends and family with a clear conscience!
And on the subject of gambling - Wimbledon have given up gambling on the weather and have invested heavily in their sliding roof for Centre Court - don't you just know that we will now have a glorious two weeks with no rain!!
Post a comment
posted by John Hoy at
12:03 AM
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home