Australian Racing Does anyone else other than me watch the Australian racing screened on Sky Sports Racing overnight? Most evenings at 2am Sky shows coverage from Down Under of the days racing, Ideal for insomniacs like myself, or just out-and-out saddos, it is top class racing and it has to be said, very enjoyable to watch. I can't say I tune in every night, but at weekends I may well be having a peek. I very much like the way they make a point of showing every horse in the field walking round the paddock and make a few comments about its chance. They have top 4 selections in each race suggested by the pundits on course and the coverage of the actual race is excellent with superb graphics outlining each competitors position in running. I haven't quite got down to the stage of actually betting on any races yet, but for killing time when unable to sleep, it is excellent. Today's choices were again somewhat on the naff side, although Plaisir Des Flos did prevail by half a length in the Novice handicap hurdle at Wincanton. With a couple of others being beaten into 2nd by outsiders, it was what can be classed as "one of those days!" Today there are afternoon jumping meetings at Wetherby and Fontwell Park, while the evening collossal 9 race all weather fixture takes place at Southwell. Thursday Choices:-
Southwell 4.25 Catch Cunningham 5.00 Wonderful Eagle - has been hurdling and running creditably. Previous winner on the level in Germany and very interesting now campaining back on the flat. 7.30 Super Hit 8.00 Westmorian 8.30 Tyke - back at his favourite Southwell, it could be the spark he needs.
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Yesterday's choices certainly didn’t set the world alight. Hello Judge managed to cross the line to win the 2.5 mile handicap chase at Newcastle, but at even money it was nothing to write home about. Opticality was a big disappointment at Southwell way down the field, but at least So Obsessed found the frame in the sprint handicap. Sea The Polaris managed 3rd in the penultimate contest at Dundalk, however the rest were very forgetful at best. Today we have NH racing at Hereford and Wincanton, with an evening AW card at Kempton. Hopefully these below will warrant more possibility. Wincanton
2.00 Regal Renaissance, 5.05 Plaisir Des Flos. Hereford 3.10 Ferrybridge, 3.40 Only Fools (nb). 4.45 Grizzly James. Kempton Park 7.00 Mostabshir, 7.30 Burdett (NAP), 8.30 First Company. I had a good evening with 4 winners at Newcastle on Monday, the best of which being Michael Dods' Stallone trotting in at 15/2 in the 4 y-o sprint handicap. Evenings like this are few and far between, so I'll enjoy it while I can and rub my hands with glee! Tomorrow afternoon we have jump meetings either end of the country at Taunton and Newcastle followed by evening all-weather flat events at Southwell and over the ditch at Dundalk. Here are a few choices for the today's meets. Good luck with your betting. Taunton
2.20 Pottlerath, 4.20 Celtic Art. Newcastle 2.35 Polisud, 3.35 Hello Judge, 4.05 Inox Allen. Southwell 4.15 Opticality, 5.15 So Obsessed. Dundalk 5.00 Gobi Star, 8.00 Sea The Polaris. So here we are in December, the tinsel is in the shops, people are covering their houses in lights, filling their gardens with blow-up figures and getting ready to blow their budgets with unwanted, unneeded presents, ready for being sold on Facebook and eBay early next month. I went down the local retail park this afternoon on a trek to buy some poster paints from Hobbycraft and the place was heaving. Barely a parking space to be found and people milling around like lost ants, all on the trail of the wonderful Christmas present for long lost Aunt Ada or some such relation. I must admit to doing pretty well all of my Christmas shopping online. I hate queuing in shops waiting for some dozy twonk at the front of the line work out how to use their card to pay or to remember their PIN number. Still there is only 3 weeks left until the great day. Then 24 hours and it's all over. Do we feel any better afterwards, any happier? Do many of us actually remember what the hell it is we are supposed to celebrating anyway? I have my doubts.... With the new fishing season underway here in the UK on the 16th of June, I took myself down to the river yesterday morning to dip my rod in the water for the first time this term. I am fortunate enough to live in a part of the east of England that is blessed with some lovely rivers to fish. Both the River Great Ouse and the River Ivel (a tributary of the former which passes through my home town) offer and produce some wonderful local sport. However, before my trip to the bank, I had to go to my local tackle shop to buy my bait - a pint of maggots, made up of both red and white grubs. Noticeably the price has risen to £3.50 a pint this year, but everything else is more expensive nowadays, so why not fishing bait? I arrived mid-morning and found a swim covered by tree growth (pictured above) which looked like a likely spot to fish. Setting up, I managed to untie the obligatory reel tangle (which always seems to happen to me) and was soon underway. It would have been difficult to fish using a float in the relevant conditions, so I decided on using a maggot feeder, with one maggot on a size 18 hook as hook bait. I quickly hooked into my first fish of the season (a small roach), soon followed by another larger example of the same species (pictured left) weighing probably about half a pound. In the two hours I stayed by the river, I hooked a few more roaches and a couple of tiny gudgeons (which I refer to as gonks), ending up with a very angry perch of about 8oz. There was no evidence of any chub that often patrol this section of the river, nor sadly any barbel. So after a lovely couple of hours I packed up my gear and returned home to start planning my next trip down by the riverside.
Tight lines everybody! Have you ever used or even had much success using seed tape? In theory, the idea of your seeds being perfectly spaced between layers of tissue in a strip makes the process of sowing quick, easy and effective, but does it work very well? In my experience the process is rather hit and miss and I had mixed results with poor germination. I even experimented one year by trying to create my own tapes. I used a cheap white kitchen roll, cut into a strip with seeds stuck on at the correct space with a flour and water solution. Again the results were ok but the percentage of germination was again quite low. So why do you ask, I hear you say? Well, when I visited that top class garden retailer (Lidl) today, I noticed they are clearing carrot and lettuce seed tape at £1 a pack. So young green fingered Tatty, always on the lookout for a bargain, snapped up a couple of packs. I also bought a bag of their compost which I have to say is not a patch on the stuff sold by their German counterparts, but here I digress. So what results will I achieve this time? Well I'm not holding my breath, but my fingers are crossed.
Hold the front page! I can officially declare that I have retired from paid employment. Well if the truth be known I stopped working a couple of months ago. I was totally fed up working amongst a load of idiots who had no idea about working as a team and were just hell bent on blaming everyone else for their own ineptitude. My arthritis was also causing me a lot of grief whilst on duty so I bit the bullet and decided pretty much on the spot to call it a day. But hang on a minute I hear you cry. You are only 64 and not at retirement age yet, how are you going to survive not working?. Well luckily with a few wise pension investments over the years I am in a position to be able to hang the old boots up! So what am I doing to keep myself busy? Well I am a keen gardener and love spending time in my veggie patch and greenhouse tending my crops. I like a bit of woodwork and I faddle around in the shed creating all sorts of strange wooden items (more about that in a future blog) and I have recently got into restoring old pieces of furniture (Money for Nothing on TV has a lot to answer for). I love watching the pony trotting on TV and have subscribed to Racing TV to fuel my wicked passion (I was lucky to take a half price deal) and I have also taken a voluntary position with the British Red Cross which keeps me amused one day each week. My other passion is for river angling and I intend to visit the banks of the River Great Ouse in St Neots on a regular basis when the new season gets under way in a fortnight. I may even dip my toe in the water as it were and take part in a few club matches throughout the year (something I have never done in the past). Retirement is definitely for me – I can truly recommend it. The only problem is that there are barely enough hours in the day and I seem to be far busier than I ever was at work! First of all I apologise for no posts being made on this blog for the last few months - this is the result of the fact I have not been in the best of health and I have had other matters to concern myself with. I will not bore you with the details, but I am currently in the best place I have been for a long while and fully intend to start contributing regularly to all my blogs. So winter is hopefully over or more to the point, we never actually seemed to have one in the first place. Here in the East of England’ I don’t remember much in the way of frost or particularly cold weather and we certainly never saw any snow (well not in my back garden anyway). The last week or so the barometer has been showing Very Dry, but this evening it is noticeable that it has moved slightly downwards to Fair. I was watching the weather forecast on TV where they said it will become wet and windy before this week is out. And here I go again - going on about the weather. Why do the British have this fascination with the weather? We meet our friends in the street and it’s hello, how are you? Is a bit chilly this morning isn’t it? Do we talk about it due to the unpredictability of the British weather? Let’s be honest here we can get pretty well anything on any given day. In days gone by the weather was a crucial subject possibly meaning the difference between life and death. As culture evolved, so did the chat about weather and became a staple topic in the country’s conversation. According to the book by Kate Fox, “Watching the English”, one third of the country talk about the weather at any one given time, while the Scottish dialect actually has over 100 words for rain! But it’s not only the Brit-nits who are obsessed, the Japanese are equally fascinated with the daily forecast being a similar island based nation. So what will the weather be doing tomorrow? The best way to find out is to open the window in the morning, shove your head out and if your toupee stays in place then it is most likely fairly reasonable. Recently a very close family member lost his life after battling a long illness. The fact that he had been suffering and is now free from all pain and discomfort is something of a blessing, but I will certainly miss him having known him all my life. As you get older and especially at my time of life, I will be experiencing more deaths within my family and circle of friends and it is still a massive shock when someone dies however much it is expected. But how long does the grieving process continue? The reason I ask is that after a couple of weeks I am still very upset and it still seems to be affecting me in my own day-to-day life. It doesn’t really help that the family member made it abundantly clear that he did not want a traditional funeral. He preferred the idea of a Pure Cremation i.e. the body be cremated and returned to the family with the minimum of fuss. He then wanted a party to be organised playing the music of Pink Floyd (there really is no accounting for taste) and everyone can celebrate his life away from the gloom of a funeral. But is this the right way to go about it. Obviously it is what he wanted so the answer is yes, but while a funeral doesn't exactly draw a line under the whole event, it gives a chance for family and friends to come to terms and move on with their own lives. I for one would find it easier to deal with. What are your thoughts? Do you think a Pure Cremation is the way to go (sic) or should family and friends have an opportunity to grieve together? I have spent the last week or so covering the early shift at work. That means falling out of the pit at about 4.45 and staggering to the bathroom, invariably falling over the dog who has a habit of sleeping at the bottom of the bed. She has a perfectly good bed of her own I might add in our bedroom, but lying on the floor in a cramped space is obviously far more comfortable. Our dog, an English Foxhound cross, is a strange creature at the best of times. Today, when we went out for our walk, she managed to find a KitKat on the ground and tried to eat it. It didn’t help matters that it was still in its wrapper and suddenly there is Ruby wandering along with this chocolate bar sticking out of the side of her mouth. For those of you about to warn me that chocolate is bad for dogs, I managed to get it away from her quite quickly, but she was not amused I can tell you. You might think she doesn’t get fed enough, well trust me, that dog does perfectly alright I can tell you! The word spoiled comes to mind. I am convinced that if there was a doggy version of Mastermind, she would go on there in this fashion: Your name - Ruby Occupation - scrounging menace with a penchant for eating things I shouldn’t have Specialised subject - getting in the bloody way! Over the years she has found and eaten:
Along with eating anything she can get her paws on she is an expert at digging. I have had to build fences in the garden to keep her away from my plants, but it doesn’t stop her trying to get through. There are a couple of areas on the lawn that are bare of grass thanks to madam digging away at them. She howls at the postman - the poor man has never done anything to harm her but everytime he either delivers or even just walks past the house, she goes potty at him. It is noticeable that if she walks past him when we are out she is very quiet and perfectly behaved. Most nights she will wake me up at about Midnight wanting to go outside to excuse herself which is better than doing her business on the carpet, but it is a pain in the proverbial when you have to get up at some ungodly hour in the morning She can be the most exasperating, annoying and naughty dog you could ever find, but she is also loving, gentle, very soppy and a very much a creature of habit. It goes without saying I wouldn’t have her any other way and I love her to bits. Do you have a dog? Does he/she have any strange quirks or behaviour? |