Just a quick update on my winnings, despite the fact I actually announced it pretty much 30 seconds after the race finished, I never actually got round to informing you how much I’d won.

£16! Woooo!

I bet on three horses, Comply or Die, Hedge Hunter, and… er, some other one, each for £2, total cost £6. I decided to use Coral this year, as I couldn’t remember my login details for Ladbrokes, and seeing as the race time was fast approaching, I couldn’t be bothered going through those daft “Forgotten my details” things.

After I placed the bets, I sat there, awaiting the beginning of the most famous annual steeplechase on the planet. As with the previous 19 years, I recorded it.

By the time the race came, I’d totally forgotten what I’d backed. I remembered Hedgehunter, but the other two? Not a bloody scooby.

The race started, and I sat on the sofa slowly sipping water from my John Smiths glass. I smiled to myself. Was this an omen? After all, John Smiths were the sponsors of the races, like they’ve been for the past x years.

The race went on, and eventually they approached the elbow. Comply or Die was in the lead. I couldn’t remember if I’d backed it. Bollocks. Hedgehunter was completely out of it by this point (and if I remember correctly, finished 7th). Was I going to win?

The race finished, and I tried to log onto Coral. Dead. Flat as a fart. Apparently, the entire betting community had chosen them too. Bugger.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the site came back up, and was able to log in. My balance was £16. I’d won! For the first time in my entire life, I’d actually won! OK, so that was only my second bet ever, but my word, I was happy. I texted my dad and told him the good news. Seconds later, a text message back from MS work. The daft bet a few of us placed at work had came off too, with a whopping £1 profit plus the original stake. In total, this made me a profit of £13! Although it’s tempting to splash it on something I don’t need, I won’t, as I have some saving to do… more on that later.

Technorati Tags: aintree, betting, coral, grand national, money, profit, winnings, won

I BACKED COMPLY OR DIE!!!

Technorati Tags: aintree, betting, comply or die, grand national, horse, race, won

So, here I am, sat awaiting the beginning of the Grand National. Unlike last year, I will NOT be watching it on a tiny screen, stood in the doorway of a bookies on Edinburgh.

Yes, I have put on my bets, totalling a whopping SIX POUNDS. (£2 on three horses). I’m not going to tell you which horses I’ve bet on, as I have a feeling I’d be tempting fate…

Naturally, I’ll keep you informed on whether I win…

Technorati Tags: aintree, grand national, horses, Sport

I started this post the other day, but thanks to hardware failures, it never got finished… Well, that’s what I’d like to blame, though I think it’s mainly due to my recent ineptness at being able to finish a post. therefore, let’s pretend this is Sunday Morning…

It’s 7:30 AM, and I can’t be bothered thinking of a title for this post. Oh well.

The first is the FULL version of the “Going For Gold” theme, which I knew existed in one of the episodes at the end of the first series, but I’d never heard it before…

Aaaaaaaaand, that’s where I left it. I got a bit caught up looking for other humorous Youtube videos and simply just lost track of time. Plus, as predicted, I ended up sleeping for most of the day.

One of the reasons I didn’t post it until now, was that I didn’t actually do the darts commentary as promised. this was due to the fact that it was on much earlier than I originally predicted (I think it started at 5:30, or something daft like that. I seem to remember it being later in previous years). Instead, I time-shifted it, and watched everything about an hour after it had already gone out on the telly. This is the ultimate bonus of HDD based video recorders. It means I could also fast forward the boring bits. This years final probably wasn’t worth dedicating time to writing about, as it was a bit obvious who was going to win. Of course, who could forget the fact that Trina Gulliver got beaten in the Women’s final on Saturday? My jaw dropped, as she got completely hammered by someone whose name could easily have been a 4-figure score in scrabble. Hurrah! Women’s Darts is another sport us Brits are officially shite at. Ahem.

I shall return soon with more non-hard drive related news, assuming my computer survives that long.

UPDATE:

Something which I must mention and have totally forgotten to in the last updates is that the gallery has had an update, and it’s not just any update. This one actually contains approximately 1,500 images, all courtesy (and copyright) of Andrew Dorrian, who shares my passion for abandoned places and demolition, and of course, streetlighting. The direct link is here. And you thought *I* liked streetlights.

On the subject of pictures, I found a CD I bought from the poundshop several years ago, packed full of “stock” images. Not clip-art, but actual photos. They’re so bad.

I shall be using these at some point in the near future on the site, but I won’t say when.

Oh, and I can’t leave this addendum without mentioning the feck-up of the week, by hosting company Dreamhost, who overcharged their customers to the sum of $7.5 million (link)

Ironically, I was thinking of changing my hosting to them a month or two back. Glad I didn’t. Not much point anyway when I can barely fill the disk space I have now!

Technorati Tags: charge, credit card, darts, decorating, depressing, dreamhost, gallery, homer simpson, work

Hello. I am Jamie, and I have been watching your annual darts coverage at The Lakeside, and I have a few suggestions.

Firstly, get rid of the current theme music and opening sequence. It’s crap. Bring back the famous 80’s combination of “Cranes” by The Doug Wood Band, followed by dramatic wiews of the camera flying around a dartboard. That was ace.

Secondly, I would recommend against Ray Stubbs wearing that stupid microphone on his face. I don’t know what made you think that microphones sellotaped to the side of the presenters’ faces looked good anyway. It doesn’t, and it never will. What was wrong with the old-style lapel microphones, or even actually holding one like they do when they interview somebody?

Also, when the players are actually THROWING, I would suggest keeping the camera on the dartboard at all times. Although I am quite aware that the audience have paid the entrance fee, I pay my license fee, which is considerably more, and, after seeing random views of the audience, I don’t expect to see a dart already in the board when the director eventally returns. This is expecially important when the players are throwing at doubles.

On a similar subject, please do not allow your children / cats / wives play with the mixing desk. Should you need to switch to a different camera angle, do it, and stay there. Do not skip through them all, and then decide the original one was better.

Speaking about camera angles, there is no need to have one of those crane cameras whooshing about the place. Yes, I know, the whole point of it is to show the “BBC Sport” logo attached to one of the lights, but it’s very distracting. Get someone to hold up a card with the logo on, or something.

Your on-screen scoring. Why the hell is it so small? Now, OK, my telly is pretty big, but we don’t all have super duper high-definition mega detail ultra-tellies. What have you gained by making it that size?

Finally, how about “rejigging” your schedule so that if you’re going to actually show the darts, how about you don’t leave a match right in the final stages, and say “Press red if you want to follow the match”. This involves having to find the original Sky remote, in order to press red. I’m sure your re-runs of Porrige are a ratings hit, but please, give more notice if you decide to push the coverage over to your… ahem… “interactive” channel.

One last thing… Sky Sports probably has a darts tournament coming up in the coming weeks. Should you not understand any of these requests, please watch this in order to see how you should really broadcast darts.

Lots of love,
Angry Jamie.

P.S. The BBC Sports logo above the “Lakeside” sign is too small to see on my perfectly normal TV. Please fix this so I know who is broadcasting.

Technorati Tags: bbc, darts, lakeside, letter, moan, television, whinge