Tuesday 8 June 2010

I'll Hang Up My Tipster Hat




In my last blog I said that our money was on the dog to win Britain's Got Talent but as soon as Tina and Chandi started to perform on Saturday it was obvious that they would not be taking home the £100,000 prize. They just didn't have the same appeal and the routine was much worse than their semi final performance which led me to my tip. Fortunately I also had a bet on Spellbound which won me a princely £31.50 and, equally fortunately, the impressionist, on whom I had £150 liability, did not win. It's fun watching these live shows with the laptop logged onto Betfair. Throughout the programme on Saturday the odds on the singing Grannie from Scotland were shortening as piles of money backed her and she fell to under 5-1 leading me to wonder if someone knew that her act was going to be a show stopper. Fortunately I didn't fall for the trap of leaping onto the bandwagon as, before she stopped singing, her odds had fallen to 100-1.





I had a rare day off work yesterday and went up to Yorkshire with my brother for a spot of metal detecting. We had researched a new site and were delighted to be given permission by our friendly farmer to search it. We climbed an enormous hill (no fun when you need a hip replacement) to get to the field only to find it full of cows. Metal detecting in a field full of cows is no fun so we had to revert to plan b and search fields that we have gone over time and again in the past. But it goes to show that you can never empty a field completely and I found a Girl Guide Badge, an 18th Century livery button, an interesting and probably Victorian decorated fitting (probably for a book) and this copper alloy lion. I have no idea what the lion used to adorn but he was once gilded and will have looked quite impressive. I guess that he is from the 19th century but would love to know what he was used for. Any ideas?



Three weeks into the diet tomorrow and tonight is a highlight as we are having spaghetti bolognese. From this, my first experience of dieting, it seems that diets are really a matter of self discipline.It is so tempting to add another 5 grammes when you weigh out your 25 grammes of nuts or raisins but no, back into the packet they go. Last night's evening meal of one fishcake and some salad leaves left us a bit hungry for the first time but it's still so far so good and we are both losing some weight.



Here at Instanta, I have carried on with the task of helping Nick to vet the applications that have been flooding in via www.jobsite.co.uk for the position of our new Southern Area Sales Manager. Applications have exceeded a hundred now and, whilst it is not very green, we have printed every one out in full so that we can give them proper consideration. The standard looks to be high although I am leaning towards those who have actually checked out Instanta and decided that they want to work for us rather than those who appear to have sent off their CV without tailoring it to us. We have written to all those we have rejected as there is nothing worse than not knowing and we have asked about thirty more to tell us why they really want this particular job. Some applications are very good but let themselves down with poor English (incite instead of insight was a classic and a letter with I as i from start to finish)but I am not going to reject these as we are looking for a sales person not an English teacher.

I got my Liverpool Season Ticket renewal this morning. They are offering an incredible £52 discount for renewing online. Not sure that it costs them £52 to process an application over the phone but I will be happy to take whatever they offer. Speaking of football, World Cup fever is officially upon us. Now I like James Corden who did a good job of hosting Paul's show "A League Of Their Own" but I'm not sure about the lyrics to his new World Cup song which include the yobbish "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough". What do you think?


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