Diary

Well, it’s been a while! The last few weeks have been packed. Plenty of tennis going on including the French Open. I have been concentrating on trading more matches this season. The results have been great but it means a lot of extra screen time. I will probably reduce my trading time a little to find a schedule that is more sensible. There is no point burning myself out. I traded more matches during the French Open than I have ever trading in a slam.

My Dad was 80 last week. They were having party for them in their garden. There were 18 of us all together. They have a big enough garden for everyone to be able to spread out enough. Everyone had been double jabbed. It was nice to catch up with everyone. When I arrived in Bradford I asked what the mask situation was. I was told that I could wear one if I preferred. There were no masks worn and it felt a lot like the old normal. I did search for an 80 year old whiskey as a present for him. That was a short search as the first results were £2500 a bottle. I ended up getting him a very nice 18 year old one. Well, at least it had an “8” in it.

I have been working on a project since January. It’s a new tennis trading site. It was due to have launched by now but there have been teething problems. That’s taken up a fair bit of my time, data checking and testing the site. I won’t say too much about it as It’s a joint project with others. If we achieve my vision for what the site will provide then it will be very popular but there is work to do to get to that stage.

Wimbledon starts next week so I won’t be getting much of a rest any time soon! its a good job I enjoy what I do.

Charlie the Collie cross has been playing me up a little recently. I always walk the dogs late. Molly needs a late walk to get her bowels moving so it has become the routine. In fact she is a lot better at going out into the garden now so I can get away without taking them out. I quite kike the late walks myself. Its a good way to unwind and also to think. Some of my best decisions about the service have been made during a walk. I never take my phone and rarely see anyone on the late walks. Recently Charlie has not wanted to go out late at night. He will act like he wants to but once I have got my jacket on and open the living room door, Molly comes out into the hall and Charlie just goes and lays on his bed and won’t budge. Last week I did take his lead , clipped it on and he came with me without a fuss but wasn’t happy at all on the walk. He kept looking back towards the house and I was a bit worried that he would slip his lead and run back. He has zero road sense. Anyway, the same happened last night. I left him at home and took Molly for her walk. On the way back I thought I would try something different. When we got back I didn’t take my jacket and hat off but just went into the living room and sat on the sofa. Within seconds, Charlie came up to me and was bouncing around like he does when he wants to go out. I opened the door and he went straight into the hall and stood by the front door. I was knackered and could have done without a second walk but was glad that he wanted to go out. He’s a strange dog at times. Collie’s can get obsessed with the tiniest things. At least it hasn’t been because he is scared to go out.

That’s enough for now. There should be more diary entries over the next few weeks. Good luck with Wimbledon. Feel free to join the Telegram room during matches and if you have not signed up for the trading guide or the Trading Tips emails………WHY??

   

It has been a while since the last diary post. Life is starting to get a little nearer to normal. It has only been 14 months but it’s hard to remember when we weren’t having the think about Covid. As I am sure I have said before I don’t really understand the “need” to get back to the pub. We go out, obviously but rarely just for a drink. We would be more likely to have people over or to go to their place. If we go to a pub it’s for a meal. Sue can drink me under the table and I’d rather pay supermarket prices.

Our daughter and son in law moved into their new house last week. We went over there on Saturday. I had only seen photos. It will be a great family home when its all finished. They have been renovating it for the last 8 months. They have quite a big garden but there are no proper fences between the neighbours on both sides. They have used up all the money from the sale of their old house so I said we’d pay for the fences. They were chuffed to bits as the kids and the dog can’t play out there just yet. There is also something that looks like a grave down at the bottom of the garden. I’m sure it isn’t a grave. Well, actually I’m not. None of the neighbours know where the old guy who lived there buried his wife.

A couple of days later Sue called her cousin who does some garden landscaping as a side job. She seemed to think he would help the kids out for free with tidying up the garden. I told her that he was probably fed up with all the family asking him to do jobs on the cheap but she said he would be fine. He asked her how much she thought it was going to be and she told him about £500. He asked her what year it was and did she think it was the 1950’s. She told him to sort out with our daughter what they wanted done in the garden and get back to us with the quote. Hang on. “Us”? We’ve just paid a grand for fencing. I knew there was no point arguing as our daughter wouldn’t accept us paying for it. They were more than happy with the fences. The quote came in at over 4K. I think not.

The next week or so are going to be a mess at home. We are having a new kitchen fitted, starting on Monday. Obviously everything has to come out of the kitchen by Monday morning. Sue was getting herself stressed about everything being in a mess.

“All our things are going to be in boxes.”

“Well, yes. there is no other way to do it.”

“But they’ll smash all the tiles!”

“Do you want to keep the tiles?”

“No.”

“Exactly. If they try to take them off carefully they will be here a lot longer.”

“I hate things being messed up!!”

I knew this. I mainly knew this as she has said it a couple of hundred times in the last few days. So, if you’re stressed about everything being a mess and everything from the kitchen is going into boxes, what’s the best thing to do? You guessed it! Empty the bloody kitchen 5 days early! She says she just wants it over and done with. So the living room (which is smaller than the kitchen) is now stacked up with boxes of stuff from the cupboards and drawers.

It’s going to be a long week.