Diary

Census day! Have you filled yours in? You’ll be getting a knock on the door if you don’t send it. Ours didn’t take long to do. No more than 10 minutes. There really isn’t that much on it.

Last Wednesday the Government announced that over 50’s could now book a Covid vaccine. I tried their website in the morning but it didn’t seem to be working. When I stopped for a break later that day I tried again and it did work. I managed to get booked in for Friday lunch time. Our nearest centre is about 10 minutes away. When Sue had hers done a few weeks ago it was really quiet. I think there were 3 or 4 other cars in the car park. When I got there on Friday I had to queue to get into the car park! I then joined the fairly short queue outside to get booked in. I mentioned how much busier it was to one of the stewards and he reckoned they would be vaccinating a thousand people that day.

I have to say the organisation of it all was superb. It really couldn’t have been done better. Plenty of staff who all knew exactly what their role was but they were all friendly as well. It was a very relaxed experience. I haven’t had any effects from the jab other than the “dead arm”. That’s not a surprise and it is already feeling a lot better today. I had the Astrazena vaccine. I won’t be losing any sleep worrying about blood clots.

I have had a couple of videos that I wanted to get out this weekend. One was posted earlier today and the other is current uploading. My videos lose some of the quality when uploaded to Youtube. I have looked into that and think I have found some things to improve. I found those after I had recorded the videos that are going out today so you’ll have to bear with me a little longer!

I had to replace one of my laptops last week. I run 2 laptops side by side and have 3 monitors connected to them. The E key on the older one started to fail. It wouldn’t always work. I thought there was probably some debris under the key so I tried to clear it with a small brush. It seemed to work but not for long. I removed the key. There is a small rubber spring that looked like it needed to be replaced. I ordered one from Ebay but it didn’t make any difference. I ordered a replacement keyboard. Only a tenner so worth a go. I wish I had watched the Youtube video explaining how to replace it before I ordered it. I didn’t count how many screws need to be removed but someone estimated 50! Pretty much everything had to come out. Awful design! I have had the laptop for quite e while so was due for a new one. The few days I had to wait for it to be delivered were annoying as it started typing “e” constantly without being pressed. I opened a notepad file and left it on the screen. When I came back it had types 20000 e’s. On a few occasions it would wait until I was about to press send on an email and would add a row of a dozen or more e’s.

I haven’t much else to report really. Miami starts next week. Its a tournament I always enjoy trading. I’m not sure why but I always have particularly strong results trading that tournament.

Stay safe.

 

Hey! Long time no see! it has been a busy time. In the last couple of years my own trading has taken a slight backseat. I have still been trading of course but the rest of the business needed some more time spent to get things as I wanted them. Obviously Covid and lockdowns has helped with that plan! So with everything else in good shape the new plan is to really hit the markets hard in 2021. It’s amazing how the hours can fly by when you’re engrossed in matches.

If you have been trading the tennis this week then you don’t need me to tell you it has been challenging! The WTA matches in particular have been quite random. Performances by the top players have often been poor. I can’t remember a week quite like it. I put it down to the changes in players’ routines due to Covid, lockdowns and quarantining. We all have our own daily routines and sometimes when you are forced to change the way you have done something for the last few years it can throw you off your stride. The players have had to adapt and as we have seen so many times when tournaments are delayed for rain, some of the players don’t adapt as well as others. The disruptions have of course been a lot more than a few hours sat in the locker room listening to the rain.

I am in profit for the week but some of the matches have made it hard to stay calm and none more so than the Svitolina v Azarenka match this afternoon. I was favouring Svitolina to win so when Azarenka broke her serve in the first game of the match it was an automatic lay for me. I had not watched the players warm up so had not seen that Azarenka seemed to be in pain but she was grimacing during her first service game and was clearly in pain. She called the trainer at deuce and after some treatment she continued the service game and was broken. The market reaction to not only the break back but the injury was huge and Svitolina was soon trading around 1.60. It looked like I was in a great position. Surely Svitolina only had to move her around a bit and Azarenka would be in trouble. Unfortunately Svitolina played so badly that she was easily beaten by the injured Azarenka. I managed to get out for decent profit but kept laying Azarenka as I thought that surely Svitolina would at some stage remove her head from her arse and start to play like a top 5 player. She didn’t and I gave almost all my profit back.

Sue was moaning that the garden was looking a little dull. She had planted some daffodil bulbs that sprang into life all of a sudden but she asked if we could get some artificial plants for the hanging baskets in the back garden. Just enough so that there would be a bit of colour out there even in winter. I said we would have a look on Amazon. 95 quid later I had bought more artificial plants than I had intended to but “Happy Wife, Happy Life” and all that shit. That was on Saturday and they were delivered on Monday. Sue set to work and sent me a text from the garden telling me to look out of our bedroom window. I went to our bedroom and looked out. I’m not so sure about them. I think they look a bit crap and tacky. They might look better when combined with real plants in the summer. Sue thinks they look great so I’ll keep my opinions quiet (apart from posting on here obviously!).

If you have read my diary posts for a while you may remember “Jacko”. Jacko is the Corgi whose owner refuses to put on a lead. I have to walk past their house on the dog walks and if he is walking Jacko at the same time the little bugger will be bouncing all around my dogs and stressing them out. I had a bit of a battle with this guy for over a year as he made no attempt to keep his dog away from mine and I would often get pulled into the road as my dogs tried to get at Jacko. His owner would just laugh and say what a wonderful evening it was. One evening we bumped into them away from the road and I let Charlie off his lead. I thought he might get his own back a bit. Nope, Charlies loves him. His new best mate.

One of the main reasons for taking the dogs out late is to tire them a little so they sleep through the night. I want it to be a calm walk and Jacko bouncing around them isn’t relaxing. The other night we were walking down a street that leads to the street Jacko lives on. He has red lights on his collar so you can’t miss him. Jacko and his owner didn’t notice us as they crossed the intersection of the 2 streets. I slowed down to let them get past. About 25 metres further on the street bends sharply to the left and their house is another 40 metres or so after the bend. I waited until they had had enough time to get round the bend before we joined their street. The old guy was nowhere to be seen and he hadn’t noticed that Jacko was lagging behind. The Corgi was sniffing the patch of grass where the street veers off to the left. I tried to pull my dogs back out of sight but Molly also likes Jacko and starts whining when she sees him.

Jacko looked up and saw us and came bouncing across the road. This could be an opportunity. An opportunity without the owner being their to teach this dog that it wasn’t a good idea to come bouncing over to us every time he sees us. As he came closer I lunged towards him and stamped my foot just in front of him. It worked. He changed direction and moved quickly away. Would that put him off? No. Back he came. I thought I would just block him with my foot. I lunged towards him again and put my foot up in front of him. Just as he jumped forward. The old guy had now realised that his dog wasn’t with him and had come back to find him. He came round the corner just in time to see me kicking his dog in the head.

EDIT: TO BE CLEAR! I DIDN’T kick the dog! It may have looked like I did to the owner as he came round the corner. Thanks for the emails threatening to report me to the RSPCA. Get a grip.

He must have seen it. I mean Jacko squealed as if I had caught his nuts between 2 bricks. The old guy didn’t mention it. We had the usual conversation of what a lovely evening it was and how’s the tennis going? Yeah its a bit cold. Its going great thanks. I dragged my two round the corner and out of sight. I hadn’t seen them for a few days but bumped into them tonight. Funnily enough Jacko didn’t come anywhere near us.

Well, it’s after midnight so I’d better get some sleep. I’m up at 6 to take Sue to work.

Stay safe.