21-03-2019, 10:14 PM
14450
Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)
Excellent mood capturing poem there Sweetie, take a bow dear lady.
I had the below post written a few months ago, the time of the equine flu. Sometimes things that are in the news remind me of something that happened to me years ago,
I jot it down then it gets lost in the files, but now and then I’d be looking for something else and then it would pop up and stare me in the face.
Horse racing being in the news a while back reminded me of something that happened to me years ago. First I had a dream.
In the dream I was a young man and I was being chased by a big fat overfed man on a horse, I was in a panic and then I spotted a building with the front door wide open I dashed in. I feverishly tried to get the door closed but it wouldn’t budge, the man dismounted and followed me in, I was up against the wall in a small room, naked and completely defenceless, the man approached me with an evil sneer on his face as he started to unbutton his jodhpurs…then, through the mercy of God I woke up, I was in a sweat.
The wife beside me in the bed woke up too and asked me what was the matter, I told her my dream exactly as I dreamt it. “What does that dream mean to you my dear woman?” She turned over to go back asleep and muttered “Don’t do any horses tomorrow Jem, it means your going to be screwed by an unscrupulous bookie”
Strange things dreams. The wife was half asleep when she said that to me but she was right.
A few days later I was in town having a pint with an old workmate, hadn’t seen him in years, racing was on the TV and my friend asked me to go in 20 quid with him on a horse he had a tip for. I don’t normally put more the a fiver on any horse, even that is stretching it for me, but hail fella well met and not wanting to appear a skinflint in his eyes I said “Only 20 quid?, no bother” He wrote out the bet and went into the bookies next door, an old place run by an independent bookmaker.
Anyway the horse won a 4/1 and we were delighted, 100 quid back for each of us including our stake money. I said I’d go and collect seeing he put it on, then he stood up and began to search for the ticket, he turned out all his pockets but still no luck, he retraced his footsteps back to the bookies searching the footpath but it was nowhere to be seen, vanished.
He went over to the bookie counter and told the grumpy looking old git behind it that he had lost his winning ticket and could he write the bet out again to verify his handwriting (the usual procedure in such cases). The man pointed to a sign on the wall that said “Your ticket is your receipt, keep it safe, no receipt, no claim” He was perfectly within his rights by the way, same as if you lost a lottery ticket.
And that was the dream out as they say, we was well and truly screwed. I must add that with the big name bookies there is never a problem paying out in similar cases.
I often wonder did my ‘friend’ really lose the ticket in the first place and went back to the bookies a few days later with the ticket and came out 200 quid the richer, bookie dockets used to be good for three months, alas that’s something I will never know. -true tale.