19-10-2020, 10:15 PM
16222
Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)
I think I’m a born sceptic Spitty, question everything til your blue in the face, and what remains must be the truth, didn’t Sherlock Holmes said something to that effect?The only thing I delete is Jameson’s whiskey using pure Irish spring water.
I have to give full marks to the bookies around here for the way they are handling this pandemic thing, no more hanging around in the shop, keeping the 2Mtre. distance rule, and hand dispensers all over the place.
You just go in do your business then out again, it must be working because all of the old regulars are still betting, so far (tip wood) no one seems to be sick at all amongst the punting crowd, all present and accounted for when you consider the bookies have been reopened now for four months.
On my way out of the shop today I picked up a clean bookie slip, it was neatly folded in four so I opened it and had a look, someone had put €40 too win on a horse called “Global Wonder” in the 3.10 at Plumpton, it was very clearly written in block letters. Global Wonder had won at 7/1, it had just beaten my horse by 5 lengths so it was fresh in my mind.
I went back in and handed the ticket to one of the lovely helpful girls that work there, there was €320 due back on the ticket.
If it wasn’t already claimed he would have been paid out anyway even if he lost the ticket, all he had to do was rewrite the bet on a new slip to be compared with the original which was copied into the computer, still if some dishonest creep had found it he could have claimed it if he was quick enough and got in before the real punter made his claim.
By the way when I was in the bookies I met the Dalai Lama there, when I asked him what was he doing in a bookie shop he said “I want Tibet”
Ah well we all have our little vices.
Rock-a-bye Baby, so warm in your nest
Your poor Da-da's not well and he must have a rest
His head is just splittin', he says it's the flu
But it's not the real reason, between me and you
He went out on Monday to buy us some shoes
And he heard of a horse now that just couldn't lose
Well, he bought the new shoes, that I can vow
For the Bookmaker's daughter is wearing them now.
(Verse from an old Traditional folk song)
20-10-2020, 10:07 PM
16223
Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)
Well it seems I spoke too soon, from tomorrow at midnight until the 1st of December (if all goes well that is) the bookie shops will be closed.
We are back in lockdown till then, only essential shops may open, but it’s good to see the schools will carry on and the kids won’t be missing out too much on their learning.
Back to square one again, the first lockdown was all in vain, does anyone really know anything about this virus?. So many blunders now it appears not. to me anyway.
We’ll just have to plough on and hope for the best come the new year.
I’m trying to squeeze as much as I can into my posts lately to limit the number I make, I dread reaching the 20,000 post mark, every day onwards will be filled with tension for me, because 20,194 is my unlucky number.
Tonight I was thinking of the one and only time I visited the USA, it was a disaster, I found this entry in an old diary for 1971.
“I was a very hard up hippy in New York in the early 70’s, I used to have to make my joints with stale bread crumbs, one day I was sitting smoking in a fleabag saloon bar when I saw an old friend pass by, I left the crumby joint and went out to meet him.
It was his first day in the big apple, it was my second, he was tall, I was small, I said hi, he said low, hello hello, you say hello and I say goodbye, well you know the old song.
We were like two idiots standing on the footpath looking for the sidewalk, suddenly a streetcar whizzed by and he was caught up in the gust and squashed beneath the wheels of an oncoming oil tanker, what a mess.
I went back to my stool in the bar and wept into my Bud.
"Closing time Buster" growled the bartender as he lifted my glass and swished a filthy cloth under it, "Ain’t you got no home to go to?".
Little did he know my home was a cardboard box on zero street.
"Ain’t yeh got no heart?" I asked through my tears, "I just lost my best buddy, can't I just kip down in the corner over there"
‘Whatcha yeh think this is a hotel?"
I didn't answer not wanting to spoil his delusions of grandeur so I pulled up my flimsy jacket collar and walked out into the freezing January New York weather.”
21-10-2020, 09:47 PM
16225
Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)
Originally Posted by summer
->
Thats such a sad story Jem.....i usually smile at your story's but not last night ....not a nice memory for you hope you are OK.
It was also a feeble attempt to imitate Mickey Spillane’s private detective Mike Hammer of which I read a lot when I was very young.
Not a lot of folks know that Spillane wrote some of the comic book stories in the 1940’s, adventures for Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and Captain America.
It’s the old weights and balance thing that applies here, being that if it’s not expected to be believed then it won’t be and therefore it’s not a true lie, it’s all pie-in-the-sky stuff so to speak.
I have never been to America, but my imagination has many times, thanks again for your honest concern and I’m sorry that it upset you.
These electric cars are becoming the way to motor now, the battery takes up the whole floor of the car and I believe they cost a bomb to replace.
I suppose they will become compulsory in the future when all the poison belching petrol models are phased out, I don’t drive so I have little knowledge of any type of car, but I wish all the best to those who do.
There is nothing new about electric cars, my Uncle Dave had one back in 1960, he lived in Cork and travelled all the way up to Dublin (253 KM) at the weekends, back then the car only cost him 800 quid, but the electric cable cost him 10,000 quid, and there was always the fear his wife would pull out the plug when she wanted to use her hoover just as he was halfway up to Dublin.
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