of all that is true of our (mostly) perplexing world it is most decidedly so that we live with measure of control which easily meet the criteria of double standards. more levels than that, look you see, but long since has it been that anyone has the patience to count too far. here in the UK we famously have such on offer by the ruling government of the day. ostensibly they (the government) are supposed to be subservient to the people, elected to serve for the safety, security and betterment of we, the people. instead it is so most of us are subject to attempts to kill us all off, with the only exceptions being the protected TfL employees and, recently, Scunthorpe based steel workers. should you doubt this, cast your eyes upon how they are presently trying to kill off the entire population of Birmingham with a plague of rats.
it should be no surprise, then, that "vices" (or if you will "entertainment" or "leisure activities") are similarly treated in different ways. whenever i feel the need (or compelled) to write of smoking it is so that i get the sense i am obliged to put a disclaimer in, warning of the dangers, so convincing has been the campaign to convince the masses that absolutely everything wrong with the world is all down to cigarettes. betting or gambling, however, appears (somewhat alarmingly) encouraged. you get adverts for it everywhere, various sports teams are happily sponsored by betting companies and bookies, as they are colloquially called, seem to dominate most of what remains of high streets.
quite strange, this. my smoking really only damages me (moi) in the long term. oh yes, the plausible yet still unproven "second hand smoke" thing, which sees people over the road from you conditioned to do a little "cough" when they spot you smoking, somehow unaffected by the cars, buses and vans passing by. and yet as you are reading this (as in right now) someone is making a betting / gambling decision which will, in seconds, destroy their lives and anyone dependant on them. like families. but hey, advertise away.
so yes, there's a distinct level of double standards here (if not outright hypocrisy) in that i am writing of a most triumphant gambling success. as in i placed a bet and i, for want of another word, won.
exactly how much did i win? that you can observe in the (thermal style) picture above. with bourgeois opulence i am indeed showing off that i won 97 large, or 97 big ones. if, of course, you deem "pence" in proper pound sterling money to be either "large" or "big".
how did i come to amass this fortune? well, by doing what i would usually do, only on a smaller scale. think that "less is more" thing off Jerry Maguire, only different. my normal approach is to put an accumulator ("acca") on 15 - 20 results, placing 25p on it in the hope all (football) results are correct, delivering a hefty pay out. when (invariably) this does not work, i have lost 25p, but had fun all the same keeping an eye on football scores i would not usually have given a flying f*** about.
perversely it was a really, really late, as in more last second that last minute, goal off of, of all teams, Coventry that secured my famous, if not celebrated, win. this leaves me in a peculiar position of being somewhat thankful that a Coventry exists. before this bet was placed it was so that Coventry was only really known for three (3) things -
* ruining a perfectly good Monty Python joke by winning the FA Cup in 1987
* traditionally it's only Christmas when the tape of Coventry Carol by Chas n Dave is played
* year after year the single most searched for news story on the internet is "have they finally gotten around to demolishing Coventry yet?".
rather mixed feelings, then, obviously, but obviously yes i claimed the money all the same.
do i have any immediate (or long term) plans for this filthy lucre? it would be apt to spend it on cigarettes i suppose, but you won't get all that many with this. for now it's just all sat in my coin tin. well, my new coin tin, since a misfortune befell the one i had used for a few years.
yes, i certainly am still doing these (those) "acca" bets. once you get a taste for the high stakes, big time wins like this you can't just wash it away and pretend it didn't happen. be careful if you follow this path.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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