The Beginning Of The End

Yesterday, in the morning, I visited Kirsten again, and her mum joined us. This was special since she was my math teacher in high school! Many funny and nostalgic stories were shared 🙂

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I couldn’t stay for long since I had an important obligation: the horses! Yes my friends, the gambling continued with yet another track meet, this time at the Broadmeadow racecourse just a hop and skip from mum and dads.

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Bernard and I both managed to bet on losing horses in the first and second race. One of them only ran slightly better than another horse who’s jockey had fallen off!

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Following these two losses, I then did some brainstorming and developed a sure-fire winning technique! At this point, the money started rolling in…

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In a nutshell, here’s the method:
1) Pick 2 horses with middle-of-the-field place odds (not win, place)
2) Ensure the odds are better than 3 times bet
3) Bet equal amounts on each for a place
4) Become filthy rich

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Using the above technique, I was able to exit the racecourse almost $6 richer than when I entered! While this wouldn’t have covered the cost of a beer had I bought one, it did mean that I was still +$2 even after buying a Lift 😉

Two races deserve special mention. In race 6, an 1850 meter run, there was a horse named:

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Obviously, I had to ignore my own system and bet on it for the win!

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Despite leading – by 3 lengths! – for about 99% of the race…. Shen Long didn’t even place!

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Dad had joined us for the above race, and the last one as well. In that race was a horse called ‘Al’s Pride’ ridden by a jockey with a name suspiciously close to Schmitz. Both dad and Bernard bet big on it…. and won nothing!

Me, I followed my system and walked off with $4.55 on a $0.50 bet on ‘Beaveroo’ to place 😉

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So Bernard’s lucky streak of gambling seemingly came to an end yesterday. But we haven’t yet forgotten his luckiest day two years ago was the last of the trip…

Have You Seen?

Yesterday I went for a walk.

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Then we went to the mall and saw Smaug.

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Then had lunch.

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Then went home, rested, and had dinner.

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Then went to bed 🙂

Long Exposure

Bernard and I took a trip to Caves Beach yesterday for some more photography:

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Bernard’s using special filters and long exposures to remove the motion in the photos. This makes the water misty or invisible and the photo quite ethereal. He should post examples to his blog.

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That’s two shots of the biggest cave, obviously from out and inside. The tide was very low when we were there, and every cave (there are many) was accessible. I found no monsters…

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That’s one of the smaller caves. Can you see Bernard outside?

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The rest of the day was spent visiting several other places, including our old uni here in Newcastle and Civic Park, where I saw a Roc’s Egg:

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At night we had dinner with my uncle Peter and his family. Here’s a shot of brother and older sister:

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We ate at Wests, which is a club here in Newcastle with a dazzling array of poker machines. Here’s a lucky shot of Bernard at the moment of a win:

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I won myself! A total of $0.86 😉