Milestones and Mountains

A rare comment on the blog earlier this year, from Hkibuzz who wrote:

One more year of the blog in the bag. Thank you for your entertaining and instructive posts, and all the best for 2023

I only managed 74 posts in 2022, which was down on the long term average but slightly up on the 2021 total, and the total number of posts all-time since 2008 is now closing in on 3,000.

The number of hits is also likely to reach a significant milestone this year with three million probable by June or July. 

If I make it to March, and I have every intention of doing so, the coming of Spring will mark 15 full years of the blog. If this was a marriage, I'd be looking at a crystal gift to mark the occasion. 

Thanks to Hkibuzz for the comment, which are always appreciated, and I'm always on the lookout for any general betting / investing blogs to add to the blog roll so if you have any recommendations please let me hear them. 

The number seems to dwindle year by year, as the challenges of coming up with interesting topics as well as staying motivated when losing money prove insurmountable. It's easy to be enthusiastic about a project when things are going well, but a few losing weeks will soon change that.

I'm slightly annoyed that my bet on Georgia -13.5 wasn't matched in the College Football National Championship game last night given that TCU lost by 58 points, (7-65), but hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

TCU were big outsiders to even make the College playoffs, not even quoted among the top 17 teams.

I wrote about the NFL Regular season yesterday, and in a further reminder that results will always vary slightly, the corresponding numbers from the Killer Sports database are:

Underdogs vs. spread:143-119-6 (54.6%)

Road teams vs. spread: 130-129-6 (50.2%)

Unders: 146-114-5 (56.2%)

Pretty close, and one interesting observation is that Unders had its best season ever (since 1989), and of these 34 seasons, three of the top four for Unders have occurred since 2017. The Unders on grass (as opposed to artifical turf) pitches was 59.4% and an incredible 69.6% (39-17-1) in the NFC this season.

In other (personal) news, with 900 miles covered on foot since the start of September, it's hard to believe that two years ago on this day, I was in a little discomfort after breaking my leg in three places. Yeah, yeah - don't go to those three places again... 

Anyway, I just quizzed my wife with "what happened two years ago today?" (she hates it when I do that), and when I told her, she said "oh yeah, remember when the ambulance guy thought you were my Dad?" 

I'd actually erased that part of incident from my memory for some reason, but clearly it made an impression with Mrs. C and was actually quite funny. Clearly the gentleman in question had left his glasses at home that day. 

Last summer's goal was to hike up Snowdon, something that I had long delayed after losing a friend in an accident there back in 1972. 

The news wasn't delivered in the most compassionate way. I can still remember my Dad reading the newspaper at the breakfast table and, prompted by the Purley reference in the report, asking me: "Do you know a John Twyford?, presumably not imagining for a moment that I did. 

After responding in the affirmative, adding that he went to the same youth club as myself, and asking why he would ask, he paused for a moment and then said "Well he's dead. Fell off a mountain." That's how we dealt with things in those days I suppose.  

This year we're targeting Scafell Pike in early July and if the weather permits, Helvellyn, which I last ascended exactly 50 years ago, although I'm hoping for better weather this time around, and I might be more prepared.