Paperjam

Cursing my luck at not sticking a few quid on David Villa for top scorer before he took the piss out of Russia, I stumbled into Betfred this afternoon to continue what you would have to describe as a fiscal downward spiral.

My aimless guesswork led to me sticking:
- a quid on not-quite-good-enough-to-play-for-Brazil-but-still-not-bad Deco for the opening goal at 16/1.
- another quid on the Czechs to be leading at half-time but Portugal to eventually win, because the odds were high.
- 2 pounds on Nihat to open the scoring for Turkey against the Swiss, the logic being that he appeared to be the lone striker in their last game.
- a quid on Turkey and Switzerland to draw - because they both look boring as fuck so far, odds are 11/2.

Amazingly Deco managed to scramble one home at the start of the first game, a moment that caused ne to exclaim "FUCKING YES! GET IN! SIXTEEN QUID!" while still sat at my desk in the office and supposed to be doing some work.

Now lounging on the sofa and watching the swimming gala masquerading as the second match this evening I have already missed out on the NIhat bet due to some terrible goalkeeping and an assist from a puddle allowing the swiss to get in front. Having dried up a bit the Turks have started to play a bit and OH YES just pulled level.

What I want now is thirty five minute of dull lifeless midfield drudgery. but its more likely to be a seven goal, four sendings-off thriller. It will all be updated here, either way.

This weekend has been a particularly difficult one, well it might have been. I got so drunk on Friday night that I can't remember very much at all - although I am informed that a cocktail known as "The Stepfather" played some sort of role.

Saturday was therefore mostly spent in bed with severe hangover anxiety and the dreadful knowledge that virtually everyone I know was smugly stretching their hamstrings in order to do the Two Castles run. I ran twice to the toilet, but I'm not sure that there is much of a comparison.

Luckily sporting redemption was at hand in the form of the revived paper-jam gambling challenge. Two years ago I completely failed to win a single bet during the course of the world cup - a feat described by some observers as "Statistically improbable" and by others as "Proof that you are the unluckiest person that I have ever fucking met".

Anyway, with the European championships kicking off this weekend I rapidly allocated myself £50 to speculate on the next 19 days of footy in an attempt to either redress the balance after last time or get into the Guinness book of records as the most inept gambler of all time.

Kicking things off was a double on the Czech Republic and Turkey to win their opening fixtures, while I also backed Turkish Striker Tuncay to begin the scoring against Portugal.

The Czechs did their part albeit due to an unconvincing sliced-shinned effort that (former division 2 golden boot winner) Mark Bright hilariously described as "A good finish".

Unfortunately Turkey didn't really set the world on fire against Portugal, aside from the surprisingly accomplished Colin Kazim-Richards, their man of the match was probably the crossbar.

Oh well, three quid down and forty-seven to go. On the plus side Malc's ancient herbal hangover cure of pizza, lager and jazz cigarettes did sort my hangover out.

I've set up an exciting Google spreadsheet to record my fiscal downfall over the next few weeks, you can find it at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=psx3zVzHb7nEzr43-g5QbUA&hl=en - I will sort out some sort of graph when I have lost some more money and the visual impact will be greater.

Dunno if there's something in the air at the minute, or we just haven't been paying much attention (probably the latter) but there seems to be a lot of short film action going in the West Midlands at the minute.

For instance, only today I found out about these people in Coventry called Call The Shots who, in their own words:

> We are a filmmaking organisation based in Coventry which is open to everyone and our aim is to encourage people to get involved in filmmaking. Whether you are a seasoned pro or a total newbie, you are welcome to come along to our monthly meetings.

They've just moved from the Herbert Art Gallery to Warwick Arts Centre (wonder what went on there?), and they're starting to run training in scriptwriting, pre and post-production and camerawork.

Plus they had a short film night on, but - ah - it's on tonight, Tuesday 22nd. Damn.

Elsewhere, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum (that'll be the Pump/Pimp Rooms, then?) are running a short film night, and it's 7 Inch Cinema time again this week, with I for India at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath.

Well, it' nearly time to set off for the Coyote Rally jaunt. I've set up a blog for anyone interested in up-to-the-minute Al-Jazeera style reportage on how things are going - quite probably including fundamentalist politics, regime change and improvised explosive devices.

Each member of the team is preparing for the trial ahead in their own meditative, spiritual way. Nick and Ray are spending quality time with their respective ladies and I, err, well I'm writing this.

You can follow our voyage of discovery at: http://nickjimrayinarover.blogspot.com/.