A bit of a round up.

I’m currently sunning my bony proverbial in Marmaris, Turkey. Very nice at a balmy 35c it is too.
I’ve been sort of keeping up with events, but basically we’re enjoying it so much, I just haven’t found time to post something.
Basically I just thought it would be a good idea to start a new post, just so it looks a bit more relevant.

There’s been a couple of events; some good, some not so, in my opinion.
First off, the great news is that John Mcginn has extended his contract.
I think everyone’s happy about that and my son in law summed it up perfectly for me, in saying that he fully deserves it. Of course, I think he was talking about the no doubt massive payrise.
We weren’t sure what McGinn was earning, but I had £47k in mind, where the sil’s thought were that he was quite well down the Aston Villa pay grade.
Given that he’s the captain and looks like he will be in future too, I’d guess he’s probably going to be earning around the £150k a week mark. In the scheme of things, as much as it makes me feel sick, he’s good value if my guess is anywhere near the mark. I love the bloke as a Villa player, because he represents everything I want to see from a footballer.

And then it’s onto the shirt.
Is it really £70? Wow, that’s a jump isn’t it?
My grandsons, (who are also on holiday with us) think it’s “quality”. Which leads me to a bit of tangent.
Before we came out here, I’d told them about the dirt cheap, but reasonable quality of the snide football shirts. They went out yesterday and came back with an Al Nassr and a PSG shirt. Yes, with Messi and Ronaldo on the back.
Anyway, I think the new Villa shirt is meh; a much of a muchness, albeit with a much better badge.
Will the missus buy it for me, as she usually does? I really don’t know.

And then the thing that disappointed was us being sponsored by a betting company.
I’m not going to get “holier than thou” about it, but for me, the quicker these companies get banned from this sort of advertising, the better.
Some of you long time readers may remember that the site used to advertise Bet365, so I may come across as a bit hypercritical, but that wasn’t my choice. It was an attempt to try and monetise the site so it paid for itself. It didn’t work, as Oohah (there’s a blast from the past!) weren’t the pr/marketing types. To be honest, the live score widget for the Prem was good though, I thought.
Anyway we sacked it off and still have the “don’t gamble” thing at the bottom of the page.

So why don’t I like gambling?
I do. If it can be done at a sensible, affordable level. Then, I have no problem with it.
But I’ve also seen someone get into serious trouble over it. So much so that it led to payday loans to try and fund it.
Long story short, is someone who earns minimum wage was around £3500 in debt.
No, it’s not one of those stories where he loses his house and all, but it caused serious stress.
All this from a previously very sensible person too.
That’s why I don’t like it.
I think the issue for me is that in a world where every other shop seems to be a bookies, is that it’s pushing something that’s already overly available and for me, very dangerous.
I was reading an article recently that talked about this. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I get the feeling that it suggested around 3 million people in the UK have a gambling problem to some extent.

Consider that the Coates family Bet365’s owners) are amongst the richest in the UK and you instantly get what it’s all about.
Taking Apple’s cheap labour aside, I can appreciate a company making a profit. And their’s is obscene.
But when it comes at the cost of people suffering, hmm.