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As usual I am punching the Keyboard on Sunday Evening and of course yesterday we had the Official 2018 WheelieBash at the White Hart Pub in Winkfield, near Windsor near Legoland (which is where we held it last year and most likely we will hold it there in 2019 !!). We were immensely lucky with the weather as it meant we could stay out in the Garden for pretty much the whole day and it was only much later that a smaller group of us remained to retire into the Bar area for some light Food and more Beer and Banter - too things that most definitely weren’t in short supply and I am sure the Fevertree Mixers were taken full advantage of by some particular members of the crowd.
We had 40 People attend and this was an ideal number although I had a chat with Landlord Phil and he reckons that next Year he could cope with 55 if he had to (he seemed to have a really broad smile when saying this and a clear glint in his eye - I think they had a good day behind the Bar !!). So my thinking for next Year is that I will open it up to 60 People on the List and that will probably get us near that 55 number because inevitably a few drop out on the day. Last Year we had just over 30 People so we are showing very good growth year on year !!
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I’m in a right old grumpy mood today - hopefully it won’t show too much in this Blog !! I have no idea why this happened, although I was unable to sleep much last night which probably caused it, but I ended up oversleeping hugely and that means I am ridiculously late today and chasing my tail which I really hate. My intent had been to get up at a reasonable time and watch some of the MotoGP Qualifying from San Marino and I had set my Alarm on my Fone (does anyone have an Alarm Clock these days?) for 8.30am but when I woke up I had the horrible sense that something wasn’t right - you know, when the light in your bedroom seems unusual (because the Sun has moved a lot !!) and you just have this sense that it is later than you hope - and of course once I look at my Fone I see it is nearly 2pm and I just can’t believe it - total double-take and my Brain really struggled to compute the disaster.
So I missed the MotoGP apart form the middle class, Moto2, which was ok but watching that and eating my Lunch (which of course was now late) and then having to ‘get myself ready’ which being a paraplegic Wheelchair User involves absurd amounts of time in the bathroom and even getting dressed is a 20 minute experience, so before I know it the day has gone and it is well into evening and I have achieved utterly sod all. I wanted to have a look through the new copy of Investors Chronicle before I started on this Blog but of course that was another hour and a half so it is now nearly 9pm and I am only just starting to type and I have yet to eat Dinner which of course will take more time (although I intend to just shove something in the Oven so it can cook whilst I carry on writing).
The WheelieBash
We are now down to the last few Places with 38 People saying they are coming along - so it promises to be a really fun event with lots of ‘old’ faces and a load of ‘new’ faces as well - I am really looking forward to it. It is taking place on Saturday the 15th September from about 12 Noon ish and everyone is invited - it is in a Pub near Windsor and Legoland - ‘The White Hart’ at Winkfield. More details are on the Homepage (you need to scroll down - just like everything on my totally User Unfriendly Website !!) - please contact me if you want to come and I will add you to the List. There is no charge or anything and you just come and go when you like - committed Diehards will probably still be there at 11pm. Beginners and experienced People and all skill levels in between are coming so we should have a really good crowd.
Well actually if I am Barry Manilow I don’t. When he sang those classic lines of MOR dirge, “I write the Songs that make the whole world sing”, he was totally telling Porkies - I heard that on Lisa Tarbuck earlier and the irony really appealed to me.
I had a lucky escape today (no, I didn’t nearly buy a Barry Manilow CD), as I was hoping to get the to the MotoGP Bike Race at Silverstone but I was watching the BTsport Coverage yesterday of the Qualifying Sessions and it was pretty clear that the Commentary Team and the Riders etc. were fairly confident the weather would be poor today and there was a big chance it would get cancelled. As it happens after many delays and much mucking about, the Race finally did get cancelled at about 4pm and you gotta feel sorry for all the Fans who had stoically stayed there in the hope they would see some Bikes - I guess the only glimpse they got was earlier in the day when the Bikes did a Sighting Lap and lined up on the Grid, only for them to leave the Track when the first Delay was announced.
I probably didn’t hear it - I have had some sort of problem with my Left Ear for a while and I have been shoving that Earex Olive Oil stuff in it for about a Week and now I am at the stage where I am still partially deaf but I am not sure if the Ear is the problem or if it is because it is full of Oil !! I think it is time to stop pouring Mazola into my lughole.
Stoplosses are such a funny subject area - there is nothing like it to provoke a heated and busy discussion on Twitter and I merely mentioned that I was thinking of writing a Blog related to this and it kicked off a torrent of Tweets on Friday !! Anyway, I have produced a decent Draft of the Blog and I will mention that more in a bit.
It must have been early Last Week that an Interview Video with Warren Buffett was doing the rounds on Twitter and watching that inspired me to bash out a quick Blog Draft one Night Last Week and with a bit of tweaking it should be ready for Publishing once some other ones that are earlier in the Queue get their 15 Minutes of Fame.
In fact, here is the Video - it is merely 7.5 minutes long but in that time the wisdom that Warren Buff puts out is pretty remarkable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6HHwOoq9M4 Watching this piece of epic genius, it confirmed some thinking that has been ruminating in the WheelieBrain for some time about my Approach to selecting Stocks for my Portfolio. To an extent I have always been fairly selective with what I have put into my Portfolio but my intention is to get a lot more fussy about what I Buy and indeed what I Sell from the Portfolio. Obviously there are 2 Parts to this - on the Selling side of things I have noticed time and again how as a Long Term Investor, selling Good Stocks too early has been by far my biggest error over time and I have put a lot of effort into avoiding this problem - the main ‘Solution’ being to TopChop rather than Selling entire Positions and thinking long and hard before any Selling Decisions.
This is such a strange time for me on the Markets - I guess maybe all Summers are a bit like this but I seem to be doing less with regards to my Stocks and my Investing stuff in general than I have done for a long time. The reason behind this is really that I have no interest in buying anything at the moment and I am happy to just let my Stocks do what they are going to do and in the meantime I will get out and make use of the Sunshine (when I can because obviously in mid-afternoon it is crazy hot some days and it is hard to do anything) particularly with regards to sorting out my BMW‘s paintwork.
Fortunately I have made great progress on the Car and now I have just a bit of Lacquering to do and then I have to wait for about a Week before some areas I have painted and lacquered can be T-Cutted and Polished to get them nice. I had a bit of a result today because I did some painting on the Front Bumper a few years ago (the opposite ‘end’ to what I have been repainting lately) and it has looked very rubbish for a long time. I was looking at it and it occurred to me that if I got the T-Cut out and put some work into it (and my goodness it is really hard work when you are polishing by hand in this heat !!) then maybe it would look better. Anyway, I got stuck in and now it looks really good - it is about 9/10 and I am so pleased. Why the hell didn’t I do this a few Years ago instead of just looking at it and thinking “Flippin’ ‘eck, that Bumper looks cr*p”? - classic ‘Learned Helplessness’ psychology !!
We’ve had rather a change in the Weather this Weekend and it has been a bit frustrating for me because I am in the final stages of sorting out the Paintwork on my BMW Z3 but with really strong winds yesterday and rain today there was just no way I could get the final bit of preparation done and the spraying on of the Lacquer Topcoat which then just needs leaving for 2 Weeks before I can finish the job off.
At least I have been able to finish the Front Bumper though and if you see my Tweets you might have spotted my handywork. I am very pleased because I felt that my work on the Bumper had gone OK but the most recent stage was to spray the Lacquer on and I wasn’t too happy with it because it seemed ‘dusty’ or ‘rough’ (bit like Sandpaper really) and I think this might be because the Weather was too hot when I sprayed it on. Anyway, the problem was that I couldn’t know if this was a problem or not until 2 Weeks had gone by which gives the Lacquer time to ‘cure’ and then I could attack it with T-Cut which is described as a ‘Rubbling Compound’ and I like to see it as a sort of extremely fine Wet n’ Dry Paper that comes in a liquid form a bit like a Polish. It is really gentle especially in the ‘Metallic Paint’ form I need to use and it takes ages but with loads and loads of elbow grease I finally managed to get a shine into the Paintwork and it looks really good. It is amazing how good the T-Cut is because when you run your fingers over it now it is super smooth, unlike the ‘Dusty’ feel it had before. I suspect the finish was not a problem it just meant that I needed to do more Polishing work with the T-Cut to make it decent - as always if I was to wait for the perfect Weather conditions then I would never get the job done.
Summer is in full swing and I really am not doing much with regards to the Markets - I can’t see much point. This is enabling me to get on with the Paintwork on my BMW Z3 and I have pretty much finished the Front Bumper and I have now filled the Dent above the Boot and put on Primer so it is now waiting to ‘cure’ before I go for a Topcoat of BMW Black Sapphire Metallic but needless to say I need to visit my good friends at Halfords HFD again as I have run out of Paint (I am sure the staff at Maidenhead HFD will soon start saying, “Hi Wheelie Pete, you back again?”……. On top of this I have three 10p Piece sized areas on the Bonnet to Topcoat and then it is pretty much all done.
There is however some Paintwork on the Rear Wing on the Passenger side that I had a go at a few years back but I didn’t do a very good job of it. I was looking at it today and thinking with the improved Painting Skills I have now taught myself it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to correct the mess and if the good Weather continues and I am in the mood I might attack that bit. I will do the other areas first and see how I am feeling - perhaps this is a task for Next Summer (it may look pants close up but at least it is Black and there is no Rust or anything involved) !!
I got that Title from a comment I heard on one of the News Programmes where apparently this is what White House Aides refer to Donald Trump as - he travels all over the place and round the World and you never know what he will say next and explode, leaving the Aides etc. to clean up the mess. Just recently the Hand-Grenade went off after the G7 Conference following Justin Trudeau’s Speech and then just Last Week Theresa May got hit by the Shockwave as she sat down to her posh Dinner at Blenheim Palace only to find out that Trump had done an Interview in ‘The Soaraway Sun’ slagging her off.
Last Week Overall my Portfolio gained 0.4% Last Week which I guess is ok really. My reticence is because the Markets are just so tedious at the moment but I guess with Summer in full swing it’s not really a surprise. I don’t know though, it certainly seems more painful that other Years and it is just more of the same for 2018 really with Upwards Progress on my Portfolio very hard to come by. Simplistically I guess all the worries and fears over Brexit are probably a factor and I am certainly very cautious myself as we go towards the Autumn which I suspect could be particularly troublesome. |
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