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My American Friend
I went to school with a fantastically patriotic American girl called Allison.

Sitting around watching the 4x100 metres men's relay freestyle swimming at the Sydney Olympics, I unintentionally wound Allison up.

I made the mistake of casually remarking after the first swimmers had nearly completed their legs, that the Australians, who were the only ones good enough to stop the US from clean-sweeping the swimming events, would go on to win the race.

Immediately Allison leapt on my comments, calling me many of the names under the sun, and unfairly accusing me of an anti-American bias and of not knowing anything about swimming.

I'm not the biggest gambler in the world, but I was reasonably confident that the Australians would win, so we bet £10 on it.

Without wanting to recall the race blow-for-blow, the Australians spanked the USA by a country mile, and I duly collected my winnings.

But Allison’s experience taught me a valuable lesson: never let your heart overrule your head when gambling.

Oh, and to make sure that what you’re betting on isn’t in fact a re-run of a race that happened earlier in the day and the person you are making the bet with hasn’t already seen the result and is desperately not trying to giggle like a giddy schoolgirl at the easiest money ever made.
(Fri 8th May 2009, 18:55, More)