Another closure
Jul. 25th, 2006 08:44 amWhile Hummus Bros goes from strength to strength in Wardour Street, defying all Birks predictions, I have to announce the sad closure of the Movie Café, after 10 years. It had had the poster of Jackie Brown for all that time, and it was always quite busy, but it was so small that three people could be in there and it would look busy. Anyway, the lease expired, so it shut. Sad. However, not as sad as it might have been. There used to be a very pretty woman whom I passed most mornings as I walked up Wardour Street, me on the way to the office, she on the way to the Movie Cafe, where she worked. A few months ago she stopped appearing and the boss was there instead, so I guess she left. She was just one of those "interesting" people to look at. I started wondering about where she came from (estern Europe, the obvious guess), how old she was (25?), what her history was.
Well, you have to think of something while you are walking up Wardour Street, so you take what external stimuli you can.
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I don't exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to stocks and shares -- over the years I reckon I have fractionally underperformed the market. But I appeared to get one right on Friday morning, when I had a bit of a "launch" into SportingBet at 167p. The share price had more than halved as a result of the BetOnSports fiasco (incidentally, BetOnSports has now sacked Carruthers -- talk about standing by your man!), but my purchase of shares in the Paradise Poker owners was not so much a punt as a move on fundamentals. An analyst whose opinion I respect (so much so that I have forgotton who it was ... hmmm) reckoned that the company was worth 195p without any US business at all. That was good enough for me.
Anyway, the share price bounced 15% yesterday, to 193p, after having recovered to 173p on Friday afternoon. So that's a healthy profit for the Barclays stockbroker account. And to be making money out of an ex-Ladbrokes area manager's misery ... well, joy unconfined. (A word to the wise - all betting shop area managers fall beneath estate agents and people in marketing in the Birks ranking list of humanity).
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Well, you have to think of something while you are walking up Wardour Street, so you take what external stimuli you can.
+++++++++
I don't exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to stocks and shares -- over the years I reckon I have fractionally underperformed the market. But I appeared to get one right on Friday morning, when I had a bit of a "launch" into SportingBet at 167p. The share price had more than halved as a result of the BetOnSports fiasco (incidentally, BetOnSports has now sacked Carruthers -- talk about standing by your man!), but my purchase of shares in the Paradise Poker owners was not so much a punt as a move on fundamentals. An analyst whose opinion I respect (so much so that I have forgotton who it was ... hmmm) reckoned that the company was worth 195p without any US business at all. That was good enough for me.
Anyway, the share price bounced 15% yesterday, to 193p, after having recovered to 173p on Friday afternoon. So that's a healthy profit for the Barclays stockbroker account. And to be making money out of an ex-Ladbrokes area manager's misery ... well, joy unconfined. (A word to the wise - all betting shop area managers fall beneath estate agents and people in marketing in the Birks ranking list of humanity).
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