This was always going to be a gamble.
I got the flick for placing a bet or 19.
Years ago I worked in a small kitchen as a sous chef. I worked with two other blokes, Don and Charlie. Our boss the head chef was called Tex. His idea of work was to peer over the top of the paper and shout orders at us.
As you would imagine the usual rush times were busy but being such a small kitchen and well staffed it was very easy to keep clean and take stock of. Which left us frequently with hours of free time on our hands between shifts. So we all used to watch the geegees (horse racing) on tv. Eventually this led us to making bets with each other. Some times we'd win sometimes we'd lose - we deliberately kept the bets small because we really weren't out to filch each other out of our meagre pay-checks. We even developed a working slang; a "chunk" was $5, a "piece" was $10 and "slab" was $20 - which also happened to be about the price of a carton (or slab) of beer at the time.
This betting habit gradually began to encroach on our working time as well. Often even when we were flat-chat either Don, Charlie or myself would surreptitiously sneak into the back office to check on a race and then return to make book with the other two shouting their bets out - "I'll have a piece on no. 7" or "Put me down for a slab on 18" or something like that. Now Tex had noticed this increasing activity and the impact it was having on our work so he called us aside one day and warned us to keep it on the quiet because if it kept us from going hammer and tongs during our busy periods "heads would roll" as he put it. Advice which we promptly ignored and got straight back into trying to see who could lose the most money to each other each day.

Eventually it came to a head one day when the owner Owen Perkins turned up and caught us at it. Now Owen was a bourbon swilling beast of a man. But he was staunchly against any form of gambling. Once he'd seen Charlie watching the tv and then come out to take our bets - at a time when the orders were mounting up on the bench he stormed into Tex's back office, slammed the door and shouted at him for a good ten minutes and then departed after giving us all a filthy scowl. Tex strolled out of his office looking brow-beaten. "I warned you guys," he said. "I told you someone would have to go." He took me aside and explained to me that since mine was the bet Owen had heard Charlie take, I was out on my ear. I protested meekly but to be honest I knew that there was little to be done. "I've got to know, just out of interest - what was the bet?" Tex asked me.
"I had a piece on Don's and my own mount." was my reply.
(mankwhistle, Thu 29 May 2014, 23:36, 7 replies)

You seem to be too invested in this

(Galahad is out of his gourd on yellow bentines, Fri 30 May 2014, 9:04, closed)

What can I say?
I'm a one trick pony.
(mankwhistle, Fri 30 May 2014, 10:39, closed)

cunt

( d.r._and_quinch when will you be famous?, Fri 30 May 2014, 9:39, closed)

basics, this is getting tedious now

( rofl harris, Fri 30 May 2014, 12:12, closed)

'getting'?

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 30 May 2014, 12:33, closed)

ok yes, this is fucking tedious
something something in my own mouth
( rofl harris, Fri 30 May 2014, 15:27, closed)

You're clearly put a lot of thought into this.
I hope you're proud.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 30 May 2014, 15:01, closed)