A good Cheltenham festival for me. Started off with the first two winners on Tuesday at 12/1 and 6/1. Added 7/1 and 14/1 winners on Wednesday, a 9/1 winner on Thursday and very unlucky on Friday with a 33/1 second place. Made a very small profit but at least better than losing money.

So no debt problems for me currently, although I'm not retiring either. On the subject of debt I'm currently working on a new debt problem blog for one of my website clients. This should be fully up and running by the end of the week and will offer debt advice and help for anyone who find themselves in this tricky situation.

UPDATE - 31st March 2010

This post was cut short as my wife was taken ill and ended up in hospital for an operation. Many thanks to my employers, 21c Telecom Ltd, who have let me take time off at short notice to look after my wife and son.

21c Telecom offer business phones to all UK businesses. This includes mobile phones, landline phones as well as broadband and mobile broadband. In fact they specialize in providing converged communication solutions for businesses large and small, handling all communication and IT provision ensuring the best possible mix of cost and efficiencies.

Not sure when the next blog post will be as I will be looking after my wife for a few days yet as she recovers. Fingers crossed it will be about a big competition win as we need a bit of luck at the moment.

I used to be really big into horse racing, had my own racehorses, followed the form and watched it live and on TV all the time. I used to love a bet too and my Saturday used to consist entirely of studying the form, placing my bets and watching them win (or lose more often than not!).

I really used to enjoy it but, for a variety of reasons, I gradually stopped following it, stopped betting and generally lost interest. With one exception - The Cheltenham Festival.

Without fail I like to watch and have a bet at Cheltenham in March. The best four days racing of the year. I would love to take the time off work and watch it live but I don't have enough holiday so I'm going to record it and watch it at night, hopefully without finding out any results.

As I no longer follow the form I'm going to get up early, buy the Racing Post and see what I can gleam from it. A safe bet is to follow horses who love the track as the Cheltenham hill can find many out.

I always back the Irish in the first race of the meeting. A second or third string regularly pops up in the 10-14/1 bracket which would get me off to a good start. The only other horse I know is running is one of my recent favourites, Katchit.

I backed him when he won the Triumph and the Champion Hurdle so he owes me nothing. He loves Cheltenham and this is his time of year so I expect his best run of the season. It will probably still not be enough but he could sneak a place at a big price.

I don't have any other tips or insider info. I'm just going to enjoy it and, win or lose, it's always exciting. I'm off to the Racing Post website now to see what's running tomorrow. Good luck if you're having a bet.

However bad 2009 has been for you, and it's been a bad year for many, 2010 is a fresh start. Think positive, try to make things better by your own actions. Don't wait for a miracle (I've just checked our lottery account online and we weren't the £10m winners!). You are in charge of your own destiny - improve your future!

New years resolutions are a good way to start, although how many people actually stick to them? That could be because they are often a bit airy-fairy. For instance, many people will be promising themselves they will "lose some weight". It's much better to say that you will lose 5kg by 31st March 2010. You have set yourself a measurable goal and have something definite to aim for.

Once you've set your goal make a plan to get there. Between now and the end of March there are 13 weeks so make a chart to plot your progress. Work out what you will eat for the next 13 weeks and when and what sort of exercise you will be taking. Write it all down and cross it off once you've done it.

Weight loss will definitely be one of my New Year resolutions. I also need to make some more money. This one is a bit harder to achieve. I am looking at improving a number of websites I own and getting them to produce a small monthly income if possible. I'm going to set myself a target of £50 per month by the end of March.

Once that target is reached I can then press on with getting to £100, £200 etc as the year progresses. It's going to be hard work and not as easy as it might sound to many who think the internet is a gold mine!

I've also been trying to tie up a lot of loose ends before the year ends. I've moved most of our accounts away from the godawful Lloyds TSB, just one more to go. I'm in the process of closing my poker account. I just don't get any time to play, and any spare time should be used making money. Although, saying that, I was in profit on my account but it just takes up too much time.

As I haven't played on my bingo account for ages I was also looking at closing that. I've used their money so far so I couldn't withdraw. I thought I would play it all and get rid of it. But I got a line and full house double win on my second game so ended up increasing my balance.

So I've decided to keep my account and use it as a distraction when I get a few minutes downtime. The bingo games only last a couple of minutes so I don't need a huge time investment.

Whatever you are up to tonight to celebrate the New Year have fun and stay safe. Don't drink and drive! All the best for a happy and prosperous New Year to all.

For anyone who has been following my bingo exploits you will know that my initial excitement had wained as my original free £15 had dwindled away with little signs of a win.

In fact I began to think that the game might be weighted so heavily against the free player that a win was not possible. Think again!

I had a few minutes spare and the princely sum of £6 remaining in my Wink Bingo account. I decided not to spend too much time on it so I went into the 10p room for the first time.

I bought two cards (£1.20) and kept an eye on the prizes. The prizes were pretty similar to the 5p bingo game as it appeared half as many people were playing. This could well be the reason for my success.

Anyway the first game went reasonably well, I got as close as 1TG (one number to go) but 52 did not appear and my balance reduced to £4.80. I stayed in the same room and bought another two cards (£1.20 - balance £3.60).

One of the games on my card started really well and I narrowly missed the 1 line prize. Then I got close to the two line prize. After the 2 line prize was called I only needed three numbers for a full house.

Well I had been here before so I wasn't holding out much hope but the first two numbers I needed came out fairly quickly leaving me with 89 for the full house.

Three numbers later and 89 was called and I was awarded the full house prize (£21.71 - balance £25.31). BINGO!

I was pretty excited, even though the winnings aren't going to change my life, about the fact that online bingo is winnable and I now have a bit of profit to play with.

So if you fancy a bit of bingo fun online I can heartily recommend Wink Bingo. I've tried it, tested it out and proved that winning online bingo is possible, even if only on a small scale. I think the free £15 offer is still running so try it out for free and see what you think. 

My third go at online bingo and I'm another £3 poorer (well another £3 out of my £15 free). Still no wins.

I did get a couple of games with 1 number to go so some small excitement however I'm now beginning to believe I can't win. Very negative thinking - need to drag myself back up.

I tried swapping the cards this time, instead of using the 12 in front of me using the next 12 cards which are hidden out of sight. It didn't work.

Is online bingo fixed? Probably not but I think they take a huge percentage of the total stakes leaving very little to be paid out in prizes. I must find out what that percentage is.

It was the same for Keno (american style bingo) when I played in the states. They reckon it's one of the worst casino games for you to play having the highest house edge but I still couldn't stop myself.

Blackjack is the best, having a very slight house advantage if played optimally. However I can never remember the best way to play, even though I've read books about it, plus it's just not much fun.

I want the thrill of the big win, one that will change my life, the lottery amount that would see me on the beach never having to work again........

Oh well, back to the grind. If you're feeling sorry for me (rather unlikely) you can always click on the ads on my website - if enough of you do it I'll have enough to retire. Thanks in advance.

Another £3 out of my free £15 at Wink Bingo has been wagered and no wins. In fact I didn't even get close. Only £9 left now and no sign of a win.

I originally played the 90-ball bingo last time so I thought I would try the 75-ball bingo this time. Only lasted 1 game as I couldn't make head nor tail of what was going on!

Plus there was only one prize whereas in the 90-ball game there are prizes for 1 line, 2 lines and then the full house.

Back to the 90-ball bingo and in an attempt to increase my chances I tried 18 cards at 5p and then 24 cards at 5p! Still couldn't get better than 2 numbers to go.

Very disappointing. I'm considering playing the other non-bingo games on the site for the remainder of my money. Perhaps slots are more my thing.

I did once win over $1,000 in Atlantic City on a slot machine jackpot. Which was lucky as I didn't have a hotel for the night.

Ended up staying in the Trump Taj Mahal with a cheap upgrade to a suite. Had massive room on the corner of the hotel with ocean views, 2 TVs (including a pop-up one at the end of the bed which swivelled around so I could watch it from the jacuzzi bath!!), 2 bathrooms - it was a great holiday I certainly won't forget.

Give Wink Bingo a try and let me know your experience of it. Have we got any Wink Winners out there??

I keep seeing adverts on TV for Wink Bingo, and in particular for their latest promotion of £15 free without needing to deposit.

As I love a gamble and anything that's free I had to give it a try. It was easy to sign up and the free £15 was in my account straight away and available to play.

So I played. I was only in the 5p room so it cost me 60p each time for 12 cards. Everything is automated and the numbers are marked for you. It all moves along smoothly and quickly and, if your numbers are coming up, enjoyably.

So far I've played 5 times (total of £3) and I came really close to the full house jackpot on my second go, having only one number needed (87 - my new bogey number!) for what seemed like an age.

After your initial free play amount is spent they offer to add 200% to your first deposit so you can play really cheaply initially, by which time hopefully you will have won a prize.

It is pretty addictive though, I feel like going back and trying again as I write this, so always remember the golden rule of gambling - never bet with money you cannot afford to lose.

My remaining £12 is calling me so I'm back off to Wink Bingo now. See you later.

PS. I remember now this is not my first brush with bingo. My sister arranged a bingo night for my 31st birthday at the local bingo club. The whole family went.

Being newbies we weren't quite sure of the etiquette (or even that there was etiquette in bingo!) and as the night wore on we made a couple of faux pas.

I started to use a fruit machine in the middle of a game, the sound of which caused all of the regulars to stare at and sshhhhh me. And my sister got very, very drunk and very, very loud too. We were near enough thrown out.

Only silver lining was that my Dad won a full house (not sure the regulars liked that either!) which covered the cost of the night so we all went home pretty happy.

I've not been back to bingo since so perhaps playing bingo online is a safer option.

Unable to access the National Lottery website at the moment and it's been the same all morning. Getting very frustrated now as my wife has given me some numbers to put on and she's not going to be very happy.

This isn't the first time I've had problems playing the lottery online. When they had the massive EuroMillions jackpot a little while ago I tried all Friday afternoon and it just came back saying it was busy. I couldn't play at all.

When I wrote to the "Customer Service Team" about the problem I got the most pathetic response I've ever had about any problem ever (which is saying something these days)! Basically they said the site was very busy because of "unforseen demand".

Unforseen? It was the biggest jackpot in EuroMillions history and THEY had been advertising it wall-to-wall on TV and radio all week! What were they expecting?

Anyway, for a few weeks after I didn't play with them in protest but the lure of the jackpot has got me again. I do still have time now to put today's numbers on in the normal manner, although that will also involve a trip to the cashpoint.

For your information my numbers today are 5, 10, 13, 22, 30, 41 / 6, 10, 13, 19, 22, 47 / 3, 13, 14, 21, 22, 32. Wish me luck.

I'm watching the football results now as they come through and keeping track of my Championship fantasy football side. It reminds me that I've just done the Football Pools for the first time in ages this week.

I played many years ago, without any meaningful success, as a result of which I received a mailshot reminder through the post with some free offers from Vernons. I've signed up for 100 weeks in order to get the maximum free entries, taking me through until 2011!

My thinking is that in a few weeks I will forget about it and then a (big) cheque coming in the post will be a nice surprise. Would a pools win improve my future? Absolutely.

I've also done the Euromillions and National Lottery online this week so things are pretty desperate here!

I started betting and gambling at a young age (it runs in the family) and always liked a flutter on the horses or a bet on the football. However as I've got older I've realised that £5 on a 5-1 winner, fun though it may be, is not going to change my life.

I think you can safely class me as a dreamer! Nothing wrong with that, as long as you are not betting more than you can afford to lose. But there are better ways of earning reasonable money, although they will require more effort.

In the coming weeks I will be setting up the business opportunity side of the website with some genuine opportunities. These will NOT be get rich quick schemes or promise unrealistic earnings.

They will require some work on your part but in return you could earn yourself an extra income or a full-time income, depending on your circumstances and requirements.

So keep reading and let me know if you come across any genuine business opportunities you think should be listed.