Sunday, September 23, 2007

Cars: Brooklands for e-Type Jaguar day



Today was e-Type Jaguar day at Brooklands Motor Museum (http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/) As the E-type (http://www.web-cars.com/e-type/index.php) is one of my all time favourite cars, I just had to go and take a look at them :-) Brooklands Museum always has a magic feel to it for me, so really enjoyed walking around looking at the old Jags

After our picnic lunch, as per our normal schedule, we also walked round to Mercedes World (http://www.mercedes-benzworld.co.uk/) and Lynn decided she likes the £65k SLK 55 better than the £115k AMG SL (yes..... the colour was better !)

Having enjoyed the cars, on the way home we dropped in on a new house development at Chobham Lake, just for a laugh...... £475k for a 2 bed terrace house is a lot of money to me, even for the semi-rural location..... and you don't even get allocated car parking spot ! (you have to buy at least the £600k 3 bed terrace to get 2 parking spots allocated) (http://www.surreyproperty.com/photos2/Large/003DSC_0210.jpg)

Oh well, will have to fill out those lucky lottery numbers on Saturday again....

Friday, September 14, 2007

Poker: Home Tournament : September 2007

Results and league standings available at http://www.statsgenie.com/ as normal

This months is the quarterly no-rebuy, no-limit format so tends to be a more tense, tight and serious affair.....being down to 9 players as well, I thought the game would be over quickly tonight, but turned out to be a wrong assumption

The game was tense and tight, although lots of table chat going on as well (Bill, don't forget to do that quote for Sean :-) ) Mick started out the early winner of several reasonable sized pots so looked to be his night. Andy had lost a few chips then decided to make an all-in lunge at the pot when I raised with my A-K. I also had a few more chips than Andy, so decided to call, with Andy showing 9-8 suited.... I was ahead and neither improved, so Andy was first out and the only one with no points tonight!

That set me up nicely but continued to play quite tightly. I built up a nice stack of chips but then had a run in with Jon and dropped back down to third in chips. Jon then took a big chip lead with everyone else being slightly below average except Mick and myself by the break.

As the blinds went up, there was more action, but everyone was still playing tight, solid poker.... Bill managed to survive three all-ins by splitting the pot, normally by hitting a miracle card on the river... but Derek's luck deserted him and got taken out by Mick by a cruel card on the river

After the second break the blinds were high and only Jon had enough chips to sit back and relax for a while. I decided to step up a gear and won a couple of uncontested pots to get a good sized stack. In the final round, there were still 5 players left, although Mick immediately got taken out, then I got lucky as Darren decided to make a stand when I had him dominated and that left 3 players. Steve got whittled down and was out next, leaving Jon and I to play the last 4 hands of the tournament. I won the first couple of hands and with the chip counts almost identical was over aggressive on the 2nd last hand with T-7 and when Jon called my pre-flop raise we were both committed to play out the hand. The flop was checked, but Jon bet the turn. I had to make a crying call and sure enough, Jon had paired his Jack and took the pot and a well deserved victory

Phew, another points/cash finish for me which does my league position the world of good (that's what it's all about :-) )

The game overall was great, it seemed everyone was really on their best game tonight which made it fascinating and huge fun to play, so well done to all

Even better, we only have to wait three weeks for the next game :-)

Monday, September 10, 2007

Holiday: Spain - September 2007




We went to La Carihuela on the Costa Del Sol for a week last week and had a lovely time.


The journey out was uneventful and was in the bar by the beach before 6pm (local time) so was a good start to the holiday :-)


Most days followed a pattern of Breakfast, Beach, Lunch, Beach, walk (to Torremolinos or the Port at Benalmádena) then Dinner....... so didn't have to think to much about what to do


Weather wise, apart from Thursday every day was hot and Sunny (about 35 C) Thursday was cloudy until late afternoon (but still hot!) but had previously decided this was to be our adventure day, so we walked around Torremolinos town and along the beach.... (OK so wasn't all that adventurous ;-) )


In many ways we were sad to come home, but actually after a week of sun and heat we had had enough already so wasn't a great wrench really.


Journey home was also uneventful and even got home in time to watch the England match :-)


Great holiday, deliberately slow paced and relaxing, just what was needed to recharge the batteries