General : Home Gym

We decided to set up a home gym in the garage, mainly as I am starting to work from home regularly now, but also as Lynn wants to do more keep fit as well.    Due to the coldness, we got the floor boarded and insulated, and put curtains over the garage door (keeping it all temporary so it can be converted back)

We got most of the stuff from Fitness Superstore in Frimley where after extensive research found the kit we had decided on was around the cheapest !   We also had sent off for a brochure, which came with a 10% discount voucher, which we could use on the whole order value.   The one exception was the the Multi Gym which we got from Connection Fitness as it was significantly cheaper….

In the end we decided on the following:-

Weider Pro 2000 Multi Gym
Oxford II CS rower
Life Fitness C1 Cycle
Andes 308 Elliptical Trainer
Bremshey Ambition T Treadmill

The weight machine came first and took about 4 hours to assemble !   The instructions were clear and having used the machine a few times already, it seems to be doing me good !

The remaining kit came a few days later and were less pieces to put together but still a surprising amount of assembly required !   The rower was the worse instructions as it was always a bit of a guess as to what screws/bolts/nuts to use at each stage… but in the end after another 4 or 5 hours of assembly everything is now setup and ready to go !   We did have a slight hitch with the console unit for the Bike… they sent the console for the treadmill instead !    I don’t think you can really judge how a good a company is unless you need to use it’s customer service when things go wrong, and did feel that the Fitness Superstore people reacted well and quickly, with the component swapped over a couple of days later, so all is well now and am happy by the service we received.

I am still going to David Lloyd on work days, as I have to give 3 months notice !! so will not get fully into the new regime until March, but will update on progress as I go

Poker : Home Tournament : November 2008

It's not quite "end of term" yet, but the game tonight had a end-of-term joviality to it for some reason (I only had 1 beer!) but was great to be in that atmosphere.

My poker night started well also as I got Pocket Q first hand, raised got 4 callers (no one respects me anymore!) and hit trips with a Q high rainbow flop. Even more lucky was that Sean decided to call my all-in with nothing, and apart from a brief scare of runner-runner flush was given a comfortable stack to play with.

Lucky for me as I didn't get many cards after that and started to get blinded down, but had plenty of time.

Our table was quite solid with not all that many rebuys, but on the other table Mick seemed to be grabbing more chips every hand !

As the blinds went up, I got involved in a hand where it looked like I was good on the flop (can't remember the exact details now), so managed to get all the chips in but Steve had me well dominated and I needed a ten to save me.....it came on the river and was suitably embarrassed as I gleefully raked in the large pot :-)

Luck always evens out and I later lost an even bigger hand to Derek. I had K9 on a KTx flop. Derek called my all in bet with AT but hit his A to take my stack

As the blinds were going up and we were approaching the last rebuy time, I got dealt K9h and decided to go for it. Unfortunately I got called by Sean and Steve (I think) who had KJ and KQ respectively. Needing a 9 or lots of Hearts, I got lucky again and a third Heart came on the river to give me around 2500 chips as we went to the break !

It had been an exciting night for me and my last hand was no exception.... my A6 on the blind looked a bit light to bet on the flop of 245 but the turn of 3 gave me the straight hit and so made a large pot sized bet. Derek called me and despite the flush coming on river pushed his remaining chips in. Feeling obliged to call, he showed his flush to leave me with 100 chips (with the BB at 200 !) Two hands later I was in the BB and Sean K3 took my KJ out when he rivered trips and I finished 9th.

One of my championship rivals Alex had also got knocked out just before me, so only Andy could mount a challenge for the title.

With 8 players left we were down to the final table. Mick got knocked out my Lee and then quickly went on to put Andy to an all-in decision. Deciding he was ahead Andy called... and was ahead! With Lee needing a ten to win the hand, sure enough it came on the turn and Andy was out in 7th place..... meaning I cannot be caught and have won the 2008 League :-)

Lee, Bill and Derek all had dominating chip stacks so it was inevitable that the others quickly got swallowed up, despite some valiant attempts to survive.

Bill made an all-in lunge at the top but unfortunately his bluff was called by Derek and it was down to the final two.

The heads up battle didn't last all that long. Derek had a huge chip lead but both players were playing it tight and it needed both to hit something to see the final showdown.... and we were not long in waiting. With the blinds at 1000/500 Lee raised on a flop of 92x all diamonds which Derek re-raised all-in. Lee called and shows Ad with a Q Derek had 9-2 (two pair) Lee thought it was his when he hit the nut flush on turn, but river came with a 9 to give Derek a hard fought victory

Phew what a night, the chips were flying around and everyone seemed to be involved...

The final battle of the year is only a month away, and should be a cracker so don't miss it !!