Just a video

Last day.

Well after writing my last post on Monday I played some poker on Monday night, played a $25 Tournament on Poker Stars and got 4th out of 1701 players and won $2977 USD, or about 4.5k NZD, so that really made my day.
Yesterday we went to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum. It was also Nikolais birthday, but nothing much happened for that.
I have just packed. BOOOOOO. Dont really want to go home.

Duck Tour

Today I went on a Duck Tour of Boston, www.bostonducktours.com . It is an absolute must for anyone who comes to visit Boston. Its called a duck tour because the truck they do the tours in are old WWII "DUKW's" that can go on land and water, you get a 60 minute tour of Boston from land, then 20 munites chugging around on the Charles river. Very cool.
Tomorrow is Nikolais 2nd birthday as well as being election day, I am hoping to go to The Muesuem of Fine Arts and The Isabella Stewart Muesuem as well. But it all depends on time. Being sober is great, it has been now 9 days since i had a drink and i wish to thank all my fellow BLUFFer's who have given me encouragement during this time. I guess a few people back home will read this and are probably thinking "HUH?", and all i can say to them is I needed to do it.
Take care all.

The last four days.

No posts for four days because not much has happened in the last four days.
Mum and Mel got back from Savannah on Tuesday night, some photos were shown and it seems a good time was had by all. Wesnesday we did nothing, Thursday we went to see Harvard, its a building, and looked at a lot of shoe shops trying to find some damn boots (we still havent yet). Thursday night I got 3rd in a Tournament on Poker Stars for $1,737 (which is about $3k NZ), so that made me kind of happy, gives me my airfare to Las Vegas if things work outwell. That took till 3am to win, so On Friday I didnt do much while Mum went to a mall to look for damn boots, lol, she didnt find them. Lu, we may not be able to find these boots.
Romans family arrived on Friday night from Russia. Wonderful people, but I do have no idea what they are saying and they have no idea what I am saying, but apart from that all is going along well.
Saturday Nik got sick and Mel took him to the hospital. He has a bad ear infection, but he seems to be doing a lot better today. He is back to his loud self. Sigh.
Today is Sunday, because Nik was sick yesterday I imangine we wont be doing anything.

Sigh. Its raining.

Its a wet Tuesday. I am home alone, so basiclly stuck inside. Not much to report from yesterday except a few things i will keep to myself.
Perhaps a few videos.
Jerry's House:
Turtle Watching:

Boston

Well, it turns out flights arent so cheap to Las Vegas , although I am sure that it would be worth it. So I have to think of another plan (which i allready have). All i need is for someone to say " Do it Lyall, whatever makes you happy".
As some of you may know, my sister and Mother are in Savannah GA for the next few days. Yesterday Roman took me and the kids to Wachusett Mountain for the yearly AppleFest. The drive there was "long and very very very boring" according to Katya. I am not so sure, I slept.
Was a nice day, we went to the top of the mountain and got a few photos before my battery went flat. But i had something else on my mind most of yesterday and I have to admit I didnt enjoy it as much as I could of.
To put it simply, I miss my friends. All the people I meet in Atlanta and Mississippi were the most friendly and fun people I have hung out with for a long time. Being back in Boston is somewhat of an anti-climax and even mentioning the thought of slipping away again brought down howls of protest.






Veiw from the top while feeling on the bottom.


For those of you who dont know, this is the veiw from Jerry's porch in Bay St Louis.





These are the people who made the trip so much fun. From left to right Greig (Atlanta), Jim (Flew in from Kansas City), Jeremy (Atlanta), Jerry ( Bay St Louis), Scott ( Tampa Bay), Some Moron (New Zealand), Brianna (Las Vegas) sigh, and standing is Lee (Washington State).
Absent from that photo was Tom, who was playing poker online.

Thursday

Yesterday was a quiet day. Slept in a little then sat on the porch out by the Biyou and drank a few beers. After that we got a phone call about someone Jerry knows who won 34 million dollars in the PowerBall wanted to play some poker. Apprantly he was a big fish, so off we went. I forgot, of course, that when i rely on luck for my poker I lose. So wave goodbye to my money, of course luck sack Jerry cleaned up.
We came back to J's awhile later, Lee was drunk and tred so he stayed home while Jerry and I went off to the casino, again. As usual for this area there was no good poker game going so I played some Blackjack and won ( sending the dealer and other players at my table into fits of despair with the way i play it, spliting 3s, doubling on 12, counting cards is fun.).
Came home and waited up to listen to my horse run, sadly he did no good,
That was yesterday.
Last day here today, we are off to Biloxi probably, then New Orleans again.
Talk to you all again soon.
Trying to think of a way i can get to Vegas, flights are cheap. Its time.
Love you all.

New Orleans

Yesterday we went into New Orleans for the day. Jerry and I though we would do some sight seeing while Lee made some money at the poker tables at Harrahs. It didnt work out that way because as soon as I got into the casino i wanted to play. Lee put his name on the list to play 2/5 while Jerry and I joined 1/2 tables. While Lee is waiting for his seat he realises he have left his money back at Jerrys!!!. HMMMMMMMMM. But I am nice and lend him some on a very short time basis.
Jerry loses his money, I won a little but got no where near doubling ny $200 which was my goal, while Lee turned his $400 ( my $400) into $750 thanks to a full house of Qs and 10s.
We got to Harrahs at about 2pm and left at about 7pm, so it was only a short 5 hour stint.
On leaving Harrahs we headed on over to Bourbon Street. All I can say about Bourbon street is WOW. All the bars were rocking with either Blues or Jazz, this one guy who played the trumpet sounded just like Louie Armstrong.In one of the other bars there was this Blues singer who the called Fat Mama, Martha White (I Think), and that was euthentic blues/soul. The bar after that had two Pianos set up and they played constantly takng requests from the audience (as long as you tipped them), I got them to play I come from the land down under by Men at work, which went down pretty well.
All in all, that was the best Wednesday night of my life, it was seriously the most fun I have had in a hell of a long time ( sorry Bluff).
Today we are heading off to Blioxi. So I will wrte again tomorrow.

Atlanta Recap.

Lets see how much i can remember/write about my 4 days in ATL.

Jerry's I key is a little broken so if the I's dont get written, deal with it.

After getting lost in the Atlanta arport ( its like 1.5k from the plane to the baggage claim), i appear at baggage claim to be meet by Jerry and Greig. It was a hot and muggy night and we jumped in Greigs car abd headed off the Jeremy's where I was presented with a case of world famous Two Buck Chuck. For those who dont know, Jeremys basement has been renovated and turned into a poker room with 2 tables.

After a short cash game and a long tournament we went to bed at 4am.

Get up at 8am feeling a little worse for wear, it must have been thw jetlag. Off to pick up Jim, at the airport, after stoppng at WaffleHouse. After we pick up Jim we head on over to the Bluff Magazine Head Quarters for the BLT and lunch. I was still feeling a lttle under the weather and did quite a lot of sitting down. The gambling started early, prop bets on how many seconds it would take for someone to say something, prop bets on whether or not people could understand my accent, $10 bets on playing heads up video poker ( I lost 4 in a row). The BLT Tournement started, i was still feelng a little iffy ( it must have been somethng I ate), so I just drank a lot of water and rested my head on the table durng hands. Came 3rd. Didnt bother joning the cash game after,

Frday night was bowling night where the prop bets flew thick and fast. I bowled a 124 and a 116 which everyone thought was pretty good for a rookie. Back to Jeremy;s and bed at the early time of midnight.

Saturday, after a breakfast lovingly made by Jeremy (French Toast), we piled n the car and headed over to Andrettis Indoor Karting. We had a very nice liesurely lunch wth lots of beer on the table and wine (great before you go flying round a Kart track at 35MPH). I was really bad, but ohh well you cant be good at everything.

After the kartng we just headed into the arcade where we spent a few hours makng stupid prop bets and trying to earn 7,000 tickets to get a damn large stuffed toy. We ended up with 4,000 tickets which was a hell of an effort. Used it to get some przes for that nights main event.

The main event was being held at Jeffs house who lves somewhere near Boston. (t was a long drive). A few people were late arriving so Drew was impateint to get a cash game going. He did, but t only lasted about 10 minutes before we were up and running. The main event was a $50 buy n and a $10 bounty to whoever knocked you out. I played well and ran my chip stack up to about 45,000 chips (started with 10,000). Unfortunitley I then played a bad 30 minutes where I was makng large bet calls on the toss of a coin and I was knocked out in 10th place with my 66 vs JJ. The guy who knocked me out went on the win.

Home to Jeremys at about 5am.

Up Sunday morning anf off to take Jim to the airport so he can fly back to Kansas City. We stop at IHOP (Internetional House of Pancakes) for breakfast where we are joined by Jeremy;s wife and son. We then head over to the hotel where Scott, Tom, Jerry and Leeman were staying. We say goodbyes and share MANLY hugs and lose Jim, Scott and Tom, but gainA Jerry and Lee to come with us. We are all feelng a little worn out so we just decide to go back to Jeremys house and piss around playng some online. played the Sunday Warm up and bomb out, then I play the Sunday Millons (both entries I won through my Player Points), but alas I bombed out on tht too. Played a few others but it wasnt my day. We then got a live game going of 5c/10c (very small levels for us). Players were Me, Lee, Jeremy, Brianna and Jerry, the game didnt stay tame for long, but hey we are all gamblers.Lee lost his $20 early and wimped out. Wine was drunk and other game suggestions on games were made, we started playing Blind Mans Bluff, which is where you get 1 card which you dont look at. You stick it to your forehead so all the others can see it, and you bet on how strong you feel your card is after you see what the other players have with the cards stuck to their foreheads. After that came Red Dog, probably the sickest card game i have ever ever played. $1 in from each player, call a bet and lose you put whatever you called into the pot, I call a pot bet ( worth $50 ) and win, make a few other good calls, then all hell broke lose. Pot, lose, Pot lose, Pot lose, Pot lose, wow, pot stands at $200, Jeremy's turn, POT, wow, there are oly 4 cards in the entire deck of cards that can make Jeremy lose, an Ace or a King, Pot, a $200 bet with a 92% chance of winning, seems simple until the card gets turned and its a King, the look on Jeremy;s face was priceless, if you like the look of people shitting themselves. So now there is $400 on the table which means that the next pot bet is $400 to call, we decide to take a 5 mnute break. What started as a night of simplr 5c/10c No Limit (where $20 s the most you could lose), we are now staring at people losing $200-$400 on a flip of a card, so we actually do the unthinkable. We stop the games dead, and everyone gets their money back. We were playing for fun, not to make people broke. So we did the right thing and called the game off, I loved everyone at that table to much to risk paycheques on card flips.

After catching our breath, puttinig the cards away and talking a bit of shit, off to bed at about 2am, up at 6.30 am to head to the train station to catch the Amtrak to New Orleans. Jerry and I decide to upgrade to a sleeper car so we can get some much needed sleep. What was a surprise was that all meals were free after we did that. It was a very nice and relaxing, and some of the scenery was cool, and some was very Southeren ( double wides with a porch).

Arrived at Jerrys to say my lne i had been praticing for a few days " How Yall Doin". Jerrys wife works at the local casino so off we went to the casino for a Buffett meal. casino was very much the same as the casno in Christchurch BUT and this is a big BUT, ALL ALCOHOL IS FREE. I ordered a glass of Merlot and handed to barman a $20 note only to have every one yell "NO" at me, the barman looks at me and says "All drnks are free sir, all you need to do is tip", so I took back my $20 note and gave him $1, LOL.

I will post some photos later. The Bluff forum will have some good stories if anybody wants to look. Thats all from me for now.

Day 2 in Bay St Louis

Today we are gong out onto the Gulf of Mexico to have a look around and do some fishing.
Something about a tavern poker event tonight that Jerry runs and a bar down the road.

Bay Saint Louis

Evening all.
Arrived in Bay Saint Louis via the train whch was fun.
The last 4 days have quite seriously been the best/funnest 4 days of my life.
For more info. go to http://www.bluffmagazine.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11657&SID=5d9ec5e61ed166f54d7f88f959414fzb

Atlanta

Arrived in Atlanta last night, flight was great, best I have been on for a long time.
I was meet at the airport by Jerry and we got picked up at the airport by Greig and went to Jeremy's house where a cash game of poker was running. Joined in, played 4 hands before they stopped but managed to win $17.
Played a $25 tournement but didnt play very well and busted out early. Drank to much, not good, but managed to win about $230 on Poker Stars (with Jerrys help) after i busted out.
Today we have been at Bluff Poker magazine offices all day. Lunch was put on, and a $20 tournement was started, of 29 players i got 3rd for $85 ( with no help from Jerry). So, so far, the trip down here is paying off allright.
We are off to go bowling soon and i think i have drunk my own weight in water today.
All the people here are amazing, make you feel very much at home. Atlanta looks like a nice place , but it is raining today but still pretty hot.
GO RED SOX
Went to Waffle house for breakfast, which isnt something I want to repeat again too soon. Although according to jeremy and Greig it was the cleanest one they had been in and all the wait staff had their teeth which is pretty rare.
I have photos and stuff, but i am on Lees laptop and dont know how to upload, so i will do that later.
Bye for now.

A Good time on the slides

START ........................... WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
FINISH


Now watching Kimba the White Lion.
But, I hope Daddy gets home soon, i dont like the responsibility. I am childfree for a reason.

Quiet Day ( I hope)

Wednesday:
Looking after Nik alday today, so wont be doing much. Might go for a walk, at the moment we are watching Dora the Explorer, its ok, but not as good as Caillou.
Leaving for ATL tomorrow, playing some poker at Jeremy's on Thursday night and will try my first Two Buck Chuck.
BYEE

A busy few days

SUNDAY.

On Sunday we had Katya's Birthday Party (although she is 5 today). So in the morning we hung decorations and blew up ballons, and did all sorts of silly things with the kids. I got the job of taking Nik for a walk (hes 1, nearly 2) because he was getting in the way. Perhaps it was me getting in the way.

Party started at 2, not very many kids turned up as she has just started a new Pre School and dosent know many.

I drank Samual Adams Lager and we also had a bottle of some Californain Red, no poker was played, kids just dont get it, although, they allready better then Lee. I havent played any since getting here, computer time is somewhat of a luxury.

Monday (Colombus Day), we went to the Topsfield Fair, ( for those back in NZ, its like the A and P Show but 20 times bigger), and minus a traffic jam with a nearly 2 year old throwing a tantrum it was a very fun day. We saw pigs racing ( YEE HAW) and Bears and a petting zoo and Katya went on 6 rides. All in all , more fun could not be had with out taking your pants off. (So I hear)

Home to beer and wine and pizza and again no poker.

Tuesday (today) Katyas 5th birthday. Went into down town Boston to do a little shopping and to have a look around. Brought some DVDs for the kids and some Corona for me, Infact it is almost time for one.

Just about to cook a roast chicken for a special birthday tea, gas oven hmmmmm, whats that smell????.

Talk to you all soon.

Off to ATL in 2 days and am I gonna be ready to play some poker!!!!!.

Photos

Made it , finally.

Coming to you live from sunny Boston, Live itsssssssssss MEEEEEEEEEE.

Well, it was a mission, but all is now good.

Problems started on Thursday night when mother got a phone call from Qantas telling her that the flight was running an hour late out of Auckland which reduced our time in LA to make our connection to only 1 hour 3 mins. We could see trouble brewing.
So the first leg is to fly to Auckland, no problems there, we walk over to the international terminal only to find that our flight is now 5 hours late so we will miss our connection, and wiht the problem between flying from LA And Boston (time difference), there wasnt another flight for us for us to connect with till 10.30 pm LA time (10 hours later) or even the next mornig if that one was full.
Not good enough i say, ok , so Qantas then book us onto a Air New Zealand flight, but adding up the time we would only get into LA 1 hour and 50 minutes be our connection, which isnt enough time (you need 2 hours).
So after a bit of searching around, the very nice Qantas chap, finds us a Air New Zealand flight to San Fran, that has an American connection to Boston leaving 2 and a half hours later. So thats us.
So we book via Air New Zealand (at no charge to us) and they tell us they will get our baggage off the Qantas flight and put it one the ANZ flight to San Fran, so we go to the check in counter at ANZ and check in, all is good. We get our boarding passes, this had taken 90 mins. HMMMM.
We are just about to walk through the security checks when I look at the boarding passes and see they are for a ANZ flight to LA.... WTF...., by now I am gettnig a bit annoyed, so off we trot again to see the supervisor, who eventually we make understand our provlem, who then issues us with boarding passes for San Fran. Thank God.
So off we go to the departure gate, and I get selected for extra security checks.
Flight was great, huge plane only 25% full with a great movie selection on demand, and even managed a wee bit of sleep, not much, but some.
So next comes San Fran and .... IMMIGRATION. I get everythiong BUT strip searched, but i did kind of expect that having to acquire a Visa and all. Get through to the baggage claim to find that my Mothers 2 suitcases made it, but mine didnt. So I had no clothes (apart from what i was wearing OBV).
Sigh, so thats OK, they must be on one of the outher 2 planes we were coming to LA on and some stage.
Get to the American check in at SAN Fran and for once something went fine, no hassle, rang my sister to tell her we were in San Fran (she was tracking out flights thru some website and still thought we were somewhere over the Pacific due to our original flight leaving Auckland 8 hours late.
Now comes San Fran security, where.... you guessed it , I get choosen for extra security, again, everything BUT a stripsearch, by now I am beginning to feel a little paranoid. Do I really look the unsavourary????.
Finally get through that, have a feed and a beer (at 9am NZ time) and get on plane to Boston. What an awful flight, it was so long, I was so tired, there was no room for baggae in the over head storage so I had to have my one bag I still had (cameras and MP3 player) on the floor down by my feet so I had no legroom. $6 for a beer, Hell on wings.
Land in Boston, YAYYYYYYY, tell them about my lost bag, got some no english speaker who looked at my like I was mad, got her supervisour who found it straight away, it was in LA.
Wen toutside, got in my sisters car, drove to her house and wen tto bed. My suitcase arrived this morning so I am wearing clean underwear. Nice.

Just been to the Liquor Store and brought some beer and some wine, let the Holiday begin.


Oh BTW, my neice and nephew are wonderful, loud, but wonderful.

OWWWWW Sore tooth.

Yep, I woke up this morning with exetremely bad tooth ache, just my luck. But, thankfully, I know it isnt my teeth that are the problem. I have had this before earlier this year. Its an abcess under my wisdom tooth. So off to the docter I go, get some extra strong antobiotcs and all will be good.
Heres a lesson for all the Americans reading this. Health care in NZ.
Wake up, somethings wrong, drive to docter, sit down, 3 minutes later docter sees you, leave docter pay $35 fee, go to chemist to get prescriptions filled, I have two so thats $4 each. All this and I have no health insurane or any thing, see how a "socalised" Health Plan can work. I only pay the $35 and the $8 because I am considered to be wealthy (i.e. I am single no kids and earn over 45K), if I had kids, or earned lees than 25K or was over 65 everything would have been free.
Free Health Care can work.

There ends the lecture.

Plane leaves in 3 hours, nearly there.

I fly tomorrow

Well, the big day has almost arrived. I fly out tomorrow, although if mum had her way we would be at the airport now "Just in case".
For those you you who want to know where I am going, here is a list of the important dates.
Oct. 10 , fly out to Boston.
Oct. 14, Katerinsa 5th Birthday
Oct. 16th , I fly to Atlanta to spend 4 nights with the wonderful folks from www.bluffmagazine.com/forum . Events planned include Poker, Poker , Bowling , Karting, Poker and drnking.
Oct. 20, I catch a train in Atlanta with Jerry (and Lee) and get off 9 and a half hours later in
Picayune, a town 50 miles from Jerrys house, ( Jerry lives some 50 miles from New Orleans). I spent 5 nights there appratly playing poker and doing some fishing.
Oct. 25th I fly back to family.
Nothing will happen after that.
Nov 4th is Election Day
Nov 6th is Nicolai's 2nd Birthday
Nov 8th , fly home.

I will attemot to make posts every night to keeo you informed what I was up too.

Talk to you al again soon.

Ok, Just posting a photo so i know how easy it is.

First

Well, this is a first. First blog, first post.
Just gonna have this to post details of my trip to America for those who chise to care. Whats cards I played, what I drank and how loud my neice and nephew are.
I dont leave for another 2 weeks.