Macau 2012

Whilst the slow news days continue, I also spent a week in Macau during my Hong Kong trip. It had been a dream of mine for many years to go to Macau as I nearly won a trip years ago. I played a series of Poker tournaments in 2008 that had the first prize as a trip to Macau, all expenses paid, and entry into a major tournament. After 3 or so final tables, I attended the last tournament offered with a friend. We made the last 2 and did a deal where I ended up winning $6000 and I gave up my chance to my mate. Whilst it was an excellent decision financially, there was a part of me that wanted to make it to Macau, and I can now say that I have done it.

I had read before going that there were 36 casinos there, and whilst I was salivating at the thought, I didn't want to spend my whole holidays at casinos. This post will focus on some of Macau's other attractions. Firstly, whilst Hong Kong was under extended rule by the British, Macau was under extended rule by the Portugese - this meant that all the street signs were in Portugese and most people only knew about three and a half words of english. Macau is tiny, and if you were not into gambling, you could do it in 2 days but I tried to spend my days walking and exploring and my nights a the tables.

Before the Portugese handed Macau back to China, they did their best to empty their bank accounts and built several new buildings and memorials. The one below caught my eye. I was talking to a local about it - it is the Lady Buddha. It was designed by a Portugese sculpture, and as they are primarily Christian, the Lady Buddha looks like Mary. Most Buddhists are offended by the resemblance to Mary and as a result, few people pray here. Its a classic example of what happens when you do not understand others culture.

Lady Buddha

Below are some more elevated shots I took during my walking travels. The architecture of many buildings have a European feel to them. I also walked to the local central meeting point and strip shops (San Ma Lo). Visited a very old church there (which I wish I had taken some pictures of!)

View from my Hotel room - Hotel Royal.

View from highest mountain

Sky Tower - tallest building in Macau

In one of my walks, I went north and soon was lost. I remember walking through a cemetery.  There were both Christian and Buddhist graves side by side, and Portugese and Asian names. I kept pushing north and before too long, found myself at the China border. I was tempted to cross over to the other side but did not want to risk not having the right visa for reentry or to be stuck in China without my room or luggage, and thought better of it.

Gates of China from Macau

Macau is in 2 parts, the main part is attached to China,then there is a southern part called Cotai (it may be an Island). Much if not all of it is reclaimed land and the parts I saw were very modern. One of the last things the Portugese built was a friendship bridge. It was not a clear day when I travelled on it, but you can see in the distance the parallel bridge that is being built to hook up Hong Kong, China and Macau. Whilst this would be very convenient, I could imagine a fair few Ferry operators  being concerned about their business declining once this bridge is finished.

Under construction - bridge from Hong Kong to Macau and China

The food here was fantastic - inexpensive, high quality. I had a buffet breakfast at my hotel every morning and that was also great. I'd really love to come back here someday, but time will tell.

Hong Kong - 2012

I have mentioned in a few blog posts that I visited Hong Kong and Macau in April 2012. I would have blogged about it at the time, however, I was not writing a blog at that time. Today being a slow news day is as good a time as any to tell you my thoughts.

I had been to Hong Kong a couple of times before as a kid. They were family holidays, and so not much fun. My family never knew how to enjoy themselves once they arrived somewhere on holidays.

I spent most of my time in Hong Kong on the island. I was there for 4 days and it was terrible weather - always humid and rained most days. I did a little bit of shopping, bought a couple of digital radios and some watches for my dad. When I was young, Hong Kong was a shoppers paradise, nowdays, I think ebay has leveled the playing field - it is still relatively cheap, however, not as cheap as it used to be.

I spent one day going to Victoria Peak. I caught the tram up and did a massive walk back to causeway bay. The view was great and the air up there was fantastic. It surprised me how developed the mountain was, yet it still managed to have large green areas.

Victoria Peak - View from the tram up

Victoria Peak - Walking Path

Victoria Peak from the mountaintop.

In total, I was in Hong Kong for 4 days and loved it. I spent an additional week in Macau, but I'll tell you about that some other time.

Day at the Cricket

My sisters husband works for a sporting retailer and often manages to get free tickets to the Cricket. In past years it was a tradition among my Uni friends to go to at least 1 day of the New Years test at the SCG, however, this stopped a few years ago.

The visiting team is Sri Lanka - a credible cricketing nation however, not one of the world superpowers, particularly in the test arena. Today was day 3 and whilst the visitors had some hope at the start of play, such hope is quite limited now and many expect the test to be over tomorrow.

Our tickets were in the concourse - Bay 14, 25 rows back. They would have been decent seats if only the sun didn't hit you in the face after lunch. Fortunately the day was not a sellout and we managed to find undercover seats in the new Victor Trumper stand. It was the first time I sat in this stand and it was quite obstructed towards the O'Reilley stand. There was a huge hole between the membes and the O'Reilley where they are getting ready to buils a new grandstand.

Former Noble, Bradman and Messenger stands from my original seat.

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View from our 'Upgraded" seats in the Trumper stand.

Considering the reduced ground capacity, you could imagine that the organisers would be a little disappointed that there was no sellout and average crowds have been around the 26,000 mark. The bug gimmick this year was that one section of concourse was ripped out and turned into a beach - with sand, umbrellas and beach chairs.

If the organisers wanted a sellout they really need to look at themselves. These days, the banned list include beach balls, mexican waves and beer cup 'worms'. In addition, food and drink are expensive and very limited in choice, ticket prices are ridiculous and you very rarely see replays on the screen (the scoreboards are very poor these days but I suppose most can check an app on their phones).

All in all I had a good day, though I don't think I would have paid to go. I may have another opportunity to go to a twenty 20 but we will have to wait and see.

I need a coffee hit

I blogged about a month ago that my regular barista at work had left. The move has been hard on me. Since he has left, no less than 6 people have made coffee at this place with various results. Yesterdays coffee was awful - I hate waste but it was a total screw-up. My regular was now a small, and it was so bad that I had to tip it down a sink.

Today I ventured a bit away and had a had a decent coffee at a shopping centre but this is not sustainable. Once teh Christmas break is over and other coffee shops start opening again, I may need to venture out and find another place to get coffee. In the meantime, I keep yawning at work!

Putting a ring on it.

As I'm sure you have figured out by now, I do not have many friends. One group of friends that I hold close and try to stay in relatively close contact with are my uni friends. We have been through alot together and I can't see us getting separated in a hurry.

That being said, we have all taken different paths. One couple were married not long after Uni, then divorced a decade later. Another is married with kids. Another moved overseas. Another is single like me, only I have just had news that he has proposed to his girlfriend and there is a wedding on the way.

Whilst my first reaction is nothing less than happiness for them and best wishes, I have only met his partner once, and only knew he had a partner about 3 months ago. I'm assuming that they have been going out for a year or so. Logistics and different lifestyles make meetups very difficult (which prompted this to be one of my new years resolutions). no one is directly at fault, but I wish we could meet up more regularly and I had better opportunity to get to know this girl who is marrying one of my best friends.

We once used to spend so much time together, we now catch up a couple of times a year. What I would give to go back to the way we used to be.

Seeing in the New year

I really wanted to go to the Casino on New Years Eve, so it should come as no surprise that I was busting to join the tables on New Years Day.

There was a big buzz around the place. Apparently pro's like Antonio Esfandiari, Tony G and Jeff Lisandro was at the tables the night before, no doubt warming up for the New Years eve fireworks (If only I could have been there a day earlier!!) I sat on the $80-$200 table again  and set myself the same rules - maximum 5 hours, leave when $500 up or at my time limit. I loaded my seat and sat in seat 10, view of seats 1-3 is restricted, but a seat is a seat.

I had a pretty standard first 3 hours. I dipped as low as $150 but recovered to be closer to $250. I missed a couple of chances but was not getting monster hands and was playing a relatively safe game - I tried to see as many cheap flops as possible and when i hit it, tended to make around $20-$40 a hand. It was at the 3 hour mark that a couple of Vietnamese people joined in seats 6 and 7 that changed the game for me.

The guy in seat 6 was an older gentlemen. I saw a cheap flop with 45 from the button. The flp came down 678, giving me a small straight. There were 2 clubs on the board which was enough to scare me, so I decided to bet big and take the pot there. I made a $40 bet and was immediately called by the guy in seat 6. The turn was a 3 of clubs, putting the flush into play. He checked, I put $50 into it, thinking he would have bet if he had the flush, he called quickly again. At this point I was worried. The river put out another 7 which was bad for me. if my opponent had trips, he now had a full house. He put his last $55 into the pot at which point I conceded and called. I thought I was beat but the pot was too big to turn down. He shows 8 -10 no clubs - he was calling with top pair and an inside straight draw. Very bad play on his part and I was delighted to win the $300 pot. He did a rebuy and won a few hands from others at the table.

I sat on that $450 mark for quite some time. I ran into a streak of good aces, however, struggled to get callers for my preflop raises. The 5 hour mark was just 15 minutes away when I managed AK hearts. I preflop raised $17 from big blind and had 4 callers, the 2 Vietnamese and one other. The flop was 274 with the 4 of hearts heart. I checked, seat 6 raised $20. other two called, so, despite having nothing, I decided to call as well, since the pot was already over $130. The turn was the 6 of hearts, giving me a flush draw. I checked, seat 6 bet $80, seat 7 was all in for $63 and the other guy folded. Action was on me, and I thought for an eternity. When he initially bet $80 i was ready to fold, however, It would be hard to put me on a flush and I couldn't put any of my opponents on a flush draw either, telling me there were more hearts out there. Furthermore, Seat 6 had been winning hands and had another $280 in reserve. If I hit my flush, it was going to be a good pay day. I decided to call but was in agony over it. River came 2 of hearts, I hit my flush bit it paired the board. I still felt like I had the best hand and led out $250. There was an extended pause but I realised pretty quickly that he had no full house - if he did he would have been all in straight away. he eventually called with pocket 9's - an over pair to the board but not good enough. The pot was over $850 and I was ecstatic.

My stack was a bit over $1000 and I was well over my $500 target now. I played out the last 10 minutes and left the table over $800 in front.  This is as good a start to the new year as I could have hoped for and I had lots of fun.

And a new one just begun...

It is tradition to set goals on New Years Day on what you would like to achieve in the new year. I recently asked a close friend what her resolutions for the coming year was, she abruptly replied that she didn't believe in them. To me, it isn't so much about belief, rather an opportunity to set goals in an.effort to get you motivated.

There are a few items that I would like to my 2013 wishlist, in no specific order:

• I will lose 10kgs.
• I will learn how to make nonna's homemade gnocci 
• I will go out on a date.
• I will organise a meet-up with my uni friends.
• I will go on a holiday.
• I will get my cousin and her dad in communication with each other.

 No doubt I will post more details on all of these along with my progression achieving these goals in due course, but this is where I would like to target my energy for the coming year and I believe all of these are achievable, though some will be more difficult than others.