W. T. PSEUDONYMITY

I'm Back

2006-11-29T22:45:00.000Z

I'm back!

But time for bed right now, Ill post tomorrow, I suppose I'd better write some interesting tales about what's happened over the past few months... but fuck it.

Til tomorrow.

Danneh :)

P.S. I've got plenty of funny Matteh stories though :)

Update

2006-05-03T15:22:00.000+01:00

**Dan is currently making his way back to England, taking a 23:15 (HK time) BA flight to London Heathrow, arriving at 5:00 (UK time) Expects to be home late Thursday morning, and also expects to be exhausted**

Splish Splash Splosh (postcard #5)

2006-05-02T14:58:00.000+01:00

Today I was unleashed for the first time for a whole day to explore and immerse myself into the spirit of Hong Kong.

Started off pretty badly though, didn't manage to wake up until 11:30, and even then only because the phone began to blare out its noisy ring tone, awaking me from a groggy slumber. But truthfully, I needed the lay-in. Although not the most exciting way to begin a day of tourism here, I still haven't really caught up with all the missed sleep on the way here, and adjusting to the different time zones. So to get a good rest before the long travel back home tomorrow was important.

The aforementioned phonecall was from Lena Tsang, a Marketing Executive from InterMed Asia, offering me the use of a mobile phone for the remainder of my stay here. As I mentioned way earlier, I can send and receive text messages with my phone, but I can't make or receive calls. So I decided to take up the offer, which also included a free lunch :)

I took a cab to their offices in the Eldex Industrial Building, after much debate with the cab driver and the concierge to where the destination actually was. I arrived at the thankfully well air-conditioned offices (the temperature outside must have been at least 33 C with a hot wind and 90+% humidity), where I was given the phone, and then informed that lunchtime wasn't for another hour. So i ventured back out into the flaming hot streets for a walk around the area. The area was typical of the less colonial parts of Hong Kong, hot, busy, shops everywhere, cars everywhere, smoggy air, and strange smells drifting on the air. Whilst looking for a nearby shopping mall, I inevitable got lost in the crowded streets, and ended up spending most of the hour I had before I needed to be back at the offices trying to actually find my way back to the offices. Fortunately, Stephanie had printed out a map directing me to the shopping mall; it proved to be utterly useless in that respect but did allow me to guide myself back to the offices with 5 minutes to spare. A few of us, (Helen, Danny, Stanley [I think], Geoffroy, and Stephanie), went to have a traditional Dim Sung Chinese lunch in a nearby restaurant. My God, Chinese people sure eat a hell of a lot for lunch. The format was thus: we were given menus entirely in Cantonese, so the rest of the people ordered for me. The dishes came in three sizes, all of which were priced accordingly. There was traditional Chinese tea, and the food was placed onto a revolving turntable in middle of the 10-seater table, so we could pick and choose, just like a buffet. The dishes came, and kept coming, and kept coming! There were Egg, Flour and Red Bean fried balls, Spring Rolls, Barbecue Pork balls, Chicken, Pork, Battered whole fishes, all of which were mocking me by not agreeing to levitate for my feeble attempts with the chopsticks. At some point during the lunch, a knife and fork appeared at my side, making me feel quite useless not being able to use the sticks. So I dived into the traditional Chinese cuisine with aplomb, and was soon full up. It was a great experience, the restaurant was very busy and Cantonese chatter could be heard everywhere.

Following the lunch, the staff walked me half way back to the office, and dropped me off at the bus-stop to wait for the number 8 minibus. I had forgotten how hot it was having sat in the air-conditioned restaurant for over an hour, but I was soon reminded as the uncomfortable feeling of itchy hot trousers sticking to my legs returned. I returned briefly to the hotel, had a short rest, and consulted my guide book regards what to do next.

Twenty Minutes later, in the Tsim Tsa Chui MTR station, I charged up my octopus card with $50, and took the MTR to Central Station (2 stops down the Tsueng Wan line). Walked to the bus terminus, and boarded the number 6X bus, to the famous Repulse Beach of Hong Kong Island. The bus scaled twisty mountain roads, and gave very picturesque views of the lowlands of Hong Kong Central. A pretty strange site was an absolutely huge cemetery, jam packed with headstones and tombs, covering much of the side of one valley, engulfed in trees and vegetation. The hills had been cut into and stepped, so as to allow the graves a flat resting place. I couldn't help but imagine what might happen if a huge rainstorm came and caused a landslide on these hills. Even more spectacular was the sight of a very tall, very thin, modern looking building perched on the very top of the hill. How on earth they built it I can't imagine, let alone how it stays there! Thirty minutes later, the bus arrived at the stop "Repulse Beach"

Now as spectacular beaches go, it wasn't really anything to shout about. But it was still very picturesque, and appeared to be a popular spot for tourists and locals alike. The views were stunning, out to sea rose small rocky islands, and larger mountain peaks connected to the land. behind the beach, rose yet more mountains with large blocks of apartments built onto their sides. I strolled along the full length of the beach, ignoring the much hated feeling of sand gathering in my shoes and scratching my feet, and explored the authentic Chinese style buildings at the far end of the bay. I enjoyed spending an hour or more there, it was relaxing and peaceful, and great to say that I have had this experience. After a lot of walking and sweating, I boarded the 6X back towards the central part of Hong Kong. About 20 minutes into the journey, I spotted one of the easily recognisable signs directing pedestrians to an MTR station. The bus stopped very shortly afterwards, so I decided to get off.

Bit of a mistake that. By following the sign to the MTR, I shortly came to another sign, and then another, and then another. Seems that it wasn't as close as I had thought. I was in a completely unfamilar part of the city, but decided to make the most of it by doing a little bit of shopping for souvenirs inbetween hunting down the MTR station. I bargained like a pro with the store traders for souvenirs, and checked out some of the jewellery and watches for sale (although didn't buy any). Eventually, I happened upon the Causeway Bay MTR stop, which was a little of course for where I had intended to end up, but nevertheless I felt relieved to reach the familar subway. At least i wasn't lost forever :)

Back to the hotel once more, dropped off my shopping, and then out again to visit the markets in Mong Kok for more souvenir shopping and touring. By now it was beginning to get dark, and a light mist of rain was falling from the sky. I decided that it would be a good time for dinner, so I checked into a table for 1 at the nearest Pizza Hut, and dined like a king ;) The Pizza Huts in Hong Kong, incidentally, seem far more upmarket than that of the UK, and thus the menu is much more diverse, not only can one buy pizzas, but also all manner of soups, salads, pasta dishes, chicken dishes, chinese dishes, the works. Upon exiting the restaurant, and having psyched myself up to be once again blasted by the hot, humid air outside, I was surprised to notice a distinct cooling of the atmosphere since the last time I had had the chance to savour it. The reason soon became apparent, huge rain drops were falling in their billions, smashing down onto the rooftops, canopies and pavements, and turning the roads into rivers in a matter of minutes. "Great", I thought, as I ventured out in only my t-shirt and short trousers to protect me against the battering rainstorm, and carrying my open ended shopping bags. Not really the best weather for further shopping thought I, and so I decided to make a quick return to the hotel to drop off my things.

The final experience of the day was to hire an umbrella from the hotel, put on my raincoat, and enjoy the waterfront views while splashing about in the puddles underneath the now ensuing colossal thunderstorm. It wasn't (and still isn't, by the way) like storms that we experience in the UK. The rain was akin to tropical thunderstorms, or monsoon weather (we are in fact now entering the monsoon season for Hong Kong), and didn't just come and go in a short, cold 15 minute burst of the type I am used to. The rain is still falling, more than 2 hours since it began. Purple lightning flashes illuminated the sky every 2 or 3 seconds, and the swirling thunderclouds eerily enveloped the top of the tallest buildings of Hong Kong island, as viewed from the Kowloon waterfront. Being someone who is fascinated with extreme weather, this was a fantastic way to spend the evening. Some locals looked on with surprise from the safety of their shelter as they saw me walking around in the pouring rain, occasionally even lowering the umbrella to experience the warm water splash down onto my face.

Now at the Internet Cafe, I am slightly regretting my childish spirit, sitting here as I do in soaking wet clothes with squelchy feet and dripping hair. But I would do it all over again for sure :)

I have had a fantastic and full day here today, the time has just flown by, and tomorrow will be my last day before I take my BA World Traveller seat once again.

I'm now going to venture out into the cacophony of rain droplets for the final time, shower and go to bed. I just wonder if those gravestones are still allright...

Lots of hugs and kisses to Lisa :* <3

Danneh

Even Yet More Postcards from Hong Kong (#4)

2006-05-01T14:53:00.000+01:00

Let me just clarify the situation for you. The last time I wrote here was yesterday evening, but I only wrote about the events which happened until the day before that. So I had better let you in on the story of my most recent two days here in the wonderful city of Hong Kong.

Not wanting to ruin the trend of the past couple of mornings, I got up nice and late for "work" (if you can call performing cube demonstrations, work :) ), and was sedentarily making my way towards the MTR (subway train) by about 8:50 in the morning. I say sedentarily, because it's the only way for an English guy like me to get to his destination in Hong Kong without making his appearance as a dripping wet with sweat, panting and heaving body. At least at this time of year. This was after a nice breakfast in the Salisbury Dining Room, overlooking the harbour and Hong Kong Island.

The 3rd day progressed along nicely, I performed the usual routine of 3x3x3 solves, 4x4x4 solves, blindfolded solves, showing the public my method for solving the cubes, explaining that I was UK number 1 and not the World Champion, and answering all the usual stupid questions the general public never fail to put forward. Had a nice lunch with Jane, who talked for about 55 minutes of the hour that we had for lunch, giving me a lot of insight into the way the world of sales and business people work. I have to say she definitely knows her stuff. After lunch, more of the same, and finally by 6 pm I had packed away my things and was ready to leave.

Now the trouble with finishing at the same time as probably thousands of other people, is that it takes you ages to get to your MTR station of choice due to the throngs of people that are also trying to use the subway. So, and it seems like pure folly to me now, I decided that I wouldn't follow the rest of the crowd but that i would take a completely new, unexplored route home. An hour later (and 50 minutes longer than it should have taken) I completed by huge round trip to arrive at exactly the same MTR station that I could have walked to by following the crowd. Who said it's good to be different.

It was a sweaty and exhausted me that collapsed into a heap on the bed upon reaching my hotel room, shoulders aching from heaving my demonstration equipment around deepest Wan Chai, and fingers hurting from so much cubing. The evening therefore was nothing to shout about, I changed, walked to the Internet Cafe to write in my blog (the previous two entries), and then explored the long Nathan Road which stretches all the way from the waterfront into deepest Kowloon, and is a constant riot of commuters and consumers trying to go about their business. It really is an amazing experience. The final act of the day was to stop off at "Kashmir Fast Food" situated in ChungKing Mansions (a very old and dirty looking shopping arcade/market), and in retrospect it was a pretty gutsy thing to do for it looked like a real ramshackle affair. The service however was friendly and polite, and when I asked for some serviettes I was kindly invited into the kitchen area to wash my hands (not sure how hygienic that really is though :S ). Tired and full, I made it back to the hotel by 9pm, and after using the telephone and digesting some Discovery Channel I shut myself down for the night.

And therefore we arrive at today's section, by the end of which I will have, for perhaps the first time, caught up with myself timewise by writing about the most current and up to date stories from my journey.

Feeling very business like, I had telephoned the concierge the previous night to request a wake up call for 7:30am. The wake up call came and went, like my consciousness, and it was with some small fortune that I managed to open my eyes and jump in the shower at 8:30am. No time for breakfast this morning, but a bit of a regretful rush towards the exhibition centre, where I once again arrived half an hour or more late. But I think that Intermed were pretty used to it by now, and when i arrived the boss wasn't yet there, so for the 4th time in a row I got away with it :) I'm sure it would have been a different story if I was an actual employee of theirs however. Today I took some pictures with the employees at the fair, who were quite sad to see me go. We exchanged email addresses, and I promised to send the pictures to them all. I was allowed to leave early, and so said my goodbyes, shook hands with the boss, and hurried out of the Exhibition Centre, a free man!

This afternoon/evening I ventured into the Internet Cafe to check if I had any emails from Lisa, which there were none (although this evenings session at the cafe proved to be a bit more fruitful :) ), before taking a trip to Hong Kong Island via the MTR. The plan was to visit the promenade on the Hong Kong side of the island, and also take a tour up to Victoria peak where I would be afforded stunning views of the central part of hong Kong and Victoria Harbour, complete with fireworks and light show. I intended to take the Peak Tram, but on arriving at the Peak Tram terminal came a slight snag. The queue was absolutely huge, waiting times of more than an hour, and being the impatient tourist I quickly made up my mind that I would sacrifice the Peak Tram experience and hail a taxi to whisk me along the twisty mountain road towards the Peak. The taxi driver was very friendly, and informed me of the best places to go and what to do when at the Peak.

Alas, it wasn't to be my day. I arrived at the summit to find the mountain shrouded in cloud, the bright lights of Hong Kong Central were nothing but mere specks of light through the thick curtain of fine droplets. Still, I enjoyed my time there, explored the shopping arcade, and had a nice dinner in the Mon Koi (I think) Cafe. Took some pictures of course, and after about half an hours sightseeing I found a public bus which made its way back down the slopes to Hong Kong Central. Finally, I walked twice along the promenade to view an amazing cultural heritage festival with shows, demonstrations of how to cook authentic Chinese delicassies, calligraphy, and fortune telling. I of course took plenty more pictures, Hong Kong at nighttime is a photographers dream (I would only guess, however, since I'm no professional :) )

I still have lots more to share, and I'm afraid I've had to truncate and compress some of todays stories but it will have to wait until another day, since I'm getting impatiently eyed up by the owner of the Cafe who wants to close I think ;)

Hope that you are all well, and I will see you again soon!
Lots of love to my Lisa.

Danneh

P.S. I apologise in advance for the appearance and detection of any spelling or grammatical errors, or just pure crap writing, in my postcards. Since I am paying for my time, I didn't bother to check to closely :) Goodnight!

Yet More Postcards from Hong Kong

2006-04-30T13:36:00.000+01:00

Saturday morning begun in pretty much the same fashion as the morning before, except it was minus Mrs Prost. (If you have lost the thread at this point, then I believe that you should take a look at the blog entry before this one :-) ).

I woke up at 6:30am, fell asleep again, and bolted out of bed as my once again awoken eyes settled on the digital clock by the bedside, displaying 8:10am. Getting to the Exhibition Centre was a big rush, the MTR was once again packed, and I was 20 minutes late for the start of the Exhibition. I was expecting a quiet word in my ear or something to that effect, but instead all I received was "Good morning Dan, did you have a good time last night?", and I knew all was well.

I had made quite a mark on the first day, and word had spread about my "show" so that many more people than the day before came to visit the booth. As well as getting asked questions about my solving methods and how long I had been solving etc etc, I found myself getting asked questions like "What is the minimum Order Quantity on this product?" and "Do you have an exclusive agent in the US?". I mean, huh? But I soon managed to give them even then the answers that they were looking for, after a little bit of prompting from the real sales people. And so it continued, until finally it was time to once again pack away and be free to enjoy the sights and sounds of Hong Kong.

There was just time to get back to the hotel and change for dinner. I had been invited to an extremely posh restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong by the boss of one of the companies who works with InterMed. Accompanying us was his girlfriend, and his work colleague Jane. We had some very intellectual chit-chat about climate models and global warming over the foie gras and beef ragu pasta with black truffle. Once the delicious meal was finished, we ventured out into the streets of Lan Kwai Fong, which seems to be a haven for the (sp?) "gui lo" (Cantonese for white people, literally 'white ghost'). Thanks to Jane, who is a New Yorker fluent in Cantonese, my first learned words of Cantonese was the slang for white people :-S. You see, Lan Kwai Fong is the place where all the ex-pats come to relive England, there are many bars of the sort you would find in the UK, with football matches on plasma screens and lager louts with their shirts and beer cans chanting in all their glory.

After the frivolities of Lan Kwai Fong, we split company, Ron (the boss) and his girlfriend went somewhere, and Jane decided that it would be a nice idea to visit Mong Kok, so we caught the subway and did just that. Her ulterior motives became clear as we spent at least 25 minutes looking for the hilariously named "Wanko" tailors... she had to pick up some suit trousers so while she did so I couldn't help myself by entertaining the staff and customers with some cube solving. We got lost countless times, but it was handy to have a native speaker with me as we never got completely lost, we could always ask pretty much anyone for directions. By now it was 10:30, 11pm time. It was a completely weird experience for me, at 1pm the only places you can visit in the UK are nightclubs and 24 hour supermarkets, but in Hong Kong, literally everything is still open at this time! It's like the city that never sleeps, incredible. So we visited a couple of shops to browse for souvenirs, walked through the incredibly crowded "Ladies Market" where you can buy literally anything for a few dollars, if you don't mind compromising on quality or sometimes breaking the law... ;) We bought coconuts with straws to drink the coconut milk (which wasn't that nice in my opinion, oh well), and spent a little more time chatting and soaking up the atmosphere of the bright lights in Mong Kok.

Didn't arrive back until midnight, and promptly flopped onto the bed and fell asleep. But another great day and even better evening; and once again the time flew :)

See you soon!
Love to Lisa of course :*

Danneh

Postcards from Hong Kong

2006-04-27T12:00:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the first of my instalments brought to you directly from Hong Kong!

I set off yesterday morning, at about 11.30 am. As usual I was constantly worrying that I would forget something important, and as it happened, when asked to produce my student railcard on the train to London the realisation dawned on me that I had. Not a great start to the journey, that little mistake cost me an excess fee to the tune of 22 quid, and if the conductor hadn't been quite no nice about it it could well have been 40+! I could kill myself sometimes.

However, it was to prove to be the only hitch to the journey, the tube connection was smooth, check-in at Heathrow passes without delay, and at around 6pm in the afternoon I found myself sitting aboard BA flight 025 to Hong Kong International. It was a long flight, approximately 12 hours, of which I got about 5 hours sleep, so I think that for someone who cannot sleep in those ridiculously uncomfortable economy seats (oh by the way, they're called "World Traveller" on British Airways... how posh), I did pretty well. Checked out the in-flight entertainment, which was crap as always, so in the end I was contented to listen to some comedy radio channel featuring the likes of Ardal O'Hanlon and Matty's favourite, Woody Allen, wrapping on about his marriage(s). Another amazing feature of my economy flight was being sat right next to the toilets, but at least I had a good audience to watch me solving the cube blindfolded (that's the queue for the toilet, in case you were wondering about the connection).

Arrived safely at Hong Kong International at around 2:15pm local time, (that's 7 in the morning back home), to discover that the people in the Vodafone shop on St Stephens Street next to Jessops, yes thats YOU if you're reading, which you most likely aren't, blatently lied to me when they declared that my bottom of the range nokia phone wouldn't be able to make or receive calls or texts in Hong Kong. I currently have a great connection to some network called "Sunday" :-S Took the super-slick Airport Express train from HK International to Kowloon Station, and then the rickety old K3 shuttle bus more or less directly from there to my hotel.

The weather here is unbelievably hot and humid for an English guy, but some of the locals I spoke to reckoned that it was quite a cool day all things considered. Cool my arse, the thermometer was almost at 30 deg when I arrived and unpacked my things at the YMCA hotel. I can't believe I packed a jumper "just in case", what a fool.

Anyhow, after a nice shower I felt much refreshed, and proceeded to explore the adjacent area kitted out in my heat defying short trousers and t-shirt. I still felt as if I was going to melt however, but what kept me going was the amazing scenery. Across the harbour from the waterfront, stands hundreds of modern and beautiful skyscrapers, against a backdrop of even more beautiful rolling hills and mountains shrouded by ominous looking rain cloud. I snapped lots of pictures, buildings, busy streets, jellyfish swimming in the water, and walked around for a good hour before finally coming to rest by some idyllic scenery with a fountain burbling away in the middle.

By this point I was quite hungry, and it was about tea time, so I walked around and found a nice looking restaurant called the Spaghetti Station. I almost opted for z pizza, before I heard the concerned words of Lisa in the back of my mind saying "you must eat healthily while you're away". So in the end I plumped for a beef lasagne,which when delivered at the table looked as though it could have easily satisfied two hungry men. I wasn't able to finish it, alas, but I also couldn't help wondering if the HSBC advert which proclaimed that it was rude to eat all of the food provided for you would apply in this situation... So I paid, was forced in to giving a generous tip, and made my merry way back in the direction of the hotel.

And that's how I came to find myself in this lovely little internet cafe, 8 smart looking desktop computers in a small room hidden away in the dingiest chinese marketplace I have seen. I just followed the advert from the main street, and somehow found my way past all the sex shops to come and write to you, my dear reader.

My first impressions of Hong Kong are one of an amazing cultural society, all of Chinese history mixed with British colonial influences. In fact, if you ignored the shanty looking buildings, and Chinese language, you could almost imagine that you were back in England, were it not for the mindblowing landscape. However, it's not all brilliant, I am afraid to say I am already sick and tired of being accosted in the street asking if I am having a good day or whether I want a Rolex copy watch or whether I know how much some guy is selling suits for. It seems to be a disease in the immediate area, unscrupulous traders keen to peddle their wares on unsuspecting foreigners like me. Fortunately for me, after about 5 minutes I got used to it, now being accomplished in waving them off with a swift hand gesture. But it still isn't very nice, and has slightly tainted my first day here in Hong Kong.

I'm going to head back to the waterfront now, apparently there is a light show at 8pm, in fact it is the world's biggest permanent light show.

Missing you Lisa! See you all soon.

Dan :)

Just in the nick of time

2006-04-12T16:35:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!

I've been fairly busy recently, undertaking some of my final shifts at work (the absolute final one is next Monday, wooo!), and cubing lots and lots and lots.

Yes, for German Cube Day is just around the corner (April 21st-22nd, OK so not really a day, but the competition is so popular, with 49 competitors from 11 countries they have to spread it over two days!), and I have finally got my butt into gear as regards my practice regime.

It started out the other day by just playing with my 5x5x5 cube. Now I haven't touched this puzzle for ages, and the times when I have touched have been few and far between. As a consequence the puzzle still feels quite stiff and new. My best friend from the Netherlands, Joel van Noort told me recently some good places to make cuts with a sharp knife to make the puzzle move more smoothly, by taking away some of the plastic. After cutting 1 of the 24 pieces required, I got fed up, so as a result the puzzle is still stiff and new :( Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have been practicing hard at the 5x5x5 to lower my times, and it is having a good effect on my motivation to practice the other puzzles. I have improved already on the 4x4x4, and only today I managed a 16.78 average of 10 3x3x3 cubes.

It's just in the nick of time really. I still have a lot of practice to do if I want to be in good shape for Germany. But the significant thing is that for the first time in quite a while, and just in the nick of time really, I actually feel as though I WANT to practice. I am pretty sure that I won't win anything, but I still want to do the best I can. And most importantly, I want to have fun and enjoy myself, which may be quite tough if I don't do as well as I know I should.

I am registered in 9 events for the cube competition, including the big puzzles such as Megaminx and 5x5x5, and also blindfold 3x3x3. I have never made a successful attempt in a competition yet, I got close at the World Championships when I solved the cube to a state where only two edges were flipped. So it is one of my main goals to make a successful attempt at the German Open!

I am really looking forward to the cube day, not only will I get to take part in the competition, but I will also get to once again meet and socialise with the great deal of close friends that I have made all over Europe through speedcubing. It surely will be a trip to remember :)

I will of course, post all results as they become available, here in my blog :)

Keep cubing!

Danneh

Gel on, Ashmore

2006-04-06T22:52:00.000+01:00

Good evening friends,

I've spent at least five minutes sitting motionless (apart from the chewing of gum and turning round to read Craig's hilarious email from interjeet.singh@turban.com) trying to think of a clever and fluid way to introduce this latest episode of my blog, but I couldn't think of anything.

OK, I know it wasn't the best introduction you've ever seen, but I bet Matty will see the irony there :) Tonight WAS Scrabble Club night, as opposed to last week when I turned up at the club to find that I was the only one present, locked out and in the pouring rain. You see, Scrabble Nights are the 1st and 3rd Thursday nights in the month, and not every two week as I had originally believed. Most months it happens to be the same thing, but the guys who wrote the calendar decided that there would be 5 Thursdays in March... curses!

I'm going to give a short report on the evenings games, for posterities sake and after all, this is a diary of my life (of sorts), so why shouldn't I write about it! I arrived, as usual, a few minutes late (just so I don't have to help set up the tables and chairs teehee...), and readied myself to do battle over the multicoloured 15x15 gridded board. For those of you not in the know, (pretty much all of you I would imagine) Scrabble Night consists of 3 games, in which you usually play 3 different opponents, and John Ashmore, the highest rated player in the club, (see http://www.absp.org.uk) works out a handicap system for us to play by. The boards were ready, I had my scoresheet, pen, and custom rack, and a rattle of tiles signified that the games were underway!

Game 1: Dan vs Jill.
Due to the handicap system in place Jill was given a 17 points start, which naturally she jokily complained wasn't enough. Now it's a bit hard not to feel cocky when players start talking about you like that, so I felt as cocky as possible :) The game started nicely, my tiles weren't anything special but they were tolerable, and after I played QAT we were pretty even at 78-86. That was about as close as it got, unfortunately. "Here we go" I thought, as she slammed down PRANCED for 83 points, and promptly followed it up with JARRED for 60. Faced with a promising rack of ?EILNRU I decided it would be a good time to completely fall apart. I tried UNRILEd*, aLEURIN*, and fURLINE* before finally hitting upon one of the two only 7-letter words in the rack, URNLIkE (the other word was pURLINE but I didn't know it at the time). But by now the scoreline was 191-332 and there was nothing I could do as she swiftly replied with sHOUTED for 74. Even a late comeback with SERIATE for 71, and 2 further 30+ point plays did nothing to repair the damage, and it was with a heavy heart that I finally was hammered 373-523.

Game 2: Dan vs Daphne.
However, after a cuppa and a change of seats, things took a turn for the better I'm glad to say! I sniggered under my breath as my opponent opened with LEZ (24), and it took me a while but I finally found the only bonus from my rack, OESTRAL for 71. Now you have around a 1/12 chance of being able to open with a bingo (playing all your tiles), and that's if you know all 35000+ 7-letter words. Poor old Daphne found it necessary to have a bit of a whinge at this point, but who could blame her ;) But it was nothing compared to the strop which was incurred as a result of my second play, another bonus REDLINES (68). After her play of WAX for 66, the score was a respectable 139-111. Now I really like the moment when you can actually see a players spirit crack over the board. So I really enjoyed my third play, and third bonus in a row, ANOTHeR for 63. There was no coming back from this, especially when you are as peeved as she was :) Final score, 455-393, and a pleasing performance.

You could see that John Ashmore was getting a bit nervous. When I first joined the club, I was a nobody, and got beaten regularly by a lot of the people there, including the highest rated player in the club, John. But now I have a tournament victory under my belt, my rating is climbing again, and especially after pulling off a convincing win as I did in the second game, players there have started to take me a bit more seriously. So when it came to pairing up the players for the third and final round, instead of being paired up against John, which was a quite reasonable option, I was paired against Peter, someone who I hadn't met before. I took this (quietly) as a moral victory for me and chalked up a mark on my moral victory chalkboard with a smirk on my face.

So finally, Game 3, Dan vs Peter:
There was only one result in the offing for this game... after having watched me destroy his wife? girlfriend? and almost made her cry with frustration, he didn't expect to do too well. I approached the game with my usual professional manner of course :) Me to go first, bang - CENTRAL for 74 points, nicely followed up by OUABAINS for 61, and a bemused look on Peters face which I enjoyed a lot. I scored pretty consistently for the rest of the game with most plays in the 25-30 range, before finally twisting the knife late on the game with ELOINER (70) and FASTER (38) to run away with the game 429-334.

So all in all, a pretty successful night! 8 bonuses in 3 games, 1257 points scored (average of 419), and 1250 points scored against me (average of 416.6), and 2 wins out of 3!

Hopefully you're still with me at this point, perhaps you have skipped straight from "I arrived, as usual, a few minutes late...", and if you have I wouldn't blame you. But Scrabble, like all of my hobbies, is something I take seriously as I hope you appreciate, and the harder I work at it, the more I enjoy it! Perhaps this is also a good time to mention that if you did manage to stay with me throughout the main body of my report, I'm not always so arrogant I promise, but I am very competitive!

Now at some point in the day today, I happened to mention the phrase "Gel on", to my girlfriend, who upon hearing this proceeded to almost wet herself laughing at me, inbetween telling me that I talked utter rot and balderdash. Now I have been informed by a source of mine at work, that one of the latest words on the street is "Gel", meaning "to walk". We discussed this for a while, and it was also mentioned that instead of telling someone to "Oppit", you could tell them to "Gel on". People who know me will know that I am up to the minute streetwise and hip and cool and all that, so it's only natural that I should take such phrases as "Gel on" into my normal, working vocabulary. I think Lisa is just jealous of my "with it homies" mentality... yeah, that's it I reckon...

Somebody please tell me that "Gel on" is the word on the street right now? I would never live it down with my mates at the Scrabble Club if it wasn't... well that's not really true but oh well.

Nighty night :)

Danneh.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to sleep less.

2006-04-04T23:58:00.000+01:00

Bally well hello readers,

Have you noticed that I am already taking longer to add new posts? This is what I feared would happen, but I am endeavouring to combat my laziness by writing this fascinating new instalment!

The handing in of the notice went swimmingly. On Monday morning I happened to glance into the managers office through the open doorway, and caught a glimpse of my note of resignation lying opened in prime position on his desk. A bit cowardly I know, but at least now the wheels have been set in motion for my swift exit from Number10 bowl.

On Monday evening, I reluctantly said that I would cover for reception between 7pm and 8pm (after already having worked a 10am - 6pm shift), whilst the rest of the staff had a meeting. Apparently it was less important that I be present since I will be leaving in a few weeks. Yeah, my arse. This induced a whinge from my girlfriend Lisa, who decided that she couldn't wait around at my house while I finished work (I was originally meant to finish at 6pm, you see), and so the air turned sour for a bit because I was disappointed that I wouldn't see her for the rest of the evening.

Anyway, all that is rather uninteresting, but alas these kind of adventures for the dull make up most of my life at present. I mention it merely as a backdrop to today's events and to fill you in on the last couple of days in the life of danneh aitch.

Today I finally got properly underway with my practice routine for the German Open Cube Championships on April 22. Man, I am so slow these days! That is the trouble, you see, when you have more than one hobby. It was great when I could really concentrate on speedcubing, I was lucky enough to concentrate on it for more than 3 years, and master it to a very high degree. For those of you not "in the know" speedcubing is the art of solving Rubik's cube style puzzles very fast. But these days I have so much stuff to do. Recently I endeavoured to become a top Scrabble player. I studied hard, learned the 2 letter words, learned all of the 3 letter words, studied 1000 top high-probability 7 letter words (known as bingos), leanred the JQXZ 4's, 5 vowel 7's, the list is huge! And it paid off. On March 18th I won my first Scrabble tournament, with 5 wins out of 6, and I am officially currently ranked 512th in the UK, and rising! But the downside to this is that the time spent on learning words and working on Scrabble strategy and playing games was time that wasn't spent on cubing. It's so much more fun improving at something than simply practicing to maintain your current standard. With cubing, I feel like I am in a bit of a rut, there are so many more people these days who get very fast very quickly, and it is quite demoralising to be just behind the pace all the time. But I can't complain I guess, it's a lot harder being at the very top than near the top. For example, I placed 17th at the Rubik's World Championships last November. 17th in the World. And I don't think I will improve from that, at least while I have lost the motivation and determination to improve.

But even now I have stopped learning words for a while, because I am having much more fun improving my tenpin bowling! Time spent bowling is time not spent learning words or studying Scrabble strategy or playing games or cubing.

So I have reached the conclusion that either there needs to be more time in a day, or I need to have less sleep. And since the former would be rather difficult to achieve without serious consequences, the repercussions of the latter would be far easier to overcome I am sure.

I would love to be the top dog in all of my chosen games/sports. But I just have to accept that it will probably never happen. And whilst I am trying to keep up 3 hobbies, I am not managing to improve dramatically in any of them.

What should I do?

That's all for this extremely diaryish entry into my blog, but I just needed to get that off my chest :) I guess I will write something more obscure and arty-farty literaryish to keep Matty happy, another time :)

Night night,

Danneh.

I love my job.

2006-04-02T01:11:00.000+01:00

Evening dear readers, or more properly morning, since it is currently 1:10am according to my "Internet synchronised" computer clock.

I'm far too tired to even try to write in the flowery language that was so neatly embodied in my inaugural post, but I feel that I must tell you how my day has been.

To tell you the truth, I'm glad it's over. It started off well, I met Lisa as she finished work, we walked around the shops for a bit, had a delicious cheese scone courtesy of the fresh-baked section of M&S, but the hands soon approached the hour of 4, which could only mean one thing... Work.

Work has grown progressively harder to bear, over the recent weeks. The constant Saturday night shifts, the long hours, the short breaks, the bitchy customers, the even bitchier managers, have worn this tooth down to the nerve. So much so in fact, that this evening, unknown to all the staff that work there, I handed in my notice. A plain white envelope with the words "Rob Kendall" are still sitting on the managers desk, waiting to be discovered, the contents of which are my carefully written words explaining my want to resign.

And after tonights performance, I'm pretty glad I did. I don't need this kind of stress at my age! The evening, the VERY BUSY evening was puncutated by 2 events. I was just settling in to the Saturday night shift, which through sickness of another member of staff I was forced to work on my own, yet again, when an obviously intoxicated scrot in a black shirt appeared at the front desk.

"Can I er, have f**kin', some games for f**kin' 8 adults and me' daughter mate."

The time at this point was 6:30pm, and I explained to him in a polite manner that although there were empty lanes at present, they were reserved for customers bowling at 7pm, and there were no lanes available until 9:30pm, which is not unusual for a Saturday night. Of course this didn't wash with the drunken fool.

"They're f**kin' empty mate! So are you gona tell me daughter that she can't f**kin' bowl then mate."

Having had enough of this particular conversation, I called on my manager, ex Royal Marine Steve Searle to take charge. And so the evening, starting as it meant to go on, progressed. Mistakes made in the sales department as usual found their way onto the lane planner, and we at reception as usual had to take all the rap. At 7pm over 130 people piled in through the doors all expecting to be on by 7pm, since the sales department had oh so cleverly booked 25 odd lanes worth of parties to come in at the same time. I felt so small.

But the piece de resistance was yet to come. At around 10:30pm I think it was, as I was performing the monotonous task of clearing the bowling balls from the ball returns and back onto the shelf, I noticed some commotion at the front entrance to the bowling centre. The bouncer (yes even in a "family" bowling centre we still have the need of professional security on a Saturday night, such is Bowthorpe) was assisting the exit of a particular youth who had obviously had far too much to drink. A shove here and a push there, the end result was that Tony the bouncer received a nasty head wound and a bite (!) to the arm, while the other scrot sported a rather good head wound of his own. I should mention that although Tony is much more than capable of handling one person in head to head combat, he was set upon by maybe 5 or 6 idiots who had lay in wait at the entrance to the bowl. The front doors were locked, and we were trapped like rats in a cage, as the baying mob banged on the glass, and threw their drinks bottles at the windows. Naturally the police were called, and I nipped behind the desk and pressed the special panic button which we have for such emergencies.

Now I had always assumed that one press of the button would send half of Norfolk Constabulary + an armed response unit straight to Number 10 (the name of the bowling centre where I work) within minutes. But how silly of me to assume that. Of course, what could be more helpful upon pressing the emergency panic button than to be called on the telephone a few minutes later by a poorly spoken Asian sounding fellow asking if I had pressed the panic button by mistake. Silly me! This chap asked me for passwords, telephone numbers, to which I tersely questioned what good it would be for him to call up asking if the panic button had been pressed by mistake and did we need the police if I was being held at gunpoint.

However some more clearly thinking members of the public, not being in posession of a panic button, or maybe having left them at home, had simply dialled for the police, and although they took their time (having naturally to finish their bacon butties and cups of tea before responding), arrived in style. This was not the end of the altercation however. Sensible people, when the police arrive, might calm themselves down and put an end to the commotion. But these guys were not sensible people. Although I did not see, apparently one of the police officers met the same fate as the bouncer and the offending youth was sharply arrested and thrust into one of the 6 waiting cop cars. The other 4 or 5 youths however, were not charged with any affray, since the CCTV evidence was "inconclusive". Lucky us, eh. So I spent the rest of the evening feeling a bit afraid that they might come back later to finish what they had started... I won't be at all surprised to hear tomorrow that all the windows have been smashed and havoc and mayhem prevailing.

I suppose I had better get to bed now and put in a few Z's, Lisa wil be arriving early tomorrow morning and I will need to be bright as a button for when she arrives.

Night night friends,

Danneh :)

My Inaugural Post

2006-03-30T17:48:00.000+01:00

What ho chaps and chappesses,

Today marks a momentous occasion in the history of the world, for not only is it the day when one Daniel J. Harris created a "weblog" of his very own, but it is also the day when one Daniel J. Harris resigned to the fact that he was WRONG.

Yes, wrong about these dashed blogs. For you see my dear reader (who should note the lack of plurality; only the finest personal touch...), not long ago a certain fiery-orange headed friend of mine began posting comments of an invidious manner into his own blog, to which I grumpily tished and pished a bit before laying upon him some harsh words about how arrogant he might be to assume that readers around the world would be hanging on to his every word. I could see his head growing larger, sky-high aspirations of an A-level English student cum close friend of P.G. Wodehouse, as he penned his thoughtful words onto the electronic paper imagining he would be the very next best thing on the literary scene since the sliced loaf.

However, as I said, I have come round to the idea of personal blogs. It seems to me that rather than my initial impressions of blogs and bloggers, blogs are an enormously novel way to keep in touch with those friends and family who, through circumstances of employment and education, you tend not to see so much any more, and who you miss greatly.

For how long I shall be able to keep this posting malarkey however, is another story. I imagine it's very much like a diary. I've always wanted to keep a diary, you know. But, as happens to the best of us, those good intentions formed on the 1st of January of each New year to log every day soon turn sour as laziness sets in by, hum well... around January 10th usually, and it just doesn't seem much fun to write anymore. One can only hope that since this log is of an electronic form, and with me spending no less than several hours slumped in a terribly unergonomic position at the keyboard each day, that you will be able to read about my fun-filled adventures for the long weeks and months to come.

In 1965 Intel co-founder Gordon Moore stated that the number of transistors on a processor chip would double every 18 months - and so far he has been proved right.
In 2006 Sloshed Up Gingers Have Rights Too founder Matty Lewis stated that soon, everyone will have a blog. A profound statement, and although I had my doubts, now that the most cycnical of people (ie. me) has a blog I am SURE that he will be proved right too.

Here's to blogging! *raises a glass of Coke and chinks it against Matty's 7th of Pinot Grigio*

Signing off now,

Danneh :)

P.S. One last thing before I go, I really should mention the address of the blog that started it all... well at least that started this one. It is http://wittypseudonym.blogspot.com. And if you don't think the content is up to much, please let me offer to you this justification for re-visiting his page. He talks about duvets. Er.. er... no, that wasn't it... um... oh yes, he does use some rather nice language! Today's "cool" word was kvetch, don't you know :)