Snow, poker and general goings on in Glasgow

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Hello everyone,

It's been a little while since the last update, mainly because I'm lazy and there hasn't been too much to write about, and for that I apologize.

School has been going fairly well and the first semester is officially over as papers for those class have all been handed in. Now being half way through the second semester, or at least close enough, I can say that my classes are all quite interesting but the main focus for the next few weeks is gearing up to start on the dissertation. Proposals are due in a few weeks and some of us *cough*me*cough* can't manage to decide on a topic. Anyways still a little time to get that done so I imagine it won't be too much of an issue.

It's been snowing quite a bit here lately. I know the snow in London made the news last week, but it's really nothing like that. Mostly when it snows here it disappears by the next morning without a trace but for the last week or so it has been sticking around; that's not to say that it's a lot of snow, maybe a centimeter at most. That being said, apparently a centimeter of snow constitutes a snow day here! My Canadian sensibilities scoff at these conditions!

Two weekends ago, when I meant to write this, a bunch of us from my program decided to go out on a pub crawl. It turns out the Kirsty, the driving force behind the outing, actually used to work organizing pub crawls for a promotion company, so as can be expected it was all quite organized and well run. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of clubs, much more of an old man pub guy myself, but the night was fun and at one point we, and by we I really mean Kirsty, managed to talk our way past a huge que (100-150 people) into ABC, which is quite the popular club with the youth here in Glasgow, which was pretty neat.

Following that was a surprise birthday party for my friend Fee. The theme was a five year old's birthday so there was ample, and I do mean ample, amounts of sweets. I can't say I've ever participated in a surprise party before and the lead up and anticipation, the ducking and shh-ing etc., is more fun than you'd think.

Finally this last Saturday was poker night and what a glorious night it was. There were only four of us and it was a 5 GBP buy in and then Hannah, who was first knocked out, bought in again raising the pot to 22.5 GBP. The match was pretty epic as we battled back and forth for over 5 hours but it finally came down to Donald and I at the end -- a poetic match up I should say as he beat me, and a few others, out for a job at the university a little while ago, no hard feeling of course, and there has been a fair bit of good natured teasing back and forth about it. After originally controlling the game I had been slowly bled and Donald had the lead going into the final but I managed to gain a slight advantage by pushing him and going all in on any decent hand I had; he was playing far too cautiously and letting me get away with stealing the blinds. By 1am we were all quite tired and I decided to make a move. I had 10-6* and decided to play, Donald was big blind so he had no choice. The flop was 10-2-5 and I went all in as did Donald who it turns out had K-Q. I had the best hand but he could easily beat me. The turn was a Jack which meant he could win with any of a King, Queen, 9 or ace. Needless to say the mood was quite intense before the river but when it came it was, twisting the knife, another 10! I now sit here about $45 dollars richer and quite satisfied with my victory.

Anyways that's all for now.

Cheers,
Nate

*some of these are made up as I can't remember all the exact cards but you get the gist of the situation

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