01.31.08

Heavy winds, sleet, and finally…SNOW~!

Posted in Random Crap at 3:52 by panda

w00t~! So, this morning, the wind is howling~! Just howling. Our windows are shaking, the ceiling boards and lifting up and down making tons of noise. I heard there was sleet earlier where we work, but we missed it. Just tons of rain.

After a good three hours of the wind blowing…it’s still blowing. But now, there’s snow~! I finally get to see snow!!!

Permalink Comments

01.30.08

Everything is quite dear~

Posted in Random Crap at 2:34 by panda

I’m in good ol’ Northern Ireland right now. What a neat country it is. Quite cold now. The roads just iced over yesterday. What an interesting trip it was. I flew from Austin to Newark, New Jersey, and then from there to Belfast, Ireland. 4 1/2 hour flights to Newark, 5 hours layover, and then 5 1/2 hour flight to Belfast. Arrived at 8:30 in the morning.

Now, before I go any further on, let me talk about all the stuff I’ve gone through so far first. During my stay in US, I’ve bought about $1000USD worth of stuff in Skin Care products. Had a bunch of requests. Well, the problem with this was that my original plans was to head straight to China. Shouldn’t be a big deal. However, due to a change of plans, I’m headed to UK first. UK Customs states that I can only declare 150GBP worth of stuff without having to pay duty. Well, that’s only $300USD, leaving me with $700USD of stuff that I have to pay VAT and Duty on. Well, that can get pretty expensive.

So, after a bunch of hassle and problems, I finally talked to two of my co-workers who was going to be headed to China around the time I’m going and got them to carry most of the stuff with me. So, I took about $300USD worth of stuff with me to Ireland. So, when we’re getting ready to land, I’m sitting there trying to figure out whether or not I should go to the “Nothing to declare” line or the “Something to Declare” line. After a long debate, I decided to take my chance and go to the “Nothing to declare.” If they stop me, I’ll just tell them that most of those items are personal, for me wifey. It’s less than $300USD anyways, so shouldn’t be a big deal.

Well, I started walking down that corridor and lo and behold…no one was there. The entire room was empty. I just followed everybody else out and eventually made it to the lobby in disbelief that no one was there. Phew. Saved myself. Yeppers.

My buddy, Justin Brown, picked me up at the airport and took me to the hotel I was staying at. It’s called Jury’s Inn. I went to go check in and they told me that my room won’t be ready until 14:00. That’s understandable. So Justin and I figure we can go get some breakfast and then go shopping or something until then. So, since we’re going to go shopping, I went to exchange my US dollars. I asked the hotel to exchange $300USD of mine and they said they only had enough to exchange $100USD. That’s fine…well..it was until I got 44GBP (pounds) out of it. My $100USD, which is a lot to me, got me 44GBP. My first comment was, “So…how far can I get with this?” And the guy behind the desk just chuckles and Justin says, “Not far…” so I’m joking around and I say, “What? Like one meal?” and they look at me seriously and replied back, “Yes.” O_O HOLY SHIET~! That’s mighty dear, if you ask me.

So, we head out trying to find a place to eat, but unfortunately for us, Justin lives in Antrim, not Belfast, so he doesn’t really know his way around the town or what’s around. We ended up driving around forever and finally giving up and stopping at a McDonalds for some Sausage and Egg McMuffin. They don’t have the regular Egg McMuffin. Oh well, it tastes just the same as a regular Sausage McMuffin in US. I guess that’s why everyone says McDonalds is the safe restaurant.

Anyways, as we’re eating, I noticed that a lot of the shops were closed and I commented on it. Turns out, all the shops won’t open until 13:00!! Well, what else can we do? So, we ended up going back to Justin’s place and played some PS3….until 18:00 when I decided to call it quits and head back to the hotel to crash.

So, after a couple days of being here, here are the things I’ve noticed. Everything listed here price-wise is the same as US. Only, it’s in pounds and not dollars. And you get 2 dollars to 1 pound. So, everything is double the cost. INSANE! Last night, we ate at an Indian restaurant (very good food, by the way) and it cost us 80GBP. That’s $160USD. For 4 people. Insane! The night before, I ate at a placed called Bourbons and the meal cost about 40 pounds for two people. And I mean, the places aren’t that nice. Definitely half the price if you ate in US.

Well, other than that, I’m not sure about the shopping yet. Was suppose to attempt that tomorrow. So…we’ll see what happens there. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be pretty dear.

————————————————————————————

In case you’re all wondering, “dear” means expensive in UK.

Permalink 2 Comments

01.14.08

One crazy night

Posted in Random Crap at 20:20 by panda

Last night was an interesting night all right. I was playing in a few poker tournaments and I was doing good. I was playing one in particular where the first and second place wins a seat to a tournament that gives $40,000 as the prize. While I was in the middle of this tournament, another one of my tournament started and I started playing both. Big mistake.

Near the end of the tournament, I started to lose focus of what I was doing. In trying to keep up with both tournaments, I no longer paid attention to what my opponents were doing and I started to make stupid calls. In the tournament for the seats, I got all the way to second place. There were only three players left (me included). All I had to do was fold every hand and let the blinds take out the last player. I mean, sheesh, they had $2000 and I had $4000 while the first place person was running at $6000. I KNEW I should just keep folding, but then I see some good hands and I was tempted to play. Needless to say, I eventually lost a bet and I was down to $1000 while the other player was up. Now I’m in last place and none of them would play me. They would just keep folding. Grrr~!

Yep, lost that one. Finished 3rd place. Poopie.

On the other tournament that was going on, by the time I finished the other tournament, I went from having $12,000 down to $2,000. That sucked. But, it’s okay. I managed to win all the way back up to $6,000 before I lost. Not due to poor play anymore (being that I am now focused on one tournament instead of two). Nope. Bad luck. 3 times, I flopped an ace-high straight (meaning A-K-Q-J-10) and my opponent kept calling my bets until the end and beats me with a flush on the river (the last card). Three times. Bad break, what can I say.

Lesson to be learned. A lesson to be learned! GRRR~!

Permalink 1 Comment