We had a short Honeymoon to Paris which was just fantastic. The last time I was near the place I was about three years old and Charlotte had never been before, so it was fun to explore. Obviously there was lots of great food to eat and places to visit. The Louvre was particularly stunning. The scale of it is incredible. Even with a whole day you could not even begin to do it justice.
The atmosphere of Paris is very different to London. Whilst you can find the usual suspects like Starbucks and MacDonalds there are still an awful lot of independent stores about and there seemed to be dozens of different small supermarket chains compared to the same few brands on every corner here. As it was August many of the small shops were closed for their annual holidays, it would be almost unthinkable to see shops in this country closed down for three weeks. The French value their quality of life far more than us. We have allowed our rights to stamped upon in the name of progress, big business and globalisation.
Paris feels very uncluttered. London is such a busy place, a crowded one. Paris feels well planned, spacious and just a bit more elegant. The cafe culture that predominates is also very welcoming, though it makes you realise how much we take the tougher no-smoking laws in this country for granted now. This is one area that I would be happy to see change on a return trip to Paris.
Following my abysmal start to the the year in poker it was time to go back to paid employment. After much thought I got myself a Learning Support Assistant job at a Secondary school. Whilst not paying a huge amount of money it at least takes the pressure off for the moment and if nothing else is a worthwhile use of my time. The school holidays will allow me plenty of time to continue playing poker and I can still get some hours in during the normal working week. It is also giving me a chance to think about retraining as a teacher next year should I wish to do so.
I wish I could say anything positive about the last three months poker but as with every day in 2012, baring one, I have been experiencing the ultimate nightmare every time I sit down and play. Nothing goes right. Since my positive July I have now racked up about $6,000 in make-up to clear off before I can even make another penny of profit. I have been deep in tournament after tournament but I can't win the key hand. If I get short stacked I always ship into a monster. If I iso-ship on a short stack one of the two or three people sat behind me wakes up with a dominating hand every time. If I make an error I get punished. I'm still convinced I'm playing okay, maybe not brilliantly, but still good enough to be making some money. Even in the last week I managed to bubble a £1,400 UKIPT Bristol package. The more this run goes on the more I am starting to doubt and second guess myself. On the whole I can still start a fresh session it the right frame of mind but six hours into a Sunday Grind the bad beats become harder to take with every hammer blow that connects. I have still only managed one tournament cash over a $1,000 all year. Given the spots I have been in this is just absurd. Poker has never been crueler. Still, at least I am in profit in monetary terms for the year, even if the chances of adding to it seem to grow slimmer with every passing day. My year to date Pokerstars graph is particularly shocking. If nothing else I will drag this back towards level as a minimum goal for the rest of the year.
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