All 3 entries tagged Australia

Team building event in Oz/HK

Tommo summed up Oz/HK perfectly in his blog at maryhadalambpoker – incidentally check him out for a very very competitive ipoker deal.

In his post he mentions that I got a phone call about potential job openings. I’ve never really had a proper job other than doing a bit of painting for my dad. When I was around 15-17 (can’t remember) I became incredibly skint at one point such that it warranted an application to Sainsburys. There was only one other candidate for the spot of shelf stacker and since I wanted really awkward hours and possibly didn’t interview too well, the class retard from school got the post instead of me.

The next time I applied for jobs was internships during my second year. The financial crisis was just kicking off and I remember UBS coming in giving a speech not to worry about anything before they posted record losses. I managed to bink a phone interview with RBS and I was somewhat chuffed so put a reasonable amount of effort (bout half an hour) into preparing for it. I decided to take the interview just before a 5 a side match in my car and it became pretty apparent that I was completely underprepared and never going to get the job. It also became pretty apparent that the woman on the other end of the line was pretty moronic and although I wouldn’t be working directly alongside her it would probably be pretty irritating having someone like her in the workplace.

The next year i’d slummed it down to KPMG in Cambridge where i’d not only got past the initial screening but they gave me a full blown interview. I met up with Helen who’d been there for 12 years and asked me an absolute shit ton of team building questions. “Name a time you’ve been in a team and failed” etc etc. Well i’ve only really been in a team once and that was the 5 a side team and we failed week in week out. After the interview, it was again pretty apparent I didn’t have a the remotest shot of the job (she asked me if I knew how long the exams were, I didn’t know we had to take more fucking exams) and in the follow up email she suggested that I get a job at Tesco or something, just while i’m at uni to work on my team building. I didn’t have the heart to reply saying that i’d probably just be rejected.

I suppose i’m just lucky that I get to travel around the world with actual friends rather than acquaintances from work putting on a façade of “team building” when i’d much rather be in the pub with a pint and a cheesy grin. Australia and Hong Kong were brilliant fun, and I wouldn’t change my life for anything in the world right now. Except for this lower back pain (latin Grinditus).

Rupert Elder : 20 Feb 2010 10:12 |  Tags: Australia Hk Holiday Poker Trip Report |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

In Hong Kong

Melbourne was really fun. We took a drive down with Shane, a mate of my dads down Great Ocean Road and had a load of beers (home brew) while cruising along the coast. The flies were fairly unbearable but we were treated to a pretty sick view of the 12 apostles (actually only about 7).

After that we went to Big Day Out which is some music festival and saw Kasabian, Muse, Lily, Dizzee and a touch of Calvin Harris/Groove Armarda. Was good fun esp Lily/Dizzee, personally think Muse are a bit overrated live but the lighting was impressive.

Then we went to the tennis to see Serena beat some Asian bird. I won $40 on props vs Sweir, then saw Henin destroy some other Asian bird. Next day we saw bit of mixed doubles/womens doubles final which was cool before seeing Federer obliterate some French darkie.

After that was the 6 max tourney. I had a really bad table made worse when a fairly decent player got replaced by Tommo. I made an awful call of LuckyChewys river check raise, made another bad call with KK on AxQxT, he 3 bet pre I flatted, I c/c flop and river. Then I knocked out Steve who was staying with us with AT vs A8. Then a Scandie came and sat down, he seemed like a bit of a headcase so I flatted J9s out of SB when he opens CO, 953, check call, 5 (gives me FD too), check call, Q, check call and win vs T4o. So was up to 11k on first break but gave them straight back to him where he raise CO, I flat A9o OTB, T9ssX, he bets I call, turn T, he bets 1500~ into 2k~, I call, river a blank I call 3.5k into 5k and lose to T8o. Poss a bad call given that I already called him down semi light although I justified it with the other calling station in the house Steve and he said he woulda SNAP called. So i’d been nitting it up since the tables tough and I didn’t fancy playing Chewy, Tommo and aggro Scandie postflop, I raise 33 UTG+1 and it gets thru, then I open 88 UTG to 550, the Scandie pops it to 1200 from BB, I jam in 7k which is probs bad but the guy was certifiably nuts even if I had been tight and he calls w AA and wins.

Sweir went deep and came 9th after losing an epic KK vs 77 against Leo Margets (she also went on to 2 outer Bond18 at the FT) which sucked massively cos he was chip leader with 24 left after day 1 and chip leader with 11 left on day 2… I also busted the $550 turbo, I raise AJs UTG, BTN flats, everyone at the table has downs syndrome so i’m not too worried especially after the flop comes AJT. I bet he raises I jam he calls w AK and wins.

We did hit up the clubs in the Crown which were pretty cool despite Mongys dubious preference of the dubstephiphopdnbdance club over the cheese/rock/pop one. Nevertheless I encouraged the boys to get some Jaegerbombs down ourselves so we could open up the potential to spend the morning vomming in the toilet and it was a pretty good night overall.

I’m now in Hong Kong and met up with Sweirs uni mates yday and chilled out. We went to an American diner and Tommo got some meat+rice dish which he is trying to palm off as Chinese food. He didn’t manage to stomach any noodles or rice for breakfast this morning though.

Probably off for cocktails somewhere tonight or something, not sure yet. We were going to go to the PEAK but it’s pretty foggy outside so we went to a shopping mall where I bought some trackies. MARVELLOUS

Rupert Elder : 02 Feb 2010 08:16 |  Tags: Aussie Open Australia Dizzee Rascal Hk Lily Allen Poker Serena Williams |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

In Melbourne

Arrived safe and sound in Melbourne after an epic 36 hours of travelling. The flights went surprisingly smoothly, I managed to do off £63 on a plug adapter in the airport (!!) so I could use my laptop in flight and was delighted to find out that it was complete superfluous since we could plug laptops straight into the seat. Undeterred, myself and Keys played football manager with gin and tonics for the majority of the first flight before mostly sleeping/trying to sleep on the second. I did manage to slip in a cheeky viewing of “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs” which was mediocre at best.

The apartment here is gorgeous, a huuuuge living room/kitchen combo with 2 balconies leading onto a barbeque and a fantastic view of Ivanhoe and surrounding areas. We did manage to lock ourselves out when we got back from the donkament at 2am last night which required a $30 call out fee from some mug upstairs.

Speaking of donkaments, I busted the $1.1k. Very happy with how I played, chipped up to 14k after flopping top set with kings vs some old guy who made second pair and went to war. Then played a hand at 150/300/25, UTG+2 limps playing about 5k, I make it 1100, young asian guy on my left calls who is playing well, limper calls. K9x, checks through, turn K, UTG+2 leads 1100 into bout 3.9k, I just flat as does the guy on my left. River is irrelevant, UTG+2 checks and I bet 5.7k into 7.2k, guy on my left tanks for a while and calls w jacks. Then I lost AJ vs AT and TT vs AJ to bust me.

Considered playing again today (day 1a/1b bustouts can play 1c again) but I woke up after it started. Playing a pokerpro $550 tomorrow which is basically like online poker but live. Should be fun!

Rupert Elder : 16 Jan 2010 03:09 |  Tags: Australia Live Donkament Poker |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem