My good run on the cash tables seems to be coming to an end. Over the past few weeks, either Partypoker or Pokerstars and sometimes both at the same time have been very good to me. For the first time since my recent conversion from no limit hold"em fish to seven card stud grinder, both sites seem to be kicking me where it hurts at the same time. As I"ve only got a fraction of a week to play with, it looks like I"m going to have to settle for my first weekly online loss in the last seven weeks.
To help me mentally prepare for my stint at The Vic, this morning I went elephant hunting. Before you send me death threats or ring the authorities, no animals were harmed in the writing of this blog. This summer, Norwich has played host to a city-wide open-air art exhibition in the form of fifty-three fibreglass baby elephants decorated mainly by local artists and community groups. All the elephants are soon to be auctioned in aid of charity. The exhibition ends this week, so as I"ve not looked around so far and I"ll be away from tomorrow, today was my last opportunity.
I started at The Playhouse Theatre, passed the Norwich School of Art and St Andrew"s Hall, then turned left at Cinema City to head back towards the River Wensum. From there, I made the short trip to Norwich Cathedral. One of my reasons for visiting was to see the elephant decorated by a school in Kenya, but, despite being a devout atheist, I have an affinity for holy buildings. A few years ago, during a protracted and viciously antagonistic departure from my then employer, Norwich Union, I regularly made the short walk to the cathedral during my lunch breaks to collect my thoughts before returning to the office for more verbal sparring with my boss. I used to head for a specific seat in the chapel dedicated to the Royal Anglian Regiment, who my maternal grandfather fought for before and during the Second World War. This particular chapel currently has an alternative use, so after a quick stroll around the cloisters, I left the building and on my way back into the city centre, passed the offices of the accountancy firm where I had my first ever job interview.
I then headed for the grounds of Norwich Castle before passing through the Castle Mall. I"d registered a number of elephant sightings by this point, so continued up Timber Hill past Devil"s Advocate (I"ll leave you to guess what kind of establishment that is!), turned right at John Lewis, then headed along St Stephen"s Street and into the Chapelfield Mall. I always feel slightly uneasy when entering this place. It's not so much that I have anything against shopping in vast buildings full of national chains that can found in any large town in the land, but I can"t help but think about what it replaced. For many years, this site was occupied by a factory which, in its final years, was owned by Nestle, but most locals still refer to as Rowntree"s or Rowntree Mackintosh"s. At the time the factory was closed, it was apparently the most profitable site Nestle had in the UK, but was put to sleep because of its geographical remoteness rather than any lack of efficiency. Most families in Norwich contained someone who had at some point had a connection with the place and, indeed, one of my own brothers met his wife whilst working there. Ironically, their daughter is named after an elephant! Even Norwich"s most famous/best-liked resident, the Puppet Man also used to work for Rowntree"s.
From there, I passed the Norwich Millenium Library which is apparently the 2nd busiest library in the country in terms of number of items loaned per year. At this point, I begun to think about a refreshment stop, so eschewing Starbucks, Costa and all those other huge chains, I sought refuge in Pulse, a vegetarian cafe in a quiet courtyard just off Norwich marketplace.
By now, I had just a handful of elephants left to see, so headed along Gentleman"s walk towards Top Shop. On the way there, I passed the aforementioned Puppet Man who was "singing", what I believe (it was difficult to understand the words) was "The Leader of The Pack" whilst waving his "puppet" which looked suspiciously like a well-worn walking sock with two eyes glued on. For anyone interested in people-watching, the presence of the Puppet Man is a good way of working out who is from round these parts. Outsiders always have a look of sheer disbelief and can generally be seen pinching themselves to make sure they are not dreaming. Locals however, always laugh inwardly when the Puppet Man is around and look upon him as a harmless old chap whose idiosyncratic "performances", and I use the word in its loosest possible sense, help prevent our city from plunging headfirst into a morass of sanitised blandness.
I then turned left towards the castle and left again to the cathedral, where I sat quietly at the rear listening to the closing few minutes of an organ recital before heading home.
The reason for writing all of the above is to provide myself with a reality check. Like a lot of people on this site, I have been guilty of being over obsessive about my poker and felt I needed to take a step back before heading to London. Yes I"d love the gold bracelet, the sponsorship deal and the TV appearances, but I"m an amateur player with a life away from the game. Sometimes I need reminding of that.
