Homeward bound
In the waiting area at Toronto Pearson airport. Yesterday was a good day–Tom and I put together two decent games and came in tenth overall in the regional pairs game.
I saw Cole Powell last night as I was getting dinner. His team was in the round of 32 in the mini-Spingold, and up by 25 or so at the half. Then I saw Lauren Friedman, and her team survived into wednesday in the same event.
Tom and Barbara are headed to Niagara Falls today on their loop of America tour. Mike and Linda are playing in the national fast pairs. I’m going to Chicago then SFO then most likely BART to Pleasant Hill. Travel and nationals are great, but getting to sleep in my own bed tonight has considerable value, too.
Dinner break Tuesday
And here’s yet another reason I’m against the 7:00 pm start–I wouldn’t have time to make this post. In fact, the Nationals used to start the second session at 8, and that’s fine with me. I could use the time to post more and get a nap, too.
Tom and I had a good game this afternoon–63% was the last score I saw, but there were a few boards to come in from around the room. In any event, we did well. Life is much easier in a stratified event than in a national championship where there are only good players and **I** am the little old lady everyone is hoping to play against.
The gang went out for a Greek dinner, but I’m getting a trifle burnt out so I walked back to the hotel, got a take out dinner from the Old Spaghetti Factory, took a bath, will write this post and head back to the game refreshed and ready.
The walk back was interesting–like many cities in cold climates, Downtown Toronto has an entire underground network connecting everything, so you you can walk quite a distance without ever having to go outdoors. There are hundreds of stores and restaurants down there, it’s all climate controlled and comfortable and safe. What it isn’t, is well marked. I only got about halfway back before I was completely lost and turned around, with nary a map or sign in sight, so I emerged like a groundhog, saw my shadow and we’ll have 6 more weeks of summer.
Here is another gallery of photos from yesterday. I have to get back to the game.
Toronto, Tuesday morning
SR is sending me notes telling me to blog more, so I have to get this done before I dash on out of Totally Unofficial central and race up to the Sheraton to play.
Yes, the Sheraton, home of the losers. We played yesterday in the National Senior Swiss Teams, and might have made the cut if the hearts had been 2-2 on the slam I played in round 8. But they weren’t, I was down 1, we lost the match and did not qualify. So today it’s just the regional pairs event. I’ll play with Tom–Linda is ready to play with Micky, and he’s probably pretty tired of my face across the table from him anyway.
Plenty of people coming over yesterday to congratulate Linda on her great finish in the LM pairs. I promised a better photo–here’s the official winner’s portrait.
Dinner last night was in the rotating restaurant in the CN tower, 1140 feet over the city. We have enjoyed these tourist meccas in Dallas, Seattle, Montreal and Vancouver, at least. The food tends to be surprisingly good, the views spectacular, the prices dreadful, but it isn’t like you’ll be eating there every night.
Lake Ontario and the Ontario islands.
I took the big camera along with me; I have some great shots, but not much time to process them and make them beautiful. So just a few today.
Tom and Barbara. She looks exhausted from all the shopping.
My appetizer--a charcuterie plate
LInda's salad
Barbara's pork tenderloin
Dessert. I don't know what it was, but it had maple syrup in it and Barbara said that was important in Canada
Goats milk vanilla ice cream. I really liked the serving piece, too.
The tournament is very well attended, but that’s normal for Toronto. Not many people from our area. The weather is more reasonable–the heat wave has died down, and it’s in the 80’s. Beautiful walking back to the hotel in the evening. I see a considerable number of homeless sleeping on the streets–makes me wonder what they do in the winter.
Time to go. More later.
Big time fantastic
We have a major success here in Toronto.
Linda Bandler and Cole Powell had two great sessions today in the finals of the LM-5000 pairs, 58% and 56%.
Combined with the four decent sessions they had in the qualifying, that means they came in THIRD OVERALL. 42 golden points, and the cheers of the crowd.
I’ll get a good photo tomorrow, for today just believe it.
Forty years
I’ve been playing bridge since Richard Nixon was president, and this is the worst hand I’ve ever held.
Toronto, day 2
Not having qualified for the LM pairs, Mike and I played the A/X regionally rated event today.
The day started out with confusion, because Mike told me that all the regional events would be at the Sheraton, so I made the long, hot, uphill trek to Queen Street. Just as I was entering, Mike called me and mentioned that the A/X pairs were in the Royal York, the same hotel where all the national events are, so I had to hike back there. It’s tough to start the day after a forced march that would exhaust a French Foreign Legionnaire.
The first session wasn’t much good, but we made up for it in the second one–except for my inability to take tricks on defense. I slipped about three of them. Some days you just can’t count to 13.
I can’t tell you exactly how well we did, because in the middle of the last round the computer crashed, and the directors were having great difficulty getting the scores back–indeed, they ended up passing out pick up slips to try and re-create the entire movement. Which will work, if they don’t find that some tables had finished and the players were gone. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Paul McDaniel, doing an out-of-season Santa impression.
Bridge tournaments always generate interesting stories, so here are two for today:
Paul McDaniel doesn’t like to fly. So he takes the train to all the NABC’s, which explains why he wasn’t in Honolulu. Getting to Toronto turned into an adventure: the train suffered a brake failure in a tunnel in Colfax, leaving California. They had to stop to fix it, and that put them behind schedule, which disrupts the entire system and ends up making them even later. He got into Chicago 11 hours late, and there was no train that would get him to Toronto by game time. You might think that this would be the time to break down and take the hour and a half flight, but Paul is a man of principle–he managed a bus through Toledo, Detroit and Windsor, but he got to the big city and made the game on time.
Cole Powell doesn’t mind flying, so there he was at 37,000 feet when someone on his flight had an allergic reaction, and a doctor on board said he needed to be in the hospital NOW. This necessitated an emergency stop in Detroit–things move quickly in these cases. Cole said they were on the ground in 10 minutes. Not a real problem (except for the guy who got sick), but at least a bit of excitement on the trip.
Just one of the many ballrooms at the Royal York
I’ll wrap up with this photo–the Royal York is an old fashioned palace of a hotel. I peeked in an empty room this evening, and found this masterpiece of design and painting. We play in so many bland rooms, created by corporate planning departments to be inoffensive and utilitarian, it’s a real treat to see what can be done with imagination and craftsmanship.
uick and dirty. That’s right–no Q
Just below average doesn’t cut it.
Micky and I were about 48% for the day, and it takes at least a hair over 50% to earn you coveted Q.
We thought we had two good boards against Billy Miller–bid 2♥, made 4 on a defensive slip, set Billy in 3NT. How bad can this be? I’ll tell you how bad. We got 11 1/2 points out of 50 that round. When the rounds you think are good actually suck, you’re in deep yogurt, and so we were.
Somebody is smiling, just not us. Linda Bandler and Cole Powell, in the LM to 5000 event, had a pair of 54% games and qualified easily. Mark Ralph and Bruce Noda, in the big room, had two huge games, 63% and 67%.
So tomorrow it’s a regional event. Bill Heid and Bill Staats didn’t make the cut today, either, so maybe we’ll play a team game. Right now I fell like spending the day in bed sucking my thumb and whining, but that will pass.
The famous gambler, Nick the Greek Dandalos, said “the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing. As long as you’re playing.” I think he was on to something.
Toronto, LM Pairs, first session
Demonstrating the hospitality umbrella, Cole Powell makes yet another fashion statement
Linda is one of very few women who can make this look fetching.
Here’s the definition of really, really humid: it’s hot, and it’s raining. Not much in the way of clouds–the water seem to be just leaking out of the air.
That’s the way it was on the way to dinner tonight. The hospitality package is a tote bag and an umbrella–things you can actually use. Nice planning, Toronto.
Huge field in the LM pairs this afternoon–and that’s taking into account that there is a LM to 1500 game and a LM to 5000 game, as well. All national events. Taking almost all the under 5000 players out of the field makes the big game fiendishly tough. Mike and I played decently and had a 48% this afternoon–we’ll have to pick it up some to qualify tonight.
Dinner was at Ki, an uber-upscale Japanese restaurant. The food was great, the price ghastly. It’ll take two nights at the Old Spaghetti Factory to make up for tonight’s dinner, but it was worth it.
Time to go back to work. More later.
Toronto NABC
So here I am in beautiful downtown Toronto, hiding out in my room because it’s just too darned hot outside to go sightseeing.
The tournament opened last night with the charity pairs, but I was still in transit. Three hours from now Mike and I will set out to win the Life Masters Pairs, or at least qualify the tomorrow. Linda is playing with Cole Powell, so we have a personal competition going as well.
The tournament site, the Royal York, is dreadfully expensive, even with the bridge rate. So I’m staying at the Novotel, about 2 blocks away. So far it seems decent–my room is sort of small, but that often happens in the big city. The biggest complaint I have is that the wireless internet is just pig slow. I haven’t had internet this poky since we were in Cuba last year. The wireless connection on the Airport Express bus last night was better.
I’ve got five days of playing scheduled, then it’s back to the cool air of California. Stay tuned, NABC’s are always interesting and I’ll have all the news.
Who buys this stuff?
I’m at SFO waiting for my flight to Chicago and then Toronto. Coming up are five glorious days of big boy bridge, and I’m a happy camper.
No traffic this morning. Left the house at 6:45 and was through security and headed to the gate by 7:45.
American air has a fantastic new terminal– the completely rebuilt terminal two. Great places to eat, including Lark Creek Cafe and a bar/restaurant by celebrity chef Cat Cora. A market with fine wines, gourmet breads and cheeses, and upscale pizza and sandwiches.
Then there are the stores. I guess I can understand the travel goods like neck pillows and eye shades, but who comes to the airport to buy luggage, clothes or computer equipment?
Or home decor? There is a “fine arts and crafts” store selling lamps and accessories and sculptures that are far too large to carry. Who buys them? Why? Does anyone think “I need something for that corner of the living room. I think I’ll go to the airport and get a floor lamp. ” ??
Totally Unauthorized 