One last post....designed to wrap up the 'highlights' of the trip in classic 'Top 3' format.
3. We meet Dave and Vicki (Mitchell rather than Beckham)Father has long been a fan of Vicki and was besotted at the mere sight of her billboard in the EPT conference centre, let alone when we saw her and new husband David Mitchell milling around in the lobby.
An amusing debate over what photo opportunity was available to us ensued, with Vicki eventually insisting on a "Sophie's Choice"-esque decision of a photo with one of the two of them. To punish her I selected David, and here is the evidence:
Click to see full-size image. |
You would assume I'm laughing like that because he's just told a hysterical funny....in actual fact I just always look like that because I am a gorm. In the aftermath of Father tweeting the photo the twittersphere went mental (ish), indeed Clare Balding tweeted Ian. He was well chuffed, though not sufficiently social media proficient to respond with anything other than 'lol', which we of course all know means 'lots of love'.
2. Ian gets slowrolledBittersweet one this as, looking back, one can't help but laugh, but at the time I must admit tempers were a little frayed. Mercifully I was two seats away from my dad so managed to hold him back before he metered any rough-Westfield-School-1967-1973 justice on the tosser.
The game is very, very splashy, with a couple of reasonable stacks knocking around. Villain in the hand is the 2nd limper and has sat with c3kEur. After a limp or two more it folds to Ian in the SB who goes for the classic squeeze to 100Eur. Folds to Villain who now makes it 260Eur. Ian clicks it to 520Eur from 2.5kEur effective, and the villain tanks/hollywoods for a while before announcing all in.
Father doesn't like it but calls off, asking, "Have you got Aces/Kings?" as he turns over Queens. The French chap looks pretty gutted with life before saying, "I need to see all five cards", and keeping his hand face down as is his prerogative.
x x
Dad's hand remains tabled and a good 5-10 seconds go by before the frog shows the
. Judging by his face when Ian called I am expecting a bagofshit card to go with it but.....oh no, there it is. Another ace. Marvelous.
Diplomatic relations get a bit testy before I rather betray my education by mocking the frog for his lack of 'etiquette', stating I thought the word has French origins. All rather clever I thought. Turns out the word actually means the label in the back of a piece of clothing in French. Marv. We all have a good laugh at my expense and the mood lightens a little.
1. The Wisdom of Fozzy BearA dangerous choice for the top spot as perhaps you "had to be there", but I'll risk it. I don't know the name of the chap in question but hopefully you can figure out who he is from the following description....he essentially reminds me of fozzy bear in a gilet, and can generally be spotted hanging around the cash desk queue at the Vic. He is about 6'3" with wavy/straggly hair. He smiles less than in the image below:
Fozzy has managed to engage us in conversation and we are discussing the merits of Deauville....
Fozzy: "Yeah, me? I love it here. Great little place. Love it".
Ian: "It's a funny one out of season isn't it though? We came here in August and it was just perfect. Sunny, horse racing, poker, walking on the promenade and the beach...."
Fozzy: "What? There's a beach?"
Thank you all for staking/patience/interest/contributions to the thread and I hope we've given a little amusement to you all.
Thanks, Ed & Ian.