Visitors from Germany and my Performance Review

On Friday two mates from Germany which I had not seen for two years came to visit me for a few days. They also brought along an Australian lad who is on a trip through Europe at the moment after he stayed in Berlin for a year and will be returning back to Australia in December time. They started off their trip renting scooters to drive from Malaga to Sotogrande which is a 2.5 h drive on a scooter. Anyway the only lasted one hour before one had a crash, causing some pretty harsh skin damage all over his body and a wound that needed some sewing in the next best Spanish Hospital.
After that first bit of action they brought back the scooters and decided to hire a car instead, which turned out to have been a wiser choice. So the rest of the holiday my mate was on a lot of painkillers and vodka but he was ok. I asked for pictures and hope to get them at one point.

All three of them are really nice blokes and one of them actually is the bass player of the last band band I was active in before I left Germany more than two years ago. We had really good times going on the piss on Friday including a visit in the discos that Gibraltar has to offer which are playing ridiculously bad music.
Saturday we went to the beach for a short while enjoying the Mediterranean Sea and went to get some munch and a cash game in Gibraltar in the evening. Coming back home Saturday Night and sitting on the balcony till 5 am drinking, chatting and watching funny youtube videos and grinding the Bop-it toy.

Sunday was another day at the beach but this time we went to Tarifa to spend a few hours at the Atlantic Sea. Yes the weather and the water are still warm enough to actually go in there, so that's pretty cool. Almost November and we took a little bath in the sea. In the evening we went for a pretty cool all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant that I know, which offers insane value for money.

They did the basic tourist stuff like seeing Gibraltar's monkeys yesterday and in the evening we went for some more exclusive food at a restaurant in the Port of Sotogrande. I had really nicely cooked fillet medallions in Roquefort sauce and really enjoyed the meal.

Other big topic for me was my long overdue performance review at work, which finally happened yesterday night. It went really well and when you get told sentences like "your commitment and motivation are far beyond what is normal and you certainly belong in the top 10 of the company including senior management with that kind of performance" "that was by far the best performance I have seen of anyone in the first 4 months so far" it really slips down a treat!

I spoke pro-actively about a change in salary and asked for a 20% pay rise which I didn't get as my line manager said that it would not be enough and gave me a 33% rise in salary starting from 01/10/2009 and so he handed me as well an envelope with the money I didn't have on my paycheck last month. Clearly, I was amazed by the appreciation of my performance. My line Manager finished the meeting with the sentence: "that was the fastest and biggest (percentage wise) increase in salary that I ever gave".
So all what's left to say is: SHIP IT!

Furthermore my line manager let me know that they see me evolving into another role in the period of the next 6 - 12 months were I could make more use of my potential and promised me another meeting in 6 months time where we are going to talk about what my career path should be looking like. So next year I probably be thinking of doing a distance learning course which will go for 18 months and do an MBA in order to upgrade my current BA(hons) degree and possibly sneak into a role in our Operations Department.

You can bet that I am close to explode of pride at the moment and my motivation batteries have reloaded quite nicely. I am ready to take the next steps.

Btw, I started entering the working life last August and since then managed to more than double my initial wages. Man, my testicles are having the size of watermelons at the moment.

Cash games have been going ok as well with small, but steady profits. So even the stakers investments seems to pay off.

Ok, I'm finished bragging now and return to dancing around like the gay mantis again.

Talk soon

Truthans

A really good day

First of all I am congratulating myself that this blog is now 1 year old. I think I did ok with the blog. Some posts where funny some weren't but it felt good anyway to have something like a diary going. I tried having diaries when I was younger but failed after a maximum of 4 months. I am quite happy that I did a somewhat consistent effort to post on this blog and I haven't had a month yet in which I didn't post. So, well done me. Looking forward to the next year of blogging which should bring some interesting stories. For now I am just going write down what a nice day I had this Saturday.

I woke up at 9:00 and drove my girlfriend to work. Went back home and went back to bed. I didn't really feel tired so I thought I watch a movie and decided to watch Lesbian Vampire Killers. This was good for some early hilarity as I absolutely loved the character called Fletch. Some might argue that the story is flat and in the end it is just a average horror movie parody but I actually quite enjoyed the light hearted entertainment that Saturday morning.

After that I got up and decided to play some online Poker for a few hours which I had not done for a while. The session went good and I finished 2.5 stacks up at NL100. This added to my good mood and I was already dancing around in my flat like a gay mantis wearing boxers.

Next on the plan was the match Germany vs Russia in Moscow. I watched the English live stream on a sports betting website and was blessed with a pretty ok German performance that led to a 1:0 victory on Russian soil. We played 20 minutes with only 10 on the pitch and the Russians had not been beaten on home soil for like eh... I don't know...maybe since Ivan the Horrible reigned. We are qualified directly and I am looking forward to the World Cup next year. Congratulations by the way to England as well, by first qualifying for the Cup and then by really kicking the shit out of Croatia when you lost your last match. Man, what a well deserved revenge.

Now after the football I picked up my girlfriend from work in Gibraltar and we needed something to eat. So we popped in the nearby Morrison's and I convinced the lady to buy those nice looking venison sausages with some interesting seasoning of which I can't remember what it was anymore. Back home in Spain she got the meal cooked (ye good ol Bangers & Mash) and the Sausages were delicious. Fortunately the girlfriend could not manage to eat her 3rd sausage which means that I got 4 of them. I couldn't believe my luck.

On Friday it was her birthday and I bought her Sims 3 besides some other surprises which I am not gonna reveal here. Anyway, on Saturday she then told me that if I would install the game for here I could go to the casino and play Poker. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

I was a little afraid if my laptop was good enough to run this game but I was very fortunate and the game worked absolutely perfect although the installation took absolute ages.

Having had the girlfriend sorted out with her game I grabbed a few chips from the bank roll and made my way to the oh so beloved Gala Casino in Gib. Losing a 3 way all-in PF with AK against KK and AQ saw me being down £75 early on but I couldn't fold to the 4- bet shove anymore when I got 3,5 : 1 on my call. I then moved table and dominated the other table for the rest of the night mixing up my game and getting two light 4-bets through with A4s and 9Ts. I played mostly small pots and never was all-in again that night. In the end I made a profit of £142 which is good. The other cash table had two sick hands happening:

£1100 pot - 4way all-in - Board Js9s8c
888 vs. 95o vs. 6s5s vs. As2s
Board blanks out and the set takes down the pot. Juicy!


£480 pot - 2 way all in - Board Q,5,T rainbow
AA vs. A4o (The Aces raised PF and open shoved the flop, A4o snap called)
Turn: 4, River: 4

This boosts my total profits since June to £1214.
Since staking it is £252

A really good day that was!

Report soon

Truthans

Plodding along

There isn't really a lot to talk about but I thought it was time to throw an update in here. Since my last post I received the much wanted staking and got going on the live felt again. I'll talk about that later.

Other than that I had my car repaired which means I can park in public again as my boot is now locking again. Yeah! Yesterday we had 32 degrees C here which is pretty awesome for 3. October. Today it's 26 or something. Still pretty cool.

I will get my performance review at work and very much hope that I can report of the pay rise in the next post. Fingers crossed.

I am eating to much and have re-gained 5kg since being in the south. This is mostly due to the fact that my company provides free food on a daily basis and I really struggle to keep away from it. I just love those huge Ciabattas with Bacon, Brie and Avocado on them. And the hot food is nice too. Not sure how I am going to handle this problem but I should give it some serious thought before I turn back to be a fat fucking German again. Well, to be honest I just shoved a Pizza in the oven so... I think I should definitely keep hold of my supersize trousers in case I'll need them again. I wish I had the time to go to the gym.

Pokerwise I am going through a pretty awful break even stretch at the moment as you can see from the graph below. Since the staking is going I am up £110 but effort and result are standing in no relation. Played far to many hours for far too less profit.
Played like a dick/moron/donkey for a few sessions when I got back as well. Probably left about £500 on the table just by being a jerk. Anyway I have started to play better again and yesterday played some of the best Poker I have played since June. Finished about £90 up although I was down £150 after 20 mins when KK < QT. I clawed it all back and made profit. Good stuff.

Made a King high call on a 567 two spades, Td, Qc board when my action went check/call; check/check; check/call and he showed me J9 and I tabled KJ. I know this guy very well by now and couldn't do the same against a lot of other players but I just know his betting patterns so good that I was pretty sure to be good here a lot of the time. Had a good run of cards yesterday athough I have to say that I lost KK and had JJ 3 times as well but lost all of them in smallish pots. Anyway I am looking forward to my next exploits at the live felt and hope to have brought my break even stretch to an end yesterday.

Speak soon.

Truthans

Profit since staking: £110
Total Profit since June: £1072
Sessions played: 27