July 21st - 18th October 2008

Lot has happened - Friday 10th October

I've meant to make an entry for a while now. Since I've got back from Holland a lot of things seem to have happened. First of all the world seems like its in the middle of financial meltdown. Over the last three months since I got back from Holland I've been watching the credit crunch slowly spiral out of control. I'm writing about this now because its only just hit home at how fast this has all happened and I'm just wondering what could happen next. I've just been going through some old emails and read several articles on www.fool.co.uk from back in February which recommended a new savings account based in an Iceland bank which it turns out has now defaulted. Back in Februrary I didnt have any savings but if I did I more than likely would have put them into that bank as the savings account had the highest rate of interest. Now it seems pretty much the whole of Iceland is about to go bankrupt. Thats barely the tip of the iceburg though because just in the last couple of months the UK and most of the world it seems has gone into recession, the stock market has gone into freefall, several banks have gone bust, house prices are falling (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and governments around the world have been throwing more and more taxpayers money after the failing economy. I know its not quite the same thing but I can't help think how similar it seems to what happens when I start losing at poker. It snowballs and before you know it your throwing more and more good money after bad, chasing your losses and before you know it your in a hole deeper than you thought you could ever get in. The ironic thing though about this whole global financial meltdown is that for the first time in a long time I seem to be doing alright because I hit the bad beat jackpot a few weeks ago on Ultimate Bet for a nice payday of $21,387.68 which was finally the win I needed. The amazing thing about it was that having this hand is so rare and I hardly ever play on that site. If it had happened on any other site I wouldn't have recieved the huge payout. In fact I would be in pretty dire straits right now as I have had three losing months at poker. Its funny how the turn of a card can change so much. Of course I dont have all of that left because that was over a month ago and a sizeable chunk has gone back into the poker economy. However what I do have left gives me a nice sum of money to travel with over the next few months and hopefully next year aswell. I was originally planning to do a road trip around Eastern Europe but I think I'm going to stick around Bristol until the new year and take a few smaller trips. Next week Im going to Spain with Matt and Brad. Next month I plan on doing a road trip with Ally around the UK and hopefully go to Iceland with Joey. Right now I'm thinking next year I will go and hit Vegas again in the summer and do a road trip across the states and Canada. Fingers crossed I still have money then.

Apart from that I've done a few other things since I last wrote. I got my two star kayaking award which I completed in Bristol docks. As much fun as it was I was put off doing it anymore because you have to do a capsize and sit upside down in the water with a kayak on top of you which just makes me panic.