Happiest day at casino?

On Thursday, I had to get to work early (as in, 8am) as I would be going to court with Roy and Ross (in his AI). I was nervous, as I wasn't sure if I would be required to say anything in court, and if I did, what exactly I would say.

I managed to get to work on time, but my stomach was grumbling even though I already went to the toilet at home in the morning. I was in a meeting with Roy and Rossand it got so bad I actually had to excuse myself while I went to the toilet to do a number two. Ugh.

Going to court, it was my first time seeing the office car park and cars. I also got to see the drive way that we actually come out of. I had never noticed that before. What was interesting was seeing how Roy wanted to go in as secretive as possible.

After meeting the Crown, we went to get a coffee, and Roy was telling us about his days in England and stuff to do with the MI6. Then we returned to court, waited a bit and Ross was called. Luckily I didn't have to do anything, so it all went pretty smoothly.

I had organised lunch with Genie and Maria on the proviso that I had to go to court and I'd confirm with them on the day. So when I got back to the office, I emailed them saying I was good to go. Maria emailed back saying she was ok too. But then she called me and apologised, saying she forgot that she had to go home early. Then Genie emailed me saying she was too busy.

To be honest, I felt pretty pissed off at both of them. We were supposed to have lunch last week, but that got put over to Wednesday as Genie was busy. Then on Wednesday Genie put it over to Thursday, and now she was cancelling again.

I had so much to share with them, about my bar results, my time in court, and me cross-examining the witness for three days. And now, I had no one to listen. No one to share my experience with. Genie sent a follow up email apologising and saying she hoped I wasn't mad. I was, and I decided to ignore it while I went out to lunch.

Friday was a much more relaxed day. We didn't have FF, and at 11am we had a celebration for Wongy as it was his last day. I was expecting the usual snacks, like chips and drinks, and was surprised that there was nothing. NOTHING!

Mob gave a speech (which she later admitted to it being somewhat fictional) and gave him a plaque, as well as other presents. I was surprised we had a bag with our logo on it. Also interesting to know that Wongy led a relatively secret life during his career here, as Mob said no one had ever met his wife or seen him play in his band, and that he hadn't been overseas.

It made me a bit more comfortable thinking my gambling and whoring would be safe.

At 1:30pm we went out for lunch with him, went to this Italian restaurant I think near our office, with a waiter who seemed to treat us with a degree of disdain but which others seemed to think was "classy Italian" service. Everything was going alright, until one of Ben's drinks got blown over by the wind and all the wine spilled onto my pants.

After the lunch I couldn't wait to get back to the office to change out of them, then took them to the dry cleaner's. I went to the gym, went home and played Last of Us for a bit before picking up G and going to the airport to pick up Shuing.

We went to Chinksford to eat, and I was surprised that Shuing ordered a congee and wonton noodle soup. I know the quantity of food might not have caused the gall stones, but surely you'd try to lighten up your diet after something like that.

I found the dinner to be a little difficult, as Shuing was very prone to an argument and I seemed prone as well to defending my views. The thing with him is, he likes to generalise, and if you try to point out the logical fallacies of generalising, he'll have none of it, and use swear words and raise his voice to prove his point. Once he makes a claim, anything you say to the contrary is wrong. And if you make a claim, he'll likely contradict it.

After that we went to Macca's to hang out, and I ended up getting Malay to join us. I remember one thing I said to Shuing earlier was that Malay seemed a bit non-committing when I asked invited him to things, like the Thailand trip. Shuing then said this may have been because Malay had a relative on the MH370 plane that disappeared (this stems from his gambling/prediction addiction). This went from 'may' to 'definitely' when I tried to rebut it. I was glad when Malay came and Shuing tried to suss him out, that Malay said he didn't know anyone on the plane.

After that I dropped G off, then at Shuing's place we sat in my car talking about G. Again, we got into an argument. I said I thought G's parents wanted him to be a 'professional worker' and that was why his mother took him to the uni to look at accounting courses. Shuing said there was nothing wrong with being a bus driver or whatever as long as it was what G wanted to do. He either didn't seem to appreciate the distinction between what I thought G should do and what I thought G's parents wanted G to do, or he was just trying to argue against G's parents' point of view through me.

It was like 1am and I was getting tired, just wanted him out of my car. When he finally left I went home and slept. I came to the conclusion that it would be best if I didn't go to Thailand with Shuing, as I am sure we would get into an argument that would risk our friendship. Even though I find Brain annoying, I don't think we would get into any arguments.

Saturday
In the morning I went to the courts for some games. Unlike previous weeks, there was a serious lack of people, and we barely scraped together ten guys. It just so happened that this was the day that Mike decided to take up my recommendation to come after I had told him there were about 20 people each Saturday and there were some good Americans. Not one American showed up.

We only played a few full court games before most people left. Then Mike, Adrian, Matt and I played these four Asian guys four on four, and it was funny because they would win one game convincingly, then we would win, then they would win and so on. For two games I was on fire, hitting almost every shot, even prompting one of them to say I was a good shooter. When they decided to mark me tight, Matt started hitting a bunch of long threes to help us win.

After that Mike, Matt and I went to Chinksford to eat. I took them to the restaurant I like with fast service, but on this occasion for some reason it took like 30 minutes to wait for our food. I noticed all the other tables had the same thing too.

As we were eating, I would sometimes think "damn, I'm gonna go gambling after this, I feel so dirty, can't believe I'm about to warp into a different world in a few hours".

Mike dropped me home and I was soooo tired. Not even showering or changing, I laid down on my bed for a few moments and fell asleep. When I woke up, my left leg cramped up when I tried to get up, but luckily I managed to get rid of it quickly.

I had a shower and headed out to the casino. I ended up losing $2000. I was never up, which irked me, but at the same time, I seemed to accept this loss a bit better than in the past. I mean, there was no urge to quickly go home and change bank cards so I could come back with another $2000. I told myself that losses are bound to happen, and that I should just try to win $800 next time and slowly climb back like that. However, I knew in the back of my mind that I'd be going to bed with the urge programmed into my mental alarm clock, ready to wake me up when the time was right.

And that time was 5:30am, when I got up and left for the casino. I was expecting a 'fresh' atmosphere of the casino, you know, like the casino version of a 6am jog. Instead, it was filled with people who had stayed there all night from their Saturday night shenanigans. When I got there, a security guard was trying to sort out a bit of a tussle between two guys. The dealer was an Asian girl who I thought would bring good luck, but instead, I lost $2000 rather quickly, and again was never up.

I left, feeling like shit, as I'd just lost $4000 altogether, and now I faced the prospect of returning home at 7am having to explain to my parents where the hell I was. Luckily they were still asleep.

I played some video games, had breakfast, and went out to the casino in the afternoon again. I got there at about 12:30pm I reckon, and sat down at a table with a young blonde dealer. Pretty much as soon as she exchanged my chips, her shift ended and it was some Asian guy. I was slowly losing my chips, and faced the very real prospect that I'd lose $6000 this weekend. At the lowest point, I had my last $400 on the table layout, and luckily, LUCKILY, it landed on 28 which I had a bunch of chips on.

The next dealer was another Asian guy, but he was a lot more talkative. When I was the only one playing, I was more open to talking and we just made general chit chat. Found out about the VIP rooms upstairs, and apparently the way you get in is via the membership card which makes you eligible if you bet a certain amount of money. Judging by how often they ask me for a card, and how much I have bet (lost), I think I'd be eligible. But the dealer just said you get free drinks, so maybe I'm not missing out on much.

He also told me about a story where on a baccarat table one time, the cards hadn't been shuffled so everyone knew what cards were coming out - LOL!

After him came a lady dealer who I had seen around before. This is where I had two big wins, which pretty much netted me $2000 "profit". Then a very attractive Asian girl (probably Chinese, didn't look Korean) came and sat down next to me. She played 'safe' bets, and small amounts. I wondered if she was a working girl trying to look for work. She did look dolled up. And it seemed unusual she was by herself. Whether she was looking for work or not, I was pretty sure she was a working girl.

I kept trying to think of things to say to chat her up, but for some stupid reason I didn't want others at the table to think I was hitting on her. By now, due to her, the amount of money I had, and the amount of time I had been there, I had lost focus of my strategy. But I also wasn't really betting, opting to sit out most games, mainly because the table had become over crowded.

After this dealer, there was a shift change and the blonde girl returned. We nodded, and I said I was here when her shift ended, and she said yes, that was four hours ago. I said that was embarrassing, but she gestured at all the chips I had, as if to suggest it was worth it.

This was when the fun started. She spun up 33 twice, and by now there was a Vietnamese guy joking with her, asking why she didn't tell him a double was coming up. He said she should tell him if a triple would be coming. I have seen enough triples to make me want to bet on it when a double happens, so I placed one chip on 33.

And it landed on...33! Everyone started cracking up at the table, especially the Vietnamese guy, who was saying "why didn't you tell me?" A lot of people made money on that bet.

By now I had pretty much won all the eight stacks of colour chips that the table held. So each time I won a small amount, she had to pay me in cash. This has only ever happened once before, many years ago. I was up $2200 and couldn't bear to lose it all back (so much for that fantasy of trying to win back your debt of $30000), so I sat out most spins.

I was watching this lady bet. She had annonyingly squeezed into my right, and leaned over into my personal space to place bets, threatening to push over my chips. She had some luck, as she won big on a few spins. But when she lost, she would swear, as if it shouldn't happen. I mean, she bets on like half the numbers, so it's got a realistic probability of it hitting the other half, yet she somehow expects to win all the time. She even rage quitted on one spin after losing, choosing to cash in her $100 worth of chips.

The attractive girl had also left, probably due to the over crowding. And when the blonde girl finished her shift, I decided I had had enough so cashed out as well. Although I had fun and began being talkative to people, I was way too fucking tired. Once again, the casino environment had broken me down again. I was just glad I was able to walk out with more than what I started with.