I know I am a bit late posting this but I wasn't going to and read some others and thought what the hell.
I set off with my wife Sue (sugar18), Andy1964 and his wife Isobel. Andy drove and had the help of TomTom to get us there. We had a good journey and arrived in plenty of time.
Pulling up at the house I got a feeling I hadn't had for a while. You remember when you used to go on school trips to theme parks etc. The sense of excitement, nervousness, fear, and many other things all rolled up into 1. It was kind of like that.
I knew Cille, Pysa and Zulu were arriving first and expected them to be in the house. I looked out of the car window and saw 2 people walking towards the house. The fear immediately rushed to the front, I thought "bloody hell, we're staying in the house of the living dead!!!!!!!" Fortunately they went into the house next door and I let out a huge sigh. Relief washed over me and all was well with the world again.
When I got to the door and spoke to Steve we laughed at how often he said "make sure you ALWAYS lock the door. This is Anfield you know." We thought he was joking, but the amount of times he said it and the intensity in his voice told us he wasn't
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Cille and co had gone out for the day so the house was empty when we arrived. About 20 minutes later a taxi driver knocked at the door. He was dropping tricks off. Now I decided to go to the door to see who it was. I saw this lady struggling up the path with her case and thought to myself, "Hmm, she doesn't know this is Anfield, I'll mug her."
I bounded down the stairs and went for her bag. She looked at me and I thought "sod that, I'll just help her with her bag instead." thats the first time I've revealed my true intentions to Tricks.
Andy, myself and our wives decided to go for a walk and see the local sites (pubs). The owner said "goto the end of the street, theres a bar there." We go to the end of the street and Andy insists that Steve said turn right and the pubs down there. We walked about half a mile and still had not reached a bar.
At this point it also dawned on me that I had been in Liverpool for approximately 90 minutes and still had not spoke to a scouser. I thought I'd put that right and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I popped into a shop to ask the owner where the nearest pub was. He was an Indian, no offence to the guy, he seemed nice. But I see Indians everyday in South Shields, I wanted a Scouser damn it. Anyway he laughed at me and said theres pubs all along this street, 1 on this block, the next block and the next..........you get the point. So we set off again.
The first pub we arrived at, can't remember the name, but it looked a bit rough and considering we had the wives with us we decided to go to the next one. The next one was called The Newsham. It seemed ok, so we went in. My senses were alerted when I ordered a pint. The barmaid asked me if I'd like a Gum Shield with it. YES, I've finally spoke to a scouser.
We sat and started enjoying our beers when a lady, Icall her lady but I am using artistic license here, came over and asked if any of us were having a baby. I immediately looked at my stomach and thought "shit is it that obvious."
Back at the house, Cille, Pysa and Zulu with there gorgeous little daughter who was very well behaved all week had arrive back. Craig (Buddiemad also arrived). We decided to order an Indian meal before we went out for the night. I volunteered to go to the restaurant to get us some menus. Should of remembered how far away it was, took me bloody ages. It was well worth it the meal was delicious.
Theres not much I can tell you about the casino thats different to what others have said, but I'll try to add a few things.
One of the great things that I noticed, I'm sure others did too. I would go up to someone, example Last2end. Shake his hand and say hi. He'd say "Hi I'm Steve" and I'd say "Gary". this would be said as we were shaking hands. Then, he'd say "last2end" and I'd say "block", then we'd immediately shake hands again. I must be honest and say I loved this. It happened with just about everyone. Your reaching out to shake the hand of a stranger who you have just met. Then realising this person in front of me isn't a stranger, hes a friend. For that I thank you all.
I played the tournament and did ok, I took jaycs bounty and I think it was natsdad too. Jayc was sitting between us so I'm sorry if I've got that wrong. I took the piss out of jayc as much as possible at the table, whilst trying to be respectful to the tournament. The main thing I remember was the guy who ran the card room. Jayc asked him a question and the guy said "who are you". Obviously I couldn't let this go, you all know jaycs catch phrase "do you know who I am". Well he didn't, and I took great pleasure pointing that out.
I was given some credit from welshgit for being a laugh at the sit n go we played after the tourney. I must give some credit to Andy for this. When we first arrived at the casino it went a bit like this:
Welshgit "Hi, I'm Kev, Welshgit."
Andy "Your Welshgit, We fucking stuffed you at rugby at the weekend"
That was it. No hello, hi, how do you do. I looked at the floor and shook my head. Welshgit agreed with andy, albeit reluctantly.
Now at the sit n go, Jayc was sitting next to Andy and welshgit was a couple of seats away. Now one thing you need to know about Andy. He starts to get very patriotic, but mostly against the English. Right at the start of the sit n go he said to Welshgit, "its you me and Jayc against those English bastards". Thats what set me off. I pointed out to Andy what his greeting to Welshgit was, and the fact that even though he was wearing a Kilt(skirt), Jayc had to tell him the diffence between a two-piece and a kilt. This to a man who brags that his country has a national dress and the English don't.
I ragged Andy for a few minutes, telling him he was trying to find a friend, even Jaycs embarrassed to sit next to a man in a skirt etc. etc. and then the table went into chaos. We all started ripping the piss and had a really good laugh.
p.s. To all the people at the final table whilst we were carrying on. I'm sorry if our (my) antics at the table disrupted your game, it wasn't intended, we were enjoying ourselves.
One quick story about the lunch we went for. Andy, Isobel, Craig, Trish, Myself and Sue. We went to wetherspoons and ordered some food. Tricks ordered a hot chocolate to have with her meal. Me (being the gentleman that I am :P) went for the order, it was a fair walk to the bar. Tricks got her hot chocolate and said it was cold, no worries said I, I put my cape on and headed back to the bar. "I'll get this changed for you traicks, no problem". I went to the bar and told the barman who duly changed it for me. I took it back and gave it to tricks who said "thats better!" Then left it on the table to cool down before she drunk it.
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I'm going to end it now, seems to be going on for a while and I could still cover loads more. I'd like to say to everyone who stayed at Holly House, You were great company and we enjoyed being with you. To everyone we met at the casino, you were all fabulous and we can't wait for Stoke.
See you all there.
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