Anna @ ECatsBridge

Did anyone notice ...

2012-01-25T15:38:00.000Z

... what happened to January ... normally it seems quite a slow month but this one has whizzed past without me noticing !

It's been a bit of a sad one really - my last ever BGB Simultaneous after more years than I care to remember. As you will probably know by know, the EBU has decided to take it over, calling it the British Simultaneous Pairs, I think, and running it themselves. And of course they are doing the EBU Simultaneous pairs as well - we will do the Bridge England one on 7th February, and it seems the Stratified ones in March and then that's it. Mind you, when we first started doing Sims, the EBU thought it would never catch on and didn't start using us for quite a while!
BUT - ECatsBridge will still be running plenty of events so you won't lose usthat easily ! We have all the Charity Pairs and will still run the World Wide and the European so watch this space for news of all those won't you ?

The Charity Challenge is the next one which will be on Thursday 8th March. It is in aid of the Prostate Cancer Charity this year which I am sure you will agree is a very very worthwhile cause ... did you know that it is the most common cancer in men ? I didn't.

Because the terms of the EBU licence for English clubs state that, in order to receive overall master points, only affiliated EBU clubs may participate, we are running two separate sessions for this event.

One will be for the EBU affiliated clubs, plus all the Scottish and Welsh clubs and any overseas clubs wishing to join us.
The other will be for the non-affiliated clubs, but we will also display an overall ranking list so people can see where they came in the whole event. That way the non-affiliated clubs are not left out in the cold !

Because of all this we have offered to reduce the entry fee from the normal £3.50 per player to £3.20 per player, as the EBU members will all still have to pay the P2P charge, and we don't see why the non affiliated clubs should have to pay extra to cover licence fees etc. We are DELIGHTED to have had a lot of clubs email us though, and say that they will still collect the £3.50 per player so that the Charity is not disadvantaged. Isn't that lovely of them ? And we are hoping that some clubs will run raffles etc to help raise additional funds. Please, if you can, go along and play in the event - I will put up a list of participating clubs around mid-February so you can try and find a club near you.
I am constantly being asked about the 2012 World Mind Sport Games - where and when will they be held ? I am sorry but I don't have an answer yet, but I will announce any decision as soon as I hear about it, and send out press releases, newsletters etc as well as putting it onto the website. Incidentally if you want to register for our newsletters, please click here and just follow the on-screen instructions.
Mark and I are both looking for additional work to fill thegap left by the loss of the BGB and EBU Sims and hope to be working with some different websites soon. And we will be adding to the information on the ECatsBridge site in our spare moments, so do watch for that, as hopefully you will find things there to interest you.

We are really hoping to move this year - we have been here 17 years (yes really !) and both want a change. So please keep your fingers crossed that we can sell the Station ... because of the nature of our work, being 99% internet based, we can work wherever we are on the planet as long as we have a good Broadband connection and with the modern developments in satellite broadband even if the landlines don't support it, we can make it happen wherever we go !

So ... the world (well the UK) is our oyster and we may yet head to the far North ! Watch this space for news ...

So this is Christmas ...

2011-12-19T15:28:00.000Z

... or very nearly - presents are all bought and some of them wrapped up. Tree is up and looking very festive. And I am very excited as all the family are coming here for Christmas - My daughters, Vickie and Catherine, my granddaughter, Jasmine (she's Vickie's daughter), Catherine's husband Mark and their baby son, Sammy who I haven't seen since September when he was 2 days old; Mark's sons (that's "my" Mark - Mark Newton) are both coming, Tim and Oliver and then throw into the mix my 10 year old cat Phercad, the new Cloud kittens and it's going to be gloriously chaotic. And wonderful. And I can't wait!

On the work front, all the "have to" jobs have been done so anything I do this week is a bonus for next year. Everything is in place for the BGB Simultaneous Pairs in January - the last BGG event I will be doing, and I am ready for the WBF/ECats Charity pairs at the end of January.

Admittedly there is quite a long list of "New Year" jobs, but I will come back refreshed after the break and really look forward to tackling them with zest !! I hope !!

So really what remains is to wish any of you reading this a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and (dare I wish it) Prosperous New Year.

love to you all
anna

CiN, Kittens & bridge

2011-11-29T11:57:00.001Z

So - we have been back from the Championships for AGES and I haven't caught up with my blog at all. Sorry about that, but what with coming home with two small kittens (Nimbus and Cirrus - two Chocolate Burmese boys), with the Children in Need Sims on top of us, it was all just a bit much !

So - Children in Need - well, what a dream We - well - all you wonderful bridge players - have now raised over half a million for Children in Need over the past 10 years. How cool is that ! And it looks as though this year is going to be at least as good as last year ! We are still getting cheques in, and a lot of clubs haven't actually emailed to tell me how much they raised, so there are lots of nice suprises in the post. I am still staggered by some of the clubs - the Ace of Clubs for raising over £1,800, Adur Valley with over £1,600 and Summertown with over £1,100. But somehow singling those out seems a bit off, given how magnificently some of the other clubs rose to the challenge of fund raising - I just can thank you all enough.

We were fortunate enough to be sent tickets for the BBC show, which was enormous fun. They didn't present any of the cheques this year, which was a bit sad, but I am told that the ticker tape thanked the bridge players at one point. The show was great - we were a bit worried as there weren't any seats left, but in the end we stood very close to the stage and the four hours just flew past ... though I do admit that my feet were getting a little tired about 20 minutes from the end! Then we drove home in thick fog which wasn't so good - Mark insisted on doing all the driving which was magnificent of him, especially as we had to go via Felixstowe, adding an hour to the journey, to drop my daughter, Vickie back home, as she had to teach exam classes (ballet, tap and modern) at 10 on Saturday morning. She said her feet have only just recovered, but it was worth it as all her students passed their exam the following Monday :-).

Just waiting for a couple of queries on the scores to be answered then I will finalise it, do the master points and ... start looking forward to next year !

In quick succession that was followed by the European Sims, which is now over (master points to be sorted there too !) and now I am starting to gird my loins for the BGB Winter Pairs - the last BGB we will ever do !

The kittens settled in very quickly and are fun, naughty, affectionate and playful. the purrs start the moment they are picked up and they are deliberately naughty running into rooms they are not allowed in - the hall is one - and then lying down waiting to be picked up and cuddled. They have learnt that they are not allowed on the kitchen work surfaces which at least means they jump down in a hurry when we walk into the room :-). Our Maine Coon, Phercad, looks ENORMOUS beside them and they are still a bit wary, in an inquisitive way, when he is around. But his tail is a source of endless fascination. When he feels they are getting a bit uppity he hisses and they back off, but he is being very good with them, and just retreating with dignity when it all gets too much. Nimbus is the adventurous one, doesn't look before he leaps, which results in some embarrassing tumbles. Cirrus is far more serious, carefully judging the distance before jumping on something, and giving careful consideration to the world around him. They have their last injections on Thursday and then can be introduced to the big wide world outside the windows.Luckily we have a very safe back garden where they can explore to their hearts content ! And then we can get the litter tray out of the sitting room ... hurrah !!

so that's about it for now - hope you like the piccies of the kitties :-)
anna

Nearly there ... wherever "there" is !!

2011-10-28T11:22:00.000+01:00

These have been brilliant championships ! Lots of work, but you expect that, but also lots of socialising which has been really good fun ... we had the Staff Dinner last night where we were all presented with plaques to remember the event by; the night before was the sponsor's dinner, but sadly I couldn't go to that because I had to be here for the Anti Doping tests, but I understand it was - fabulous!!

Tonight we are off out with friends from the Bulletin and Press Room for dinner at a local curry house - something of a tradition at these events.

We escaped for a brief while this morning - Marina (PA to the WBF President), Carol (Secretary to the WBF Executive Council), Sevinc (Member of the Executive Council) and I - to go to a shop in Veldhoven - a really amazing Garden Centre but the real reason for going there was their Christmas department which was just gorgeous. We all spent too much money on new decorations ready to be squirreled away for a month when we get home, before putting on our trees !

As for the bridge - well, it got pretty exciting yesterday with the semi finals, to the point where even I was watching the results coming through and I confess that is a rarity ! One of the matches was won by 0.3 IMP ... talk about close ! And a lot of the other matches were close as well. Now we just hope that the finals will be as good - it is quite sad when you have good semi finals and then the final turns out to be a big disappointment.

The duplication of the boards is done and dusted - can you believe, the team duplicated 50,052 boards over the two weeks!

The trophies are all here and polished, and looking splendid and ready for presentation on Saturday. Speeches are being written (oh I DO hope they keep them short !) and, of course, all the last minute things are being remembered that haven't been done during the week !

I am going home with a number of joyous tasks, like re-sectioning all the Conditions of Contest, setting up World Simultaneous Pairs to raise money for Junior Bridge (well that will be quite fun actually!), setting up contact lists for Junior Administrators, Tournament Directors and things like that. All interesting but time consuming.

And of course very soon after we get home we have the Children in Need Sims - fingers crossed lots of people come and play in that. I will get the club lists up as soon as I can once I get back !

Tiring ...

2011-10-24T18:09:00.000+01:00

It has reached the stage where everyone is getting tired ... the quarter finals are coming to an end and even I am watching the results on the screens ...but that is more becuase I am too tired to do much else !! For some reason we didn't sleep last night - not sure why but it was one of those nights when you watch the clock as it ticks the hours away ... and 04.00 wasn't a time I wanted to see!

Tonight I have a meeting with the Anti Doping Commission at 7.20 then we are going out for dinner with Marina and Carol, which is going to be good fun. Nice to get out and escape. The weather has been amazing - cold and sunny with over night frosts, but we have been able to wander down to the lake where there are enormous carp who come to be fed and a heron that watches all the time ... the autumn colours are just lovely so it has been a good way to relax after our brief lunch - a nice walk round the building to get some fresh air!

The venue has been buzzing today with the transnational teams flooding in - we are hoping for a record entry. That starts at 8.30 tonight after the end of the quarter finals. I bet the Tournament Directors aren't looking forward to getting it going but I am sure they will do a great job.

Now I need to go to the meeting so ...more another day. And I will try and take some pictures !!

One week in ...

2011-10-19T16:59:00.000+01:00

I can't believe we have been here a week already - time has seriously flown by ! Yesterday was a day of meetings for me - WBF Women's Committee first, followed by Systems Committee followed by a Technical Committee Meeting. All interesting and worthwhile ...

Then last night Mark and I were invited by the President to the Executive Dinner; sadly Mark wasn't well but I went along and it was a brilliant evening. I sat with Carol and Joan Gerard and Patrick Choy, and we had a DEEEEEEEEEElicious Italian dinner. Cippi Rona, the President's wife had selected the menu and wow was it good. Some lovely red wine made an evening to remember.

Today has been a day of bits and bobs, sorting out the Minutes from the Meetings of yesterday, writing a report for the Bulletin about one of them, sending out the duplimate files for the Children in Need Sims (well, starting to anyway ...). I had a long meeting with PO Sundelin about the WBF Convention Card and the layout of supplementary sheets, the Guide to Completion and things like that. And now Mark and Federica are editing the picture of the five Presidents so that it can be printed and framed for each of them to have a copy as Gianarrigo (the current WBF President) wants to give them as a present at tonight's Gala Dinner (which we are going to later). So now I must go and change ... more anon !

anna

Finding our way about

2011-10-17T18:18:00.000+01:00

The Presidents at the Opening - from the left: Bobby Wolff, José Damiani, the Magician /Compere, Jaime Ortiz-Patino, Gianarrigo Rona (the current WBF President) and Ernesto d'Orsi

We went to the Opening Ceremony (of course) which was enormous fun. ... the Compere, or Master of Ceremonies, was a magician and was most entertaining as well as doing a great job of introducing the "speech makers" and the teams and then we had an amazing performance from magicians and illusionists MagicUnlimited ... they were excellent. At the end the Master of Ceremonies noted that no less than FIVE WBF Presidents were present and asked them to come to the stage for the raising of the WBF Flag and the playing of the WBF Anthem. You can see them all above ... a great occasion indeed.

Mark, Bud Schoder, John & Adele Wignall

After the ceremony the Dutch put on a truly splendid buffet, really yummy, with the wine very free flowing ! We had a lovely evening talking to friends ... I took some pictures on my phone, but the light wasn't brilliant so they aren't very good, but hey - they show the spirit of the evening and that's the main thing! They are the ones "decorating" this blog! Just to introduce a few of the people shown : Mark is "my Mark", Mark Newton of ECatsBridge. Bill Schoder, WBF Chief Tournament Director Emeritus and a member of the Laws Committee who is here with his wife. John Wignall is 1st Vice President of the WBF and is here with Adele, his wife. Al Levy is Executive Vice President of the WBF and his wife is Beverley. Richard Grenside is one of the Chief Tournament Directors here and is with his wife, Susie.

It always takes a day or three to find ones way about in this sort of event, and this one is no exception - the convention centre is HUGE and we seem to walk miles to get anywhere, but it is all good exercise and means that you meet up with different people all the time which is great fun. Play is well under way and everything seems to be going smoothly.

Adele Wignall, Beverley and Al Levy

Now it is all under way, with play starting yesterday morning. The Executive Council Meetings are keeping all the members very occupied of course, though tomorow is a day when the smaller committees are meeting - I start the day with the Women's Committee Meeting, followed by the Systems Committee then the Technical Committee, just in case I don't have enough to do. Mark gets the fun of the Technical Committee then a Master Points Committee Meeting and later in the week I will have an Anti-Doping Committee Meeting! Then all the Chairmen will report back to the Executive for decisions to be ratified and so forth. Actually a very efficient way of dealing with it all and getting the work done!

Anyway - hope you like the pictures ! And more before too long ... xxx

Richard & Susie Grenside, Carol von Linstow, Mark and Adele Wignall

Bud Schoder, US Captain, Bill Schoder (WBF Chief TD Emeritus)

Winding up ...

2011-10-15T16:48:00.001+01:00

After a really good journey via the Channel Tunnel (such a great way to travel!) and an excellent motorway all the way from Calais to Veldhoven, we arrived at the Hotel and checked in. Our room is not the biggest we have ever seen, but is more than adequate, although I confess that some drawers would have been nice ! However, our main suitcase is doubling as drawer space, with reasonable effect and I must say that the bed is very comfy :-)

The office we are in could reasonably be described as enormous, with one wall being a massive window overlooking a grassed square with trees which is lovely. The sun is shining (long may it last!) and so I think all in all the working conditions are excellent. We have a water fountain, of course, and Lavazza coffee (thank you Madame Lavazza), so that is also good.There are plenty of offices available to us - something that doesn't always happen. Oh, and there is free wi-fi throughout the building, at very high speed, which is also a big bonus!

The playing rooms are brilliant as well - actually that is obviously the most important area, so it is good that they are brilliant! But I am sure all the players will enjoy them.

The teams have been arriving and checking in all day, and all seem to have arrived safely which is always a relief. Lots of meeting and greeting of course, and I can't set foot outside the office without meeting some more old friends. It's always great to see everyone of course, so many people I see only once a year at these events. Our World Bridge Family !! It's lovely that so many of you have seen my pictures of my new Grandson

The Captains' Meeting has just finished, after showing off the new camera technology that is to be used at some of the tables, which looks pretty impressive and will, I am sure, be welcomed by the players and spectators alike. I am trying to find a few minutes to put up the full list of people who are blogging from here - maybe I should be doing that before writing this, but I will get to it as soon as I can, I promise !

We are all off to the Opening Ceremony at 6.30 and then play will get underway tomorrow. I will try and get some pictures to decorate the blog with, but don't hold your breath ... first I have to find where I packed my little camera !! and the battery charger and the leads. I am sure they are here somewhere, but just not quite sure where.

So now I must go and change ... more tomorrow (if I can ..)
anna

New Grandson / World Championships / New Kittens

2011-10-10T13:06:00.002+01:00

Well, the excitement of the month has been the birth of my new Grandson ... Samuel Rhys ... who was born (a bit later than expected) on 23 September. And can I resist putting up a picture - don't be daft, of course I can't ! ... He is gorgeous. A solid little lad, weighing in at 8lb 15 oz which gave his mother a few eye-watering moments, but they are both doing fine. We went down to Bristol to see him (of course) and had lots of lovely cuddles.

And now I am preparing to head off to the Netherlands for the World Championships. I will try and do a regular blog from the Championships, and will also put up a list of other blogs / links to where to get other information etc on the website - just click here to go to it. The excitement is all building up of course, and I am sure it is going to be a wonderful Championship so do keep an eye on how things go during the event. I would like to take the opportunity of wishing all the teams a safe journey to Eindhoven, and really hope they will have a great Championship, win or lose. Playing in an event of this stature is really exciting. I will put links to any blogs from the Championships on the website - just let me know if you are blogging (or tweeting come to that ...) and I will do what I can!

The BGB Sims runs this week, Wednesday and Thursday and the results will be in the usual place of course - click here to find them. Good luck if you are playing one evening - I hope you have fun and do well !

Because of the World Championships, we had to send the material out for the Children in Need event a bit early - it is all on its way ... so if your club hasn't entered and would like to, drop me an email and we can get a pack off to you when I get back - there will be plenty of time!

On the way back from the Netherlands we will be stopping off to pick up two new additions to the family - two Chocolate Burmese Kittens. You may remember that I told you that Mark's lovely Burmese cat, Emale, died back in the summer, leaving us with just one cat, my completely mad Maine Coon called Phercad - honestly if he had a brain he would be dangerous! He is very lonely, all on his own, and to be honest it seems really strange with just one cat. We had only intended getting one kitten but ... but ... Pictures will follow in due course. And here is a picture of Phercad taken last Christmas to be going on with ! Don't worry, he was only posing for the camera with the ribbon round his neck - it's not a normal adornment !

So - watch this space for blogs from the Netherlands ...

Busy times indeed ...

2011-09-15T12:44:00.000+01:00

Well, a short while ago we really thought we had sold the house, so we hared off to spend a bit of time looking for a new one, and found some lovely ones that we would be happy to live in. But it wasn't to be. The buyer couldn't raise the money, which was such a shame ... all that excitement blown away. Now back to the drawing board - or at least the estate agents to try and find a new buyer. Ho Hum ... doesn't anyone want our lovely Railway Station ?

And all at a time when the bridge world is exploding with activity ! The WBU Sims last week, the EBU Sims this week, the BGB Sims coming up in October, and of course our own ECatsBridge Simultaneous Pairs for Children in Need is on the horizon, with all the booklets arriving soon and needing posting !

I will be sending confirmations to the clubs today, but if haven't yet entered... now's the time! Just email me and let me know which club you are, which day you want to play and how many tables you expect and I will sort it out for you ... oh and don't forget to include a mailing address for the booklets !! Please join us and help us raise lots of lovely money for Children in Need ... we have raised a total of £464,176 since we started the event in 2002 ... can we top the half-million this year ? Wouldn't that be wonderful !

In addition to all that of course, there are the World Championships in the offing ... they are in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and I have been working on the Systems for the event (you can find all of them by clicking here) as well as collecting the photographs of all the players for the badges, dealing with the regulations and all sorts of stuff. It seems never ending. I will be glad to get to the Netherlands for a break !

Not much other news really - there hasn't been time for me to do much else really. I hope all is well with you as the new bridge season gets under way and let's hope for a nice sunny autumn.

anna xx

Exciting day ...

2011-08-25T11:46:00.000+01:00

I am a very proud grandmother - I really had to share it. My granddaughter Jasmine just got her GCSE results - she took 10 subjects and got straight A* across the board, plus a distinction ! I am just so pleased for her - a really wonderful result. She is very very excited :-)

And now, after the ringing round of the family and friends it is time to get back to my desk ! The material has all been sent for the Welsh Sims and the English Sims in September - the maps are on the website with the venues so if you are looking for somewhere to play, just click here and you will find them under the More information links for the events.

I will be getting ahead of the game soon as well, sending out the material for the BGB Autumn Pairs and the Children in Need events early because of being in the Netherlands at the World Championships ... I hate fire-fighting so do try and stay ahead !

Of course, it is all hotting up for the Championships in Veldhoven ... the systems are all on the website (click here), we are collecting photographs from all the players ready for the badges etc.

On the more domestic front I am trying to clear things in the office so when we sell the house we can move easily, but that really isn't so easy. So much paperwork it's quite frightening ! And then you see fun toys like a scanning mouse and just have to buy it and add to the piles of "stuff". We have been here nearly 17 years, and there is just so so much ... ho hum. A selling spree on E-Bay may be the answer.

And now I really am going back to my desk. But I just had to tell the world about Jasmine. I am so so proud of her ...

anna

Anyone want a cough ?

2011-08-10T12:05:00.000+01:00

I can't help feeling that a mid-summer cough is quite uncalled for ! Poor Mark had to put his headphones on and play lound music yesterday to drown the sound of my coughing !! I don't feel too bad, just hacking away like a good 'un. Ho hum.

It didn't stop us getting all the material sent out for the Welsh Bridge Union Simultaneous in early September though, and the results for the BGB Summer Pairs have also been sent (the files has=ve gone to the EBU for registering the master points as well ...) So that's two jobs out of the way. The EBU Autumn Pairs material will be sent next Tuesday.

We can still take entries for the WBU Sims and the EBU Sims so if your club would like to take part, do get in touch.

All the systems are now in for the World Championships, although there are still a few actually to be added to the site ... I iwll try and do that later today or tomorrow. Anyway if you are interested, you can find them all by clicking here.

Did you see the article about Bridge Players in the Business Insider website ? Click here to go to it ... see, we all have great business brains obviously !! I thought it was interesting though ...

Now, I wonder if anyone out there can help me ... I am looking for a copy of the World Championship Programme from Beijing in 1995 ... not to keep, but to borrow and scan. If you have one lurking in your archives and could send it to me, with your address contained in the package of course, I would love to get it scanned and would then return it to you immediately ... anyone ? Please ?

Right - time to put my work-hat on again and get on with things ! I will be in touch again soon ...

Look after yourselves, and enjoy the summer
anna x

Displacement Activity ...

2011-07-28T14:40:00.000+01:00

I have spent all morning checking in systems for the World Championships ... making sure I mark the pairs that have sent them (so I can nag the ones that haven't!), converting them from various formats to PDF etc and putting them into directories ready to go to the website for downloading in due course. Not the most exciting job in the world... so I thought I would take five minutes out to write my blog and tell you a few bits about what is going on !

First of all, there has been a Press Release from IMSA concerning the SportAccord World Mind Sport Games in Beijing during December - click here to read that and click here to see which teams have been invited by the WBF to participate.

The BGB Summer Pairs was held on Monday and Tuesday this week - results are all on the website as normal. The next one will be the WBU Simultaneous at the beginning of September closely followed by the EBU one. All the material arrives from the printer next week, to fill up my hall before we send it all out to the participating clubs - it isn't too late to enter though ! Just email me if you want to take part and tell me which club, the address to send the material to, which day and how many tables you anticipate having and I will do the rest.

One of our main servers had a hiccup last week and we have presented it with a shiny new 2TB drive and have now got all our data back onto it from the backups. It's a great opportunity to have a good tidy up and get rid of duplicate files - quite staggering how many we have managed to accumulate !! And how long it takes to get rid of them as well. But it's a very satisfying task it has to be said and does mean that it is easier to find archive files etc.

There has been some information added about the World Championships, including the draws, and of course the systems will be going up quite soon ... just check back on the website and you will soon see if there are updates - www.ecatsbridge.com and, of course, at www.worldbridge.org

On a personal note ... did I tell you I am going to be a grandmother again ? I have a 16 year old granddaughter (awaiting her GCSE results poor girl), and the new baby is due to my other daughter around mid-September. All very exciting!

And now I am off back to those wonderful systems !

Keep safe ... xx

Weather forecast horrid !

2011-07-14T13:03:00.000+01:00

Such a shame ... Mark was planning to take his sons to "Dragstalgia" at Santa Pod which they would all have loved, and it looks like it's going to pour with rain all day on Saturday and most of Sunday... and rain and drag racing don't mix. Maybe another time ...

Kidney Research Sims today - I do hope lots of you are playing to raise money for this extremely worthwhile Charity. The BGB Summer Pairs is at the end of the month of course - I have put the lists of clubs up, so you easily see where you can go to play in it. That one is Green Pointed, so a chance to win some of those precious points! Non-affiliated English clubs may play in this event, but there is a surcharge of 50p per player.

Then we have a "breather" through August before the Welsh Simultaneous (also green pointed) at the beginning of September, and the EBU's Autumn Pairs a week later. Clubs are, of course, welcome to play in either or both of these. English clubs must be affiliated to the EBU to participate.

I am starting on the fairly long haul of getting all the systems in for the World Championships in October - they need to be registered by 31st July, so if you are in one of the teams for the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup or d'Orsi Seniors Bowl, please send your system to me as soon as possible. Players in the Transnational Teams only need to register Red Sticker systems, but are encouraged to register their convention card whatever system they are playing - but the deadline is much later. Details of the Championships can be found on my website, and I have now published the draws, regulations etc. so do go and have a look if you have not already done so - just click here.You may also be interested to know that the World Computer Championships will be held during the event - more details of that are here.

For Junior players, the World Youth Bridge Congress is being staged in Opatija, Croatia .. this is a great event for youngsters, giving them the chance for some exciting and challenging bridge as well as to make new friends within the bridge "family" and meet other like-minded young people - so if you are reading this blog, and know of some young bridge players, do pass the word along ! It was great to note that the team winning the USA Trials for the chance to be Team USA 2 in the Bermuda Bowl were all players who until very recently participated in World Youth events.

Now I must get back to work ... I see some emails have pinged in with details of some more teams for the Netherlands and I need to go and deal with them :-)

Still haven't sold the house - don't forget, if you know someone who would like a lovely Old Railway Station ...

anna xx

So long ....

2011-07-01T18:22:00.000+01:00

I have been reminded (thank you Robbie & Mike!) that I haven't posted anything to my blog for ages ... and he is right of course. I haven't.

The main reason has been big changes for us here at ECatsBridge with the EBU plans to take the EBU and BGB Simultaneous Pairs in-house after April next year ... they are going to be doing the organisation and are writing their own scoring program so a large part of our work will disappear. We will still be organising our own Children in Need and Charity Challenge events, of course, as well as the Welsh Bridge Union Sims and the ones like the Kidney Research etc - but we are going to miss it, not just financially, though obviously it makes a big difference, but also all the contact with the clubs which I really enjoy! I am sure, however, that with the events we will still be organising, that we will still have lots of contact and I look forward to that.

This has all resulted in a major decision to down-size, so our Railway Station is on the market ... if you know of anyone who would like lovely converted Old Railway Station in Suffolk do get in touch !

On the bridge front, things progress much as they have always done - we are heading for the Kidney Research Simultaneous Pairs (still just time to enter ...) and of course, the BGB Summer Pairs at the end of July.

My workload for the World Championships is building up nicely as the various systems start to arrive in my in-box, and (being one who likes to get ahead and hates fire-fighting) I have been getting stuff ready for the WBU Autumn Pairs at the beginning of September, plus the other Autumn Simultaneous and our own Children in Need event. In fact my eyes are on stalks this evening and it is really time to call it a day and head for the shops as I have friends coming for dinner tonight and promised them a curry ! And I need to marinade the chicken ...

For those of you who follow our ECats Cats, you will, I am sure, be very sad to hear that Emale, Mark's lovely Burmese, developed a throat tumour and is now buried on the bank in the garden with Bear and Taggie. So we only have one cat for the time being ... maybe as we are moving it is just as well and we will wait until we are re-settled before thinking about another.

So ... lots happening, lots of changes in the offing. And I WILL try and remember to write my blog more often... apologies to you for not keeping up !
anna

Sunshine

2011-03-07T11:14:00.000Z

At last – some sunshine today ! Makes the world look so much happier J

Lots happening on the Bridge Scene at the moment – the EBU’s first Stratified Sims is about to happen (it starts today). As the material is all sent by email, it isn’t too late for clubs to enter during the rest of the week ! details at:

http://ebunews.blogspot.com/2010/12/stratified-simultaneous-pairs-7-11.html

you can just email me for the files (anna@ecats.co.uk as usual) if you want to take part – tell me which club it is and which day you want to play and I will get the information to you.

Forthcoming International events include the Cuba Bridge Festival from 20^th – 28^th May which combines the CACBF Zonal Championships with an Open Festival which sounds marvellous – have a look at http://www.festivalbridgecuba.com/ which has the details. And if you need help booking flights etc go to www.cubarocks.co.uk – some friends of mine set this up and it really does make me want to go to Cuba !

Then there are the European Open Championships in Poznan, Poland from 17 June – 2 July. The details are in a letter from the EBL President, Yves Aubry, which is published on the front page of the website at www.ecatsbridge.com … you can download it from there and read all about it. Another great event for you to consider.

There is the normal set of Simultaneous Pairs coming up of course – have a look at the calendar for the dates of these : http://www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/info/calendar.asp

And then, come the Autumn we have the World Championships in the Netherlands ! The Transnational Teams is an Open event, so members in good standing of any WBF NBO are very welcome to participate ! Full details are at: http://www.ecatsbridge.com/Events/wbf/2011netherlands/default.asp

Now it’s time to close the door again – the sunshine may be enticing but the wind is still too cold to keep it open for long !

Best regards

anna

What a week!

2011-02-18T11:25:00.001Z

Why are some weeks far more frantic than others – this week has been seriously frenetic, not just on the work front but on the home front as well! But today is Friday and I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend! Well fairly relaxing after I have dealt with the ironing, the general cleaning and getting ready for a dinner party that we are having here on Saturday evening J

I have just sent out the files for the EBU Stratified Simultaneous Pairs – looks like that is going to be an interesting event, the first of its kind, where the participants will be competing in their own “field” as it were – details can be found on the EBU Site and it is not too late to enter ! The material is all sent by email, you see, so entries can be made right up to the last minute (well within reason – you do have to rely on me being at my desk to send the file out …). So – if your club is interested, do email me. It is being played over a week – Monday to Friday 7^th – 11^th March with different hands each night so clubs can play every night if they want to … or at least players can go from one participating club to another participating club and play on two different days! The entry fee is only £2 per player as well and of course the commentaries will be on the website at the end of the evening for downloading and enjoying. I think the only proviso is that your club must be affiliated to the EBU …

The week after that, on Thursday 17^th March, there is the Charity Challenge Simultaneous Pairs – for the second year we are raising money for Epilepsy Action and The Meath, which is where Mark’s much loved sister Janet lived happily in safety until her death a short while ago following an epileptic seizure. We hope to raise a lot of money for these causes, so please please join us if you can.

Then we head for Spring – oh joy. And the April Pairs, but that is a way off yet. Hopefully the daffodils will be out soon – I have some primroses in a sheltered spot in my garden, and a few snowdrops, so there are signs that spring is coming!

Keep well – keep safe. And do join us for some of these events if you can !

all the best

anna

It's an interesting world ...

2011-01-19T14:57:00.000Z

First of all, have a look at this link to a U-Tube video about a “bridge village” in India … it’s a news story and I found it interesting … just click here to go to it.

I have been putting information up on the website about various events – the European Open Teams Championships in Poznan .. always a good event, that one. Then the World Youth Bridge Congress is being held in Opatija, Croatia from 21 – 30 August. A great event for Junior players – under 25 and Youngsters, under 20. So please tell your young bridge playing friends about it ! Also on the website are some details of the qualified teams and qualification events for the World Championships in the Netherlands as well, for those of you who are interested. You can get to all of these by going to the website at www.ecatsbridge.com

It’s a busy time for Simultaneous Pairs as well – the BGB Winter Pairs was held last week, and next week is our ECatsBridge/WBF Charity Pairs for UNICEF … that’s just a fun event, with no master points or prizes. 8^th February sees the first Bridge England Pairs (it’s not too late to enter if you want to ..) then the beginning of March has the new EBU Stratified pairs followed closely by our own Charity Challenge event. Email me if you want to enter any of these wont’ you ?

On the home front – well the weather hasn’t been conducive to doing much (it’s nice today at last) though we did bestir ourselves to go and see the films The King’s Speech and Black Swan, both of which were absolutely amazing – we really enjoyed them. The cats spend most of their time curled up on radiators (there’s a surprise) and the chickens sulk underneath their coop and complain loudly about cold feet … I gave some thought to knitting them little socks but decided that they probably wouldn’t like the colours I chose! The wild birds are munching their way through vast amounts of wild bird food and everyone envies our fish in their nice warm tropical tanks – one freshwater and the other marine!

So – what else can I tell you. Not a lot for now, so until next time, keep safe and warm and enjoy your bridge.

Happy New Year

2011-01-05T12:59:00.000Z

So – here we are in 2011 !

If you are interested, we have a sale in our bookshop – click here to have a look – you might find something you would enjoy !

BGB Sims next week – do you remember last year when we had to postpone it because of snow ? I am anxiously watching the weather forecast but, fingers crossed, it looks OK at the moment so do find a club and go along and enjoy the hands. The lists of participating clubs are on the website as normal.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year – we had a lovely relaxed time with family … lots of cooking and eating far too much of course, but it was fun and sort of cosy once the snow decided to clear enough to allow people to drive!

I don’t normally “do” new year resolutions but I will try and keep the one that says I should do my blog more often, so watch this space, won’t you J

all the best

anna

oh dear ...

2010-12-23T11:51:00.000Z

It has been a pretty hectic run-up to Christmas one way and another, and I know I have neglected my blog shamefully … but at last it is just about here and I am going to close the office for a few days and RELAX !

I hope that you all have a relaxed time over Christmas … and that you have a really good, peaceful, healthy and happy New Year in 2011 !

Bridge players are amazing

2010-11-25T10:35:00.000Z

Yes, we are in a recession, yes “times is hard” but yes, bridge players are generous wonderful people !

You have raised over SIXTY THOUSAND POUNDS for Children in Need. We can’t believe it ! We really didn’t think you would break last year’s magnificent total of over £58,000 and you have!

And we want to say thank you as loudly as we can ….

THANK YOU ALL

Anna & Mark

The ECatsBridge Team

Happy Thanksgiving ... and happy days!

2010-11-24T10:31:00.000Z

First of all - to my American friends … have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Relax, enjoy and I wish you warmth, good friends and no indigestion from too much food J

For me, life is pretty frantic – the Children in Need event is still occupying a lot of my time, but for the £59,000 we have raised for the Charity it is well worth it ! I still have a few sets of results to key in, and will do them as soon as I can … and we are also waiting on the result of an appeal, but that shouldn’t take long I hope.

The European Simultaneous is running, and I am now looking ahead to the BGB Winter Pairs … all the material arrives from the printer this week ready for packing and sending on its way to get it out before Christmas. We are likely to be posting it in two batches, so if you are playing more than one day and get one set quite soon, don’t panic, the other set may be a week or so later.

I am all set up for the ECatsBridge/WBF Charity Pairs at the end of January. As things stand this will be in aid of UNICEF, and we hope as many clubs worldwide will join us as possible. We have hands for every day from Monday 24^th – Saturday 29^th January … different hands each night … these will be sent by email. It is strictly for fun – no prizes, no master points, just some hands to play and see how you did playing against other countries. No entry fee, just please give what you can. If your club wants the hands, please just email me and I will send them out to you.

On a personal note, we are in chaos at the moment, as the decorators are painting the hall (the one where we pulled the ceiling down and the floor up); it’s going to look wonderful when it is finished, and with the lovely high ceiling we now have, we will be able to have an even BIGGER Christmas tree (Mark is very keen on big Christmas trees!!!)

More anon …

Children in Need

2010-11-19T11:54:00.000Z

I can’t tell you how hectic it has been here the last week or two (or three …) in the run up to Children in Need night. All the Simultaneous Pairs are now played, and the clubs are telling us how much they have raised – you can see the list and the running total of pledges at www.ecatsbridge.com . We will be here until early afternoon adding in more pledges as they arrive before we write “the cheque” and head into London and the BBC Studios for the show tonight …we will be in the audience from 10.30 pm so keep an eye out for us with the ECatsBridge cheque won’t you ?

It has been great fun organising it all, and we do hope everyone enjoyed playing in it – I heard that some of the hands were “challenging” !

This is going to be a very brief blog but I will try and get back to blogging regularly soon I promise J

Wish us luck tonight – and if want to make a donation, please go to the website where you can send us money for Children in Need via PayPal or using credit card ….

all the best

anna

winding down ...

2010-10-15T23:13:00.000+01:00

Most of the work is done, and I managed a day off on Wednesday ! It was great ... Mark had been exploring as an advance party and so took me off for the day. We went down to the Liberty Bell (of course!) and it was nice and early so no queues which was excellent. Then we walked down through the parks and the old city to the Delaware and the Irish Memorial which is very moving. I shed a tear in fact ! Truly.

We walked along the river a little way, then back up to the Constitution Centre, where we saw the exhibition of the Art of the America Soldier - again very moving and interesting, followed by a short dramatisation giving a lot of the history of the growth of the Constitution - I learned a lot ! I had some knowledge of the history but it filled in a lot of gaps, believe me.

Mark then took me to lunch at the City Tavern which was yummy ... and very very filling ! After which we went back to the hotel so I could check my email, as the BGB Simultaneous Pairs are running and I obviously need to keep an eye on them. Once that was done - no panics thank goodness - we went off again in the sunshine to walk off our lunch by going through city hall, looking at some of the lovely old buildings and the splendid modern skyscrapers, past the LOVE fountain (not pink any more), past a different pink fountain - they seem to love their pink fountains here - then down to the park and feeding the squirrels, then back via Pine where all the lovely old houses are. Altogether a really enjoyable day.

Thursday saw me firmly back at my desk, starting to prepare the diplomas for the teams winning the Plate competitions, and generally getting lots of last minute bits and pieces done before the frantic last couple of days when everyone remembers all the things they haven't discussed or decided ! It was also Christine's birthday so we went out for a lunch together to French Bistro called Caribou and had a very enjoyable time.

Today has mainly been spent hunting out people who need to make last minute decisions, getting stuff couriered off and generally sorting through papers to make sure we take the right stuff back with us.

Maybe I will have time to "blog" tomorrow ... but maybe not. If not - I will see you when I get back to England, home and beauty! I have loved Philadelphia, but going home is always good ... back to our cats, chicken and tropical fish! And to my two daughters who are staying at the Station in my absence ...

Guess What ? It's the Liberty Bell !

Another of the amazing murals we find on the houses ... isn't it beautiful!

Walking through City Hall

Buildings in Downtown Philadelphia

Yes. It's Us. and Yes. It's the Love Fountain !

Reflections ....

Wheeeeeee - a pink fountain!

I know they are vermin but they are quite cute really!

And here are a few pictures ... hope you like them !

It's a Pink Poodle Day !!

2010-10-11T00:16:00.000+01:00

It started as a reasonably calm day which made a nice change ! Mind you I didn't sleep brilliantly but that's another story, so calm was definitely good !

Last night we went to a dinner hosted by Gianarrigo Rona, the President Elect, who will take over from José Damiani at the end of the Championships. It was a very enjoyable evening, and we had a super table, with lovely Paul Porteous and his wife Maureen, who are here to see how it all works in the hope of bidding to hold the event in four years time (fingers crossed !). Marina (Gianarrigo's PA) was with us, as was Carol, plus Mark Horton (Bulletin Editor), Brent Manley (Chief Bulletin Editor) and Ron Tacchi, all of whom are great value at a dinner - noisy and fun !!

Anna, Marina & Carol

from left Seated: Cippi Rona, José Damiani & Monique Damiani
Standing : Jimmy Ortiz Patino and Gianarrigo Rona

Gianarrigo Rona, President Elect, and his wife Cippi

Anyway, here are some pictures that you may find amusing - the one of the three of us here is me on the left, Marina in the middle and Carol on the right. Another set of Graces !! or witches depending on your point of view.

So .. back to this morning, it got a bit fraught as lunchtime approached, probably because people were getting hungry and a bit ratty ! Anyway, finally I got the bits and bobs done and Mark got me out of the door and out of the hotel to my great relief. He had discovered that there was a street party/fair happing nearby and we had great fund wandering down to it, and going through looking at all the stalls, and the people on their soap boxes sounding off about various things ! The mural was the side of a building that I saw, and it was just amazing !

The amazing mural

As we continued we came across a couple of people with their dogs ... and as you can see, they had poodles, and dye their hair ! Hence it is a Pink Poodle Day !

Pink Poodles'R'Us !

Ton & Annellie

Wandering further on we came across Ton Kooijman, who was the WBF Operations Director for many years, together with his lovely wife Annelie, enjoying cheese and wine in the sunshine. We thought of joining them, but weren't really ready to eat at that point, so wandered yet further before stopping at a French style bistro for a light lunch - yummy crepes with a salad and a glass of white wine, sitting in a pavement cafe in the sunshine. Most enjoyable !

Sadly it was then back to work. Mark spent the morning going off to a museum he particularly wants to visit ... an archaeological one, but after a long walk arrived to find it closes on Sundays ! hence his return to take me out for lunch (for which I was extremely grateful I may say). So this afternoon he decided he hadn't been educated enough so he went off to the Franklin Institute where they have a Cleopatra Exhibition which he enjoyed. I had a reasonably peaceful afternoon, preparing the papers for the Press Conference tomorrow, where we have Phil Gordon (who won over $2 million playing online poker ! ) and the Astronaut Col. Gregory Johnson coming to talk about poker, space shuttles and bridge ! Apparently Greg Johnson took an ace of spades on the last shuttle with him !! If you want to read the Press Release about it all, it is linked from the front page on www.ecatsbridge.com

Soreeeeee ....

2010-10-09T23:37:00.000+01:00

Two blogless days ! I haven't had time to think, never mind to write my blog. It's been incredibly hectic and I have had to try and learn new skills to cope with it !

It all started when the Press Officer for the tournament, the one with all the local contacts etc, was taken into Intensive Care with a suspected heart attack. We realised he had started to arrange a Press Conference/Breakfast for Monday morning with Phil Gordon, the poker player and Colonel Gregory Johnson, the astronaut, both of whom are playing bridge here, to come and talk about what it's like to play poker and travel in a space ship ! So guess who got the job of getting the Press Releases out and trying to contact all the local media ... yeah, that's right. I did. I spent most of the day on the phone and internet trying to find the right people to contact and emailing out information, so I am just hoping against hope that at least some of them turn up. It should be quite interesting I think ... I went to talk to Phil Gordon this afternoon, and he was really nice .. and very tall ! I got a positive crick in my neck talking to him :-)

The Meetings continue - the hand-over of the Presidency seems to be making a lot of extra work somehow, and poor Carol has done little other than deal with minutes and reports !

Last night was José's final President's Dinner, a great event held at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts ... and we were allowed to wander through some of the galleries which was most enjoyable. The dinner was great fun, and José was presented with a magnificent painting in recognition of his 16 years of Presidency. And he gave lovely Joan Gerard the most beautiful glass sculpture by Baum ... quite lovely !

The Three Graces !

I promised you a picture of my colleagues - it has become a tradition that, at each President's Dinner we have a photo of the "Three Witches" - or, as we prefer to be referred to as - the "Three Graces" so here we are. I am on the left, Christine in the centre and Carol on the right - not sure what Christine had seen so high on the wall though!

José being presented with is picture -
he is on the left, Joan is in the middle
and Ernesto d'Orsi on the right

Joan Gerard and her husband, Ron

Our dinner table ! A good crowd ...

Henry & Dorthy Francis

Ron Tacchi

And I will finish this blog with some pictures from the party. Ron Tacchi is a dear friend who lives in France, and he is the official WBF Photographer so took most of the photos that I am putting on this blog, but obviously not the one of himself ! Henry used to be Chief Bulletin Editor for the WBF until he retired ... and it is just so great to have him here as we haven't seen him for ages ! He was reminding us of when they came to stay and we had a wonderful time taking them out and about ...

More soon (tomorrow if you are lucky!)

So much to do - so little time !

2010-10-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

I am afraid that yesterday just vanished and I didn't even have time to do my blog! Doing what ? You may well ask :-) I overslept a little bit - didn't get up until 7.30 tsk tsk. Crept downstairs feeling ashamed, bypassing breakfast (no great sacrifice, I really wasn't hungry) and arrived to a pile of bits and pieces. Funny really, but what with typing up letters and emails, checking I had all the right reports and things like that, next thing I knew it was 10.30 and time for a meeting with lovely Anna Maria Torlontano to arrange things for the Women's Committee Meeting on Thursday.

That done, it was time to make another series of calls about the Anti-doping tests to get those arranged, and then I set to and made a complete mess of editing our Appeals Form ... well, perhaps not a complete mess, but I did get it wrong, and it has to be re-thought rather carefully. A job for later today or tomorrow morning I think.

Mark came down later to be greeted with lots of hugs and kisses as it was his birthday. Unfortunately I just didn't have time to go out with him, but he went off on his own in the afternoon and had a lovely time shopping, which included buying new jeans at Charlies ! Can't wait to see them, but they are being altered and he has to pick them up tomorrow. He also discovered a street party was going to be held in the late afternoon, so after doing a bit of work, wandered down to that and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mark and Me having fun!

Singing !

The bright coloured stalls

But I really wanted to tell you about the party hosted by the ACBL and the USBF in honour of José Damiani ... it was really unusual and SUCH fun ! We were intrigued to find it was to be at Reading Market, where there are loads of the food stalls and eating places that we go to at lunchtime, and were wondering what it would be like. Well it was brilliant ! A number of the "eateries" were open and serving different types of food. One of the open areas in the middle was set up with tables and brightly coloured check cloths, so you could sit down and eat or wander around. There was wine and beer, and music and the atmosphere was just great - relaxed and really good fun ! I think you will get the gist of it from these pictures -

And that probably explains why I overslept a bit yesterday ....

So ... to today. Still battling with the Appeals form (deep joy). A couple of meetings. A report to the Executive on the World Wide Bridge Contest which would have been easier had I remembered that I needed to make it ... being given 10 minutes warning caused a bit of panic, but at least it meant I had a good reason for brevity which I think was probably appreciated ! Anyway they seemed to appreciate the work we had done which is the main thing !

and now - I guess it is back to the Appeals form ! Oh goody. More tomorrow ....

Yukky rain ...

2010-10-04T23:50:00.000+01:00

So - I left you last night to go out with Carol, but it turned out to be Carol, Marina and John & Adele Wignall, so the six of us headed across the road to The Melting Pot ... a fondue restaurant. They just managed to fit us in and we had a really great evening. The food was good, the wine was fine but the company was best ! One of the great joys of these Championships is meeting up with friends that we only see once a year and being with them and having fun and last night really epitomised it.

Not too early up this morning but woke to a grey dull day which got steadily greyer and duller with rain sweeping across, so Mark decided that trying to solve XML problems and things like that was better than going for a walk and taking photographs. I spent the day trying to arrange anti-doping tests - it only took me 15 phone calls !! And it still isn't fully sorted, but it looks as though we are getting there anyway.

The Mixed pairs finishes tonight - you can go to the links on my website for results etc, as I will be closed down before I know who won - the medal ceremony is at 8 and then we are going to a reception given by the ACBL and USBF to honour Jose Damiani (the WBF President) who will be stepping down at the end of this Championship after 16 years in office. I can't tell you how much I am going to miss him! Mind you he will still be around as Past President but even so it will be really strange ..

It is all quite silent here at the moment, as play is going on. Although our office is tucked round the corner, we are still aware of the rise in noise levels as the players arrive for the start of play and even more so when play finishes !

So what else. Not much of interest really. Our printer decided not to print anymore which was irritating but Harvey (the IT manager) dismantled and then re-mantled it and it stopped sulking and got on with the job. I fixed a template for appeals. I printed lots of papers for the Women's Committee Meeting on Thursday. alll rather uninteresting really. But interspersed by friends coming to the office to be social (or bring more work!) and the day flew by.

As I am sure tomorrow also will !

Another day another dollar ..

2010-10-04T00:00:00.000+01:00

Last night we went out with Marina from Italy, and found that she had never been to a Hard Rock Café ! Fortunately there is one opposite the hotel so we were able to rectify this dreadful omission and had a really enjoyable evening with her. I haven't forgotten my promise of photographs of my colleagues, but there just hasn't been time today to do anything about it ...

The day started all too early when we found ourselves wide awake at 05.30 ... NOT what I had in mind I can assure you. Got bored quite quickly so decided to get up and head for the shower followed by Starbucks for breakfast! Went to the office to try and fix the XML files that we send to the EBU (with a marked lack of success I might say, thanks to Microsoft having done something very very strange to the security settings! Then my wretched email decided to stop working and it took a long battle before Mark found the right magic wand to get going again ... what a start to the day !! So much for our intention of getting lots of work done in the peace and quiet before anyone else arrived. Never mind - maybe tomorrow :-)

Anyway, after that it was all fairly hectic with people in and out of the office all day discussing different aspects of the Championships, the future, the programme, the meeting of congress etc etc etc.

Carol has had the photocopier going all day, getting the papers ready for the Executive Meetings ... I think it was about ready to disappear in a puff of blue smoke by the end of the day, but hopefully it will have cooled down before tomorrow when it will doubtless get another work-out !

We managed to escape for a short while at lunch time and headed for Reading Market again - it really is great there as you can choose from so many different types of foods! We had a taste of "Gator Gumbo" but decided to stick with Jambalaya for Mark and Creole Chicken for me, while the others found a very nice salad bar! Mental note was made though to find something much lighter tomorrow so that we can sample some of the wonderful flavours of icecream that you can get !

Now it is the evening and time to shut the machine down and head off with Carol for a glass of red and then dinner.

More tomorrow ....

Up and Running

2010-10-02T23:59:00.000+01:00

Well, when I signed off last night it was to go to the opening ceremony. I confess they are not always my favourite occasions, but this one was truly excellent. The Mayor of Philadelphia made a most entertaining (and not too long ...) speech, the other speeches were also fun and short - everyone seemed to be rather keen on the shopping facilities here in Philly, which got mentioned several times ! We were all delighted when José Damiani, the WBF President, especially thanked Joan Gerard who has done so so so much work to make this event happen ... Joan got a very well deserved standing ovation and is pictured here with José.

After the speeches, in came the Philadelphia Mummers and wow were they good fun ! They paraded in in their costumes and played noisy, fun music which totally lifted the spirits and really kicked the Championship off to a great start. There was an excellent buffet supper provided, with plenty of wine, and lots of people to chat to. A most enjoyable occasion all round.

Today was an early start - it always needs to be at the beginning, with registrations still happening, but 432 pairs sat down to play the Mixed Pairs ... scheduled start time 11.00 am and actual start time an amazing 11.07 am - a new World Record !It was an interesting day, with various bits and pieces needing sorting out, including things like the Draws for the Youth Championships, letters to Embassies to try and help people get their visas, sorting out notices for the Bulletin and starting to photocopy the reports for all the Executive Meetings and get them into the folders.

We took time out for lunch and went over to the Reading Market again - this time we ate at the Oyster Bar, and I had some great fried shrimp while Mark went for the calamari ! Carol indulged herself with oysters and Marina had the shrimp salad. But of course this is America, and what they call shrimp I call large prawns. Yum!

Sadly no time to have a nice afternoon snooze, it was back to the office fairly smartly after that, to get on with the work. But Mark decided to go for a walk, taking his camera with him, and came back with some great shots including this one of the small child paddling in a pink - yes a bright pink - fountain! There was a wedding as well ... it seems it is called the "Love Fountain" and you can see why !

He also found a street market and had a great time wandering about, and then on his way back bought me a necklace from the shop in the foyer. Wasn't that nice of him !

Now it is nearly 7 pm local time and I am going to close the computer, wander upstairs to our room for a glass of wine and then potter out with Marina to find a restaurant for a light snack (we are still quite full after lunch !).

But that reminds me ... I am talking about these people and you don't know who they are. So I will try and get some pictures and "introduce" you to my colleagues in a future blog, so do watch this space

And so it begins ...

2010-10-01T23:01:00.000+01:00

We have had a hectic time getting set up – Carol, Christine, Martine & I have probably the poshest office we have ever had, with a great big conference table and executive chairs. An added bonus is windows – I don’t know why but often our offices seem to be in the basement or some other windowless area, so it is nice to be able to have some daylight here. I will get the camera out later and take some pics so you can see for yourself.

The city is delightful – I hadn’t realised it is the 5^th largest city in the US, and it is friendly and buzzing. There is a food market opposite the hotel where we can get almost any cuisine we fancy at lunch time … today we ate Amish food, which is what I would describe as homely and very good !

Last night we were invited to go to Danny & JoAnn Sprung’s apartment for a “launch party” … and it was so much fun. This picture is me with Bill Pollack, the President of the United States Bridge Federation, and the other one is just some of the delicious food! It was a wonderful welcome to the event, and we felt very privileged to be invited.

In about half an hour the Opening Ceremony will begin, and finally we will get the “show on the road”, with play starting at 11 tomorrow morning. And from here on in I will try and do a blog daily to let you know more about how it is all going and what is happening here – but not about the bridge ! You can find links to the results, bulletins, other blogs etc by clicking here, and that is where all the bridge hands will be.

On a countdown ...

2010-09-17T10:47:00.002+01:00

To Philadelphia and the World Bridge Series. It is going to be SUCH fun !

If you haven’t entered yet, it isn’t too late – click here for some more information about it …

If you are coming and want to download systems from the very few pairs who have registered them in advance, you can click here to find them (and the ones for the Youth Championships as well …)

What news have I other than that ? Well, not a lot really – we had a great weekend last weekend, attending Mark Horton’s wedding to Liz Granato, which was lovely.

Then we went over to Aberporth where we stayed in a lovely hotel – the Penrallt. Very comfy, beautifully quiet and what a gorgeous part of the world. We were very lucky on the Sunday as the sun shone for us as we walked in the Preseli hills to find the source of the bluestones that are in Stonehenge – it was a glorious walk and of course fascinating for us as we are so interested in Neolithic archaeology ! The next day it reverted to rain … lots and lots of rain ! We went to the CAT centre and got soaked – and no, nothing to do with furry purry things, it is the Centre for Alternative Technology and we had a great time despite the weather’s best efforts!

Then back to work. And today we have the Tour of England cycle race coming through right past us here at the station ! We will be out there with the cameras and when I get pics of that and our holiday on flickr I will give you a link, but that requires a bit of time !! And tomorrow I am off to a course on Artisan Bread Making for the day, which should be great fun J

So back to bridge – you don’t want all my witterings about my life ! The WBU and EBU sims ran peacefully (I still have a couple of heats to enter) and now I am looking forward to the BGB event in October and, of course, to Children in Need in November !

And now I must get back to work … I will be doing (or trying to do …) a daily blog from the Championships, so watch this space !

Such fun ...

2010-08-24T11:57:00.000+01:00

Lots of things happening at the moment and most of them are fun stuff ! We are about to have the ceiling raised in our hallway (it was “dropped” by the previous people and looks rather odd for a railway station entrance). So … mess and chaos will ensue no doubt, but it won’t be the first time.

Tim (Mark’s son) and his girlfriend have found a place to rent and will be moving out – we are so pleased for them, it will be so much nicer for them than the “bed-sit” we were able to provide on Platform 2. They will be able to stretch out a bit and spread their wings! They will be taking some of the furniture from the spare room, so poor Mark is going to get nagged to build me a lovely big cupboard. Railway stations tend to lack things like the “cupboard under the stairs” for the vacuum cleaner and things like that, so it will be great if we can make a hidden space for those instead of having them lurking!

On the work front … well, the Welsh Sim Pairs is at the beginning of September, so not long now … not too late for clubs to enter if they want to though! Just email me and let me know. And the English Sims are in the second week – the Monday and Tuesday. Again, entries are still welcome!

Philadelphia and the World Bridge Series Championships loom large of course. I am currently working on the Youth system cards and they will go up on the web site ere long. It’s going to be an AMAZING event – and another one that it isn’t too late to enter! All the details are on my site, and of course on the WBF Site at www.worldbridge.or and the USBF site at www.usbf.org . Why not come along and enjoy the experience of playing in the Championship events – so exciting and such fun!

We are planning to go to the NATS (=car show with hot rods!) this weekend, and take Sally, Mark’s beloved 1966 Mustang Convertible so we are hoping for good weather, not like yesterday when we had torrential rain ! So keep your fingers crossed for us.

More anon …

Oh dear it's been AGES

2010-08-12T14:31:00.000+01:00

I am sorry, but what with going to Scotland (yes, my beloved Orkney again ... and Islay as well so that Mark could enjoy the distilleries) then coming back to a load of work for Sims and World Championships and things, I am afraid my blog has taken a bit of a back seat ! And I haven’t even put up any photographs from our trips yet, but when I do I will let you know !

So, what have I been doing? Well, the BGB Summer Pairs has been and gone, and I have sent the file of master points in to the EBU – the lists are on the website as normal, just click here to find them. And the pens etc will be sent out to the clubs this afternoon or tomorrow depending on when I actually get up to the post office.

Then there have been lots of bits and pieces to do for the World Championships of course – I hope lots of you are coming to Philadelphia because it is going to be amazing !

The material for the Welsh Bridge Union Simultaneous Pairs at the beginning of September has been posted, as have the packs for the EBU one on 13^th & 14^th – they should be reaching their destinations in the next few days. I will get the club lists onto the site for all of these as soon as I can. The EBU one will come up in the Forthcoming events in the next few days. Now I need to turn my attention to the BGB Autumn Pairs and then the Children in Need event of course – it’s non stop isn’t it !

Another job that comes my way is the Diamond Bridge Website – and hasn’t Mike Swanson got some fantastic holidays and cruises coming up ! Wow ! I think being pampered on the Queen Mary 2 sounds just amazing. I can dream can’t I ??

There is a new Facebook bridge site, by the way, for university bridge players so – if you know anyone at University who plays bridge, do send them along to Uni Bridge – a quick search will soon find it.

And that’s about it for now – hopefully I have made up for the long silence, and I will try and do better in future I promise J

2010 Philadelphia, 2011, Eindhoven in the Netherlands .. and the inevitable Simultaneous Pairs of course !

2010-07-16T19:08:00.000+01:00

The 2010 World Bridge Series is heading towards us apace ... not long now so do go to www.worldbridge.org and register: registering and paying in advance will save you queuing for hours when you get the venue which means you can do more interesting things with the spare time like going to see the Liberty Bell or drinking coffee with friends you haven’t seen since the last Bridge championship!

It is going to be such a great event and I am looking forward to meeting up with lots of friends there myself !

And now I hear that 2011 will be in the Netherlands – I just send out a Press release about it, which says:

The 2011 World Teams Championships, comprising the Bermuda Bowl, the Venice Cup Seniors Bowl and the World Transnational Open Teams Championships will be held at the NH Conference Centre Koningshof in Veldhoven, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The Opening Ceremony will be on 15^th October, and the official awards ceremony will be on 29^th October 2011.

There is other information (like the cost of rooms at the Conference centre) and things like that, which you can email me for if you want, and information about the area can be found at : www.vvveindhoven.nl/en

It looks like a great venue and should be an excellent event, so do join us for the World Open Teams Championships if you can ...

Next Monday and Tuesday sees the BGB Summer Pairs – to find a club near you, click here for the usual maps and lists of clubs. Hope you enjoy it if you do manage to play !

long silence ...

2010-07-07T21:21:00.000+01:00

Sorry but I have been away. Not as many of you may think, at the European Championships, but on holiday on Orkney with my younger daughter and her husband ... having a wonderful time with extremely good weather which was a blessing J

In the meantime the European Championships have come and gone – all the bulletins and results can be found on the EBL Website at www.eurobridge.org of course, and good reading they make as well !

And we are steadily working our way towards Philadelphia and the World Championships ... I recently sent out a Press release from the organisers which said:

This year, The World Bridge Series Championships (WBSC) will be held in the USA 1-16 October 2010! It is the first such event to be held in the United States since 1994 and approximately 100 nations are expected to participate in the world series, represented by thousands of the world’s best players competing for world titles. Along with the WBSC, the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) District 4 will be hosting a two week World Bridge Federation Regional tournament, which will enable bridge players of all abilities to share in the excitement! The World Youth Team Championships (Pre-qualification required) will also take place in Philadelphia at this time. WBF Master Points will be given out for these events. Our sincerest thanks to the United States Bridge Federation (USBF) and the ACBL for their support and sponsorship.

For WBSC schedules, housing, and additional information please click on the following links:

WBF- www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Philadelphia.htm

USBF - http://www.usbf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=627&Itemid=282

Brochure - http://www.usbf.org/docs/2010wc/Philadelphia2010.pdf

So now you know – do join us in Philadelphia if you can – it is going to be so much fun !!

European Championships and Sims (again !)

2010-06-23T14:38:00.000+01:00

We have packed and posted the UK results from the World Wide Simultaneous Pairs ... and the list of English overall master points has been sent to the EBU for registration.

We have also packed and posted the material for the BGB Simultaneous Pairs at the end of July ... I wanted to get that out before people started going on holiday.

Both these went 2^nd class yesterday so should be dropping through letter boxes towards the end of the week.

The European Teams Championships is kicking off this week (makes a change from football !) Details of the BBO matches, where to find the results and bulletins and – if you find it interesting – all the convention cards for the teams are linked from :

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/Events/ebl/2010ostend/default.asp

So do watch and “cheer” your teams on !

me and dates

2010-06-16T12:12:00.001+01:00

I don’t know what it is about me and dates ... I just keep getting them wrong ! For those of you I emailed yesterday, I have already emailed again to confirm that the Kidney Research pairs is actually on THURSDAY 8^TH July, and not 7^th as I stated.

But having grown three grey hairs as a result of that one, it was then pointed out that I had put the dates of the EBU event wrongly as well – it is on Monday 13^th and Tuesday 14^th September ... I put the day right but got the dates wrong, as 12^th & 13^th !

One day I will learn a) to triple check and b) not to do these emails at the end of a long and tiring day.

So apologies if I confused you – hopefully this will put the record straight!

Forthcoming Sims ...

2010-06-10T16:33:00.000+01:00

Great news : The EBU has agreed that non affiliated English clubs can be included in the Kidney Research and Charity Challenge Simultaneous pairs as well as in the Children in Need event! See www.ebu.co.uk for their statement which is on the front page and has all the details.

The Kidney Research Pairs is on 7^th July ... and Mike Rogerson would love to hear from new clubs who want to join in! You can email me and I will pass it on if you would like to take part.

All clubs are welcome – the entry fee is just £2.00 per player and it is such a worthwhile cause.

We will soon be sending the booklets to the printers for the Welsh Sim Pairs in September – they are running it over five days this time, with different hands each night ... The dates are Monday 6^th, Tuesday 7^th, Wednesday 8^th, Thursday 9^th and Friday 10^th September.

The WBU is a very small NBO, and really does need supporting by as many clubs as possible, so if you fancy playing in it, do see if your club would join them. The funds go to support the Welsh Air Ambulance, as well as development of bridge in Wales.

English clubs must be affiliated, but it is Green Pointed, and the entry fee is just £2.50 per player (P2P charges still apply for English clubs); do get in touch if you want to play – just email me – anna@ecats.co.uk . Clubs from other countries are, of course, very welcome J

I was at my computer all weekend with the World Wide Bridge Contest running – it went very well and has now been finalised ... and people certainly appeared to enjoy it. The booklets are really good, thanks to Eric Kokish. So it was a good opportunity for me to get ahead with some tasks in between answering the queries and so forth. My task for tomorrow is to do all the master point stuff – a complex one this, so bear with me for a day or two while I sort it out.

EBU Sims Results

2010-06-03T13:51:00.000+01:00

The two EBU Spring Pairs are now finalised, and I have sent the file off to the EBU for direct registration of the points for the English Clubs. I am told that it will take about a month for them to appear on your records. If you go to the website, the list of awards is there in pdf format for you to download and have a look at if you are interested.

The ones from the BGB Spring Pairs will, I am told, appear on your records next week sometime.

That’s all – just a snippet of information today !

Sims and Systems!

2010-06-02T17:45:00.000+01:00

Well, the World Wide contest is on Friday and Saturday – do try and find a club to play at, because it is great fun and Eric Kokish’s commentary is brilliant !! Details are here

I must thank Transglobal Express who have done a wonderful job whizzing the packages of booklets to clubs all over the world in record time for us. Good service guys, well done ! If you need packs sent out, give them a rock. They do a great job.

The systems for the European Championships are all on the website now (well, nearly all – we are waiting for one or two to come through). They can be found at:

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/Events/ebl/2010ostend/default.asp and for those of you interested in such things I am sure will make fascinating reading!

The Championship starts on 22^nd June in Ostend, and will be great I am sure. I won’t be there but I will, like many thousands of other people, be watching the results and reading the bulletins on Internet.

We had a lovely weekend in France for the Bank Holiday – it was Ron Tacchi’s birthday and we “channelled” over with Mark Horton and his future wife Liz and stayed in a very nice Auberge for the weekend. Lots of Ron’s family were there and a good time was had by all. Despite the rather inclement weather!

Now it is time to stop and go and pull up a few weeds that have grown enormously in my absence ! More soon ....

Looking beyond the World Wide ..

2010-05-25T16:59:00.000+01:00

The World Wide Simultaneous Pairs is nearly on us. The EBU simultaneous pairs is soon to be finalised. And I am looking forward – to November and the Children in Need pairs ! Yes already. Our lovely commentators – Liz McGowan, Sally Brock, Mark Horton, Julian Pottage and – a newcomer to the “commentator bank”, Mike Swanson of Diamond Bridge (http://www.diamondbridge.co.uk/) who have all done their stuff and all of them have done it free of charge so that we can keep the expenses down. Aren’t they lovely ? And now I am typesetting the booklets ... not the most inspiring jobs in the world, but Chris Evans on i-player through my headphones helps!

Of course, there are the EBU and BGB sims before that, but they are all done, dusted and ready for printing believe it or not. I HATE fire fighting so do try very hard to keep ahead of the game !

I have recently heard that a friend of mine, Barnet Shenkin who now lives in America (used to live in Scotland) has launched a new website ... a free club to join free bridge tips, stories and articles, hands that you can play out on the site and members have a number of free online lectures – so it’s all happening there. Check it out at : http://www.shenkinbridge.com/

Well, that’s about enough for today – time to stop and go shopping for supper J

anna

Yet another Senior Moment

2010-05-21T11:04:00.001+01:00

When I did the results for the BGB Simultaneous Pairs, I looked at the letter from last year, and thought – ah. I am not sending master points for the English Clubs – they are being direct registered. So I duly re-wrote the letter and cover sheet to say that, for the English Clubs, no master points were included as they were being registered directly. Only the envelopes for the other NBOs (Home Unions) would have points included.

Then with great care I printed last year’s letter by mistake. Which said that points were included. Which they aren’t of course.

And until I got the first email querying it a couple of days later I didn’t realise. So – sorry to have caused confusion. BUT, rest assured, all you English Clubs, I have sent off the file to the EBU and I am sure they will be registered them all direct for you.

I am going to make my horrid summer cold my excuse – my head feels as if it is stuffed with cotton wool, and that is stopping my two brain cells from working properly. And I am coughing like an idiot and feeling VERY sorry for me L ... but I am sure it will get better and the weekend is nearly here with our first BBQ party to look forward to – this year we are determined to steer away from the inevitable burgers and sausages so I am marinading a butterflied leg of lamb and we will slow cook that on the barbie and Steve next door does a wicked marinade for chicken, so he will be doing that. And hopefully one of his famous potato salads !

Have a great weekend my friends

xxx

printing and packing

2010-05-18T10:48:00.000+01:00

My daughter has come over to help me get the results from the BGB Spring Pairs into envelopes and off to the post ... I am frantically printing them between sneezes and snuffles, as some dear soul has kindly given me his or her cold, so am grateful to have the door open as the smell of toner gets a bit much otherwise !

The file with the Master Points for the English clubs has been sent to the EBU for direct registration of course, but we are still printing master point cards for the Scottish, Welsh and Irish clubs of course. And all clubs will get their ranking list, the heat winner prizes and, for the top 20 pairs on the overall ranking, cheques. Which I hope will be spent on something frivolous – we have a rule in this household, which states that winnings are strictly for FUN !

Anyway they should all be in the post this afternoon with a bit of luck and a following wind as they say, so you will have them soon.

And now I need to get a few more parcels packed with material for the World Wide Contest at the beginning of June !! And send off the documents to the printer for the July pairs – all part of the cycle J

A few more systems have trickled in for the European Championships and I will sort those out as soon as I can – so I had better get on with it !

More later ... xxx

phew

2010-05-13T16:38:00.000+01:00

Well, that’s the BGB April event finalised – the final ranking list with the master points is up on the site for you to peruse at leisure. I will be starting to print the results and the “paper” points for the non-EBU clubs tomorrow, as well as writing all the prize cheques for the top 20 pairs overall in each event, then it will all get posted next week – probably on Tuesday.

I have sent the XML file off to the EBU for them to register the master points – I don’t know how quick a job that is for them, so I can’t tell you when you should start checking to see if they have appeared in your “account”. And it does, of course, rely on your EBU number having been submitted with the results, but I can’t give you any way to check that because we are not allowed to publish EBU numbers I am afraid (data protection and all that ...). So I think the only way is via your EBU master point record. I will be sending the club ranking lists out as normal, so you can check how many points you should have – oh and it is on the website too of course – click here to go to the page where you download the full list for whichever day you played.

Now to pack up some more sets for the World Wide Contest in June to say nothing of keeping a weather-eye on the EBU Sims running at the moment ... it is never ending, this Sims Lark!

Speaking of weather-eyes – the forecast for the weekend is a bit warmer. Perhaps I might even get some gardening done ... my poor early potatoes have a touch of frost-bite though and the chickens are sulking big time with the cold and declining to lay me any eggs L. Have a great weekend whatever you are doing won’t you ?

anna xx

hmmmm ...

2010-05-11T12:44:00.000+01:00

The Spring Pairs are no closer to being finalised I am afraid – I am still waiting for at least 2 clubs to send in results with their EBU numbers included and until I get those and approval from the EBU for the file format my hands are tied I am afraid. So I am sorry but the words “please be patient” are all I can really say!

I am sure we will get all the results flowing smoothly in future – the new systems in England were bound to cause something of a hiccup in the early stages, there are various wrinkles to be ironed out, but it will all work in due course so please bear with us!

I had a great weekend away – went off to Megalithomania in Glastonbury !! A series of lectures on our dim and distant past. It turned out to be a bit “hippy” but was still great fun and made a very real change from bridge I can tell you!

The EBU pairs is on this week of course – so do go along to a club near you (lists are on the website) and play if you can.

Watch this space and I will keep you updated on the BGB Sims ...

BGB Spring Pairs

2010-05-04T12:24:00.000+01:00

I am deliberately not finalising this today (I had hoped to ...) because I am waiting for a couple of English clubs to get some membership numbers to include in the files. It means that these events won’t be finalised now until next week – sorry and all that but I have a lot of other things to do and also have to be out of the office quite a bit for meetings ... plus I have had Friday booked as a day off for ages! I am also waiting for confirmation from the EBU that the file with the master points that I sent them for the Warwickshire Charity Pairs is in the format they need – no point in trying to generate one for the BGB event if they need changes.

So please bear with me. I will do it as soon as I can next week and get the results onto the website and the Master Points out to the clubs in Scotland and Wales – the English club’s points will all be direct credited this time.

Reason for my frantic week ? Well, I am waiting for all the systems that need registering for the European Teams championships (If you are reading this and haven’t sent me yours, then please do so QUICKLY); they all have to be converted to PDF, logged and uploaded and that takes TIME! Lots of it!

On a personal note, I had a WONDERFUL weekend – my older daughter and my granddaughter were both dancing in their annual show – classic ballet, contemporary ballet and tap and they were both totally amazing. And to add to the joy my younger daughter came up from Bristol for the weekend to join us and we just had such a great time all together. A very very special weekend. How lucky am I ?

Now back to the systems !

Books ...

2010-04-28T14:20:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that the 2009 World championship book is now available and can be bought through ECatsBridge – just go to www.ecatsbridge.com and click on the shop and it is listed under New Products (and in the Championship books section). A good addition to a collection !

We had a great weekend away last weekend –a spur of the moment decision to go and stay in Kings Lynn, so I found a lovely little hotel (The Stuart House) where we had the very posh room with the four poster and were very comfortable for a couple of nights. Lots of walking on the bird reserves and a really relaxing time. Just what was needed before getting stuck into packing up the material for the World Wide Bridge contest for the overseas clubs, ready for the couriers to collect and wing on its way –now the volcanic cloud has cleared a bit of course !

Let me know asap if you are a club needing material for the World Wide though – then I can get the pack off to you and out of my hall way !

anna

Oh what a day !

2010-04-21T16:38:00.000+01:00

I had all sorts of things planned today, but then we discovered that the Web Site had decided to hold on to the emails sent to us, instead of forwarding them to me – I guess it thought they were private ! Anyway, my lovely Mark realised what was happening and fixed it for me, but that resulted in a welter of emails … so if you have sent me an email via the website in the last two weeks and haven’t had a reply please send it again. Sorry about that.

Then I discovered that I have been backing up the wrong bits of my computer (fortunately the right bits as well …) but it meant that everything was duplicated – twice ! So I had to do a lot of deleting of files and then re-set the backups so they back up the right bits! Very silly of me, and very time consuming.

Now I need to get on with sorting out results from the Sim Pairs – Oh, and for those of you who are interested, the EBU has sent me the final list of Master Points for the Portland, and it is up on the site, so do have a look if you are interested.

And as it is nearly 5, and I am going to be finishing soon, I had better get back to work !

PS here is a nice picture of Emale, our very special ECatsCat, posing with our logo … just because I thought you might find it amusing :-)

Its Friiiiiiiiiday !

2010-04-16T15:18:00.001+01:00

I was beginning to wonder if it would ever come. AND it’s a lovely day and the forecast for the weekend is good, so I have lots of plans for planting potatoes, sowing some peas, carrots, lettuce and things like that and doing lots of weeding ! the trouble with living in an old Railway Station is that the garden is very big and takes a lot of time, but it is fun to do and I am looking forward to it.

Not been the best of days as I found out this morning that I had a dyslexic moment when typesetting the travellers for last night’s sim pairs – the front says it is session 8894, which is WRONG ... the back is correct – it is 8994. ARGHHH. So I have had to change a lot of files. But thanks to many of you who spotted the error and got it despite my best efforts. Thanks also to Harvey who has helped me set up the database in such a way that I can generate the travellers automatically in future without re-typing the number!

Spent a lot of time as well untangling our advertising engine on the site ... it is amazing how something so simple can end up being so complicated. Anyway I think I have managed it now so they are appearing when and where we want them to.

Clubs wanting duplimate files for the EBU sims in May ... I will send them early next week if that’s OK. But don’t forget to email me if you want them.

Have a great weekend – hope the sun shines on you J

so much to do ...

2010-04-14T14:40:00.001+01:00

... so little time ! I think I have (just about) sorted out the Conditions of Contest for Philly – I will put them up just as soon as I can, and will post in the blog that I have done it. It is such a marathon task with so many aspects to be thought about, and they have been winging their way between various members of the WBF Executive Council to try and make sure we haven’t missed anything out.

The first Simultaneous Pairs to be played under the new EBU P2P regulations is running this week – so there are a LOT of phone calls about that, though it doesn’t really affect the scoring as far as ECatsBridge is concerned – the important thing is that the EBU player numbers are in the files, but there isn’t much I can do to help on that one unfortunately – it has to be sorted locally. Still, it all seems to be working so far anyway. It’s funny really, but by the time it has got to the stage of the Sims actually running, I am off and working on the next one – or the one after that and hardly notice what is happening. It’s like being at a major Championship ... once it has started my job is more often working on the next one, not the one that is happening !

The packs for the May EBU Simultaneous Pairs were sent out yesterday, so clubs should be getting them quite soon. Now to start packing the World Wide stuff up ! Then maybe I can have my entrance hall back !

Had a quick visit from daughter Vickie yesterday, with my granddaughter Jasmine (15) ... she has got her first pair of contact lenses and is very excited about them. She has worn glasses since she was 18 months old and it was lovely to see her without them – she looks incredible !

Right – back to my database. Time to sort out some systems for the European Championships I guess J

Did you have a fun Easter Holiday?

2010-04-08T13:24:00.001+01:00

I certainly did – we had some days out, some days in and had a lovely relaxing time. We got into our roof space and had a massive clearout of rubbish but also found masses of old photographs which I am now going to get scanned so I can make slide shows and bore the family to death !

Now it is back to work of course – all the material for the EBU Spring Simultaneous Pairs has arrived and is packed and in the hall waiting for the Post Office to pick them up (my local Sorting Office is the best in the world I am sure ...). The World Wide material awaits packing, boxes and boxes of it, so that’s a marathon task awaiting my attention.

I have been asked to let you know that Thailand is hosting the forthcoming Asean Bridge Club Championships, in Bangkok from 20 – 24 November, and they have said that they we would like to invite all the Non-Asean Clubs to join them to make the event bigger – the email I have says “please inform all bridge players around the world to come visiting Thailand and join this short and friendly atmosphere event” … you can download the brochure by clicking here. So if you fancy a trip to Thailand to play in a fun bridge event do check it out !

It has been an interesting couple of days – the new boiler is safely installed in the office (at vast expense) but a new problem has reared its head as we have discovered that somewhere there is a leak in the pipes. And it isn’t in the ones that can be seen. So it is under the concrete floor somewhere, deep joy! I foresee some chaos in the near future as we dig it up to find it – oh well !

Lunch time now, then back to the office to get on with things !

More soon ...

Time to relax

2010-04-01T14:35:00.000+01:00

There isn’t really much bridge news today – it has all gone very quiet (dare I say thank goodness ...) and I am doing some catching up with things which is always good. Also planning a bit of a tidy up on the website, to check on any broken links and try and get some more interesting documents up for you all to enjoy.

Anway – Happy Easter to you all! ... I hope you get some time off and time to relax – which is certainly my plan. In England we have Bank Holidays on Friday and Monday which is great, and I am going to be naughty and take Tuesday off as well. We have lots of things to do round the house and I am hoping for good weather so I can do some gardening, but although bright today it is quite chilly !

two blogs in a day ..

2010-03-31T16:44:00.000+01:00

Heavens. But I just wanted to tell you that I have finalised the Charity Challenge and have published the Master Point list – I am printing the points etc etc now, and they will all be posted to the clubs on Wednesday next week. As will the WBU ones, which have been delayed a bit I am afraid (so sorry ..)

This will be the last time I post Master Point Slips to English clubs, as after this the overall points will be direct credited to the EBU. However clubs elsewhere (Scotland, Wales, N Ireland) will continue to receive paper copies so don’t worry.

Oh lord – printer’s jammed – must go and deal with it !

lots of data ...

2010-03-31T13:10:00.001+01:00

For all collectors of bridge data, lovely Peter Hasenson has made his European Championship information available and said I can put it on the website, so I have ! Have a look at:

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/documents/eblrecords/Default.asp

All the winning countries, names of the winning teams and how many times players have won the event ! Amazing ...

It is wet and miserable here today and I don’t want to be here really, but there is a pile of work to do ... including starting to advertise the World Wide Bridge Contest, so if you are reading this and fancy playing in it, do get your club to put in a heat. It is great fun and the brochure is excellent ! Have a look at

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/wwbc/default.asp - all the commentaries from previous events are there and make good reading !

... right, enough displacement activity ! Time to get a sandwich and get back to work !!

sun shining - me working !

2010-03-28T11:32:00.000+01:00

It is the day of the Portland pairs, the National Mixed Pairs Championship, which is scored by ECatsBridge, so even though it is a Sunday we are here in case we are needed ... which is a bit of a pity as it is a lovely sunny day. So I am dealing with some emails first, but then while I wait and I am going to do a bit of gardening (with my mobile phone at my side!) then spend some time tagging photographs. We got loads of old pictures scanned recently – a great company called 1Scan (http://www.1scan.co.uk/) ... some of the pictures had a dreadful colour cast and they fixed them beautifully. So now I have to get them into some semblance of order so we can find the ones we want !

And so that is what I will be doing while awaiting the results to come through. Hopefully we won’t actually be NEEDED ... the TDs have done it all before and there shouldn’t be any problems. Just hope I am not speaking too soon on that one !!

For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, by the way, hurry off to watch Alice in Wonderland in 3D ... it’s brilliant !

Right – back to the emails ! More another day ...

Hooray !

2010-03-25T13:22:00.000Z

I have got the Newsletter software up and running ! Well, that’s not quite true actually, as Mark did it for me really (thank you Mark!) but it does mean that you can subscribe to our newsletters really easily, just by going to:

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/newsletters.asp - we have four on the go at the moment, a Press List, a TD list, a list for Women’s bridge and a list for information about Philadelphia and the world championships, so if you are interested in any (or all) of these, do register for them. I don’t send newsletters out very often so don’t think you would be overwhelmed with information ! They can be useful though, and these blogs act as a sort of “top up” for additional information.

That’s about it for today ... now to sort out some bits on the website!

Anna x

Tuesday already ...

2010-03-23T08:39:00.000Z

And I have lots of newsletters to think about – I need to tell all the Women players about the Women’s Online Bridge Festival and the fact that WBF Online Master Points are being awarded for the first time! Details about the Festival are on the website at www.wbfwomensbridgeclub.org so if you are a woman, or know of women who would be interested in playing in this fun event, do go and have a look. The dates are 12 – 18 April and you need to register with BBO beforehand then register to play in the Women’s Online Bridge Club.

Then I must contact the European NBOs about the systems registration for the European Open Teams Championships to be held in Ostend, as they need to get their teams to send their systems to me quite soon.

And I need to contact NBOs and TDs and Press and remind them all about the World Wide Bridge Contest in June, so that as many people as possible join us for this excellent event. Details are on the website – just click here to go to the pages about it. Do get your club to join us – it is such a good tournament and lovely to have clubs from all over the world joining in.

So I guess I had better get on with it all !

Anna x

Thank goodness it's Friday

2010-03-19T20:23:00.000Z

We have had a dreadful 3 weeks .. first all the drains blocked – on a Saturday morning. A weekend without being able to use the showers and only essential services in a careful fashion. Immediate problem fixed on the Monday but long term solution involves digging up the garden. The following weekend, the boiler in the house exploded all over the dining room floor (luckily it is stone so no water damage). This time on the Friday but the engineer couldn’t get parts until the Monday. Another weekend of no showers and no heating this time (and it was **** cold!). Fixed on the Monday and all insured this time. Then we had the garden dug up yesterday to fix the drains. They dug through the gas main! Not a major problem, they fixed that. But it is the gas feed to the office. So we went to check the boiler and guess what ? THAT was leaking. Onto the office carpet. Called them out to look today and it is one dead boiler. Very dead. And very expensive as we have to replace it.

So work has been interrupted, but I still managed to get the WBU sims finalised and ... for all you Welsh Bridge Union clubs out there, great news because the WBU sims in the Autumn is going to be a five day event with different hands every day. So do join is and lets get as many people playing as we can !!

Now I think I deserve a glass of red wine and a relax ...

More soon !

Good morning

2010-03-17T09:54:00.001Z

From Sunny Suffolk ! Another glorious day and a lot of work to do which is a pity, but there you go !

Task for today ... lots more updates for my database from clubs (not the most exciting job in the world but very necessary), then some more results to key in for the Charity Challenge. Once I get them all done I will put them on the website and then we are nearly finished for that event. I also need to put up the club lists for the April Pairs – I will post to this blog as soon as I have done that and let you know that they are there.

Then I need to get the Regulations finalised for Philadelphia – just waiting for a few clarifications now, and we will be ready to go with that. Systems regulations for the European Championships are on the website, so if you are involved there, please read them and make sure your teams are aware of them. It would be very helpful to have lists of teams from the various competing countries, with email addresses so I can build up my mailing list to keep people informed!

So I guess I had better “get down to it!”

Sun is shining ...

2010-03-16T12:57:00.001Z

... which is lovely as we have been able to have the doors open and freshen up the office. It has moved over now, though, and it is getting chilly but it has been really nice. I have been frantically packing up extra sets of Simultaneous Pairs material for the BGB Event in April, which is great – more clubs playing !

And now I am going to settle down and start keying in the results sent to me as travellers from the Charity Challenge, so there will be more results going through soon, then we can finalise it and get the Master Points out to the clubs – the last time I will be doing that, after this one for the English clubs, all the points will be direct credited. But my friends in the other countries, Scotland, Wales and Ireland needn’t worry – you will get your points “on paper” as you always have done.

Also trying to find a bit of time to learn about a new program I have for creating FAQ pages which all looks rather fun and useful! I will let you know when it is up and running and you can fire some queries at me J

... now I must go back to the posting table and carry on packing up packs !

Don't you just hate it ...

2010-03-12T09:53:00.000Z

When you wake up and the boiler is leaking water all over the dining room for, sulking and not working so you can’t even have a shower ! Now waiting for the boiler-repair-man to turn up (thank goodness for the insurance we have!)

Still, at least the office is warm and we can get on with some work! AND it is Friday with the weekend to look forward to.

Today’s task is to try and clear my inbox of all the emails about the changes to the Sim Pairs information following the entry forms that went out last week. And then to do some work on all the future ones that I need to get ready. Not very exciting in many ways, but quite a soothing sort of job for a Friday. But I will have to leave a few minutes early as I MUST get to my farm shop and buy some chicken food or my poor chickies will starve.

Back after the weekend ...

I am seriously bored ...

2010-03-11T09:15:00.002Z

... with this cold weather. We have long grey days, and I can’t get into the garden to plant things, it is damp and cold and I know they won’t grow! My chickens are bored with it too ! It is time it warmed up a bit I think ... so let’s hope it improves soon J

On the work front, we now have lots of information about the European Championships in Ostend – I have posted the Regulations and Systems regulations etc onto the site, together with all the extras, like the disciplinary code – click here to go to the page and you can download all the documents. I would be glad if the teams could please contact me and give me the names of the players and their email addresses so that I can contact them about systems as soon as possible.

Would any UK clubs who have not yet contacted me after getting their Simultaneous Pairs entry forms do so as soon as they can please ? I really need to get the information into my database as soon as possible ! If you play at a UK club, do me a favour and check with your committee that a) they have received the form and b) that they have replied to it – or if you are a new club and have no idea what I am talking about, please email me and make contact !

inundated ...

2010-03-08T11:27:00.000Z

I know that sending out a big mailshot with entry forms for Sim Pairs is going to result in a LOT of changes coming back to me ... and I was right. I am SWAMPED with email! Thanks to so many of you for responding so quickly though, it really is a great help. I look forward to a week of getting all the data into my computer (I think). At least I have got headphones and can listen to my cool tunes while I work. Amazingly it helps my typing too as I can use it like a metronome. Getting the beat right with my fingers means I type much faster and gives me good practice!

Hope you all had a good weekend – the sun shone and shone here and I got a bit over-enthusiastic about spring cleaning, so was exhausted last night. Not helped by a very good dinner party the night before (well I enjoyed it), that went on rather late and involved rather a lot of red wine.

Now back to the database ....

Anna x

What a morning

2010-03-04T15:09:00.001Z

No work done at all as I had to take my car in for service, and there was this shoe shop you see. Oh dear. So not only is the service going to cost me, I am a lot poorer than before I went in the shop.

Anyway, I am back now, and have caught up on the morning’s emails (well nearly).

For those of you interested in the Camrose results this weekend, they can be found by clicking here – or the link is on the BGB site at www.bridgegreatbritain.org and all the systems are on the BGB site. The results from the first weekend are at http://www.camrosebridge.com/ and the matches are being broadcast on BBO of course!

Good luck to all the teams – hope they all have a good weekend !

anna

Please bear with me ..

2010-03-03T20:58:00.000Z

This is in the nature of a test, as I have just set up my blog to take my witterings about bridge and life in general from my email account ... and this is to see whether it actually works! If it does, then you are going to get far more blogging from me than in the past, which means I can keep you up to date with the bridge world better.

And, of course, with what I am doing as well, which may be nothing to do with bridge !

Haiti Disaster Appeal

2010-01-18T10:25:00.003Z

We are running a Simultaneous Pairs for the Haiti Disaster Appeal. It will be played on Monday 25th, Tuesday 26th, Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th, Friday 29th and Saturday 30th January - please please join us if you can, or donate if you can't play. There will be different hands each night and we will score them across the field if you upload the results to the servers. There are no master points or prizes, just the chance to play some bridge, see how you got on against the other people in the world playing that night and the opportunity to donate some money to help where help is obviously desperately needed.

All we need is for you to email us and tell us: your name, which club you are, which country you are in and which day you want to play. We will then send you a file with all you need - a set of hand records, a set of travellers with the hands on, a README file with instructions, and the dealing files to use if you have a dealing machine. Gary Fan from the USA has done a partial commentary on a couple of the sets and that will be uploaded after the event, but if someone feels like doing a quick commentary on one of the other sets, please get in touch and we will send you the hands!

Just as an example of how people feel, we had this email today:

Currently my son is with a group of about 15 church people on a mission in Haiti; part of the group near Jacmel and the other at Fond Perisien. They were blocked off from getting to Port au Prince by rock or land slides covering roads, but are now trying to make their way to the Dominican Republic. While Jacmel suffered considerable damage, none of the group were hurt and are safe. The group emanated from Frankfort, Kentucky the Capital City Christian Church on a journey to bring clothing, school supplies, etc. They arrived in P.A.P Haiti on/about 8th or 9th January and went forward on their mission into the mountains and then got swept up in the quake. Have been in touch with Ben who assures me they are safe, but it is still a long journey home, but on the whole it is not the journey they expected from beginning to end. I probably won't hear from him personally again until they are on American soil. Thanks for your considering the Haiti Diaster Relief for your charity

Please - play, enjoy and donate whatever you can

anna & Mark
The ECatsBridge Team

Nearly Christmas !

2009-12-21T10:42:00.004Z

I LOVE Christmas - all the family round, seeing friends, the decorations, the Christmas music (yeah yeah, I know a lot is hackneyed, but it is still fun). And - joy of joys - we have SNOW !! Real, proper, snow - the sort that comes over your shoes ! Yes, it is **** cold (-7.5 last night) but it is also beautiful and very Christmassy. And here is a picture of Mark clearing the path between the house and the office, across where the railway lines used to run.

So this isn't going to be a long and involved blog, as it is really just to wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a truly excellent, properous and Happy New Year for 2010.

And I will be back in the New Year with bridge news !

all the best from Anna & Mark xxx

I cannot BELIEVE ...

2009-11-25T11:10:00.002Z

... that we - no, not we - YOU have raised more money than last year for Children in Need - you bridge players never cease to amaze me ! The number of clubs that held raffles, had parties and set out to enjoy the event is just wonderful, and between you you have raised over £57,000 - an enormous amount and Mark and I can't tell you how thrilled we are. Thank you. Thank you all so so so much.

We went to the Children in Need night at the BBC which was amazing - we had invitations to the reception where to my joy I met Nick from the Apprentice (he is just wonderful!), got to meet THREE Dragons from Dragons Den and then met Prince Arthur from the series Merlin ... it was very exciting! Then we went to the show (after the news) and presented YOUR cheque to Terry Wogan. All very enjoyable - not so good was driving the 2-hour journey home at 02.00 in thick fog, but Mark is wonderful and did it in good time. Mind you we were a bit tired the next day! But thank you all for making that possible as well ... we had a wonderful time.

Now, to some news and information. I am really pleased to be able to give you the good news that the WBF Women's OnLine Bridge Tournaments are starting again on 1st December ... click here to find out more about them and do join us if you can and provided you are female of course :-). It is an enjoyable and social event for women players and we would love to have your company.

I have set up the start of a mailing list for Philadelphia, so do email me if you would like to be on it, then I can keep you up to date with news. There is also a list for Press, one for TDs and one for people interested in Women's bridge, so if you want those as well, do let me know - just give me your name (first and last names please), your country, and which lists you want to join and I will do the rest!

The EBU has posted information about what will happen next year regarding Simultaneous Pairs and P2P, so please click here where you can read about it.

Finally, our American friends will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow (Thursday) so Mark and I wish them all a very enjoyable day, whatever they happen to be doing !

Look after yourselves, and I will be in touch again soon ...

blowing a gale ...

2009-10-09T18:37:00.002+01:00

As I started to write this, it was blowing a HOWLING gale, the windows are rattling and the draughts are amazing !! But I am cosy with the fire on, so all is well :-). Now it is just wet, wet, wet but never mind.

Now what news - well, lots of news, mainly about Philadelphia and the World Bridge Series next October - it is being held from 1st - 16th October and every bridge player should try and join us there - this is the BIG one and is going to be an amazing event, with many different Championship events and the ACBL regional alongside. Don't leave it too long before booking your hotel rooms, because they are going to fill up very quickly as the WBF has managed to get excellent rates (and fabulous playing conditions !)

Philadelphia looks amazing too - I saw the promotional DVD and just can't wait to go there and experience it all. So just go to my website and you will find all the details there - click here!

Of course, we are only just beyond the wonderful World Teams Championship in Brazil - I can't tell you want a wonderful job Ernesto d'Orsi did there, it was a truly truly memorable event. There are a number of documents and bulletins available from this event - you can click here to find them.

Our own ECatsBridge for Children in Need Sim Pairs is coming up soon - the usual 5 days of it (I must be off my trolley!). Do join us if you can. I will put the club lists up as soon as I can, probably next week, so you can find a club to play at. All the details will be in the Sims section on the website.

More in due course ....
anna

Home Safe .. normal service will be resumed shortly!

2009-09-15T12:16:00.003+01:00

We are home safe ! The Championships rounded off with one of the best Victory Banquets ever, and we danced the night away with a great band playing many of the old favourites! Enormous fun...

Sunday was a loooooooong day, as we had to wait until 11.45 pm for our flight, which was on time thank goodness, and returned us safely to London where we landed at 3.15 and finally got back to our Railway Station around 6 pm. Time to unpack, have a glass of wine and a nice risotto and head for bed. Mark has woken with the "Championship Sore Throat" this morning. Every Championship produces some bug or other and this one is not nice ... even Mark Horton lost his voice for three days ! So I am expecting "my" Mark to be languishing for the rest of the week, and just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get it. Anyway, I woke about 10.30 and am now going to try and catch up with my email etc.

And, of course, keep an eye on the EBU Simultaneous Pairs which is running today and tomorrow!

Watch this space for future blogs, won't you - not quite daily but I will try and update regularly!

all over bar the shouting

2009-09-12T20:45:00.002+01:00

As I type this, USA 2 are 45 IMPs ahead with one board to play, so ... they have beaten Italy and won the Bermuda Bowl !

And that's it ... all over until next time !

It's been a great Championship - lots of exciting bridge or so they tell me .. I only watched the nail biting ending of the Seniors yesterday, and a few boards at the end of the Bermuda Bowl but I know a lot of people have had a great deal of enjoyment and excitement and that's brilliant!

Thank you to the many of you who have followed my blog ... don't forget me, as I will update it in future, not just at the Championships, so keep an eye out for future information.

Look after yourselves - we start the long journey back to England tomorrow and I will be in the office when I re-surface :-)

Goodbye, and, as they say ... thanks for all the fish

anna

oh fantastic

2009-09-11T23:57:00.002+01:00

What a marvellous few moments :-)

The English Seniors team has just won the World Seniors Championship AND the Chinese Women's team has just won the Venice Cup ! How exciting is that ? Here are the Senior Team - from the left, David Price, Paul Hackett, Coli Simpson, Peter Baxter (NPC) Gunner Hallberg, John Holland and Ross Harper. What a great bunch of guys (and they were all very huggable tonight !)
The EBU Press Release about the team can be found by clicking here

I have just been drinking Champagne in the Press Room courtesy of Ross Harper (thank you so much Ross) .... it was great to see the English Seniors Win - David Price said that now he knows what it feels like he would like to do it again :-)

As for the Chinese Women's team - that is very special - they have been "up there" so many times and, indeed, lost to the English women by just 1 (yes ONE ) IMP last year in Beijing, but have never one a World Championship, so tonight's win creates four Grand Masters at a stroke and I am so very happy for them.

So ... just excellent. And we still have the Bermuda Bowl Final to be resolved ... all so exciting ... and Mark is better too, so life is good :-)

Getting there ...

2009-09-10T15:41:00.002+01:00

Last night I was taken out to a Churrasco restaurant, which was really amazing - it was great fun and we had a lovely evening. Sadly Mark isn't very well, so didn't come with us - he is still in bed today, languishing which is a real shame but I am sure he will be OK tomorrow ..

This morning sees the last of the Executive Meetings, where they consider the minutes from all the committee meetings that have been held during the week. I have a meeting at 2 to look at a new bridge teaching site and consider how best to translate it to English and publish it, then "the boss" wants to go through some photographs with me, to choose some for a book about the WBF.

I suspect tonight will be a nice quiet one - maybe just room service - and an early night ! I could certainly do with one ...

getting calmer

2009-09-09T18:14:00.002+01:00

Mark made a video of the storm we had yesterday and has posted it on Youtube ... with apologies for the expletive in the middle!

Much quieter here today - no sun, but not raining either .

Had a meeting this morning about all the technical stuff for Philadelphia ... it is going to be a very big event indeed (do join us !) and will be brilliant, but it does mean that the technical side is going to be very complex without doubt. I have - like a good girl - typed up notes from the meeting, and now am waiting for another meetng, this time with Anna Maria Torlontano, Chairman of our Women's Committee, to make sure we know what we have to do when we get home! It is funny how it goes really ...you start a Championship and two and a half weeks loom ahead, so you seem to have masses of time to get things done, meetings held, decisions made. Then you get to this point, with just 3 days to go and starting thinking "oh ***** I haven't talked to xx about this", or discussed this point with members of that committee and so forth, and now everything goes into major panic mode !

We are delighted this year though - with the excellent organisation done by Ernesto d'Orsi, and the way the event is run, we don't have the responsibility for the Victory Banquet - everyone is invited, and all the teams and delegations have to do is to confirm to the Brazilian Hospitality team that they will be there. Such bliss after the normal hectic rush to get tickets out to the right people and so forth.

Carol and I have the task now of ensuring that all the documents from the meetings are put onto a memory stick for each member of the Executive - that's quite simple really but we still have a number to scan in, so I guess I had better go and get on with it !

More tomorrow ....

A real doozy ...

2009-09-08T16:01:00.002+01:00

of a storm is raging around us at the moment ... thunder, lightening and torrential rain! It looks like the middle of the night it is so dark ! I confess to loving storms and almost wish I could go out in it - would be drenched in seconds but it would be fun !

Anyway, we finally got the transnationals going last night, about 68 teams I believe, and the semi finals are safely under way as well, so the tension is building! All the sub committees are meeting this week, and we are getting to work on stuff for the next Championship - Philadelphia 2010. You can find information about it by clicking here

well, I started this early on today, but then got involved in doing other things - in the meantime the weather cleared and the sun almost came out but now we are having another torrential downpour - including INSIDE the corridor to our office !!

Not much else to say really - maybe something exciting will happen tomorrow :-)

sorry about yesterday ...

2009-09-06T14:21:00.002+01:00

Yesterday started with a Women's Committee meeting - a very lively and enjoyable one - which I had to minute, then we plunged into registrations for the transnational teams, other reports to be checked and typed and somehow the dy just disappeared !! And today is going to be much the same I fear ... I am being asked to type reports and being bombarded with transnational registrations even as I type this - so it may be that you will not get a long blog today

In fact I am going to have to stop now and get on with things - sorry!

More tomorrow ....

I spoke too soon !

2009-09-04T13:10:00.003+01:00

Yesterday lunchtime it started to cloud over and the wind got up, then we had R A I N ! and parts of the city were flooded ! Seems we have the tail end of a hurricane passing us by - lightening and thunder in the evening, and the people who went to Iguazu for the day couldn't get back ... we are told that they flew in this morning and should be back at the hotel soon, but I haven't seen them yet.

The day continued to be quite quiet and peaceful, so we got quite a lot of work out of the way = and the draft timetable was sorted out for Philadelphia ... it should be approved at the meeting of the Executive today and then I will be able to publish it on the website for you. It is going to be an amazing set of Championships!

After lunch I sneaked off quietly for a while, and on switching on the TV in the room found that they were broadcasting Shaun the Sheep ! Well, it is fine in any language of course, and most entertaining, so I watched that for half an hour before returning to the computer, and it made a nice change.

Jean Paul Meyer, who is co-ordinator for the vu graph, asked me to go to be interviewed before the start of play in the evening, which was very nice of him. He asked me how long I had been working in International bridge, which was actually positively frightening ! The first Championship I was involved with was here in Sao Paulo - I didn't actually attend on that occasion, but my work with the British Bridge League had me dealing with all the hotel and flight reservations for our Women's Team who went on to win the Venice Cup - I remember staying up to get the results! It was my first "World Championship" and was really exciting. And that was backin 1985. Two years later, the British Open Team qualified to go to Jamaica for the Bermuda Bowl and on that occasion I went with the team - not to work, but as a supporter, and that is where I met Carol for the first time ... she was working as WBF Secretary, working with the then-President, Jaime Ortiz-Patino. And with two exceptions I have worked at every World Championship since!

Anywa - back to Brazil. Yesterday evening we were invited to a cocktail party given by Jerry Fleming, the President of the ACBL, which was most enjoyable ... talking to his wife we discovered that they live in New Mexico, and we recalled working at the Championships in Albuquerque, which was another really enjoyable one! Then we went up to the Piano Bar and joined Grattan for a while before retiring to bed, where we found that the film "The Queen" was on - one I hadn't seen, so we watched that before a good night's sleep.

Now I must do some work - another meeting will be starting very soon!

Another sunny one ...

2009-09-03T15:59:00.003+01:00

I am seriously beginning to wonder if the weather ever changes ! It is another glorious day, hot and sunny ... and nice and peaceful as the Press have an outing to Guaraja (click the link to look at some pictures - it looks wonderful ...) and some of the Executive have gone off to Iguazu to see the waterfalls, so Carol and I are catching up with work in the quiet moments!

Last night we went to a cocktail party to celebrate the election of Gianarrigo as the new President, which was very enjoyable. Harvey went off to a typical Brazilian restaurant which he said was excellent - expensive and a complete meat-fest which he really enjoyed! We joined Christine and Carol in the bar for a sandwich which was all we wanted - there were lovely nibbly bits at the cocktail, and so a sandwich afterwards was just fine !

So - as I say, Carol and I are sitting quietly, she is sorting out the minutes and I am about to deal with entries for the transnational so that when the teams start getting knocked out of the round robin I am "ready to rock" and take their entries quickly ! We are also getting the adverts ready for Philadelphia next year .. note the dates, which are 1 - 16 October as that is going to be a fantastic event, with transnational championships in all series AND a regional running alongside!
Watch this space for more information about that, but do try and come if you can, it will be amazing and is open to everyone. It is YOUR chance to play in a world championship!

Now I guess I had better get on with some work - more updates tomorrow

what a great evening we had !

2009-09-02T14:35:00.002+01:00

The WBF Elections happened yesterday, and Gianarrigo Rona from Italy will be the new WBF President starting next year after the Championship in Philadelphia, so I am looking forward to working with him. There was a general feeling of relaxation now that is out of the way, and we were invited to a dinner given by Ernesto d'Orsi last night. We started with cocktails by the pool (and for once I was very good and kicked off with orange juice so felt very virtuous!). Then we moved in to the restaurant, where we joined with friends on an excellent table, so not only did we thoroughly enjoy the very good food and excellent wine, we had great company as well with Carol and her son Mark, Christine, Marina who is Gianarrigo's PA, Grattan Endicott, Max Bavin (Chief TD for the WBF) and Yashar and his wife - Yashar is curator of the card exhibiton that I told you about a few days ago.

We were really quite late to bed, and I must confess to some reluctance to getting up this morning ! But I duly struggled out of my "treacle well" ... Alice in Wonderland fans will understand that reference ... and down to breakfast. Then into my office where it has been a decidedly hectic morning, with emails flying in all directions, systems to change and post onto the website, photocopying to be done of documents for the Executive. arghhhhhhhhhhhh.

There is a helipad here, just off the hotel's mini golf course, and the helicopter has just flown in - it sounded as though it was going to land in this office it was so close! I wonder who it was!

There are some photos on my Facebook ... do have a look!

Tuesday morning ...

2009-09-01T16:00:00.003+01:00

Well, yesterday was nothing if not stressful for our IT Manager Harvey as the hotel lost the internet completely ! The frustrating thing was that it was totally outside his control - indeed it was outside the hotel's control as the Service Provider had managed to "lose" a 10M pipe ! The hotel has a backup solution, which gave us a very very very slow connection that limped us through the day, but poor Harvey was bombarded with questions everywhere he went! It finally got back up and running late last night thank goodness.

The meetings continue this morning, with, I am told a very long discussion on the By Laws and statutes of the WBF. Carol is taking the minutes and I really don't envy her that task. I don't seem to have stopped for breath all morning somehow, but it has been little fiddly things like trying to match up the stapler we have with the right sized staples ! We finally tracked some down, but it means a shopping trip for someone to get more ... funny how sometimes the little things prove so awkward. Then there were the systems to print for the teams playing on VuGraph, more to print for a pair that pre-registered one system and is now playing something completely different. Definately frowned upon that was ...

There was the projector and computer to set up for the video presentations in the Council Meeting room - Bernard Delange who does the vugraph presentation always has a projector and screen we can use, and Mark helped us get it all set up smoothly so that all Carol has to do is double click an icon to get it going when it is to be played. Seems such a simple thing, but it is surprising how long it takes

The nice things that make such a difference though are things like the free coffee machine and, of course, a water fountain that have been provided in our office - we really do appreciate that !

The sun is shining outside, and Mark managed to take a beer and relax by the pool for a while yesterday - not too long, he didn't want to fry ! But at least he got some time in the sun ... I must admit that as far as I am concerned it really is a bit too hot and I prefer to look out from the comfort of an airconditioned room. Sadly the only daylight in the office comes from skylights, and they are frosted glass, but in the mornings we can hear the bird song which is nice.

So ... now I had better get back to work. This evening we are invited to an official dinner given by Ernesto d'Orsi which should be great fun and we are really looking forward to it.

Oh - I almost forgot. Mark von Linstow took this picture at the Opening Ceremony showing the giant hands that I told you about in an earlier blog, so Ithought you would like to see it ... on stage are Jose Damiani - WBF President, and Ernesto d'Orsi, Zone 3 President and a Past President of the WBF (Jose is on the left)

More tomorrow ....

... another enjoyable evening !

2009-08-31T13:48:00.003+01:00

Well it looks like this blog is going to be a morning-after blog rather than a night-before blog ! Somehow 6pm and the closing of the office for the night creeps up on me and then I don't have time, and although I take the computer up to the room each night, I don't actually plug it in so ...

Anyway, what happened yesterday. Well, play got under way, the office got into full swing ready for today's Executive Council meetings so the photocopier was humming all day.

I was very sad to hear of the death of Peter Czerniewski - I didn't know him well, but the dealings I had with him were always a great pleasure and I am sure anyone reading this will wish to join me in sending sincere condolences to Pam, his wife and his family. He will be much missed in the bridge World. I am also told that Masud Saleem of Pakistan has died after a long illness. He used to partner Zia Mahmood and was, I am told, a national hero in the Pakistan bridge world.

In the evening, Jimmy Ortiz-Patino, the President Emeritus of the World Bridge Federation invited us to a cocktail party for the opening of his antique Card Exhibition - he has one of the greatest collections of antique playing cards in the world, and it was completely fascinating ... cards from the 15th Century onwards all beautifully displayed in glass cabinets. We had a good look round but I for one will certainly be going back to have another look and examine some of them more closely.

Then into the Piano Bar for a bite to eat and so to bed ... (isn't Samual Pepys useful!)

better late than never ....

2009-08-30T13:47:00.002+01:00

It was my intention to write this after the Opening Ceremony, but what with one thing and another it was about 1am when I got back to my room and .... sleep took over!

Yesterday we got into our office, and started getting properly settled - we are in the basement of the hotel although thank goodness there is some natural light from skylights, and the office is very large to accommodate the three of us - Carol, Christine and myself - in comfort with plenty of space for other people to come and work if they wish to. The photocopier has arrived, and our computers are plugged in and online, so work is well underway with Carol producing all the papers for the Executive Council Meetings, and Christine sorting out all manner of things. As for me, somehow there always seems to be plenty to do!

We stopped work at about 6 to go and change for the Opening Ceremony which was to be held in the theatre adjacent to the hotel. It is a lovely theatre, with lots of space, and with an impressive set comprising two ENORMOUS hands holding a projection screen on which was displayed the WBF Flag. The speeches were not too long, and then we had a famous concert pianist playing the Brazilian National Anthem and other pieces, followed by a show devised by Ernesto d'Orsi outlining the musical culture of Brazil; this included a fascinating dance routine and I was sad that my daughter Vickie, who teaches dance, could not see it as it was so unlike anything I have seen before and I am sure she would have been fascinated!

Following the Ceremony there was a cocktail party with delicious canapes (especially the little hot ones!) and various pasta dishes. However, unfortunately Mark had received a text message from Harvey asking for help with programming the Sonic Wall - a job that needs two very clear heads - so he missed all of this. But as it was all ending, they finished so we met up in the bar where they demolished beer and a toasted sandwich and chips before we all retired rather later than intended.

Now it is 10 am and I really (really) must do some work ! Play starts at 11, so all the teams are busy psyching themselves up - as are the TDs of course.
More to follow ...

Getting there ...

2009-08-28T22:08:00.002+01:00

welll things are starting to happen thank goodness.

As far as the Secretariat is concerned, we still don't have an office, but Carol, Christine and I have been working in José's suite and our own rooms so that at least we can get a head start. Our office-to-be has actually been moved from the room it should have been in to a much bigger one next to the WBF Meeting room, and the tables and chairs are all in place ready to use. We are waiting for 220 volt sockets to be installed so that we can plug in the printers and hubs and also need the big photocopier to arrive then we will install ourselves and our laptops and can really start to get on with things.

As far as the other offices are concerned, the Brazilian hospitality team is handing out the very nice bags and badges, and the vu-graph studio is being set up by Bernard and his team - a really big job that one.

The playing rooms are having all the tables and screens built (they arrive sort of flat-packed) and there is a star-wars style projector (pictures to follow) with a MASSIVE screen in place to put up the results. The scoring team have got all their computers up and running and are all networked which is good news as well.

The not-so ready bit is the Press and Bulletin room, which is still occupied by a banking conference, as is the room to be used for a special exhibition of playing cards courtesy of Jaime Ortiz Patino - I am really looking forward to seeing that as it is, I am told, unsurpassed.

Harvey Fox - the WBF IT manager - has joined us for a peaceful drink in the room, and tomorrow morning no doubt all hell will break loose as we start meetings - Tournament Appeals Committee, Tournament Directors and Captains' Meeeting - followed by the Opening Ceremony tomorrow night ... so watch this space :-)

A free day !

2009-08-27T19:50:00.006+01:00

Well, we can't get into our office until tomorrow, so Jose said we could go out today and enjoy the sunshine, and we weren't going to argue about that !

We had an excellent breakfast - it is a truly splendid buffet ! Watched the parrots at the bird table outside for a few minutes, and also saw a humming bird collecting nectar from the Birds of Paradise flowers, then headed off for a recommended shopping centre the Cidade Jardim Shopping - recommended for its very VERY expensive and exclusive shops ! We (Carol, her Mark, "my" Mark and I) had a lovely wander round admiring a lot of things there is no way we could afford, then headed for a less expensive mall (Iguatemi Shopping) where we might be able to afford something.

In the end we didn't actually buy much, but had a lovely lunch in the restaurant on the 3rd floor (also highly recommended) which wasn't outrageously expensive, and wandered round the vast - and I do mean vast - shopping centre, eventually stopping only at the supermarket to stock up on things like tonic water! Carol examined most of the jewellry shops in the hope of finding some earrings to match a ring that she has, but failed dismally on this occasion. But we did see one of Bernard Gitton's Timeflow water clocks which is in the central atrium there - absolutely fascinating and the two Marks could have watched it for hours I think.

Then back to the hotel to check on emails, write this blog and put our feet up before we wander down to the piano bar for something to eat and drink this evening.

A lot of players seem to have arrived now, with plenty more to come no doubt. 90% of the staff are here I think, we certainly seem to have bumped into plenty of them ! It is great to see everyone again after a year ... we only meet up at the Championships, so last time was Beijing.

So - more tomorrow !

Safe arrival

2009-08-26T22:02:00.004+01:00

Well, after a truly excellent flight with TAM airlines, I am safely ensconced in the Hotel Transamerica in Sao Paulo, with a view of the city from the window, and a very comfortable room. I landed at 05.10 (bit early in the day for me, but never mind) and whizzed through customs control and baggage, then it was about an hour through quite heavy traffic to get to the hotel. My room was ready despite the ungodly hour, so I was able to unpack, shower, change and go down and have some breakfast. yes they did serve it on the plane but I really can't wake up and eat immediately, so I had passed on that one, and was glad to have it at the hotel. It was a fabulous buffet, but I stuck to a roll and jam this morning.

I met up with Harvey (IT Manager), Tomas and Calle (Scoring team), Maurizio (Operations Director), Jean-Claude Beineix and his wife Odile and other members of the "working team" and we went off to have a look around the facilities here - the playing rooms look excellent as far as I can tell, and I am sure the offices will be fine although we couldn't see most of them as there were other conferences in progress.

Then back up to my room to check on my email etc - there is free internet throughout the hotel - wireless everywhere and a DSL cable in the bedrooms which is brilliant ! So I worked until lunchtime when I went down to meet up with my "partner in crime" and great working colleague, Carol who had arrived with her son, Mark and also with Ernesto d'Orsi, a past President of the WBF, a member of the Executive Council and - most important of all - the On Site Organiser of the Championship and a dear friend and colleague. We all had lunch together in the hotel buffet-restaurant - a really great lunch, where I was able to have the local dish of Feijoada - a black bean stew with different meats that is really delicious! Google Feijoada and you will find a full description and various recipes.

Next came some work with Calle to try and sort out who will play with who in the different teams so that he can make the line-ups easier for the Captains to register, and back to the room to clear the last of my email.

Now it is 6.15pm local time, though my head is telling me it is later - it is 10.15pm back in England, but I am sure I will get used to it quickly, it is only a four hour difference after all. Anyway, it is time to stop and relax with a book for a bit before going down to meet Jose Damiani, the WBF President, when he arrives from France, then probably room service for a "light bite" and an early night as no doubt we will be up and running big time tomorrow.

Watch this space ! I will try and keep you updated as we go along ...

Frantically getting organised ...

2009-08-22T17:54:00.002+01:00

... ready to leave for Brazil and the World Championships, where I will try and do a daily blog as I did from Beijing last year. You can find links to the results pages, bulletins etc and other blogs from the Championships by clicking here.

It isn't just a matter of organising a suitcase, it is making sure I take all the data, and all the right leads for the computer, the Blackberry etc etc etc but I am sure I will manage, especially with Mark keeping his normal watchful eye on me !

On the home front, the WBU Simultaneous Pairs is at the beginning of September, closely followed by the EBU pairs in mid-September. The material for both of these has been sent out, but if you still want to enter, fear not - my trusty PA, Karen, has promised to come in and post it out for me!

As soon as I come home, we will be packing the material for the BGB Autumn Pairs and then it is Children in Need time ... I wonder if we can do as well as we did last year - we sent them over £56,000 which was just amazing. Do join us for any (or indeed all) of these if you can .. you can find the dates and link to more information on our Calendar page.

So - watch this space for more "inside" information from Brazil - don't expect hands and things though, I will be telling you about all the behind-the-scenes stuff :-)

anna

The wedding

2009-07-21T10:12:00.002+01:00

this is actually going to be a very quick blog, because I am a) very tired and b) have to get on with some work as my email box is overflowing after having the weekend off for my daughter's wedding.

But I just wanted to let you know that it was a wonderful wonderful day ! It went really well - the sun came out at the right moments (the storm happened while we were in the church!).

A happy, happy, happy day. You can find a few photos on my Facebook thingy - just click here to go to it.

More later
xxx

Arghhhhhhh

2009-07-13T13:46:00.002+01:00

don't you just HATE programs that change their parameters when you upgrade them ? After doing a lot of work on the systems for Brazil, I discovered that Adobe wasn't embedding all the fonts, so the suit symbols from the CCE program showed as []{} ... and I have had to re-do them all ! Talk about irritating. Meant I had to do some work over the weekend to make sure it worked properly as well, which was not what I had intended. Oh well, these things happen I guess. Trouble was it didn't show up on my system becuase the font is actually installed, it is only on computers without the latest CCE that are affected. Maddening.

A good weekend otherwise though - even though sometimes I wonder when I look at the emails on a Monday morning!

The Bill Hughes pairs has finished, and I will be finalising it very shortly; the Kidney Research Pairs is "nearly there"! Don't forget the BGB Summer Pairs at the end of the month - that is a green point event, and the lists of clubs are here.

We nearly have all the names of all the teams for the World Championships, so it is all starting to get interesting, and it won't be too long before we do the draw. Do think about entering the Transnational Teams - such a great event. Information about Brazil can be found on the WBF site, and also here on ECatsBridge

Finally, something I should have done last week is to pay tribute to one of the great players of our time - Dick Freeman. I didn't know Dick very well, but when I had contact with him he was such a lovely person ... he will be much missed, obviously by his family but also by his team mates and many many friends in the bridge world.

more soon ...

Time for a resolution !

2009-07-07T10:26:00.002+01:00

To try and update this blog on a much more regular basis, even if it is shorter ! Otherwise it gets to a point where I dread doing it ... and where there is too much to say. So do keep checking back because I promise to try hard !

At the moment I am frantically registering convention cards for the World Championships - they are sent in a multiplicity of formats which I convert to PDF and then they will be posted on the website for the other teams to download so that they can prepare for the fray ! Not the most exciting job in the world, I admit, but one that needs doing.

And it doesn't leave much time for anything else, as they all seem to arrive right on the deadline! Ho Hum.

But I have found time to go and inspect the new additions to the family - three lovely chickens, named Heather, Grace and Claire, who are settling into their new home well and will (we hope) soon start to provide us with lovely fresh eggs!

More in a few days ... back to the systems (arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

Sim Pairs news (mainly!)

2009-05-28T14:39:00.003+01:00

Well, we are on track for the World Wide Bridge Contest, happening next week (5th & 6th June) so do try and find a club to play in - the list of UK clubs is on our site - just click here to go directly the page, and the ACBL has a list of US & Canadian clubs on their site - click here for that. It promises to be an excellent event with the usual great commentary from Eric Kokish ... mind you he doesn't always get it right so ... let's see what happens !

We are being asked what will happen next year with regard to Simultaneous Pairs when the new P2P regulations are introduced by the EBU.

The four EBU events (2 in May and 2 in September) will only be open to EBU affiliated clubs, but the others that we score – the BGB events and all the Charity events, the World, European and any other non-EBU events will be unaffected, and everyone will be welcome to participate whether or not they are affiliated to the Union.

We will be working with the EBU regarding the automatic registration of Master Points for all events and our new file format fully supports this.

I am working to "get ahead" this year, because the World Championships in Brazil are earlier than normal - I will be going at the end of August, so I have to be super-organised in order to be ready for all the Autumn events. I can't believe that I have already done most of the work to prepare for all the events including our own Children in Need Pairs in November!

Information about the World Championships is on the website of course, and will be added to quite frequently now it is starting t get closer - why don't you join us out there and play in the Transnational Open Teams - it's a great event and what a chance to meet all those top players !

Mark whisked me away to Wales for a weekend, now that I am just about over the pneumonia - he thought it would do me good and it did !! Have a look at the pictures - click here to see them. It was such fun and we had a great time. It is really funny though, when we go to new places (I haven't been to North Wales for about 20 years and only went to Prestatyn then ...) I tend to spot all the places on the map where I know there are Bridge Clubs from the Sim Pairs ! It was great fun seeing where Ynys Mon play, or passing Dollgellau (another club I "know") - and finally learning how to pronounce one or two of the place names! North Wales is beautiful, and I can highly recommend it !

Now I had better get back to the final frequency checks from the recent EBU Event so that I can close it and send out the results and Master points. Then I can stop work and go and sow some more carrots ...

look after yourselves, and I am sure we will be in touch again soon
anna

What a start to spring !

2009-04-22T13:16:00.002+01:00

I must apologise to many of you who have had to wait for answers to emails / telephone calls and so forth ... I got a shocking cold the week before Easter but as we had planned to go away for the Easter Weekend, I did my best to ignore it, and at 04.00 on Good Friday morning Mark and I headed North for the weekend. I did the first 5 hours driving, but soon after I handed over the steering wheel I started to feel really ill! By the time we reached our destination I was running a high temperature, and went to the doctor, who diagnosed pneumonia and prescribed some VERY strong "horse pills". I was incapacitated for a week - I couldn't even face having Mark drive me home, and I am still a bit weak and feeble even now and having to rest in the afternoons. So many apologies if you haven't had replies etc - please feel free to nag and I will do my best to help ! And I am sure that normal service will be resumed soon !

The BGB Simultaneous Pairs took place last week, and the TD will be checking the frequencies later this week so that we can send out the queries on those. The EBU Simultaneous Pairs is at the beginning of May and I have just put the clubs lists up, so have a look and see if there is a club near you where you can play. Fast on the heels of that one comes the World Wide Bridge Contest - as usual the commentary is a long one by Eric Kokish and excellent value, so do join us for that if you can.

We are all working towards the Bermuda Bowl which is being held in Sao Paulo and should be enormous fun - and of course there are the Junior Championships in Turkey, so any of you under-25s should have a look at the details for those.

That's about it for now - you can probably tell that I am tired by the short message ! Iwill put a new blog up when I feel a bit better

anna

Time marches on ... no pun intended !

2009-03-05T12:31:00.002Z

What on earth happened to February - it just vanished, and it is normally quite a "slow" month because I am so keen on spring starting ! But this year it flew by and now the days are getting longer and the temperature is rising. Mark gave me a weather station for Christmas, which is great fun - you can see what it is like here by going to our "weather page" - nothing to do with bridge of course and that makes it even better!

I have spent quite a bit of time honing my bread-making skills in the dark winter days - such a lovely homely, warming thing to do and the results are great as well (most of the time anyway!). And now the weather is improving I can get into the garden and grow some nice vegetables to go with the bread ... I hope ! little green things are coming up in the greenhouse anyway, so I am very hopeful that they will be yummy in due course.

As for bridge - well it hasn't been exactly quiet on that front ! I have been trying to get ahead with the Simultaneous Pairs, though not with enormous success I must admit, as I have had things like the WBF Anti Doping regulations to deal with - only to typeset I hasten to add, I don't have any part in writing those I can assure you !

The BGB January pairs is, of course, done and dusted, and the WBU St David's Day ones are in full swing. The Charity Challenge happens next week, and my hall is full of the booklets for the BGB one in April. The EBU one for May is all ready to go to the printer and the booklets for the World Wide will go off soon as well; the Summer BGB is waiting to be typeset and the ones for the rest of the year are all with the commentators for them to try and second guess what everyone will do on the hands ! I don't envy them that job I can tell you !

The World Championships will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil - as normal there will be a Transnational Open Teams, so if you fancy a trip to Brazil, now's your chance ! All the details are on the website of course ... and will be updated as more information is made available, so do check back won't you?

Now I must go back to work ... time to get the photographs together for a presentation that the President of the WBF is making in Denver!

Is it Spring yet ?

2009-01-20T11:58:00.003Z

We've had some chilly times this winter haven't we ? I don't mind too much actually - would rather have frost and sun than rain! But there are little signs of spring ... my daffodils have poked their little green tips out of the soil, and the birds are starting to be noisy!

The BGB Winter Simultaneous Pairs has happened, and we are starting down the road of the frequency checks; the material for the Charity Challenge Cup is due for delivery very shortly, so that will be on its way to the participating clubs (let me know if you haven't entered yet and want to do so, won't you ?) and I am getting the material prepared for the printers for the Spring ones - the WBU at the beginning of March, then the BGB AND the EBU have Spring Pairs, the BGB in April and the EBU in May.

The WBF Charity Pairs is next week, in aid of UNICEF - it isn't too late to enter as I send it all by email, and we welcome clubs from all over the world, so do get in touch if you would like to play in this one. And I need to get to work on the World Wide Bridge Contest stuff for June ... and start the planning for the BGB Summer and all the Autumn Sims ! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

You can find the full calendar of the events we run by clicking here so if there are any that your club would like to play in, well, just email me and we will sort it out !

There isn't a lot of other news - we haven't really started on the work for the 2009 World Championships in Sao Paulo yet, though it won't be long now. And no doubt there will be information going up about the EBL Open Teams in San Remo, Italy in June ... have a look at the website and you will see links to both those events on the left hand side, but there isn't much there at the moment - a case of "watch this space" I guess!

And keep watch out for my blogs - I will be putting information up here as the year progresses !

Look after yourselves ...

Thank you - and Happy Christmas

2008-12-23T11:51:00.002Z

My first purpose with this blog is to thank the many of you (over 16,000 of you !) who contributed so generously to our Children In Need Simultaneous Pairs. We have sent in over £56,000 which is just incredible. Bridge players are, without doubt, wonderful ! Mark and I never cease to be amazed, but this year you really have surpassed yourselves. Thank you, thank you.

We had a wonderful time at the CiN night - it was enormous fun and great to be part of it. Shortly after that we went up to Orkney for what was meant to be just a few days, but turned out to be rather longer as the car broke down, and parts had to be shipped 200 miles before it could be repaired, so it meant I got a bit behind-hand, so apologies for delays on responses to emails etc.

I will be in touch again early in the New Year with news of forthcoming events and such like ! In the mean time, Mark and I (and, of course, our ECats cats) wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - I hope that it is a healthy and peaceful year for you even if it isn't quite as prosperous as it might be !!

With very best wishes

Anna & Mark - the ECatsBridge Team

Children in Need

2008-11-11T12:38:00.003Z

Just a brief note here, to say thank you to all the clubs who have decided to join us for the ECatsBridge for Children in Need event and to all the marvellous bridge players who are coming along to play in the events and donating lots of lovely money !

Obviously we are hoping to equal (or exceed) last year's total, but whatever the outcome, your money will be going to help Children who need help ! All the money raised on the night goes directly to the Charity.

We are going up to the BBC Studio on Friday and will be in the audience for the second part of the show (10.30 - 2 am !) waving a cheque with the ECats Cat on it, so do watch out for us.

I hope that you found the hands intersting and fun ... they are just ordinary computer deals I promise!

For those of you interested in the World Events if you go to the pages about Beijing (click here) you will find lots of data from the World Championships and the Mind Sport Games - all the results and bulletins etc. And if you read my older blogs you can find out more about it !

look after yourselves - I will be "blogging again" in due course!

anna

Happy and Sad

2008-10-18T05:33:00.001+01:00

The English Ladies team won the Gold medal by just 1 IMP ... Just ONE ! It was a marvellous achievement and I am so so proud of them all ... but I confess to being just a bit sad for the Chinese Ladies ... to miss out by such a tiny margin must have been heartbreaking.

I was also furious because the medal ceremony was held in the BICC which is about a 10 minute bus ride away. My bus left late and I missed the awards for the Women's medals which really did not do much for my joy :-( But at least I was there to see the English Open Team get their Silver medals - another great achievement, losing to the mighty Italians but not heavily - they really acquitted themselves well.

Now I am just packing up - the internet will be "switched off" in a few minutes and then my computer and I will return to the hotel, ready to head for the airport tomorrow morning.

For those of you waiting patiently for Sim pairs results and things like that, accept my apologies and assurances that "normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!" ... but I do plan to sleep for a couple of days after this marathon!

For my family and friends back home ... I can't wait to see you.

For my many friends here, old and new alike, it was great to be with you in Beijing - a memorable championship indeed for many reasons. I wish you all a safe journey home - keep in touch and I will see many of you next year in Sao Paulo!

Signing off from Beijing - goodbye and in the immortal words of Douglas Adams "thanks for all the fish"

Down to the Wire

2008-10-17T11:08:00.001+01:00

The WBF official photographer, Ron Tacchi came to our office today (he manged to find a quiet moment which was nothing short of a miracle) and took a picture of the 3 of us for your education and delight !!

As you look at it, Carol is on the left, Christine in the middle and I am on the right ... normally Christine sits at the desk at the back, but she joined us for the "photo shoot"

It has actually been an incredibly busy day ... having expected it to be fairly quiet but how wrong can you be ! First of all there was a meeting and we had to rush around getting the air conditioning switched off so they could hear themselves think, never mind speak ! Then get it put back on again - the Chinese Organisers think we are quite mad !!

Then there were the speeches to prepare - three of them, and the documents to transfer to memory sticks for the members of the Executive to take home instead of the great heavy files they normally have to lug back. The invitations for the Closing Ceremonyhad to be collected, and distributed. All our machines to back up, each to the other so we are all sure to have all the documents we need (and for security!). We all have individual back up devices of course but there is nothing like being a bit paranoid for safety!

We managed to escape all three of us for lunch which was nice - normally it is a sandwich in the office - but today we went to the restaurant together for a change

Then back to the office and a constant stream of people with questions about different things while we tried to pack up and destroy all the papers that we no longer need - such a full bin we have!!

But no chance of getting fully packed up - we will be back tomorrow morning I have no doubt.

It isn't often I actually watch bridge on internet but the matches this evening are actually quite exciting. I will probably have to finish and upload this before the end, but of course all the results, bulletins etc are on the World Bridge Federation Site, and you can find all the bidding and play records etc here

You may (or may not) hear from me tomorrow - just depends how the day pans out - but you can think of us tonight at the medal ceremony, and then the Closing Ceremony is tomorrow evening and I fly back to England, home and beauty on Sunday ... where Mark will pick me up from the airport and in the evening my daughter Vickie & son in law Nick are coming over complete with supper so we don't have to worry about cooking. A glass of wine or two and I will tell them ALL about it! Unfortunately my grand daughter Jasmine is away, so I will have to wait until next week to see her. I am very much looking forward to seeing everyone again - I have missed them all so much. Next weekend my younger daughter, Catherine, and her Mark (who have just got engaged to my delight) are coming up to discuss wedding plans, and so life will get back to normal ... lovely !

But even if I don't contact you tomorrow, I will be in touch soon no doubt so ... watch this space!

Getting there ... (but where is there ?!)

2008-10-16T09:40:00.000+01:00

Last Executive Meeting this morning, the Committees all sorted out and their minutes ratified, and all the "paperwork" being put onto memory sticks to make it easy to take home.

We are still not sure about how the medal ceremonies will be organised tomorrow but the Chinese assure us they have it in hand, and they are dealing with the Closing Ceremony tickets etc which is wonderful as that is usually a MAJOR job that Carol, Christine and I get landed with and we HATE it !! So we are really feeling quite relaxed - I would be a bit more relaxed if my poor little legs weren't quite so stiff after the steps at the Great Wall yesterday!

But I will certainly be getting to the medal ceremony because our English Open & Women's teams will be "featuring" with at least a silver medal in each event !! Wonderful ....

We are suffering a bit today to say the least - the air conditioning (which was asthmatic at best) had to be switched off completely this morning because it was so noisy in the meeting room that no one could hear themselves think ... and we daren't ask them to switch it back on as there is another meeting tomorrow and as it took them 4 hours to turn it off today (and "the boss" was nearly going mad!) we have decided to leave it off until after the meeting and suffer!

We are all a bit jaded, but everyone is looking forward to getting home I think, and being able to relax ... there is a lot of frantic last minute present buying, and I confess that I have finally got around to writing four postcards to my "nearest and dearest" which will doubtless get home long after I do but - hey, there you go ! Shopping has been the last thing on my mind, so my case will sadly be devoid of prezzies! Several people have managed to nip out and get tailor made shirts and suits for incredible prices ... and I am told the silk market is just lovely (well, you would expect that of course). I am not bemoaning my lot on this front though - shopping is not in my top 10 favourite pastimes I am afraid !

Right - time to go and do a bit of work before heading back to the hotel - going out with a great friend tonight, Ron Tacchi, whose sister lives here ... I am told we are going to a restaurant where the food is great but the surroundings are a bit unsalubrious so I think I am looking forward to it ... tell you tomorrow !!

Escape to the Wall !

2008-10-15T11:54:00.001+01:00

Well, yesterday's blog was a bit patchy, but hopefully this will make up for it !

Armand Trippaers, President of the Netherlands Federation invited us to go to the Great Wall to do some sightseeing. Christine didn't want to come, but once he had asked "the boss" if he could take us, Carol and I were delighted to accept. It was agreed that we should leave early in order to be back in time to do some work in the afternoon, so our alarms duly buzzed at 06.30 (mmm ...) and at 7.30 we boarded the minibus and started on our way. We were all delighted to note that it was obviously going to be a "blue sky day" ... there was a little mist, but it was clearing and it looked as though it was going to be glorious, as indeed it turned out to be.

It was a very interested journey - abut 2.5 hours, first of all out of modern Beijing, heading North on the toll road - an excellent road if a little alarming as you can overtake on either side, something that we don't get happening (legally) in England.

After about 3/4 of an hour we reached the end of the motorway and headed out into the country, and this was China much more as I remember it from 1995 when I was last here. The road was dusty and bumpy, the overtaking was (frankly) terrifying, and the lorries were heavy haulage and VERY old! Alongside the road there were vendors selling fruit on the hard shoulder, something I certainly wouldn't have wanted to do, as occasional cars "overtook" lorries on that side! Some of the vendors just had hand carts, but there were also donkey carts and a few with the small three-wheeler flatbed carts. I was surprised at how dusty it was, and the rivers were very low. We passed by one big town, where there is masses of construction going on, and past a massive school where the children were in the playground in straight lines, looking very disciplined then past an area with row upon row upon row of aspen trees at various stages of development - miles and miles of them.

Then we came to a gateway over the road, guarded by two of the dogs of Fo, onto a smaller road that led through "the Jing Herb Art Park" and the "Purple Park" where they grow herbs, and there were swathes of purple flowers - I don't think it was lavendar, the leaves looked wrong, but it was beautiful. We started climbing up into the mountains, and the Virginia Creeper was tumbling down the rocks in rivers of scarlet leaves.

Then finally we came round a corner and there on the top of the mountain was the wall ... wow! It was just fantastic.

We all piled out of the bus, and went to the cable car - two people in an open car and we swung slowly up the mountain, with the views changing and the wall getting ever nearer. Out of the car, and up some steps to the small railway which hauled us up the next bit ... looking down was a bit like looking down one of those terrifying water chute rides at fair grounds!

Then - oh my god then ... I think it was 9 LONG flights of steps, carved out of the rock face, with a chain for a "hand rail" and the roughest climb I have ever done. And I didn't take my trainers to Beijing so was wearing leather soled shoes. My poor knees hated it but I made it .. and the view from the top was ... unbelievable. You could seek the wall stretching for MILES - 6,500 kilometers I am told though obviously we couldn't see that far ! We were at the bit called Simatai, which I was informed is the highest point that tourists can get to (after that climb I can well believe it!).

We sat in the sun and drank in the beauty. There were some wonderful little leaf bugs crawling around, but very few birds. The leaves on the shrubs (too high for trees I guess) were turning to the golds and reds of autumn and far below we could see a small village, with a farm carved out of the mountainside in steppes. On the other side, the cable car looked like tiny flags swinging across the valleys and away and away in the distance were more and more mountains.

Then it was time for the descent, down those rough steps, down the scary little train and swing our way across the terrain in the cable car. Back to the bus, where Armand had thoughtfully arranged an excellent packed lunch for us to enjoy on the way home.

Pictures are here

We arrived back at the Convention Centre to find that no one had really missed us, but we both had a pile of papers to deal with and things to type, but it didn't take too long. Now it is 7.45 and - well ! What a great evening for the English Teams! Not only did our U-21 team win silver a couple of days ago, but tonight both the Open and the Women's teams qualified for the Finals, so are guaranteed medals as well. I have seen some of the players and obviously they are delighted, as am I. Details of the team can be found on the EBU Website ...