Sun is shining ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... 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 !

More in a day or two ...

anna

inundated ...

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

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 ..

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

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