Time marches on ... no pun intended !

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 ?

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

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

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

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

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 ?!)

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 !!