23 September - Gala & Poker

In which the lesson is: don't be afraid to look like a fool and if you've sat down at the wrong table at the casino (well, I was in a daze, though it was only 7.30pm), and a poker table at a casino looks not dissimilar from the blackjack one until you, er... realise some of the symbols on the baize are alien to you... stay at the wrong table, watch a few rounds, try it out and ... win £330 thanks no doubt to classic beginners luck. Then further learn the lesson that you'll spend the rest of the night rueing the fact that on the previous round you had £20 down and could have got that straight flash to pay £660, and you'd also removed the chip from the bonus symbol that would have paid extra money, £40 I think. So yeah, humans, are we ever happy?
Further lesson is that lieing about where you were may not be a good idea when you eventually meet your lover at 11pm. You sounded shifty when you didn't want to say where you'd been for 3 hours and when the £350 tumbled out of your purse in crispy £50 notes (ok I won at the roulette machine as well), what's he to think? Hotel visit? Come to think of it, maybe that's no bad thing, if he realises your time is valuable. Shame, as I already said, that it wasn't £700 so you could really say 'I'm worth it'.