Coffs Congress

Say goodbye to hubby, I will miss him - we have had a fab month together.  I apparently caused quite the panic in the UK, when I mentioned that John left early and caught a flight home.  John's mum Pat was very worried that something had happened between us and John got calls from his mum, brother and nephew to check that all was okay.  I assure you that we love each other still and this was planned.

I have checked into the Opal Cove resort, my home for the next few nights.  I have met up with Felix and Marina and George is charged to the max!  Let the games begin! Yikes I havent played bridge for a month, will I remember how to?

Our rooms have nice views.

I was left in charge of George for a few hours and.... I get a message from George to say that I have left the boot open!  Off back down to the car.  I also get a text from John, who has just landed in Sydney to say - have you left the boot open?  No secrets in this place.

There is a warm-up "Welcome Pairs" event, we are playing in this to iron out any kinks.  It is an all-comers event and we ranked 9th - I was pretty pleased with this result. It finished quite late and then it is hard to wind down - so it was difficult to get to sleep.  But I slept pretty well - eventually and I am awake and ready to take on the challenge!

Breakfast with Marina and Felix and then ready for the day-long of bridge.  There are 2 sections at this Congress, Open which features National and International players as well as any others that have more than 750 MasterPoints (this is like your bridge handicap).  Then the other section is Intermediate and it is Under 750 MPs.  Felix and I and Marina and her partner Jack are in this division.  

For the non-Bridge Players reading this. MasterPoints are not freely given out, you earn fractions of them.  My mum who is a really good player has 429 and I believe the best player in our Golf Club is Carol Gilder and she has 229.  They are not a true measure of ability like a golf handicap as the more you play the more MPs you get, so if you only play once a week then you could be a really good player but only earn MPs once a week.  Or if you have a double foot op and play twice a day....  you can earn a few because you are getting more opportunities.  You get different types of points green points are for Club comps and although they go towards your total they are disregarded when someone is assessing how good you are.  To get promoted to various ranks and to become a Grand Master (the ultimate goal) you need to attain a certain amount of Red and Gold Points.  Red points are awarded at special events and State Congresses.  Gold Points are awarded at National and International events.  This week we are playing for Gold Points or Carats as Marina has renamed them!

So in our welcome pairs, we earned 0.18 of a Gold Point for coming 9th.  You think it is hardly worth the effort but because they are so rare - it is such a thrill when you get them and you can get addicted to the hunt!

Back to the why we are here.  The congress, we are in the Intermediate Pairs and it is a two-day event.  Starts at 10am and you play 4 matches a day, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  Each match is 14 boards (hands) - so each day we will play 56 games.  When we play Club bridge we will play on average 24 boards, so concentration and stamina are key.

Surprisingly, I am not nervous and Felix and I have a good understanding of our bidding, we make a few boo-boos and lose the first match.  The way the comp works is that it is a seeded pairing apart from the first game.  The first game is random, we started at table 135, if you improve you will go to a lower table number, and winning would place you at table 100 in our division.  Even though we lost our match, everyone is playing the same cards so you get ranked against them - we get promoted to table 125.

We are going in the right direction but a very long way from Table 100 and with 2 pairs on each table quite a lot of people ahead of us.  Next match we play the loveliest ladies, Althea and Jacqui and we go to Table 111, which means we must have won our last match and we are ranked 22.  Next match we go to table 110 and ranked 20th.  Tables 1, 2 and 3 have the best view in the house - a gorgeous view out to the ocean.  At table 111, we can see tables 1, 2 and 3 and the ultimate goal.  

By now I am absolutely exhausted - I need a coffee.  Felix looks like he is sleeping, he isn't it is just that I cannot tell.  He uses a card holder which sits on his knees, so his head is always bent down looking into his lap, and every now and gain he needs to relax his neck so he moves it around and it looks just like someone who has fallen asleep and suddenly woken up.  I can see Felix is tired, I am tired - we have to concentrate so hard.   We end the day absolutely exhausted and ranked 20th.

Out for dinner that night with Jack and Jeannette, Felix and  Marina.  Jack and Marina are on a buzz because they lifted themselves off the bottom and earned some gold points.  We are all happy.  We had a lovely meal at an Ethiopian restuarant, well chosen by Felix.  Jack is driving us and on the way home, we took the wrong lane in a detour and then somehow landed up in a MacDonalds Drive thru! So without ordering anything and confusing the hell out of the attendants, we also had to wait for the food orders to be prepared for the people ahead - this was a great source of amusement for us all, and brought out the Taco Bell story.  Felix and Marina are somewhere - I have forgotten where, but in the middle of the night, probably jet lagged and their son is hungry, room service has closed for the evening, their son is really hungry and not going to sleep without some food.  Marina notices a Taco Bell across the road and the lights are still on.  So Felix goes across to get some food, but only the drive-thru is open at that time of night, so Felix walks through the Drive-thru, a car in front and a car behind.  I can just imagine it...  The ordering computer is only triggered by a car, it is not configured for pedestrians in the drive-thru - so that doesn't work.  Eventually, Felix gets the order, and comes home to find their son is fast asleep!  

So exhausted after the long day, I fall asleep straight away and only wake up at 7:30am.  Fresh as a daisy, ready for another day.

The first round of Day 2, was against a pair and one of them was playing for sheep stations.  I also think he may have had terrets syndrome because he would say these statements out of the blue and they meant nothing.  

He blurted out "Time penalty", I said "What?" - he said "Never mind" and played out the hand, then got up and left.  I have no idea what is going on.  I think, Ooops we have done something when I see the Director coming over.  Felix had left our convention card in his room and they wanted us to complete another one.  When Felix was dummy, he went to get our convention card from his room, then his room key wouldn't work.  Meanwhile, we are waiting to play our next hand.  Eventually, Felix arrives back at the table, exhausted and a bit stressed.  They never looked at the convention card - all a bloody waste of time.  

We lose and go further away from the ocean, then get a win and come a little closer.  Another win, next match Table 107 and we are now ranked 14.  Now we can start to actually see the ocean and the lure of Table 1 is within sight!  Final match is against two sisters from Coffs, they are lovely and we are all exhausted.  The one sister actually counted her cards out aloud.  I heard her go 2, 3, 5, 6!  I said, did you just count your cards aloud, she says yes and we catch the giggles.  You are just mentally drained the littlest things seem hilarious.  It reminded me of the end of a drunken party and you start sucking the air out of the helium balloons and talking in a high-pitched voice and everyone is pissing themselves laughing - this is how it was, so hard to concentrate.

Final match of the day is done and dusted and we land up ranked 5th overall in the Under 750 MPs and we are No1 in the Under 300 MPs Division.   Winner Winner chicken dinner, never in my wildest dreams did I think we would come 5th - that means if we had been playing another match we would have had uninterrupted views of the ocean!  

Felix missed the prize giving, but I accepted the prize on our behalf.  Together with Marina and Jack I opened the envelope to see what we had won and there was hard cash in there.  A greeny, then another greeny, then another greeny, then another greeny and then two goldies.  $500 bucks to share.  Felix is not there, so we decided to tell him that we won $50.  Felix was so happy with the $50 and the win - imagine his face when he found out that it was $500.

Jack and Marina had a bad morning yesterday and were near the bottom again and we set a "stretch objective" for them to get from a placing in the 60's to a placing in the 50's.  And THEY BLOODY DID IT!  They earned 1.58 gold points or carats as Marina calls them.  They did so well. nOh yes, Felix and I earned 4.54 carats.

Out to Latitude 30 for a celebration.  We got an Uber, so no MacDonald's drive-thru but lots of laughter and fun.

All in all, 10/10 - I met so many people that we play with online, met new friends, and got to know Jeannette, Jack, Marina, and Felix.  I absolutely LOVED it and highly recommend the experience.  Felix, you have unleashed a beast, when is the next conference?