went out with big ben (yes he arrived in NY two days ago!) for some drinks in astoria (my area). he likens my area to brixton, which i find funny. it may appear rough, but it really isn’t. i’ve walked the streets with people at all times of the day and night so far, and it’s a nice neighbourhood. it’s always bustling for most of the day also (like a good 12-14 hours), and that appeals to me quite a bit.
so anyway, we went to ‘avenue cafe’ – a bar down the road, which is set out like a cafe (they do serve hot drinks there too, though). we made a rule: we couldn’t drink the same drink twice (we let the waitress choose what she made us), and then a little while later we made another rule: we weren’t allowed to drink from the same type of glass twice (they had A LOT of glasses). so this went on for a while, but surprisingly, we weren’t charged that much. and i mean, not that much at all. i asked dane what was up with that and said that they have this rule here in the states. it’s called a ‘buy back’. the bartender gives you a free drink for every couple of drinks you order. this doesn’t happen a lot in the big bars, but small bars seem to operate on this rule, he says. i asked why this even happens, because it makes no sense for the bar to lose money like that. he explained that the bar may lose money, but the bartender is only after the tips (i forget about the tips here, we don’t do this in england). if they give you free drinks, it may cost the bar, but you’re more likely to tip them. ta-da! keeps everyone happy except the bar owner 
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had a good game of poker last night. went on for hours – six and a half, to be precise.
met loads of new people too – shaun, mark, diana, lisa, brian, billy, emmett and quite possibly more people, but i didn’t speak to them at all. everyone listed here played poker (including me), except emmett. and all the usual crowd was there also: sarah, poindexter (pete), FNF, krakmaster, celine (kraki’s gf), diana (celine’s best mate) & jakeland.
we got to mark and diana’s house (they’re married) and as soon as we got into the basement (the fun room) people were sat around the table ready to play poker. i figured it’d be a good way to get to know a lot of people, so i joined in.
buy in: $20.
no antes.
small blind: 25 cents.
big blind: 50 cents.
started off with limit of $2, and about four hours later turned into no limit.
pot size: went to about $180 at the end (people kept buying themselves in).
i was doing pretty well and doubled and then tripled my stack within a few hours. then it occurred to me that being the ‘new guy’ on the table and then beating everyone isn’t the best way to go for a newcomer (in their friends circle as well as at the poker table). everyone was really drinking a lot too, so it would have been easy to make some money. worst part of it was that people kept buying themselves back in, so it basically turned out that i was the only person left at near the end who was in the game with their original stack. was a really good chance to read people though, and talk to everyone at the same time. got to know everyone as well as study their game, and have a light hearted game of poker also. the game ended quite, though, as people were leaving. i got home about 5am.
