Brookyln Dodger

So I went down to Brooklyn for the first proper time this evening. I had been there before, back in August to walk back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn bridge, but this was the first time that I'd actually been out in the urban areas and really looked around. It seems pleasant enough, it's certainly roomier than Manhattan and much less high-rise - you can actually see the sky, which a lot of the time the corporate canyon in Manhattan makes rather difficult. I'd like the chance to take a look around in daylight some time, though I don't know what reason I'd have to go there any time soon. We stopped for dinner at a Peruvian place near Pacific Avenue, where I had (for want of a better appellation) Peruvian fried chicken and a dish of fried plantains, not something I've ever had before. They were kind of like a cross between potatoes and bananas; or at least my friends' were. They ordered sweet plantains, I tried the salty ones - and found them stodgy and not particularly wonderful, though they certainly filled me up.

The occasion was our semi-regular game of poker, which has been in Brookyln the last few weeks owing to our Taiwanese friend, the lovely Pei-Ting, winning a few weeks ago and none of us being particularly willing to make the trek to Brooklyn. This time, however, we were able to make a party of eight people, and with our usual $15 buy-in that was a pot of $120.

Which I won.

Yeah, I'm still not sure how I did it - it wasn't the whole amount, we divide up by place so 2nd gets their money back and third only loses $5 - but even so, I walked away with $90. It worked out as a very quick game, really - I had wiped everyone else out by 10:30, and we started at 8:45. I guess the cards were just lucky for me, really...I finally won on the heads-up on a pair of 8s, which is a crappy hand normally but good enough if the guy opposite you only has King High. I guess the thing is that with eight people playing, you know that by the time it comes down to the final rounds the people who are still there are bound to have something good - and luck favoured me, I got 3's, straights and full houses on a regular basis. I won't pretend it was skill - just dumb luck. No less welcome all the same.

So all in all, with that, and with the most welcome news that I got my pension refund (all $4,000 of it) this week, plus payday from my job, I've suddenly gone from dire financial straits to being reasonably comfortable again. Funny how things change. I'm celebrating with a beer tonight.