Hi all,
At the moment I could easily talk about ghoulish nightmares, perfecting insomnia, regret squared nay cubed, dark times for the soul, and much, much more from unhappy places. I’m sorry.
Let’s instead try to seek out some happy memories. 2017 started for me by travelling to Mexico. Almost 4 weeks of holidays: Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Mexico City and in/around Merida.
I picked up a few Spanish words which are grafted onto my soul permanently: cochinita, amorcita, gato, cerveza, taquito, carnitas and .. zapateria. Rosetta Stone will keep adding to my vocabulary, but those few first words mean the world to me.
Fabi picked me up at Cancun airport and seeing her again after a 5 month hiatus was absolutely wonderful. No more random noise in my head, no stones weighing on my chest, feeling immensely free with the Mexican sun on my face. Writing this makes me smile and glow.
Summary: drinking every Mexican artisanal beer I could get my hands on, Maya temples, snorkeling in Cozumel, dancing a little with Fabi on the streets of the Yellow City (Izamal), swimming in multiple cenotes (looking at you Il Kil), seeing flamencos, eating way too much fantastic food, finding out reggaeton isn’t too bad when you’re hanging out with friends, visiting the Frida Kahlo museum, doing an ad hoc photoshoot in front of bridge related artwork in Mexico City, tasting mescal, getting killed by the habanero in my huevos motuleños and so much more. By itself it was close to the perfect holiday, I dare say. Fabi pushed it beyond that. I can’t wait to go back.
I know you’re not here to read about my holidays, you’re here for bridge. This is me (South) and Wouter in full sync:
12
345- Game-forcing
- Extra length in
- Patterning out/control showing/extras
- Setting trumps
- Cue
- Two keys with a void
This was the full deal:
Some extra notes, I knew Wouter had some extras or he wouldn’t have taken the 2 checkback route. Second, our generic approach is to never cue shortness in partner’s suit. After my response to his Blackwood question Wouter had no problem visualizing the 4-0-6-3 or 4-0-7-2 distribution in my hand.
West spoiled the play by leading the Ace of . On a passive (trump) lead I would have needed to find the Queen. I have an uncanny knack to lose queens, bridge or otherwise.
I leave you with a few words of wisdom: Don’t antagonize the baby barracudas.