EGC part two

Fourth round:
First loss so far, against a Dutch 3k. I was ahead until I died in a corner due to a really stupid reading mistake. I gained some points in yose, but in the end he still had enough to win by one point.

Yesterday, I was sent to the train station to help some pros to buy tickets to Stockholm, because they were a bit afraid that they wouldn't be able to do it by themselves.
There are no staff at the station so one has to use a machine which aparently was very scary for them.
A woman from Taiwan didn't have a PIN code, but apart from that, everything went fine.
I was working at the pub when they called and asked me to help out, so they had to send another person to replace me.
I still wonder what is so special about me that makes me so suitable for holding hands with the pros...
In the evening I played a marathon game against Max in the pub and managed to kill a dragon. I used the same strategy as in the tournament game today: take points early and invade/reduce the moyo, so he won't get any points.

Over and out

EGC part one

Friday
Worked all day and then took the train to Leksand around 17:30 IIRC.
Seemed to be quite chaotic, the people at the Info Desk didn't know that there was a code to enter the school where I'm staying for example. Fortunately, I found some people outside who knew the code.

Saturday
Started off with the night shift at the Info Desk, absolutely nothing to do there. Around 07:30 I got to bed and slept til noon.

Sunday
First round. I played a Russian 3 kyu and managed to win.
When I first came to my board there was a Japanese 3 dan sitting there.
He was very sure that he was supposed to play there and his English wasn't too impressive...
After a while a team leader (it seems that the Japanese players usually have one, to communicate with the world for them) said something and all Japanese players in the room left.

I decided to play in the rapid tournament, but quickly realized that that was a bad idea. Being a organizer is more work than I expected, so my plan for the rest of the congress is to only play in the main tournament, aka the European Championship.

Info desk in the evening, not too much work but a bit frustrating since people ask soo many questions that I had no answers to.

Monday
Second round. I won against a German 2 kyu thanks to a better fuseki and jose.
It was a very fast game; the time limits are 2 hours plus byo-yomi, but we only used around 20 min each.

Info desk again.

Tuesday
Third round. Very peaceful and easy game against a Japanese lady with the rank 1 kyu.
Although it was easy, it was tireing at the same time, since I counted maybe 30 times to make sure that I could just play safe.

I worked at the pub in the evening. One player got really drunk (on his own, not in the pub) and passed out around midnight in some bushes outside; he thew up and was lying on the street at one time, so we decided to try to do something.
The ambulance didn't want to do anything and neither did the Police, they said something like "well, take a picture of him" when we asked what to do.
Around 02:00 some people managed to get him into a car and took him to the school where he's staying.

Wednesday so far
Rest day (no main tournament game)

I started off at the Info Desk at 07:00. WTF? Did I get to sleep for 4 hours? It fells like a lot less...

There's a 9x9 tournament today and one player didn't realize that he had to register and way quite upset when he found out that he couldn't play. He was sitting in a chair beating up a table with one of his sandals, then walked around a bit looking like he wanted a fight with somebody and then sat down again hitting the table some more. I don't know about some people...

Off to EGC

I'm off to Leksand now, hopefully I'll have time to update the blog from there but I will most likely not post any pictures.
Hopefully, I'll get some sleep on the train because my first shift at the info desk is 1 to 6 tonight.

6808

Yesterday I went to a arts exhibition with a old friend whom I hadn't seen for four years or so.
The exhibition was ok if not great, but it was really nice to see my friend.
Maybe I'll try to be a bit more social with my non Go playing friends... We'll see...

Some pics from China

I found a couple of pictures still in the camera...
Ed, Kris and Kerstin keeping the Internets alive.
A tired Carlos in his room.

En blogginlägg

En sak som stör mig något så oerhört är när kassapersonal inte kan skilja på plural och singular när det gäller pengar.
D.v.s. de säger något i stil med "Då blir det fyrtioen krona".
Undrar om de gör på samma sätt med annat...
"Jag vill beställa femtioen burk kattmat"
"Han är så rik att han har tjugoen bil"

Slot. Hee heh, you said "slut"

Last Sunday, when I was confused about what day it was, I walked to the local mall.
While waiting for the shops to open, this woman came walking past me leading a bicycle.
She looked normal, I guess, at least there was nothing that made me think about it until she parked her bike. I swear to god, if she had been a little bit thinner I would have seen her pubic hair when she leaned forwards to lock the bike. Her pants where that low. And either her panties were down at her knees or she didn't wear any.
Quite disgusting, really and really really weird.

Just another manic Monday

I came back to Sweden on Saturday. For some reason I thought it was Friday, so I was a bit confused for a while.
When I left, most people, including the teachers and Meiying, were still sleeping so I didn't get a good chance to say goodbye, which was a bit of a bummer. To those of you who reads this: Goodbye, and thanks for some lovely weeks! Hope I'll see you next year! :-)

Today was a bit hectic at work, cause so many are on vacation.
Still a little jet lagged, but not too bad.

I think I'll keep the blog in English until the EGC is over, btw.

Walking, but not on silk street

These pictures probably appears in the wrong order, but who cares. I'm glad I finally managed to upload them from my piece of shit old as hell thinkpad with a broken fan.
At the moment I have two bottles of allmost frozen water underneath it to keep it going...
Rear entrance to the forbidden city.

The following pictures are from the Hutongs north-east and north-west of the forbidden city. My guess is that those Hutongs are the only ones that will survive in the end.

Another picture of the electricity wireings, or whatever it's called...

So the thing was, me and eq was supposed to visit Silk Street, the big rip off tourists big time market, a five or so storey building that I've been to maybe 10 times before.

I double checked with Meijing what subway station to get of at, but apparantly I had gotten off at another one on my previous visits, cause I was totally lost and did not find it.

eq was tired and couldn't really handle the heat, so she took a taxi back home, which in itself is a interesting story since there was a minor accident which forced her to change cabs and well, it seems that Beijing taxi drivers are totally, and I mean totally, incapable to read maps.

Anyhow, I walked around in the Hutongs for around four hours in 40 degrees heat and sunshine, finally ended up at the bookstore and got some more go books and a couple of T-shirts.

That was yesterday, today I slept til noon and then beat Carlos in one and a half games, and a half because I sort of won two, but then he made a undo and won that one.

Now, I better post this before my computer blue screens on me again. See ya

Chongwenmen revisited

I walked a lot today, halfway to Chongwenmen, where we stayed in 2006 (and 2007 though I was not on that trip, so it don't count!)
I took the subway the rest and strolled around a bit.
Funny how it looks so totally different now. If I didn't know exacty where I was I would never have recognized the area. The supermarket is still there, and a couple of other shops, but maybe 99% of the shops and restaurants are new.
For some reason, the guard wouldn't let me in, or maybe he just asked me something that didn't matter. Didn't matter much, since it was the area around the block that I was interested in seeing again.

A short video showing the intersection between the street right outside of the appartments and the street to the subway station. It starts (and ends) in the direction towards the subway station.


This is from right outside the block where we lived. It starts showing the place where there was a pool hall in 2006.


This is showing the area where Aussimate's favorite restaurant used to be (on the other side of the ring road, for those who never went there with him). Sadly it seems not to be there anymore. Would have been fun to see that waitress again, who once made Kevin terribly mad when she said he was handsome or something similar right after he had told her that he was a married man.

After that I walked all the way to the "scientific" bridge to check out the market where I and Jesper bought stuff (I don't remember if any others ever went there) and on the way back I went into the Japanese Go Club "The World of Weiqi".
They had more equipment now and also some other stuff.
(Mostly) men's jewlery stuff. Dont know what it's called in English but stuff to, like to hold your tie in place and buttons for a tuxedo etc.
Fans with, I suppose, pro signatures.Not that obvious, but there are glass walls preventing people to access the rails in the new subway line.

Maybe I ought to say something more, but I don't know if i dare. This post has been interrupted so many times allready. Oh well, here goes

Noodles and stuff

Some pictures from our 10 yuan dinner today. Sorry about the bad compositions, I was focusing on the food.