I played a poker tournament last night, just for a bit of fun, didn’t expect to win or come close to winning. There were 90 people in the competition and I found myself finishing 3rd which I was pretty proud of as it was my best finish in a tournament of that size.

University starts tomorrow, it is my last session at Wollongong so hopefully I’m doing a few interesting subjects this semester and that I can I stay focused, travelling was on my mind last semester and with a little under 5 months to go, I’m hoping it doesn’t get the better of my university marks…

The Vancouver Winter Olympics caused much controversy even before the opening ceremony, there were massive cost blow outs, poor weather conditions on Cypress Mountain and most tragically  the death of an athlete, however on Monday at the closing ceremony despite all the problems that plagued the first few days, the Winter Olympics were a great success for Canada as a nation even though Canada didn’t set a record for the most medals, they did earn 14 gold medals, the most gold medals won by any single nation in the winter olympics but more importantly Canada won the gold medal in ice hockey, which from all accounts I’ve heard, will send the country into a party frenzy for at least the next week or so.

Video below shows a group of Canadians celebrating… I think ice hockey might be a big deal two a ‘few’ of them…

The closing ceremony was at some points a bit tacky with mounties dressed in the usual bright red and whom could be seen almost everywhere, but overall I thought Canada put on a good show and there were some particularly funny parts to enjoy.

I hope the winter olympics makes more people interested in visiting Canada as much as I am.

Adam and myself decided to head over to Star City Casino last night, my first thought were that the interior wasn’t as modern and classy as the Crown Casino, there weren’t as many tables it seemed and there were no $2.50 tables the cheapest was $5 and as a uni student that can be a bit steep if your only going out to have a good time!

One thing that I really liked though was that they had a craps table, now I’d heard of craps before but never seen it in person (they are usually on TV shows where they have heaps of people standing around a a large table and rolling dice), there aren’t many tables because they make very little money from it (the odds aren’t as good for the casino as other games) or at least thats what I was told. After we spent half an hour trying to learn how to play, then another half hour playing with almost no idea to play. We finally started to understand it and by the end of the night I must of had beginners luck or something because I ended up being a few hundred dollars ahead!

Overall it was a pretty good night and I added a bit of money to my travel funds so I definitely can’t complain about that!