Mini Hand History Review - WSOP Edition, Part 2


So in Part 1, was looking at Christian Pham's hand as an example of a spot that reminded me a bit of some of my own Like maybe too risky/thin a spot to take with such a big stack?

Guess Ben Lamb also had a big stack at the start of day 7 - maybe interesting to compare the two, because Lamb didn't seem to be having much better luck with the cards, but yet he somehow managed to last all day and make it all the way to 10th, while Pham was out within a couple of hours in 19th after that A3s hand?

Taking Risks - While Also Taking Care to Not Spew While Making Moves that are Too Risky (possibly due to impatience, tilt?)


Maybe sometimes there's only so much one can do - like sometimes maybe it'll just be better to sit and wait for a better spot to hopefully arise?

Guess sometimes that can be hard though, when sitting there watching everybody else's stack grow while yours dwindles away, and like with Lamb you wait and wait for a playable hand only to have your opponent hold better.


Sometimes it's felt a bit like maybe impatience and tilt may have been part of what may have caused my stack to go from big to bust in a very short span of time?

Not sure if maybe that might have happened here in this spot with Sinclair? He was chip leader for several hours, and then started to lose his lead to Hesp when Hesp started making those 1/6 pot mini-bets with 4th pair, which seemed to be confusing everybody into folding the better hand? This hand may have dropped Sinclair from something like 3rd to 7th, and gave Blumstein the lead?

Guess it can be especially hard with tourneys, when it's not possible to just sit out and take a little breather to sip a cool beverage and relax on the couch for a half hour or two May need to whip out my copy of Mental Game of Poker if the tilt spew continues lol ... hopefully awareness will help a little bit? Will have to see

Hey marke.! Smetimes it can be nice to just relax on the weekends and take it easy. And a good rest can do wonders - hopefully that was the case for you, you're feeling much better already

Those are great points about Blumstein's play - that's so true, he did do some things in tricky spots that show he wasn't just winning because of luck, like win big pots with the worst hand, and not call with 2nd nuts. Guess maybe his luck was so overwhelming, a lot of people had a hard time relating to his run good? But those are great examples of spots where he played well. Also, he seems like a nice, friendly person - really enjoyed seeing him take the time to talk with Hesp, and show him some support

The WSOP was such good tv! Now there's nothing to watch any more though, until those new episodes of Poker After Dark start in a couple of weeks - will be very different without Tom Dwan ... unless they find a way to have Tom Dwan on!! Wouldn't that be something!!1!

Time for my nightly treasure hunt

Just ran like Scott Blumstein in my nightly Party $0.22 Flyweight

It felt like there were some improvements with the stack awareness, thanks to watching the WSOP ME - but was really struggling when it came to heads-up, and we were quite deep. Remembered reading someone's comment in the WSOP thread about how Ott should just start shoving every hand, because then at least it wouldn't be giving Blumstein a chance to blow him off his equity? So it got to a point where it started to seem like maybe that might be my best shot?

Look at my funny chip graph Heads up is the horrible part at the end, where my stack starts to dwindle until we had the gigantic flip ...

Almost 300 hands to review - will take my time and look over them over the next week ... still have spots from the WSOP have been wondering about, so may look at those instead, after my snack break?

Was running so lucky, even picked up a hater at the tables

lmao i love hatechat

WSOP Hand History Review - More Questions than Answers


So in the last hand with Ben Lamb, he was struggling to find ways to chip up, and wound up folding his TT on the turn - looks like he decided to go with this spot instead, on the FT bubble, with Antonio giving this commentary?

Quote:

Antonio: This is where Ben is really good at sizing up his opponents, seeing if he can pick something off. It's a bit on the loose side, A8o at a 10-handed table. This is where you want to try and get a read on your opponent, see if you can sense some weakness - if you do, sometimes you've got to make these plays. Ben Lamb is very capable of such. Wow, this is a strong play with A8o in the SB – you don't see this every day. With so much at stake, what a great play from Lamb.

It seemed like kind of a neat spot, because it moved Lamb from 10th to 8th, making Ruane and Piccioli tied as the two shortest stacks - and two hands later they then had that AKo vs TT flip ... wonder if Lamb being the shorter stack might have changed that spot, or if it'd have still played out the same?


Kind of frustrating to not know the answer to my own questions Guess could put the Ruane vs Piccioli in SNG Wizard and change Lamb's stack. Was also wondering more about this spot from yesterday as well though, now that am trying to better pick my spots?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Here were Antonio's thoughts about the river spot ...

Quote:

Antonio – Blumstein does not like the A on the river. But the story doesn't really make any sense if Sinclair bets. If he had a hand like AK, would he really bet the turn when his opponent calls? And even when he makes a pair on the river, he has to be afraid of his opponent maybe slowplaying a set? So it's much more likely that he'd actually check any river pair.

Was wondering about the turn as well though ...

Sinclair betting the turn - okay, or maybe not worth the risk?
Blumstein calling the turn - okay, or was folding and waiting for a different spot a decent option as well?

It sucks to not be good enough to be able to answer to my own questions Guess maybe Antonio might have said something if they struck him as maybe a little too thin, like he did with Sinclair's 3-bet pre-flop, and his barrel on the river?

jackie was typing away with the haterate for 20 minutes straight, until she went busto - she was pretty entertaining

Hope you're having a lovely evening SA!!

Summer Updates


The tomatoes in my garden were finally ripe enough to eat ...

Since there's only 2 on the plant (), really tried to make sure would be able to enjoy their freshness. So made fresh bread, and made a bbq chicken sandwich with them ... they tasted really good

Also have a stock market update - purchased some Priceline (PCLN) a month ago, hoping it would rise about 5%? But it looks like it's already hit the analyst estimate for the rest of the year? So may sell it soon, and buy some Ali-Baba (BABA) and Amazon (AMZN) - guess the run up to the holiday season is supposed to be their busiest time of the year?

Stocks don't seem to have big gains like BitCoin does - it looks like BTC gained something like 25% a couple of days ago? But guess the stock market is doing better than my poker, so am pretty happy that at least one of my rolls appears to be moving in an upwards direction


Still have my hand history to do - may take my time with that, and relax and enjoy the rest of the summer? Will check back in, in September! Hope everybody is having a wonderful summer!!

Goodie Corner


Anybody else collect airmiles when they go to the store? Sometimes will see these special offers in the weekly flyers for all the stores, offering bonus miles at a higher rate than usual - so then if there's some good sales on that week, sometimes it can be a nice time to stock up on stuff while everything's cheap, and there's the bonus airmiles offer? Guess a couple of bottles of laundry detergent, and some shampoo and a couple of toothbrushes, and it doesn't take long to get the extra points?

Even with the bonus offers though, the points seem to collect pretty slowly? Have been collecting these points almost as long as have been playing poker, and have just recently collected enough to finally take a trip

And there's only enough to go to New York City - guess my idea of a vacation would be somewhere picturesque and relaxing ... not quite sure if NYC is those things?

Some reviews from tripadvisor.ca - maybe a bit of both?

My friend was saying it's lots of fun - so decided to give it a try, and we'll be going next weekend while it's a holiday. Guess NYC attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world - so it seems like there should be lots of interesting things to see and do?


Was hoping to be able to see the musical Hamilton that everybody's been talking about! But it looks like the tickets are so in demand they're going for about 10x the price? It must really be great! But guess will have to wait for the travelling show to come to my city - otherwise will maybe have to keep my eyes out for a local high school musical or something It does look really good

There were still some to pretty nice hotels available for quite a reasonable price, right in Times Square. There seem to be a massive number of hotels in NYC - and a lot of them were filling up quite quickly ... guess there's enough that they're still cheaper than most of the airbnbs? Times Square seems to be so busy, there doesn't seem to be any room left for any trees Will see how it goes - hopefully it'll be fun

Fun Weekly Article


Hey you know what's kind of a fun read, maybe especially now that everything poker-related sort of feels like it's on hiatus for summer break? PokerNews has a little ongoing series called 'Tweet, Tweet, Bad Beat' that posts a collection of highlights of all the fun and exciting things that all the big name pros have been up to in the past week.

At first, they were posting a variety of poker-related updates - but they seemed to stumbled onto something really cool by evolving to focus more on vacation and relaxation updates, with lots of really beautiful scenery?

For example, this week they posted a pic of Liv Boeree working out with a gorgeous sunset in the background, and a pic of Maria Ho going for a horse ride along a sandy beach ...

Have been reading the weekly article for a while now, and it's interesting to see how many poker players seem to prefer to relax around beautiful scenery

Although there was this pic of Tony Dunst this week as well - is it just me, or does he look like he's wondering to himself if maybe he should have kept saving his airmiles so he could go have gone somewhere else?

(May just be projecting my concerns onto him Guess he may have been in NYC for a charity poker tournament? And it sounds like he was joking a little bit )

A couple of weeks ago, there was also this pic of Mustapha Kanit visiting NYC, and he had the sweetest caption to his photo ...

It sounds like he had an amazing time in NYC Will see how it goes


PS All the past weeks of the PokerNews series come up with a google search of "tweet tweet bad beat pokernews" - they're pretty nice reads

You know what apparently can't be found anywhere else in the world besides New York - it turns out the official best restaurant in the world is not Swiss Chalet, it's this place in NYC

NYC seems to have a ton of amazing places to eat - like it looks like Mario Batali has a pizza/pasta place where everything on the menu is less than $15?

So dinner will cost half as much as the trip to see the Statue of Liberty


Jogging in Central Park should be fun - am starting to get more excited for the trip

Hiya Sam
Gotta say I'm a bit jealous over your free trip to NYC. Iv been asked so many times over the years if I'd like to join "flybuys" at the supermarket but always thought it seemed like too much hassle (filling in one form) for very little return. Good to hear nice things happen to nice people every once in a while still.
Now I'm speaking as a huge outsider obvs but if you're anything like me I think you'll absolutely love New York. It's probably the only place Iv travelled that I felt I could actually move to. (I wouldn't). The whole time I'm there I'm in awe. From experiencing first hand the countless scenes you've seen captured in film over the years, to the excitement/buzz, to the people, to the sheer size of it all. Everything's freakin 'uuuuge. And it really feels like it's where the world comes to meet. You can walk for miles in any direction just about and always find something cool to see or do. I'm a big lover of the arts and from the big galleries like Guggenheim and MoMA and the countless live performance venues in the city to the smaller galleries/street art/music studios you'll find in Brooklyn and Queens, to the street performers and impromptu b boy action outside subway stations, I just can't get enough. And even if you're not into any of the above there's still plenty of other world famous landmarks to see/things to do, little neighbourhoods to explore, food to try, and the locals are so so friendly and willing to help out if you ask. That's maybe the thing I was most surprised of at first, I'm sure there are loads of high power/high stress units there also but Iv found the true locals are some of the nicest people on earth. Very comparable to Aussies, Sydneysiders especially I feel
Il be eagerly awaiting a comprehensive TR. Iv just returned from a few days in the snow and won't make it back down for another 3 or 4 weeks so will be doing my travels vicariously through you until then


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

hey marke.!

Wow, NYC is so far for you - did you have an extended stay there, or did you go to a bunch of different places while on your trip? It sounds like maybe you've travelled quite a bit?

<- marke. the world traveler!

Must admit, the big allure of NYC for me was something like ...

[x] free
[x] close
[ ] dream come true

Was quite struck by Mustapha Kanit's enchanting response to NYC - guess because it was in such stark contrast to what had always assumed NYC to maybe be like? It always looks so crowded, and a bit dirty ... and there's all those calamities that seem to always be happening ...




Usually make a real point of trying to take the time to notice the little details of what in life makes people and places and experience so unique and special - so seeing someone else have a 'cup half full' experience while my perspective was so 'cup half empty' really had me starting to wonder about what it might be like to visit NYC ...

Forgot that's where POTUS is from ... 'uuuge, lol


That's really neat to hear you describe how the coolest thing about NYC is the energy and the excitement in the air - was just going to go with an open mind, and visit the sights and try to soak up the atmosphere, but wasn't really quite sure what to expect ... it should be really to have the chance to see things with fresh eyes, and have an experience that can't be had anywhere else in the world ...

My friend's super excited to go see an art exhibit, as well as a musical - those should be fun as well


PS. Yes, those airmiles programs are probably even harder to grind than poker


Gosh, haven't been sleeping so great lately - was going to go out to the store to pick up some supplies, but it's pouring out and my internet's patchy again ... may just take a nap instead? zzz

Went out of my way to tuck my AT&T sim card away in a 'special place' for safekeeping so it wouldn't get lost ...

... now if only could remember where that special place was, will be good to go

(d'oh! )




Going to get started on my packing after dinner

Well, minus travelling time, guess am really only going for 2 1/2 days So not so much to pack

There seem to be lots of little things to make sure to include though, like ...

• phone
• phone cord
• thingie for the phone cord that plugs into the wall
• portable backup charger for the phone
• 

Looks like AT&T and T-Mobile have stores right in Times Square, for all of us who weren't able to find our sim cards from the last time we went somewhere

So just have to finish up my laundry, and should be pretty much ready for tomorrow?

Haha thanks Sam!
While I quite like the look of the lil man you've named after me, I fear I've probably not travelled as extensively as my first statement may have led you to believe.
Iv seen lots of Oz, NZ and Pacific Islands, Japan and a bit of UK as I have fam there, but haven't done any Europe And as far as the Americas go Iv only seen a small bit of US East Coast and Central America. Iv just always loved the idea/look of NY and visiting it was a must for as long as I can remember. First time was about 4yrs ago. I went after a friends wedding in Belize (now thats a beautiful place), we only stayed for 4 nights I think it was and then about a year later I spent a couple of weeks there. So stil only very limited exposure.
As you rightly say, we're so far away down here. I have trouble sitting still for any more than about 3 hours at a time so spending 11 hrs plus up in the air is not my fave thing in the world I gotta say and so haven't travelled anywhere near as much as I would like.
In summertime I love being in or on water, and winter the snow and we do both quite well down here so I'm quite lucky in that regard. It's just enjoyable to occasionally go somewhere new where we don't all sound the same and our horrible accents can even be considered cool by some.

Iv seen you're at the packing stage so you must be getting excited now surely? It was curious to read above you consider yourself somewhat of a "cup half full" person as you've never come across that way here, and always show such positivity and enthusiasm, and I think NYC will show you a great time.
If I didn't say it the first time, have an amazing trip ✈️

Kind of wonder if maybe the level of excitement for travel may tend to increase the farther away one travels - because all the places you mention in the South Pacific and Asia sound super amazing to me!! Am getting a bit more excited for tomorrow - guess it's true that flying is not so fun, even for short distances ... so will surely be much more excited once am there


Also yes, am usually not a cup half empty person - so must apologize for being such a grumpy cat before my nap yesterday! Didn't even say a proper thank you to you for sharing all your impressions of NYC - all the details you provided really helped to give me a better idea of what to expect, than have been able to get from looking at pictures alone.

Have even started noticing other people mentioning the energy of NYC as well, like in the comments section of this site with tips taking photos of Times Square:

https://www.shothotspot.com/hotspot/times-square-1

Guess will have to wait until tomorrow to have the chance to experience it in person Is some of it maybe because of what the US and NYC represent to the world? Like the US is the world's super power, and it's home to so many of the world's largest and most famous companies - is NYC maybe sort of like the American Dream come to life? With the Statue of Liberty in the harbour - also the larger than life skyscrapers filling all of Manhattan, and the giant neon signs of iconic brands like Disney ... plus the world-class talent appearing on the stages of Broadway, the world-class food, and the world-class art collections ...

There was this neat poster on the Wikipedia page for the Statue of Liberty - advertising government bonds to fund the war effort back in 1917 ...

Interesting thing though, seemed to remember reading somewhere that New York was one of the original 13 colonies before the US gained independence from Great Britain - yet couldn't find anything at all on any of the tourism sites about that?

Was able to find this site using google though - it looks like NYC is home to the US' first capitol building, where George Washington was sworn in as the first POTUS, and they drafted part of the Bill of Rights. They even still have the Bible they used to perform his swearing in ceremony ...

So many things to see in NYC! And guess there'll only be time to see so much - also, may be going shoe shopping at some point, etc

Thanks for the bon voyage marke. - with your thirst for travel, have no doubt you'll surely be off on another adventure of your own, sooner rather than later!

Still puttering around at home Our flight doesn't leave until late afternoon - although will have to get going to the airport well before that time ...

Saw another comment about the vibe in NYC! This time on Trip Advisor ...

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic..._New_York.html

The Irish gentleman who left the comment on Trip Advisor says the feeling is so addictive, he feels the desire to go again and again - he's already been to NYC 5 times!

Quite an interesting concept, that a city would have a vibe that's palpable - with it being something have never experienced before, part of me can't help but wonder if it's possible that will get there, and will somehow managed to miss picking up on the experience everybody else is having?

Okay, off to the airport now ...

Guess with so much going on in NYC, there should be lots of opportunities to take interesting pics Will try to post some later on tonight!

No exciting photos to share just yet - we actually just arrived about an hour ago, because our flight departed 5hrs late

Have never seen this happen before, but the airport put a hold on all departing flights for about 4 or 5 hours, starting at around noon because of a thunderstorm passing overhead - so even though it was sunny when it was time for our flight to leave as scheduled, they had to clear all the backlog first, or something?

And then, guess because all of us were arriving to go on flights but nobody was actually leaving, the whole departure area was at like 2 to 3 times capacity - so it was all packed and hot, and the internet wasn't really working.

By the time we finally boarded, we were all pretty exhausted, so they turned off all the lights in flight, and we all just collectively crashed for the duration of the flight. Well, some people ordered some stiff drinks


Don't want to sound like am whining because that would sound like the most first world problem, to be complaining about a trip to NYC - guess i just did tho lol Mostly we're glad our flight made it at all, because it looks like they wound up running out of time in the day for some of the later flights, and they got cancelled altogether - and now that we're here, we're pretty excited

Excited, but exhausted. We were just going to have a little rest in the room, and then go downstairs to check out Times Square, which is packed with people! And those neon signs are about 10 stories tall - much larger than they seem, even in the pictures. But it looks like maybe that'll have to wait until tomorrow - we managed to get a 2 room suite for less than $300/night, including internet, so it was pretty easy to get comfy pretty fast ...


Didn't win the flip for the nice bed

But the sofa bed's still soft ...

Hopefully the weather's nice out tomorrow, so we can check out some of the sights!

Went to Central Park this afternoon - they take very good care of it, so it's very pretty ...

Kind of a different vibe outside the hotel, in Times Square lol

Apparently, there used to be two more lanes open to cars, but the crowds got so big, they had to close half the street so there would be enough room for everybody who wanted to visit? Maybe just a matter of time before they close the other two?


Must have walked over 5 miles today - guess there's enough to see every block, that it never feels like it's time to call an Uber and visit a new neighborhood?

A lot of the activities feel pretty similar to what's available at home - but guess there's a lot more selection? Like there was a street festival a little to the west of the hotel that had Puerto Rican food, as well as Brazilian and Ecuadorian food ...

And there was a craft shop a little to the east of the hotel that had this cute little cat box for sale, that opens up like a little puzzle ...

Some unusual sights in Times Square - maybe won't post any photos of those though ... kind of seems like there might not be any interest in seeing the 'Naked Cowboy'

Anyways, guess will rest up a bit before dinner - we managed to get half price tickets to a Broadway show, then guess we'll finally have a chance to see Times Square all lit up at night.


Am going to need a vacation to recuperate from this vacation

Guess my friend and i have been trying to see as much of NYC as we can fit into the day, to try and make the most of this opportunity? Although summer appears to be peak tourist season - so the crowds seem to be huge everywhere, and the traffic's been really congested.

Yesterday when we were visiting sights close to the hotel, we somehow managed to pack quite a bit into the day. But today we wanted to spend the day in the south of Manhattan, so there seemed to be a fair bit more time spent in transit, trying to find everything? And sometimes we wound up getting lost Or time was spent trying to manoever through crowds, or just waiting in line?


Apparently the subway is the fastest way to get around the city - they were safe, and they were fast ... they weren't the cleanest It's interesting that there didn't seem to be any ads in any of the stations - maybe with extra revenue they'd have more funds for upkeep? Guess the subway and station at 42nd street gets a lot of traffic, so they're not as nice to look at as this one we wound up at, after getting lost

[IMG]hhttp://i.imgur.com/9h1wF7C.jpg[/IMG]

After visiting the 9/11 memorial, we walked over to see Federal Hall and the NY Stock Exchange building, then went to see the charging bull statue. Here's a pic of it from the internet ...

(pic from the internet, not my pic)

In real life, the crowd around the bull was actually so huge, it was impossible to get a clear shot Guess a lot of the pics floating around the internet are from back when police were keeping people away from the statue, because they were worried that Wall Street protesters might damage it?

So that was unexpected The day kind of picked up after that - took a quick trip across the bridge to Brooklyn, and they have a really pretty view of Manhattan ...

And there was a little outdoor flea market that didn't seem to have too much - but there was an artist who draws these lovely little sketches on Post-It notes, which was a neat find ...

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so today was the last chance to view the sunset from the Top of the Rock - NBC Headquarters is right at Rockefeller Center, where they have the big tree at Christmastime ...

And there was a nice view of the Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock ...

Somehow managed to run out of time in the day to fit in the Statue of Liberty Hopefully there'll still be enough time to fit in one of those 1hr boat tours before the flight home on Tuesday? Museum day tomorrow ...


PS Here's the Stock Exchange building - guess they took down the big flag?

The plane home leaves late afternoon tomorrow - guess it's fun to visit new places every once in a while ... but am also really looking forward to going back home to the comfort and familiarity of my couch potato lifestyle

Always so much going on here, from the crack of dawn all the way until midnight, so the activities have kind of been non-stop - like this morning on the way back from my coffee run, managed to see Ginger Zee doing a segment for Good Morning America live outside in Times Square ...

She was still on tv doing another segment by the time got back to my hotel room ...

It did rain all day today as expected - but it didn't seem like such a great idea to try and squeeze a 1hr boat ride to the Statue of Liberty in before the flight tomorrow? So we wound up going on the boat in the rain - guess that's one way to avoid the big crowds

Unfortunately, the rain didn't seem to be deterring the museum crowd - was surprised there was even a line up to get in, but was downright shocked to see that everybody was willing to wait outside in the rain for over half an hour It was pouring by then too. The exhibit at the Guggenheim had a bunch of French Impressionist paintings, and so the crowd seemed to be about 80% French - guess art must be to France like what hockey is to Canada ... maybe part of the country's pride and joy?

A little side topic - some of the French at the museum seemed to be wearing those 'jorts', just like the pair that Pollak had on at the WSOP ME final table, that became the quite the hot topic of conversation - it kind of seemed like maybe the French feel like athleisure wear is meant more for working out at the gym or something?

Anyways, my friend was saying that the more famous works of the big artists don't often leave Europe - so guess these were some of their lesser-known works? They were still quite pretty though - they looked very striking in person ... here's a portrait by Renoir, and a landscape by Van Gogh from his time spent in France ...

Haven't done a very good job of taking pictures of all the gourmet food available in NYC - guess we've been trying really hard to eat at places that aren't available at home, so we were eating at a lot of celebrity chef places, like Daniel Boulud's coffee shop, and Mario Batali's pizza and pasta place ... we even gave Guy Fieri's burger place a try

A couple of days in, we started to notice that with so much competition in NYC, guess a lot of places have tried to distinguish themselves by taking more chances with trying to be more creative with their food? So even the empanada and hot dog shacks in Times Square will offer unique gourmet toppings, like spicy pineapple relish?

Started to look at recommendations from Kenji at Serious Eats and Zagat, so for dinner tonight we went to a pizza place called Don Antonio, and they created a pizza made with fry bread. Not sure if it was really better than regular wood-fired pizza, but it was neat to be able to try something creative and unique ...

And then with it still raining a little bit, even the crowds at Times Square were a little more thin than usual tonight, so there was a chance to check out some of the stores around the hotel. Disney has a lot of musicals on Broadway that are supposed to be doing really well, so they have a big store here, and they even had some special things on sale, just for NYC ...

The trip's been fun, but it'll be really nice to go home and see grass again

Was still able to cram a little bit more sightseeing in this morning

Just noticed last night that they opened up one of those Amazon Books stores up the street from the hotel, in the Time Warner Center. Used to love going to book stores to browse through the selection - until it became so convenient to e-browse on Amazon, there no longer seemed to be a need to ever visit an actual store?

The Time Warner Center has a pretty view of Columbus Circle though - there's supposed to be some shows that tape upstairs, with this view in the background ... like Live with Kelly and Ryan?

After that, it was off to the airport for the trip home - so that's it for the photos of New York. Guess it's back to the dancing dog gifs, etc


Guess visiting new places can be a unique opportunity to see and hear new things and have fresh experiences - it feels like that be quite enrichening, and maybe even a little inspiring? And even when there's stuff that's not as lovely as back home, maybe even that can be a positive experience, if it helps make some of the stuff at home seem all that more sweet?

Came back home and went to check out the latest airmiles offers - want to get started collecting new miles so will hopefully have enough to go on another trip ... in 6 years time again lol Had a fun time in New York, but am very happy to be home!