Well I’m sitting outside a bar in Milan at 11:20 am waiting for a train to Monte Carlo which doesn’t leave until 3:05pm so I thought I’d jot down a few things for you dear readers.
As you will recall from my last entry we are happily ensconced on the Isle of Man now and it’s lovely, so why I hear you ask am I in Milan ?
Well this weekend is the final of the Eurpoean Poker Tour and it’s being held in the casino at Monte Carlo, I’m in Milan because the French government are being silly about online Poker companies and may well arrest me if I go into their territory so I’m having to go via Italy, which is a right royal pain I can tell you.
I assume they are being like this because they don’t get any taxes on the money people win or lose online, just like the US.
That aside I’m really looking forward to my first major Poker event, I’ve seen the pictures of the hotel and the salon and it looks lovely and the guys who’ve been there since it started on Tuesday are very upbeat about it.
The tournament runs from Tuesday through to the following Monday and we had over 500 entries at $10,000 a ticket ! I can’t imagine paying that much money just to sit down at a table and play cards but then I’m no poker fanatic.
Undeniably people can win a lot of money playing this game and there are any number of professional poker players who do nothing else so it can’t be all down to luck but it doesn’t appeal to me at all.
When the professionals turned up on Monday there were no cards around so they all got $100 dollar bills out of their pockets and the one with the highest serial number won !!! It’s madness I tell you.
Is there a place for that sort of mania I ask myself and this led me on to think about obsession and its place in my life.
I’m obsessed with very few things in my life, I love what I do for a living and if I wasn’t being paid for it I’d probably still do it for free but am I obsessed, I don’t know, what is the definition of obsession?
Do you have to be obsessed to be successful?
One of my greatest friends has just been made deputy under editor, third on the left at Computer Weekly and he is as happy as a journo in a cess pit, now he works harder than any man I know at whatever he wants to achieve, but is he obsessed?
How can you tell?
I’ve had calls from him at 3am discussing his work so I guess he’s the closest thing to obsessed I know, does it bring him happiness, well fairly obviously it does at the moment but is that caused by the obsession or the results of that obsession?
I must ask him next time we speak.
This last fortnight have been all go for me, the level of work I’m getting through is astounding even to me , as an exercise I’m keeping a note of everything I do and I’m up to 7 A4 pages so far this month, it’s a worthwhile task as it really gives you an idea of what you are doing, if you end up with half a page of A4 at the end of the month you might want to consider if you’re in the right job.
Looking at the truly successful people I know they all get through mountains of work and funnily enough they all seem to smile quite a bit, hmmmm wonder if there’s a connection?
You know sitting here and here is a small square outside Milan Central Station I’m reminded quite forcibly of Croydon, there are office blocks and apartment buildings all around me, trams trundle past full of sad looking people and cars rush around like worker ants in a disturbed nest, no one seems to have time or seems to be particularly happy with their lots.
Yet just now a delivery man came to see what I was writing, he earnestly asked me something in Italian which I took to mean what are you writing squire and I had to smile and explain that I was English and could speak only a little Italian, he smiled and told me that he was a delivery man, pointing unnecessarily at the box on his shoulder and pointing at the post office a little along from me said something else to the effect of I’m delivering this to the post office, Chow he said and wandered off a huge grin on his face.
2 minutes later he was back and though we couldn’t converse made me understand that I was welcome to his city, Chow he said again as he left to drive furiously off in his little red van, obsessed? No I don’t think so but happy yes, so perhaps there’s more than one way to happiness.
Take care all,
John
No comments:
Post a Comment