What stops you? And makes you spin?

May 23, 2013
Today my world was twice spun upside down in the space of minutes – Number 1: I went to the doctor to get jabs for joining a household with a new born back with my family Down Under. The nurse would not administer the requested jabs until she had determined I was sufficiently vaccinated for travel to Australia – oh my have I been in this country so long I need protection just to go home?! Number 2: As I got into the car post-jabbed, I noticed the temperature gauge on my dash reading 12.5C degrees – cool I thought – not as bliming cool as wet I was parked outside my house fifteen minutes later. The ten minute detour to return bridge equipment to its storage shed had enabled the skies to open – raining cold hail and dropping the temp to 6.5C. What does one do? – shrugs and gets on with the day? I reckon!

Little things you might say. Indeed. In the past seven days different clients have spun me one way and t’other – in their turn determining me delightful, extremely rude, not a can-do person and exceptionally helpful. If other people can make up words and label me according to their current perception, should I apply the same shoulder shrug on this roller coaster ride? I am going to give it a go – cos I am quite rubbish at focussing on directing or playing, sometimes both together, when my head is in a spin. 

Certainly directing works better when focus is at the forefront of my mind. I often wander around a playing room during a session to keep an eye on play, a bit like a fire warden at the height of summer. Thinking about the elements of focus, when my mind is clear to just notice what I notice – I can be so much more effective in times of trouble. 

 

Double Trouble

May 16, 2013
I have been asked by a Club Manager to check the scoring of a recent club session. A declarer had bid to make 11 tricks and succeeded. Recording the result in her Bridgemate, she was assigned +550 as a doubled game. Her counterpart in another section had scored +570 for successfully bidding for only 9 tricks and making 10. Natural instinct suggested to our first declarer and the Club Manager that bidding higher would score more and both were confused by what appeared to be a scoring inconsist...
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