During my career as a poker reporter over the last three years, I've had the privilege of travelling around Australia and South-East Asia to cover some of the biggest and most prestigious poker events in the world.
In fact, my very first overseas trip came about in 2009 when I was asked to work at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour event at the Grand Lisboa Hotel & Casino in Macau. For those who don't know where Macau is, it's a little island located east of Hong Kong and can only be described as "The Las Vegas of Asia".
Macau is an incredible place - all the hustle and bustle, the lights, sounds and smells, and of course, the glitz and glamour of a world-class poker extravaganza. Not to mention the room I stayed in - it was an executive suite on the 37th floor, with three TVs - one massive plasma screen in the room, one mounted in the mirror and one in the toilet!
And I can't even begin to tell you about how awesome the shower was. Apart from having the best shower head in history (it was mounted flush to the ceiling and the way the water cascaded down could have easily showered three people at once), it also doubled as a steam room! The week just flew by and our group capped it off with an extra night's stay in Hong Kong where we celebrated our friend's birthday. As for how awesome the party was, all I'll say is this - we all went bonkers in Honkers!
From there, I've also travelled to Auckland, New Zealand, which was also nice, but unless you had time to do all the extreme sports stuff (like the SkyJump or reverse bungee), it felt like a miniature Sydney. Still, I had a great day out with my friends James and Chris, who took me out to Kelly Tarlton's penguin exhibit.
I also got to travel to the island of Cebu, which is about a one-hour flight south of Manila in The Philippines. The APPT Cebu event was held in the Grand Marquee, inside the five-star Shangri-La Mactan Resort and let me tell you, it was unbelievable! If I had to choose one place to
play poker, it would be there, simply because busting out of Day 1 of the Main Event wouldn't matter when you're lounging poolside for the rest of the week.
Of course, it goes without saying that I've also travelled quite frequently around the country and have covered almost every major poker tournament series in Melbourne (my first ever assignment was the 2009 Aussie Millions). It's sure been a meteoric rise from nowhere, but through it all there's been a lot that I've missed, particularly spending time with my fiance and my family.
So when I finished this year's run at the Aussie Millions on Saturday (I wasn't scheduled on Sunday), I jumped at the chance of being able to drive up to my mum's place for a family BBQ. You see, I'm the eldest of six kids (I have four sisters and one brother) and though we've all grown up and are now leading different lives, we're still very close, and when we get together, it's always a riot!
But last Sunday's BBQ was particularly special - apart from the glorious sunny day which greeted us (which has been unusually rare this summer), Mum had organised it for
all of us in celebration of what I like to call a "Family Pride Day". She invited all of our close family and friends around for lunch, as well as present us all with a cake and gave a speech about all our achievements.
Left to right: Taylor, Ashlyn, me, Talisa, Danika and BrittanyIn order of age, she started with me, then my eldest sister Brittany (who is recently engaged to her long-time boyfriend Andrew), my second-eldest sister Talisa (who is about to head off to the Police Academy), my brother Taylor (who has almost finished his logistics apprenticeship), my second-youngest sister Danika (who after having been elected school captain last year is about to go to university) and my youngest sister Ashlyn (who is in her final year of school).
But there's no denying that we are all very proud of our Mum - she is, after all, the one who encouraged us to follow our dreams and support us every step of the way, through thick and thin. If anything, our Family Pride Day was just as much about her as it was us and I was so glad to have had finished work to celebrate with them all!
It was definitely one of the most wonderful moments in our family's history, but to top that all off, we came up with a brand-new game called "Soak of Shame". It had been a long time since any of us had had a water fight (what with all these water restrictions and what-not), but the idea came to us after we started throwing around a balloon full of water. From there, we quickly came up with the rules of the game and we then got about 20 people involved!
I'm still waiting for the video footage that was recorded to go up on YouTube, but in the meantime, I'll explain how the game works:
Soak of Shame (AKA Soakenfreude)Number of players: Any number, but we reckon between 10 and 20 people is ideal. This game can be played by anybody of any age, gender and fitness level!
Equipment: At least two dozen regular balloons filled with water (NOT water bombs) and a bucket. Make sure you're close to a water source (like a faucet, pool or if you're at the beach, the ocean).
How to play: First, make sure you have enough balloons ready for the game. Then choose a random person to be the "bucket man". This person acts as the referee and will be responsible for handing out the balloons and dishing out buckets of water to the players that stuff up (more on this later).
Once you have enough balloons ready and have chosen a bucket man, get everyone to stand in a circle and spread out so that the players either side of you are about two metres apart (as a rough guide, they should only be able to just touch your fingertips of your outstretched arms).
The bucket man will then grab a balloon and hand it to another random person (to start the game, give the balloon to the youngest player). The player will then throw the balloon in any direction to any other player (even if they're not paying attention). The player throwing the balloon cannot say who they're throwing it to, but they can fake a pass if they wish.
The balloon must then be caught by the other player. If they successfully catch it (without breaking it) they then get to throw the balloon to another random player, and so on. This also applies if they're lucky enough to not have the balloon burst after they dropped it.
However, if they do drop it and it breaks (or if it breaks after they catch it or as they are in the process of throwing it), the bucket man will immediately step in and dump the bucket of water over them. A new balloon will then be given to that player and the game starts again.
If the throw was judged uncatchable (e.g. a player throws it but it falls well short of the other player's feet), the person who threw it will have the bucket dumped on them - unless the player was intentionally trying to make the catch. The bucket man will also dump a bucket of water on a player who has interfered with the balloon mid-flight to another player. If a player gets bucketed three times, they'll then swap with the bucket man.
This game is great on hot days and you can play it for as long as you like - just make sure you have enough balloons prepared (or get a team on the sidelines to keep filling them up as you go). For an extra challenge, the bucket man can also get two, three or even four balloons going at once!
It's amazing to think how much joy you can get out of the simple things in life. Still, when you do find yourself away from your loved ones so often, you should relish every opportunity you have when you get back home. And that means more to me than anything else.
