As many of you know through Dusty’s blog, we were caught up in the greatest aviation disruption in history, which didn’t work out so well for him being away from his family…but worked out pretty well for me. The first week we were there was jammed with poker stuff, and felt like a resident working in London. Having a second week there gave me an opportunity to be a tourist, see more of the city, meet a cousin-in-law, catch-up with a friend from college and enjoy the London nightlife.
I’m convinced that if Dusty and I hadn’t been scheduled to go to the Isle of Man to visit pokerstars headquarters that our travels would have become chaotic. We had a flight around 8:30 Thursday morning and arrived at the airport only to find the flight was canceled because of a Volcano eruption. He and I didn’t even know what to say, I mean who in their life has even heard of such a thing. We were flying on a small regional airline, and I asked the attendant if all airlines weren’t flying or just theirs. She didn’t know so we went to British Airways to see what there up to – same deal. As we’re walking away Dusty starts laughing his ass off because basically what we were asking them was “Do you have the balls to fly through Volcanic Ash? because this airline isn’t and we’re will to risk it!?!” I mean what a joke that we were even thinking it, but at 7am and Volcano later the brain doesn’t always work so well – I know this better than anyone and mine isn’t immune.
Thankfully we had this flight planned, because there is absolutely no way that either of us would have heard about the Volcano prior to checking out of our hotel to head to the airport the next day for our flight home. The first few days of this were pretty chaotic and I was sitting in a hotel room clicking refresh on my computer for updates, I can only imagine what it was like for people stuck in the airports with no place to go, trying to get back to young kids, travel for weddings, funerals, etc. I had it easy…though I tried to make it complex.
Part of what made it chaotic early on was there wasn’t any reliable information to go on and the most solid indication was it was getting stronger – which it did – but no one knew for how long. I looked into every option for getting home. I even found a ticket on the Queen Mary – the first ship heading to NY. It would have taken a week to cross the ocean, but I figured it was a guaranteed way to return (minus an iceberg) and I could work on my book with a great view. So it was my #1 option until I found a ticket out of Madrid leaving 4 days later. At the time, Madrid was one of 3 airports in Europe open and was the closest… the only problem was getting there. I quickly found out that every bus, ferry and train there was booked solid so it wasn’t even an option…though I later learned from an old work friend that her brother paid 3k to a cabbie in Paris to drive him to Madrid. So I wasn’t entirely out of options, just reasonable ones.
Turns out that my uncle’s nephew on the other side of my family has a flat in London with a spare bedroom, so stayed with him and his wife for the rest of the week. It was a perfect spot to enjoy London (do a little work) and wait to find out how long I’d be a English resident.
Now with some time on my hands, I had a chance to meet up with a college friend who I hadn’t seen for several years. The first night after learning I was stuck in London, she invited me to meet up with her friends after they finished up dinner – I show up and sitting next to her are 5 attractive women…fml, lol. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to forget about the volcano chaos.
The rest of the week was a lot of fun too. I was able to have client sessions as usual – just a 5hr difference so I was working more at night, which freed me to see the city during the day, hang out with my cousin and his wife, I took a day trip to Sheffield to hang with Barry and work on the book, and hung out more with Dusty.
The day before I left, I honestly didn’t want to leave. London is an amazing city and I could see myself living there. The next morning, like a light switch, I woke up ready to go. I don’t usually get to see my family/friends during the week so it wasn’t much different – since we stayed in touch via skype – but we were flying home on Friday and with the weekend looming, I was ready to be back around everyone.
Jet lag and weird sleep schedule on the trip knocked me on my ass for several days, but it gave me some time to realize what an amazing trip it was. One that makes me even more excited for the WSOP in a few months. Many of the people I met will be out there, and along with the others I already know who will be there, it’ll be a blast.
