Londoners' Life

I’m finally a SDK!

November 7th, 2008

After four and a half years I am finally a SDK! (Single Digit Kyu, see http://www.emptytriangle.com/archive/39). I know I have a long way to go in order to be shodan, but I can’t avoid feeling so proud for hitting the 10k barrier!

I got stuck at 12k for a long time, without playing all the games in tournaments and feeling very stressed, but this year it has been very different:

February: didn’t play Barcelona’s tournament, but got interested in the game again
March: played 4 out of 6 rounds in Paris’ tournament; lost all of them and went back to 12k
April: played Madrid’s tournament; 3 wins and 2 losses, getting back on track…
July: European Go Congress (EGC) in Sweden; outstanding result! 5 wins! went up to 10k
September: Korean Ambassador Cup in Alicante; 3 wins out of 5, but enough to break the barrier and reach 9k!
October: 1st World Mind Sports Games (WMSG); +123 points! 8k!

Thank you to all the people who supported me! I am back on my feet and wanting to test my strength against all of you! Let’s play Go!

Posted in go | 4 Comments »

Give me five!

November 5th, 2008

And yes, it’s real

Tags: bruise
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The competition begins…

October 10th, 2008

Today the women’s team tournament begins!

We have played the first round so far, against DPR Korea and lost all 3 games We are in a tough group, A2, and we’ll do our best!

Let’s hope we’ll have better luck for the following games. Gambarimasu!

Tags: wmsg
Posted in go | No Comments »

A visit to the WMSG

October 6th, 2008

We spent some time today at the WMSG, watching the games (only the first 20 mins allowed ) and cheering on the Spanish team. Go Spain!!

I’ve just uploaded some of the pictures. Enjoy!
http://flickr.com/photos/sheska/sets/72157607789321354/

Tags: Beijing, go, wmsg
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Welcome to Beijing!

October 5th, 2008

I will spend the next two weeks in Beijing: the first one sightseeing and the second one competing at the 1st World Mind Sport Games!

So far, the flight was ok and I arrived safetly at Beijing. However, arriving to the hotel proved to be much more difficult. Language is a real issue, specially when people don’t even understand the maps! If the map doesn’t have the names written with Chinese characters, the chance of a taxi driver understanding it is almost 0

Anyway, after eating ramen in a Japanese restaurant I feel much happier and ready for the adventure

Wish me luck!

Tags: go, holidays
Posted in tourism | 1 Comment »

Back in London

August 13th, 2008

After a couple of very intense weeks, I’m back in London! A quick summary of what I’ve been up to:

First week: attended EGC2008

Played in the main tournament: won 5 out of 5 games (yay!)
Played the pair go tournament: we had fun
Played agains pros in simulataneous games: won against 9p with 9 handicap
Played a lot of friendly games, including rengo!

Second week: attended an event in Zurich, stayed there for the weekend

Monday: travelling day: fly back from Stockholm to London, and fly from London to Zurich.
Tuesday and Wednesday: meetings and more meetings in Zurich
Thursday: sailing in the lake
Friday: tour of Zurich’s office
Weekend: sightseeing in Zurich

This week I’m working hard on catching up, but I’m way behind on email (please, be patient!)

Tags: life, summary
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It’s raining cats and dogs!

July 9th, 2008

“Its raining cats and dogs” is one of my favourites English idioms. I haven’t heard it so many times, but non-English speakers are prone to remember it quite well . Native speakers use “It’s pouring down” or just “It’s pouring!” most of the time, but it’s just not as funny, right?

Nobody I’ve asked knows where it comes from and I still haven’t found an answer (see phrases.org.uk).

By the way, it means raining a lot and it seems it’s raining more today than the whole month of June!

And they call this summer….

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