On Friday I went out for some food at china china, it was a buffet and the food was really really good. I was a bit nervous about having Chinese food the night before digging trails but it was well cooked and really tasty, and cheap too.
After the a huge dessert we plodded up to a Casino on Queen Street, on the way I happened to bump into an old friend from school - Chris Cowan. He was into the whole skating subculture in school (not skating you see, just the coolness associated with it), and from where I was standing he hadn’t appeared to have changed his attitude since. However it was good to see him and we swapped numbers so I guess we could meet up sometime when he isn’t smoking cannabis.
So into the casino we go. About 10 of us, and 2 members, so we have to all get signed in. I end up getting impatient and arsing around while this was happening which got the attention of the ladies at the reception, one of which laughed (probably in pity) and the other gave me the feeling any more high jinks might have had me seeing the streetlights again. We walk into the main gambling area - what a dull place, totally not what its like on James Bond films at all! It just felt drab and desolate. Myself and 2 other guys (who were also not gambling) went upstairs to the bar while everyone else started playing Blackjack etc. After waiting for a while I got served by the same lady who laughed at me in reception who apologised that the usual barman was not around. She then continued to pour the worst pint ever which I obviously had to rip into her for doing. We sat down and immediately started to have a discussion about the morality of gambling, which then quickly brought out the fact that some guy had committed suicide in the toilets in this casino last year, which obviously lowered my opinion of the place even more. Anyway I didn’t make my disapproval of the place completely obvious when the gamblers in the group showed up every now and again, but in general I have always thought gambling, money and greed bring out the worst in people - the clientele were generally young to middleage men who in a lot of cases swore openly when they lost and looked like they had little much else to their lives. When I went downstairs to try and figure out how the games actually all worked Dave tried to coax me into playing by handing me a few money chips - I gave them back to him though without using them.
At the end of the night someone was up £40, another £10, and the remainder had little left - as far as I know because I bailed early.
I’m rude to the bone dude. I ride my board down to the corner shop every day to buy Rizlas and Space Raiders.
Comment by Captain Cowan — January 23, 2006 @ 3:03 pm