Darts Administration in Gibraltar

Good News on marriage issue - 18th May 2009

2009-05-18T23:58:00.002+02:00

We called the Legal Advisor early today and after being yet more confused we decided to head down to clear the issue once and for all.

When we arrived it was agreed that we would give her power of attorney to act on our behalf and sign the marriage papers as neither my gatita nor I will be in Bogota as of tomorrow.

Our wedding has now been posted as of today (pending no impediments) and the marriage will be finalised on the 26th May 2009. The Lawyer has agreed to send the marriage certificate to my gatita’s address who in turn will copy them and send them over via courier to me in Gibraltar so that I can deal with the Visa.

Thank God the issue has been solved, I was feeling the pressure this morning.

Anyways I called my parents so that they don’t worry and we headed into town for a bit of tourist shopping (didn’t get much this time around, only some things for the family).

Good times nearly end - 17th May 2009

2009-05-18T12:58:00.003+02:00

We didn't do much except pack things and stayed in as the weather is quite bad today.

We decided to pack 2 days in advance as we have a busy day tomorrow with the legal advisor and we might not have enough time during the day to get everything sorted.

Salitre Majico Bogota (Theme Park) – 16th May 2009

2009-05-18T02:37:00.002+02:00

The bad luck continued today. We were on our way to see her parents at there hotel, as we are going to visit Bogota’s theme park called Salitre Majico.

Have a guess at what happened?

Her father was waiting for her mum downstairs by a bench and two thugs sat beside him and mugged him!!!! They took all his money and his work mobile which he will now have to pay for. When we arrived there were police doing searches on pedestrians and circling the area but it was too late.

Anyways we sulk for a while on how wrongly things have gone this weekend but we put things aside and jump into a cab to take us to the theme park for some fun.

It was a theme park similar to Tivoli World in the South of Spain. We had a great time on all the rides such as bumper cars, House of Horrors, Karting, joy rides etc and simply had a great time. I’ve taken video and photos including ones from the Ferris Wheel covering a panoramic 360 view of the whole of Bogota.

Wedding rescheduled for 19th May 2009 - 15th May 2009

2009-05-16T10:19:00.003+02:00

What was meant to be the happiest day for my gatita has turned out to be a complete nightmare due to the incompetence of the legal advisor! Its 3am in the morning and I have suddenly woken up thinking of what just happened today and needless to say that the anger is not letting me sleep much.

After her parents had travelled for over 10 hours by coach (also both lost a day of work unpaid) and my gatita and I going through all the proper motions, it turns out the legal advisor (as she hadn’t heard from us) did nothing to process our documents. I’ll keep it that short and simple.

We had all the paperwork sorted by the 23rd April 2009 including the last document (my gatita’s birth certificate) which her grandfather got for her and mailed to the apartment, also our wedding date was paid for and reserved for today at 4:30pm way back on the 14th April 2009 and this was done by the same legal advisor.

How were we meant to know the protocol when it was her who reviewed my documents & passport, which she took and showed the notary public and when she came back informed us that everything was in order and that all that was required was her birth certificate.

When we left the notary office on the 14th April I remember telling her, “well great news we see you on the day then yes”? "We will be here at around 4pm", and she replied “yes no problem”. Would it have hurt for her to give us a quick phone call when the day was approaching to inform us that she needed to have my gatita’s birth certificate so that she could process the documents before the wedding?

As it turns out she said it was not her obligation to do so. How were we to know what the protocol was, she is the legal advisor. The funny thing was that we called her yesterday to ask about the availability of a photographer and she said nothing about the certificate. I could have saved the time and effort of my gatita getting prepared at the salon with her mum and I could have saved the wedding jitters of spending over 3 hours by myself just waiting in the apartment for the time to pass by. What incompetence! The Advisor and her attitude was so arrogant, as if marriage is something one takes lightly and of no importance also as if we are meant to know the protocol eh!

Anyways that’s about it on how it went today I am not going to explain any further as I am so disappointed. At least we have been able to fix a new date which is the same day I leave for Gibraltar. It will be tight but it gives the legal advisor enough days to process the documents.

There is a bit more I could express but I have said enough and my gatita is calling me to bed so I will leave it here and let’s hope things turn out ok in the end. A few days back I reflected on the trip and overall thought how incredibly smoothly things had gone actually. I thought too soon. As they say "it's not over till the fat lady sings eh"!!!!

Oh, we did take the wedding photos as her parents have to return home on Sunday so this means they will miss the true wedding on the 19th May 2009 but it was the only chance for us to have photos taken with her parents present. Ciao for now….

1 day and they are off - 14th May 2009

2009-05-15T04:55:00.003+02:00

Last minute details were in order today before our wedding tomorrow. We bought new socks and underwear for me, called the Notary office to check that a photographer would be available and went to get a haircut and a pedicure/manicure for my gatita. She is getting her hair and makeup done tomorrow by professional salon stylists.

I left the hairdressers before my gatita so headed out to buy a pack of cigarettes and get some more money out of the bank (seeing I now can, I better have it cash in hand eh before something goes wrong again). After that I headed back to the apartment and waited for my gatita who took over two hours.

It was the first time in months I had been separated from my gatita. Considering we have been so many years apart it did feel weird to be without her actually.

For my gatita of course we have tried to uphold the tradition for brides with “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue and a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe.”
Old will be her white shoes, something new is the dress, something borrowed will be given to her by her mum and something blue will be a blue handkerchief. The silver sixpence in her shoe is a bit trickier but its meant to symbolize wealth & financial security so as a substitute I will follow the Scottish tradition instead and I will place a copper coin in my left shoe (just to be sure) jejeje.

Back at the apartment we had dinner and rested for about an hour and we are finishing off everything needed for tomorrow, such as ironing, the legal documents required etc etc. After tidying up I am just about to jump into bed to watch the film Borat and just relax and dose off for the big day tomorrow.

Wish me luck!!!!!

At last my credit card works - 13th May 2009

2009-05-14T08:29:00.002+02:00

Well I’ll be damned, my credit card now all of a sudden works again at ATM’s!!! Could it be the numerous phone calls I have made to my UK bank and the other set of ruthless emails sent to the Colombian ATM company called ATH. Whatever the case may be, what matters is that thy sorted it out and my card finally is working again. Of course they never admitted any problems on either side but I honestly don't care.

We had planned on going on a picnic today but I delayed it for after the wedding which is in a few days time because I get fried over here in minutes and very quickly become a human shrimp. Must be the altitude as temperatures in Bogota rarely exceed 20 degrees.

We didn’t do much today just a list of the final details for the wedding which we will take care of tomorrow.

One thing we did do was off course head out for dinner. We decided on a Thai restaurant and it turned out to be an excellent choice. We arrived late (nearly closing time) and were the only customers in the restaurant. Service impeccable as per usual in Colombia. The Chef came out to greet us once we decided what we were having and he started cooking for us practically a metre away. It was very romantic.

I called the waiter and asked for utensils as we had only been given chop sticks, the funny thing was that he came back to us with modified chop sticks. At the back they had placed a rubber band and that made our dinner very enjoyable and fun as we experimented with the chop sticks for dummies jejeje.

Electronic/Electrical Heaven - 12th May 2009

2009-05-13T07:12:00.002+02:00

I forgot to mention that I observed something quite impressive yesterday when at the city centre. This was a whole street (both sides) just dedicated to electronics and electrical equipment. It was quite incredible! From cabinets full of remote controls to every type of sound system including walls full of electronic/electrical equipment such as cables, batteries, capacitors, resistors, circuit boards, switches. Shop after shop full of stuff. If you ever needed something electrical/electronic, I am positive you’d find it here. Oh and by the way by a street I mean at least 100 metres long.

It was also quite funny to see just one tiny clothes shop in the middle of all these electrical dedicated outlets.

Anyways back to today. We finally paid the Embassy the last visit to collect the certificate of no impediment. All this went smoothly and it only took about 20 minutes to pay and receive the certificate. I am now legally able to marry in Colombia hoo f*ing ray (it only took 42 days – thanks to current legislation in Gibraltar). The certificate itself is nothing to write home about, it’s just an A4 sheet on letter headed paper and a signature / stamp of approval.

The rest of the day I have spent trying to fix my laptop. I got a very weird virus after visiting a few Bogota hotel websites. Suddenly out of the blue my Internet Browser (Internet Explorer – so go figure), started opening gay porn websites I haven’t seen so many dicks on one page in my life jejeje. Anyways joking apart as the Trojan was a serious one. It kept crashing/restarting my PC every 15 monutes (apart from the usual annoying pop-ups every 30 seconds or so). Eventually after a few hours I got it sorted using a program called Malwarebytes’ Anit-Malware. The Trojan/Malware/Virus was System Security version 4.51.

Shoes, rings and aching bones - 11th May 2009

2009-05-12T06:24:00.001+02:00

We had lunch at a new place were we only thought served refreshments and it turned out to be an excellent lunch.

With things pending for the wedding we finally get the rings sorted. We got them from the same place I bought the engagement ring as they provide a good service. Last time I even got offered sweets, biscuits, refreshments & coffee whilst I waited for the ring to be resized.

After that we head into the actual heart of Bogota - City Centre (close to Plaza Bolivar) for the shoes. A few hours later we finally succeed and we call it a day as every bone in my body hurts because of bowling yesterday. A cut on my thumb because of the bowling ball is also not helping but anyways. Apart from that it has been a productive day.

My gatita is taller than me about an inch with heels but what the heck I have always preferred women who are my height anyways as those who know me are aware.

Bowling - 10th May 2009

2009-05-12T05:23:00.003+02:00

We had wanted to go bowling for a while now (one of the things in our to do list), so today we headed out to a shopping centre were we could play.

My gatita has never played before but let me tell you, it must have been beginners luck as she got a few spares and 3 strikes on our first game jejeje. I did well on the 2nd game and scored 167. Considering I haven’t played in over 2 years it was a good score. One of the reasons I stopped playing was because of darts as I kept hurting my forearm whilst playing.

After that we did some shopping and headed to the cinema which is in the same complex. We watched "la profesia del no nacido". A horror movie, not bad but I wouldn't recommend it. The only distinct difference it had was that it reflected exorcism but in the jewish faith which I thought was interesting.

DHL crap - 9th May 2009

2009-05-11T02:53:00.003+02:00

We went out for lunch today and its apparent that Colombia is not taking any chances with the Influenza virus. Even though there has only been one confirmed case, all restaurant staff or fast food outlets are taking precautions and are using gloves / masks which does make you feel safer.

Seeing I CAN use my credit card at shops as it doesn’t seem to be affiliated with the company ATH which is the one blocking my card at cash machines, we buy a few things for my gatita for the wedding and we are now all clear except the shoes.

After this, we headed back home and I finished off a recent article for the GDA concerning a competition played recently (College Cosmos Tournament). I also digitally added the Kronenbourg logo to the picture of the semi-finalists which is a good thing for the sponsor to see.

A second email was circulated to the press concerning the Med Cup team which will be heading for Italy in a few days time.

I've checked the courier letter I forwarded to the bank using DHL and it’s making so many unwarranted trips that it's unbelievable. So far, it’s been to Panama City, Miami then Wilmington USA, East Midlands UK, then Leipzig Germany. Unbelievable eh!!! So much money paid for what should be the fastest service and they have no clue that it should have been as quick as Bogota – Spain or UK – Gibraltar.

Lastly and not one for wanting to stay in especially on a Saturday we head out to a nearby Italian restaurant.

Seafood - 8th May 2009

2009-05-10T04:51:00.002+02:00

My gatita has a healthy appetite much like me which of course is a good thing. She has been bugging me (for lack of a better word) and has wanted to eat fish for a while now.

So today I promise her we will eat fish even if we don't find a place and I tell her that I will buy a fish at the supermarket and cook it myself if we don't fnd a suitable venue.

Luckily we found a one so she was left happy. It turned out to be rather expensive considering everything is cheap here (for Colombia it was expensive). Apart form that it was very good.

I nearly had one of my episodes and was feeling dizzy but I was able to control it with some sugar from my gatita's grape juice to boost me, so all good. I must take care and drink more water as suggested by my doctor.

In the evening we visited the cinema and watched the newly released Star Trek film. Up to now I've enjoyed all the movies watched.

Cold Showers - 7 May 2009

2009-05-09T02:37:00.002+02:00

We (well my gatita) got up really early as we were expecting engineers to come and fix the boiler.

Since yesterday we exhausted the hot water in the boiler as it broke down since a power cut two days ago.

My gatita prepared a full English breakfast stacked up in a sandwich which was a good morning surprise. After that I went straight back to bed for a quick after breakfast nap.

The house owner came by and she was not able to fix it so she called up the engineer and we were to expect them at 11am.

The simple pleasures in life (such as hot water) sometimes kick you in the butt eh! You take things for granted.

We both rested until bang at 11am and were caught off guard by the cleaner so it was a mad rush to find the pyjamas jejeje. A funny moment! She informed us that the boiler engineers would be arriving at 1pm instead due to techincal problems, so a nice hot shower had to wait till then.

Anyways after everything was sorted at around 2pm I cleaned up and we headed out for lunch and claimed the 2nd part of the money that Darren sent over.

It’s good we split the collection in 2 days as experience of sending some money over to my gatita has proven it’s the best move without being asked too many questions. There was an older lady trying to take out monies sent to her from USA and the western union agency refused to give her the money until she proved what it was for, who had sent it, when would she spend it. The old lady was not happy with the interogation but how was she to know that for large amounts Western Union collectors become extremely suspicious.

After that, we went to the shopping mall called Santa Fe, and we were able to find a nice dress for the wedding. I attempted using the card again and it went through. Not the first go as the attendant asked us if it was a current account credit card and that failed so she processed the card as a credit card account (visa) and it went through. This of course is very good news as I can pay for things (it seems) and keep my cash in hand to pay for things when a card is not accepted or fails.

Money, money, money – 6th May 2009

2009-05-07T18:31:00.001+02:00

Finally we have money (Thanks to my parents & Darren) all we have to do is head out to go get it at a Western Union.

It’s raining cats and dogs (just like in Gibraltar) but that won’t stop necessity.

We confront the rain and head out for lunch first as its just a few steps from a Western Union.

Had a good meal whilst watching Barcelona v Chelsea. What a goal by Chelsea eh to get Barca in gear!!!

Anyways I decide we should cash the money and send the long awaited DHL. They tell me that the couriered documents will cost 128,500 pesos which is not cheap by any means but it should arrive early enough for the Treasurer to get things paid back in Gib before they depart for the Med Cup.

We decide to go back home to drop off some of the money in the safe and I use the opportunity of being in the apartment to that to watch the football EUFA Champions League semi-finals. What a comeback and shocking disappointment for Chelsea eh!!! In extra time. Reminded me of how Manchester United has won games in the past actually. It’s not over until it’s over as they say. It is the final that every support of both teams wanted and for TV audiences it’s the best final they could have ever hoped for in terms of viewing figures.

After the match we can go shopping again and I brave the chance of using my credit card and guess what, finally, a bit of luck and it goes through. It appears it’s only the ATM’s then that have my card blocked so everyday I am more certain it’s the company ATH which has done so, for some security reason. They haven’t gotten back to me as of yet!!!! My gatita prepared dinner today, a scrumptious lasagne and left over Chinese rice from yesterday. This time around we were able to top it up with some shrimps bought today.

After that I spoke to the Treasurer on MSN and read the recent article of the College Open which took place recently and was prepared by the secretary in my absence. I need to send an email to the secretary concerning the format of competitions. For a College Open a best of 11 final is simply too much. I agree that the way we have structured things this year will ensure the strongest team possible to represent Gibraltar but a best of 11 is excessive in my opinion. Most international competitions are between best of 5 & 7 throughout so we should be practising as we play, in my opinion of course.

Tomorrow I have money yeeeheeee (I hope) - 5th May 2009

2009-05-07T00:07:00.002+02:00

A last shot was given to the ATM issue, so we headed out to find a HSBC which is not linked to the main company ATH and hopefully be able to get some money out.

When we got there the ATM was out of service, figures eh! And that was after walking a few miles!!!!

Anyways like the past few days it was straight back to the apartment unfortunately. Although I want to get this issue sorted as we have several expenses that need to be paid for before the wedding eg. A wedding dress for my gatita, a hotel booking for her parents, payment of the no impediment certificate and a few other things.

I called Darren at his mum’s house just to check if he had received my email concerning the favour needed (Western Union) and as it turns out he was heading to my mums house. I called home and spoke to my dad/mum & Darren and agreed got my mum’s credit card details so I could transfer money over to her. Luckily this went smoothly so now I know that my mum will not go out of pocket when she hands the money to Darren which he will send over to me tomorrow through Western Union.

I have written an urgent email to ATH the company in charge of ATM cash machines in Colombia but they haven’t gotten back to me yet.

Yes I know its food again. I prepared 8 beef spare ribs in different sauces: garlic/salt, honey, pepper/salt and plain. That was accompanied by Chinese special fried rice with the works. We are poor right now as you know but the fridge is well stocked for the moment. The rice included chopped carrots, onions, peas, chicken, beef, ham, pork, one egg and a few pieces of chorizo (why not) as a replacement for shrimps (the only missing ingredient not in the fridge). Although I added some fish stock to give simulate the shrimp flavour.

My gatita gave me 20 out of 10 (she loves rice) Like all Colombians I might add.

I send a few emails just to finish off the day. One of which concerns a competition in Holland in October (electronic darts). That will be good as I am hoping to do well in that competition.

Tuesdays is a good night to stay in anyways as there are good movies at around 11pm and a few TV series which are very good too. Currently I have been watching a new series called Fringe which I enjoy and throughout the week I have spotted others which are worth watching such as The Mentalist & Eleventh Hour.

Still no dough - 4th May 2009

2009-05-05T23:40:00.000+02:00

I finally got through to Barclays and explained my credit card problems. I was told that the card has not been blocked and everything was in order.

With this in mind we head out to try again. High hopes lasted 10 minutes as it failed again. So we headed back to the apartment.

All cash machines here regardless of the bank are affiliated to a company called ATH which stands for “A Toda Hora” (at every hour). It’s late in the evening but I send them an email explaining my situation and I the errors I am getting with the ATM receipts. Let’s see what they say.

I have no alternative but to get a friend involved, Darren in Gib. I send him an email which I am sure he is aware by means of the blog and I explain if he could visit my mum so that he gets the bank details so I can use my online banking to transfer money over to my mum and then she will take out the money and give to Darren so that he can send it over using Giro (Western Union).

It’s all rather boring but I am sure it will get sorted. Anyways something interesting I have noticed. Did you know that most liquid drinkable products are sold in plastic bags and not carton or hard plastic containers? Although there is bottled stuff mostly it’s cheaper to sell things in plastic bags and its mostly better for recycling.

Still poor but happy - 3rd April 2009

2009-05-05T02:41:00.001+02:00

After spending the whole day at home, I surprised my gatita by telling her if she wanted to go to the cinema.

I’ve been bitching about being poor with my credit card issue for the past few days.

She is a girly girl and cries practically about anything, her eyes just well up. When I told her that I was kidding about going to the cinema and why didn’t she understand I had no money (as she was happily bouncing with joy on the bed given the surprise and after such a crap day inside). I watched her face change from happiness to gloomy and she started welling up, of course this made me laugh and I told her it is true we would be going, that I was only joking. To make her happy again I added we would eat out, hotdogs, popcorn and whatever she wanted. It was a funny moment jejeje.

Anyways we watched X-Men, a rather good film, very entertaining.

Card Declined - 2nd May 2009

2009-05-04T07:08:00.003+02:00

We had arranged to get my gatita a nice dress for the wedding. What a disappointment when I visited a few cash machines and my card was declined, read on…

After that fiasco we went back to the apartment and called up Barclays bank to see what has gone wrong. I made 2 phone calls, the 1st I got through to an attendant and was diverted to the correct department and waited for over an hour. With the second call I got through directly but after another hour on a queue I gave up and sent them an email hoping they get back to me asap.

I highlighted the importance of not having any money so let’s see how long they take to get back to me. Of course I’ll be on the phone 1st thing Monday to get things sorted.

I reckon the problem started about a week ago when I tried to purchase something and my card was declined for some reason. I told the attendant I would be straight back as I needed to go to an ATM to give her cash instead. At the first ATM my card was also declined so we walked down the street and finally my card was accepted so I took out some money but that was the last time I was allowed to take out any money. I reckon these failed attempts have blocked my card!

Ironically, I received an email from the Treasurer asking if I had couriered the documents over. I read it as I was writing the email to the bank and holding on the line. I won’t waste the money I have in hand until I get the bank issue sorted so my friend I’m afraid the GDA will have to wait a bit longer.

Luckily my gatita does have an account which I have been putting some money into, well something (it isn’t much) and she has been saving it for a rainy day. Its also an account we need so that at the time of applying for a VISA she can prove she can be self sufficient in the event things go pear shape she can stand on her own two feet for several months or at least to be able to purchase a ticket for a flight back to Colombia. Anyways she barely had accumulated £120 over the past 3 years but unfortunately we had to take that out of her account for this rainy day.
Seeing we are temporarily broke we decided to stay home and did some house planning. Don’t know if you guys know but I am buying a property which my brother has. It’s currently a shop but it has been arranged with land property services that it can be converted to a residential (and has been approved). I believe it’s an offer I can’t refuse. The house will become a 1 bedroom, the costs will be so low for me that I wont require a large starter mortgage, more like a loan and also as a first time buyer I will receive a substantial tax break. Anyways we measured the apartment to compare how big the kitchen, lounge and bedroom will be. It was good fun going over these things with my gatita.

On a lighter note check out the following videos taken at a bus stop, check how cool the advert is. I also took some videos of it at night although it’s not as clear as the daytime one but it does show the attractiveness of it. Can you imagine how long it would take in Gibraltar or Spain for such an advert to be vandalised or to have some graffiti over it. Anyways the links are below:

http://www.gibraltardarts.com/bus-stop-daytime.avi
http://www.gibraltardarts.com/bus-stop-night1.3gp
http://www.gibraltardarts.com/bus-stop-night2.3gp

Labour Day - 1st May 2009

2009-05-03T08:30:00.001+02:00

Can you believe a month has gone by since I stepped Colombia wow eh!!! My gatita is now starting to mention that only 18 days are left and she will be left alone again and getting all girly on me jejeje I reassure her and I am making the strong assumption that I will have to do so for the remaining days.

Labour Day and everything is closed as they should be. In Gib I know it’s different as Labour Day is celebrated as a long weekend.

We fooled around at home on the computer with my gatita’s mp3 player as its playing up and I sort of managed to fix it (at least she is not losing songs now).

DHL was closed so I will send the documents to Gibraltar tomorrow.

In case you are all wondering on the lack of scenic photos I might as well add that it’s difficult to snap shots over here without getting the police suspicious. Simply because of national security reasons and terrorist attacks it is avoided by locals and something tourists like myself are told to be careful about.

Have a great labour day for all those who work hard of course.

Criolla (word of the day) - 30th April 2009

2009-05-02T01:49:00.003+02:00

I’ve decided there is no other option but to courier the documents over to Gibraltar as I have had enough of trying to fax it through.

For those that might be wondering if I am missing darts over here well the answer is sometimes. If you are however thinking I wouldn’t find a way of practising well think again.

I wasn’t going to bring a bristle dartboard over as its just too heavy and luckily I didn’t as I was bang on the weight limit. However I did bring a crappy but usable electronic dartboard. Its not the same but as I have been enjoying my electronic darts in Spain for the past few years it was a good alternative.

See the picture I took, ended up having to buy a hammer so that I could fix it at the perfect height jejejeje.

http://www.gibraltardarts.com/apartment-db.jpg

As you can see there are two sets of darts. I am practising every few odd days with my gatita showing her the ropes. She is not bad for a beginner but gets annoyed with me when I beat her jejeje. Its all good fun.

I found a new word which describes typical Colombian food “Criolla”. This is usually fried bananas, yellow potatoes, arrepa (and any other typical Colombian food).

Someone left an anonymous post saying I am obsessed with food. Well my friend you are correct. In no particular order, sex + love + food + darts = lots of happiness. See below and let me know if ou would not like it either jejejeje.

Several weeks back I spotted a Hooters restaurant here in Bogota (when doing one of our daily usual walkabouts). I missed going to one when I was in the North America (New jersey) on work experience many years ago. So we just might pay it a visit. Pending my gatita wants to of course. I did fool about with her and showed her a few clips on youtube about Hooters Bogota. The only one in Colombia. She said we could go as long as I didn't stare like an idiot and just made sure I concentrated on my plate. A bit of fun suppose jejeje.

Swine influenza - 29th April 2009

2009-05-01T03:39:00.001+02:00

My sister informed last week about the swine flu which I have been watching on TV over here when it was at level 3. Now at level 5 we are taking precautions as anyone should. One thing is defrosting the little freezer we have so that we pay less unnecessary visits to the supermarket over here. Although there has been no confirmed cases in Colombia, we are pre-empting things.

However everything is looking OK over here compared to other countries especially USA and Mexico.

Despite the above precautions we had to go out to send an important fax for the GDA but after 5 attempts at different shops it’s proving to be impossible and a pain in the butt. Again I got told that the problem could be coming from Gibraltar but I very much doubt it.

I have several times tried to explain were Gibraltar is with the fax ordeal jejejeje.

Me: “Can you send international faxes?”
Attendant: “Yes but where is that?”
Me: “It’s in the South of Spain, a British Colony”.
Attendant: “Oh it’s Spanish then!!!!”
Me: “NOOOO señora it’s a British Colony”
Attendant: “Oh OK but you use the dialling code of Spain then!!!!”
Me: “NOOOO señora we are a different country, this is our international code”.

You get the gist jejeje

I have emailed the committee / bank and offered an alternative which is to send the documents by courier DHL. I did forward the documents by email beforehand for the bank to confirm correct before sending them over.

Before heading off to bed I unplugged the fridge to defrost it, ready to be cleaned out in the morning.

Good night and be safe.

Conventional Fax - 28th April 2009

2009-04-30T06:37:00.002+02:00

We went out to lunch and visited Carulla supermarket for a few things.

Yesterday I received confirmation that my Internet Fax sent to the bank so that the Treasurer can take out monies is not acceptable according to the banking manager. I don’t quite understand why but there you go. For this reason we head out to find a place to print my letter of authority and photocopy my passport so that these documents can be faxed as requested using a conventional fax.

I want to be able to sort this out soon as a GDA member who books the flights for all our outings always puts money of his own and as I know how unfair it is to be waiting on the monies to be returned (as it happens to me), I want to be able to allow the Treasurer (via an authority letter) to take out monies from the bank so that everyone concerned can be paid. We visited two shops that could send faxes but none could get through to the Gib number. I will try again tomorrow.

For dinner we had Gambas Pil-Pil, lasaña and spare rice (left overs from yesterday). I dunno about my Gambas Pil-Pil as I have been preparing it for quite a while now and sometimes they come out under par and other times they are exceptionally good. It must be the prawns as the other basic ingredients are always the same.

Paella & jeans - 27th April 2009

2009-04-30T06:11:00.002+02:00

My gatita luckily for me has the same tastes in food as I do. With this in mind and as we have a fridge full of seafood, the highlight of the day was for me (the cook) jejeje to prepare a paella for her.

Apart from the usual which is sleeping like a king and reporting back home to my mum so that she doesn't worry that’s about it for today.

I have been meaning to mention something of interest for a while now and this is that jeans here in Colombia are thinner. This is why when we were in Bucaramanga and despite the impressive heat; most people had jeans on!!!! (including me). What I didn't know at the time was that my European jeans are twice as thick. So no wonder they use jeans. If I’d known I would have worn shorts at the time.

I am not a bird - 26 April 2009

2009-04-28T19:26:00.002+02:00

I asked my gatita to list what we got up to today and here are the notes. For those that can read Spanish it will make sense.

- Dormilón
- Desayuno rico
- Cocine horrible
- Comida, salimos a comer Italiano, spaghetti, lasaña, para beber cerveza y gaseosa. De entrada carne con cebolla dulce/frita (HORRIBLE), pan de ajo rico.

In the above listing there was a starter which was meant to be a new dish, so willing to try anything we gave it a go. It was meant to be a Thai styled starter and oh my god was it horrible. It conatined a plate of very thinly sliced meat (dunno which meat) with glazed onions (cold) and bird seeds lots and lots of bird seeds. I looked in the mirror when we got home to check I hadn’t grown any wings jejeje. Yuck, worst thing I’ve tasted in a long long time.

Well that’s it folks, a nice and peaceful Sunday. The majority of the day I simply slept and watched TV whilst my gatita paid more attention to an online game she plays called DOFUS which I am slowly starting to hate as it takes up too much of her time. But she realises this and once in a while I receive a few cuddles & kisses in bed and a cup of coffee. Just to keep me quiet of course but its mutual benefit so it’s OK.

My student days times two - 25th April 2009

2009-04-28T06:09:00.002+02:00

I had forgotten the times I used to be a student and I spent so much time at supermarkets. Believe you me I didn’t go without proper food as a student and I prepared good home food just like mummy taught me jejeje. The only difference was that then it we just me and now its for two. Just to prove my love for food I bought a half freezer as a student which for a single guy was slightly overboard jejeje but I needed it at the time and it only cost me £50.00 and worth every penny.

For this reason we headed to the Exito supermarket, much like the carrefoure we have in Spain (La Linea de la Concepcion). My gatita has an Exito points award card and she is building some interesting points jejeje. Hence why we try to go to that supermarket when we can.

In the evening we decided to have dinner at the cinema (hot dogs) but when we got there we were close to 2 hours early for the next screening of the film we decided to watch "Presagio" with Nicholas Cage. As we arrived so early we simply did some window shopping as the cinema is in a shopping mall and then we had a McDonalds as we were starving.

The film I can recommend, the cinema was packed and when we booked there were only 3 seats left. One thing I can recommend in Bogota is if the film start time is 9:20pm then you have no need to rush as the film will not start at least 30 minutes from that time. Expect lots of adverts.

The film started close to 10pm and finished at around midnight. On the way back we were caught up in a few traffic jams but this gave us the chance to see the nightlife and I can say that everything is so peaceful over here. No one is interested in causing havoc. This must be attributed to the overwhelming military presence and people over here simply do not want to get into trouble as the tolerance factor from the law is non negotiable. If you screw up you end up in prison full stop and that is an excellent deterrent.

Stayed in - 24th April 2009

2009-04-26T22:00:00.003+02:00

Today we decided to stay in and I slept and watched TV the majority of the day.

The morning started with breakfast done by my gatita which was sausages, bacon, mushrooms & egg with cocktail sauce on a sandwich (an English breakfast in a sandwich basically jejejeje).

After breakfast it was back to bed and I only got up for lunch which my gatita also prepared for me.

What a life eh!!!!!

For dinner we had the leftovers of the cheese sauce and 2 steak pieces which we couldn’t finish yesterday and we had a tuna rice salad to accompany.

Then back to bed for the evening and stayed up watching TV and relaxing.

As promised see links below to a few pictures taken. The first is the guy on the watchtower I mentioned supervising the supermarkets and shopping centre parking lots.

http://www.gibraltardarts.com/watchtower.jpg

This second link is the painting on the walls of construction sites instead of using paper plastic coated posters, which I found interesting.

http://www.gibraltardarts.com/constructionsitesigns.jpg

I took these with my mobile phone so that the quality is not exceptional but they are clear enough.

For security reasons taking pictures over here is an art and you have to be very confident and quick as otherwise they can call your attention if you are snapping away like crazy. It's a security issue so that you don't take too many pictures of any particular landmark in case you're a nutter and are thinking of planning anything dodgy jejeje.

Anyway back to bed!!!!!

Na na nay - 23rd April 2009

2009-04-26T07:05:00.002+02:00

Today some GDA stuff has turned up. The treasurer went to our bank to see if he could take out monies and he has been informed that a fax is required by me stating or giving authority of such. I have been trying to find a fax service online so that I don’t have to travel around Bogota to find a place to send me a fax which I also need to find an internet café to print the letter. I haven’t as of yet found any. I am however expecting a registration email from greenfax.com Yet again it will cost me money to register but its pay as you go and of course will come out of the GDA.

My gatita also has received her birth certificate which kindly her grandfather got sorted from her home town. Considering the place is over 14 hours away from Bogota (by coach), its quite impressive it got here the next day.

We have passed all hurdles and are good to go on the marriage on the 15th May once I receive the certificate of no impediment on the 12th May.

This evening we stayed in and watched the Billboard awards. A guy called Flex who some might know as Nigga picked up an impressive 6 awards with his first album after his impressive debut on youtube with “en este mundo”.

Liz if you are reading this I told you didn’t I, the guy could not sing but I did tell you the song was a cracker and it just stuck with you didn't I "nananay aynay ananinaninay nananay aynananay" jejejeje. Much to the despair of the others at the time in the office who told us to take that racket off eh Doctor Zapata jejeje. This Nigga dude now Flex has hit gold with his album and incorporates "nananay" intros on most of his songs. Anyways the guy picked up the top accolade "best album of the year" na de na (excuse the pun).

To end the night I prepared blue cheese medallion steaks for dinner (they were perfect). We also visited Carulla supermarket in the morning to buy a few things to prepare my mums salmon salad which is the best potato salad in the world. I can’t provide the recipe otherwise I would have to kill you. Just trust me its extremely good, has lots of seafood, of course salmon and also a touch of beet root which gives it a unique sweetness. Again just trust me its an exceptional salad.

MOSQUITOOOOOOSSS - 22nd April 2009

2009-04-25T04:33:00.004+02:00

What is it, 5 days now and the guerrilla mosquito bites are still going strong. I have recorded a short video so that you can see its no joke and remember I got bitten at least 5 days ago so imagine a few days back!!!!

http://www.gibraltardarts.com/mosquitos.zip

Just to pass the time and stop scratching we head out to the supermarket to get a few things. One thing that’s becoming a regular is the French baguette. Haven't I told you that most breads over here are not worth even looking at!!!! Bimbo style bread nothing like good Spanish or English Bread. Here it's all commercial kids style bread. In fact its so crap and riddled with sugars (and God knows what else) that at the apartment we have Bimbo sliced bread and in 20 days it still as fresh as the first day we bought it and it doesn't go off!!!!! jejeje. Simply crap so Baguettes when we can....

As a holiday gift for some of my Gib friends who support Football Club Barcelona I have been trying to find the club which I saw on the last day a year ago on my way to the airport. I think it would be nice to get a few key rings or similar with Futbal Club Barcelona Colombia/Bogota. Up to now no luck though... Will keep trying...

Visit to the British Embassy - 21st April 2009

2009-04-25T02:18:00.004+02:00

The day finally arrived to go to the Embassy to hand in the notice of marriage. We picked up a taxi as we didn’t know if the embassy was in walking distance. As it turned out it was.

I’ve noticed this morning that I have a bit of a sun tan jejeje received thanks to Bucaramanga! (told you it was hot over there!).

The embassy is on the 8th floor of a 9 floor building and is not advertised at all. In difference to the French embassy which we came across a few days ago which appeared like a concentration camp with electric barbed wire, security and a large flag /notice signs. In contrast the British Embassy is very reserved although we did go through several security checks but you feel very comfortable. In true British style we were met by two queues, one at the entrance and another on the 8th floor. Luckily to smooth things out we were attended by the same official I have been dealing with via emails. She was very nice and took care of everything in less than 15 minutes so all in all from leaving the apartment and getting the papers sorted it took less than an hour. She still didn’t quite get why I had to come to Colombia for the notice of marriage so I cleared but like I told her, we are here now and its because of the lack of implementation of the law within the Gibraltar legislation as it has never been a requirement and now it is.

Oh as a funny note I handed in my ID card as they take a picture and give you a sticker which serves as your visitors pass. The official asked me if I had some other form of identification as the ID number was too long and didn't fit in the sticker (the program used didn't accept so many numbers jejeje). I gave her my passport which has a smaller number. When I told her that we are only just 30,000 people who reside in Gibraltar she just chuckled and said so many numbers for so few residents jejeje. Thought it was worth a mention.

Thanks to the Government of Gibraltar the notice of marriage has cost be an unnecessary £70 and the certificate will cost me the same when I go to pick it up on the 12th May as agreed with the embassy official.

The embassy official called me this afternoon as she couldn’t answer my question on arranging for the visa once we are married so my gatita can come back to Gibraltar with me. She informed me that it’s Gibraltar who grants the visa and she gave me the numbers of the Principal Immigration Officers of the Gibraltar Police Station. Its very good she cleared this and I'll be calling the station to see how quickly we can deal with this and even if I can start the process before being married and what papers I need to take back, for example photocopies of marriage, my gatita's ID/Passport etc etc.

On our return which we walked back instead we headed in to "Manny’s" which is rapidly becoming our lunch time local as the food is quite good. We have been regularly doing hand washing but today we decided to use the laundry service provided by the apartment complex as its starting to pile up. It cost us 6000 pesos for 6 hours which is dead cheap (30 pence an hour). Basically it’s a room with a large washing machine and includes a balcony were the clothes can be hang out to dry. By the way I am not winning the war against the mosquito’s, I haven’t been bitten again (I think) but the ones I have on my legs itch like chicken pox. To celebrate how smoothly things have turned out today with the embassy and I am very happy they did as all main hurdles have been overcome, we decide to celebrate by having a Chinese. We checkout the yellow pages and the closest one turns out to be the Chinese restaurant we visited last year. The food is very nice there. We ordered special fried rice, king prawn chow Mein & sweet & sour pork balls (8 of them and they were like donkeys balls jejeje huge). We couldn’t finish everything so ordered doggy bags jejeje. In Colombia the speciality is Peking Duck but you need to pre-order it a a day before. When we checked the menu out it was listed as costing 170,000 pesos (very expensive) that’s like £50.00. I am glad we didn’t order it jejeje.

War against mosquitos - 20th April 2009

2009-04-23T22:06:00.003+02:00

I can't believe that 20 days have gone by already, time sure flies when you're having fun jejeje.

Today I am slightly anxious as we have to go to the British Embassy tomorrow to hand in the notice of marriage and do the oath / affidavit so I am just checking that all the paperwork is in order and that I don't forget anything.

The mosquito bites are driving me crazy. I have around 15 bites just on my legs and 11 of them are on my feet. These Colombian mosquito's are nasty let me tell you. It itches like mad.

This made me take evasive action and I have gone the full works. Cream for after bites, Raid plugs for the bedroom and I am even using my mosquito repellent cream as well. I have been suffering from itchy feet for the past 2 days. Wait a minute I need to put my legs under a cold shower as its becoming unbearable, bare with me jejeje.

I spoke to the GDA treasurer today via msn and we discussed a few darts issues, though as he mentioned it should be the last thing on my mind. Two signatories are required for taking out money from our bank account, The Treasurer’s and mine and there might not be enough funds before I return for the paying of the flights & accommodation for the Med Cup so the treasurer might have to work some magic on this one though I am sure he should have enough cash in hand. If not the players themselves will have to cover the cost and await my return so that money can be taken out.

Lastly I forwarded a few emails today with some people from Tenerife enquiring about the PDC comps (next years).

There is nothing I can do from here unfortunately and it was an oversight that we could have avoided before I left. As unfortunate as it is, I have personally put my own money before on many occasions just to keep things running smoothly and paying debts owed for equipment and prize monies. The monies I have always received back (eventually) the monies from the GDA but its not something I like to do and by my calculations the monies I have put in the past has rolled into the thousands of pounds. So I am trying to avoid this by having some cash in hand for these eventualities and that way no money comes out of my own pocket.

Dreading the coach - 19th April 2009

2009-04-23T18:31:00.004+02:00

Even though I had a fantastic time yesterday at the birthday party, today I am dreading the coach return back to Bogota as I now know it is a 10 plus hour coach trip. I will not miss the heat or dampness though.

At least this time around I am armed with my fatigue pills and plenty of water & food.

We use the same coach company called Copetran and this time around it's the new model of bus. The seats are as comfortable.

Much to the dismay of my gatita I must have slept for about 5 hours. So she had no entertainment from me "su payasito personal" her personal clown jejejeje. At least for me the trip became much much shorter jejejeje.

The trip however seemed smoother all around as there were less turnings and we visited less cities/villages. We did have the usual break for lunch and the security checks by the police who took all the passengers ID cards (here they are called cedulas) and in my case my passport. They didn't check any bags this time around though.

As a bit of fun see the links below which are the photos taken which I mentioned in yesterdays blog. The original one is from my work colleagues as a joke and the updated one is the one my gatita took of me.
http://www.gibraltardarts.com/bucaramanga-original.jpg
http://www.gibraltardarts.com/bucaramanga-updated.jpg

See you all tomorrow its time for bed...

Fifteenth birthday party (Quinceañera) - 18th April 2009

2009-04-22T22:58:00.005+02:00

This morning I woke up with a few mosquito bites which is to be expected as it rained last night and the high temperatures has hatched a few mosquitos around the area.

After having yet another cold shower we head into town and have an empanada (much like a Cornish pie) for breakfast. It was huge! I prefer the smaller ones as the pastry is thinner and they are juicier.

We get on a bus as I’ve told my gatita I’ve never been on a bus in Colombia and wanted to live the experience. She explains why the bus driver is handing over some papers at one of the bus stops. It turns out that in the midst of all the chaos of bus driving, the drivers have to meet very strict timescales and arrive within a margin of time at different points of there daily route. If they don’t, the bus driver’s license is revoked for a few days and they get fined. This happens as the bus service is run privately but it’s the Government who tries to ensure a good service and hence the inspectors.

We buy an outfit for my gatita; A white elegant top for the party tonight and I buy fatigue pills as I honestly do not want to go through the same hell I did coming here by coach.

My gatita took an entertaining photo of me in the centre of Bucaramanga. One of my work colleagues got a photo of a place in the centre of Bucaramanga and sent it to me via email as a laugh. They of course edited the photo and included a picture of me having a beer. As a bit of fun we stopped at the exact same place and I tried to get the same angle and my gatita snapped the photo. I will send the photo by email to the office see if they get the same laughs I did. I am sure they will.

We eat at the Exito supermarket self service and then relax back at the hotel (I had another cold shower) then we watched TV and got ready for the party which is at 8pm (although in typical Latin style everyone is fashionably late). At least that’s what I am told by my gatita.

We go to her house in taxi and indeed are the 1st to arrive at 8:15pm. Slowly but surely her family (uncles, aunts & cousins start to arrive).

In Colombia you do not normally give kisses just handshakes and you usually greet anyone saying “mucho gusto” which is in short “pleasure to meet you”. Slowly but surely and after many mucho gusto’s jejeje I got to meet everyone related to the mothers side of my gatita.

Everyone danced all night! I was not brave enough to dance to any of the typical music including Salsa and fast Vallenato but it was quite impressive to watch jejejeje. In particular two uncles of my gatita they were like experts on the dance floor. Slowly the younger cousins and sisters took to the dance floor in the living room and basically displayed to me how Reggaeton and other typical Latin music is danced. I even had the pleasure of watching an entertaining dance off between two of the cousins. This was made even better when the older uncle stepped in between them and did some moves of his own which was very funny and kept everyone cheerful (as if Colombians need to be cheered on anyways jejejeje).

My gatita was embarrassed and didn’t want to dance with me as I have been for 3 weeks fooling around with some moves of my own (so imagine jejeje). But needs be as everyone wanted to see us on the dance floor, so it was inevitable and we danced to the slower Vallenatos embraced closely together of course.

As a surprise and as my gift to her sister we booked a group of mariachi’s to sing at her sisters wedding. I have attached a link here although its quite big some might find it entertaining. http://www.gibraltardarts.com/fifteenth.zip. There are more photos but I have included just some I relate to in this blog entry. It cost me 130,000 Pesos which is around £38.00 and they sang around 6 songs in total. The group was formed of 6 members so much cheapness. My dad has a group in Gibraltar “Los Jaleos” and quite frankly for £38.00 I don’t think they would even take out the guitars as its not worth it. Obviously over here 130,000 Pesos is good money even if shared between 6. I must add that we did get a good price as the manager is the uncle of my gatita.

The Maricahi's was a surprise too for my gatita's father and mother as we had arranged it with her aunty so it was a nice addition to everyone as only we knew about it.

Closer to 12pm and a few agua ardientes’ later (and beers). The food came out. I finally got to eat Lechona which is a stuffed pig with rice and different meats such as chicken served with a large piece of crackling.

Her aunties also didn’t want to let me leave without dancing with me so they instructed the DJ (her uncle) to play some slow ones. They used this opportunity to ask me as many questions as possible which I answered of course. It was quite funny to be put under interrogation in such a nice way of course jejeje.

At 2am we had to say goodnight even if the party was still going strong as we needed to wake up early to head back to Bogota as I have to go to the Embassy the following day. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the Apartment and yes butt naked another cold shower and the fan at full steam jejeje.

As a final note any party in Colombia goes on and on and continues until the last man standing decides to call it a night and the music is not lowered at any point even if the police are called in!!!! Different eh!!!!!

Shoe Capital of Colombia (Bucaramanga) - 17th April 2009

2009-04-22T06:27:00.003+02:00

I slept all evening as God brought me into to this world. What heat!!! And its not even the coast my gatita keeps sniggering jejejeje were the heat is apprantly unbearable. "Thank God" I keep telling her and I also tell her she should have warned me about the climate change.

We had a light breakfast in town, a buñelo (madelana) similar to a muffin just slightly heavier. I had this with my first coffee in 2 days as the opportunity simply was not available with all the travelling.

As I am a smoker and as I don’t think I have mentioned it before Colombia has become non smoking. Not too sure on the law as my gatita is a non smoker herself but I know that most places (nearly all) do not allow smoking not even in the patio of restaurants. Not sure if the same applies to nightclubs as we have not ben in any yet. It however doesn’t bother me much but I’d thought it deserved a mention. This of course is nothing new in Europe but it seems to have been adopted much better over here here as no one appears to create a fuss about it. It could also be that not many people appear to smoke as well.

Anyways we decide to have a relaxing day in the centre of town before we head down that afternoon to my gatita’s house. We browse different places and my gatita shows me around and highlights some personal landmarks for example the 1st internet café she was at when we met online at games.yahoo.com and others were she bought me things etc etc.

Bucaramanga is the shoe capital of Colombia (70% of shoes are manufactured here) and most probably other South American countries as there are literally hundreds of shoe shops. There are also the equivalent clothes shops around. I keep telling my gatita that my sister would fall in love with the place and would definitely take back suitcases full of clothes and shoes which most do not exceed the price tag of £10.00 - £30.00 (highstreet quality) which is very cheap in comparison to high street stores in Gibraltar or London.

I have also noticed that the streets are full of merchants who station themselves just outside shops which is quite different to the capital Bogota. They offer food, clothes, sun glasses, watches, bags, shoes of course and all sorts of other stuff.

Afternoon arrived and we head down to my gatita’s house were I was expecting to meet the family but as things turned out after a phone call to her mum, most of the family are out so I will just meet the youngest sister.

On our way there and at walking distance to her house my gatita spots her father so we stop the taxi and I got out to greet her father. He was on his way to work but he politely accompanied us back to the house and we have a brief but welcoming 15 minute chat. I also met the younger sister and the older sister was outside with some friends.

After doing a few personal things on my gatita’s PC, I also installed a bluetooth device and a hands free headset on her PC which will make things easier when we depart albeit for a short while as we await the visa arrangements after the marriage but it will make it more comfortable for her this way instead of using a cabled headset which binds her to the PC when we speak over the Internet using Skype. The testing of the equipment woke up my mum in Gibraltar as I was dialing home jejejeje. It was 2am in the morning in Gibraltar oops!!!. My mum was awake as she is a night person and quickly called me on my mobile so I explained and apologised. Seeing she was awake however I called her again to get the configuration of the headset working and this made things a lot easier for me to get the thing sorted.

It was getting late so we decided to head back to the hotel and on our way back, my gatita caught sight of her mum at the hairdressers so we walked in for me to greet her. She had a towel on her head so I am sure at that moment she could have killed her daughter for having presented me to her for the first time not in a lady like state jejejeje but anyways I was glad that I got to meet the whole family as the prospects of this looked grim this morning.

That evening we went out and I had steak again. I am growing quite fond of steak here in Colombia as it's of a rather good quality.

Needless to say I slept naked again (and after a cold shower) as I have not yet acclimatised. Our hotel room and its single fan is not doing much to help. My gatita reserved this hotel and she booked the cheapest one in Bucaramanga but she is concerned I have been spending too much recently. She is right but I told her that for a few extra pesos we could have had a better hotel with more amenities such as an aircon for the dreaded heat. She of course is used to it so its only something that is bothering me. Anyways as a place to crash for a few days I suppose its OK.

Coach from hell – 16 April 2009

2009-04-20T19:02:00.000+02:00

We woke up very early at 5:30am and got ready to go to the coach terminal. We had no other option of travel as the flights or private hire was just too expensive so we decided to go by coach up to Bucaramanga from Bogota to my gatita’s city for her sisters fifteenth birthday on the 18th. We try to book with the company Brazilia as it is apparently better but they are unavailable, the best firm aptly called Concorde is also unavailable so we book with Copetran instead. The tickets cost us around £15 each and considering it’s a 6 plus hour trip that’s quite cheap I thought.

Anyways we buy a few goodies and head for the coach, once inside its quickly apparent its not one of the newest buses but the seats are incredibly comfortable.

One interesting thing is that we received a ticket for the suitcase which I have never recalled getting one when on a coach in Spain. Which of course is a good thing as your suitcase is not handed over to a complete stranger during any stops or pickups along the way. Much the same as you get on a flight.

After watching a movie provided by the coach we suddenly make a stop and a soldier gets on the coach and calls out all the men out of the coach for a check. My gatita tells me this is quite normal so I don’t get worried and I step out with my hand luggage and get inspected. At first I had no clue what the soldier was on about as he kept using the word a “requisia” and I kept giving him my bag for inspection. I did catch on eventually so dropped the bag on the floor and I spread them jejejeje he checked me out and let me go back to the coach.

Back on track and after watching our second movie we had our official lunch stop.

After this was when things started to go wrong, some fella complained about the aircon and that it was too cold so they took it off. This was now close to 6 hours in and it was very apparent the trip was not 6 hours as they put on yet another movie so I thought well 7 ½ hours. Slightly longer, no probs. How wrong was I!!!

Fatigue set in and I felt really bad but started joking with my gatita that it was starting to look like the bus from hell including nuns, the annoying kid in front of us, the crazy old lady and mountains, mountains & more mountains like hilly billy’s. The only thing missing was the dodgy passenger and some goats or chickens in the coach jejeje.

For those interested in putting it into perspective think of Ronda in Spain and multiply it by 40 and that still is a short estimate of the number of turns we took left right left right left right. Colombia, because of its mountains has not been able to get any roads in a straight line in difference to the Romans.

Anyways we eventually got there after 10 hours (it was meant to be closer to six hours), what a nightmare, I am sure the coach drivers stopped at every single city along the way! As soon as we stepped out of the coach the climate change was apparent and the heat was much closer to a full blown summer day in Seville at 30 plus degrees (at least it seemed like that). Considering the last 15 days in Bogota with an average temperature of 10 to 17 degrees it was quite a shock.

The elusive ring - 15 April 2009

2009-04-20T18:06:00.004+02:00

We try our luck again to see if we can find the correct engagement ring and as it turns out yet again it was closer to our apartment than we thought. I found the perfect diamond ring with a little knot (with 6 small diamonds) and a heart shaped larger diamond in the middle.

For those interested the link to a few pics and video is the following http://www.gibraltardarts.com/ring.zip

Our luck has turned around and I even found a sports shop with a few dartboards electronic & bristle. They even had a full cabinet with darts and accessories (Harrows). For anyone reading this post the address is Almacenes Deportes Maracaneiro, Bogota, Carrera 15 Calle 92. Quite a find let me tell you as not even google shows any results on darts in Colombia as it’s a very very very new thing over here.

I go online to find a hotel in Bucaramanga as we will be heading up to my gatita’s house tomorrow for her sisters fifteenth birthday on the 18th April and the whole family will be there to meet me too. We did try our luck in obtaining a cheap flight but its simply too expensive so we will have to go by coach. I even called the apartment chauffer but he turned out to me more interested in my money and wanted to over charge us, so for being greedy he missed out. Our original intention was to use the chauffer as that way it was meant to be cheaper and a shorter journey as the coach does make too many pit stops in each main city on the way.

We get all the packing sorted and call it a night as we need to be up at 5:30am.

As a final note another interesting fact is that it’s very rare that you get asked for deposits on anything. For the ring which needed resizing I told the attendant I’ll be back in 1 hour to pick it up and no probs. With all the hotels/apartments I have stayed in it’s the same you pay nothing until you depart. In only 1 case on both my visits to Colombia have I ever been asked to pay upfront and it’s usually been because management is not Colombian.

Both yesterday and today I have sent a few darts related emails concerning the legends show, Med Cup and the final draft BDO diary which I received from Olly Croft. These things I needed to do as I will be without internet access for the next four days.

Night Night…

Everything went to plan - 14 April 2009

2009-04-20T05:26:00.002+02:00

The honeymoon period is over for my gatita and I finally get my breakfast in bed, arepa con huevos pericos. Roughly translated its flour pancakes with scrambled eggs which are mixed with finely chopped tomatoes & red onions seasoned with black pepper & salt. A Colombian coffee to accompany the breakfast of course.

We decide after breakfast to visit all the notaries in the area and slowly but surely all say the same thing and that is that all dates are booked! Needless to say I was getting very worried we wouldn’t be able to finalise a date in the 3 day margin I have after the certificate of no impediment is issued by the British Embassy which allows me to marry in Colombia.

We reached the furthest Notary at walking distance (and that was several kilometres away), we head in and finally the legal representative reviews my papers and tells me she has good news and we can fix a date.

The wedding day will be the 15th May 2009, 4;30pm at Notary Public 11 Bogota Calle 85 No. 10-74.

After the good news we have a salpicon (fruit cocktail) it was the best one yet.

We head to the Unicentro which is yet another shopping centre to try and find the elusive ring but we are unable to find the right one. This is the place we regularly visited last year to do our food shopping and for a bite to eat.

One interesting thing I did see in the parking lot was the security guard who was supervising everything from a watch tower which I thought was a rather good idea to stop thieves and properly supervise the shopping centre car park. I might add that all bags are supervised on the way in and out of most big centres which does make one secure that thieves will avoid these places and they also check for any posssible weapons on the way in.

Marriage arrangement’s gone wrong - 13 April 2009

2009-04-17T22:56:00.002+02:00

We decided that we needed to visit the Notary Public to finalise a wedding date and make sure my paperwork was in order. We went to the closest one just 50 metres away from the apartment. They validated all the paperwork except the actual translation which apparently required to be done by an official translator provided by the ministry of foreign affairs. They were not able to provide a wedding date neither. After we left a bit deflated and worried to be honest that other notaries would give us the same inconveniences, we headed off instead to buy an engagement ring for my gatita.

Ideally I should have gone to buy the ring by myself but as circumstances stand it seemed logical to head off with her to at least find a ring that we both liked (and I didn´t know her finger size neither). For obvious reasons too I did´t want to get conned as an ignorant foreigner. I now know her finger size is 8.

If we were deflated after the notary visit we felt like going home after our engagement ring adventure as we visited at least 8 jewellers and none had adequate rings some were just too expensive and the cheap ones were circon (zircon) and appeared to be total knock offs. We decided to call it off and went back to the apartment.

To cheer ourselves up, I decided to be adventurous and prepared the blue cheese sauce. As I have never done it I decided to use a small piece of the cheese as a sampler and it went really well so I prepared the whole sauce. Cut some chips and prepared the steaks.

I pulled it off and my gatita gave me a 10 out of 10. The steak was exceptional as I mentioned it would be in a previous blog entry, no fat at all, cut really well with normal kitchen knives and at the cost of £2.20 for ½ a kilo of meat it was a cheap and good meal. At least that cheered us up a little.

Rain in Bogota - 12 April 2009

2009-04-17T22:53:00.001+02:00

Today we only went out for lunch to kokoriko which it´s name says it all, a chicken food chain eat out place here in Colombia possibly in across South America. Its name is quite original don’t you think.

I eat a burger which was served with an interesting sauce which made me think of my father as he enjoys all his meals with as many sources possible. The recipe for the sauce is pineapple sauce and French/Spanish style mustard (vinegary mustard) and some black pepper.

Try it out in a salad instead of vinegar, oil, salt pepper you’ll like it.

Jackets - 11th April 2009

2009-04-16T04:57:00.002+02:00

Nice and tasty McDonalds yet again as we were in a bit of a mad rush to find a good store to buy my gatita a few jackets which she needs.

We visit the 3 main shopping centres and found nothing to her liking! After hours of searching it turned out the perfect store was one road away from the apartment and we did indeed pick out a jacket for like £12.00 and the place just sells jackets (2 floors of jackets) from elegant, funky, punk, rock, casual, you name it they got it and the most expensive ones are £18.00.

I can tell you that if tiredness would have not set in at the time it did, I would have left that particular store with a thinner wallet jejeje. Anyways I am sure we will pay it a second visit as its very inconveniently in the way of everything and a few times now I have stepped up the pace just to make sure we pass it quickly jejeje. Only kidding!!!! GULP!!!!

I also send out 2 emails, one concerning the Dart's Legends Show which we are considering to host in Gibraltar. The show would include Duncan Norvelle (comedian), Bobby George, Eric Bristow, John Lowe, and a professional MC. This would be great exposure for darts in Gibraltar and would re-inforce the us a the leading sport in Gib, but it does involve some work, possibly the sale of raffle tickets and a lot of media coverage including on websites and media in the South of Spain (Costa Del Sol) were there are loads of expats who would be very happy to see this show come to Gib I am sure.

The second email I send concerns the Government summer sports programme which for years I have been trying to run so I keep reminding the committee it is very important for the progression of the sport which primarily is the youth, the future!!!!

Kitchen Highlight - 10th April 2009

2009-04-16T04:46:00.002+02:00

The highlight of the day was messing around in the kitchen, I prepared a paella with all the usual seafood (including gambas pil pil), it came out very well and its something I went through with my gatita so that she knows how to prepare it when we finally are back in Gibraltar.

I did load up some latin music on the laptop such as vallenato, reageton, salsa and have been pretending to have 2 left feet (not that I am an expert jejeje) much to the amusement of my gatita and her growing concern I will embarrass both her and myself at her sister’s fifteenth birthday which is in a few days time.

Lets see what happens when I get offered one beer too many jejeje I have warned her and she does seem rather concerned jejeje.

The only GDA stuff done today was forward information to the committee concerning the Med Cup in Italy.

The Cook - 9th April 2009

2009-04-15T12:21:00.003+02:00

It has dawned on me that I am reliving my student days when the kitchen dominated most of my free time to relax and prepare some good old fashioned mummy style dishes.

Today I prepared a pasta in cheese sauce with broccoli and garlic with a sprig of parsley. It was delish and according to my gatita she keeps telling me why I didn't become a chef.

This top statement should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me as they all know how much I adore and love food of all kinds jejeje.

In fact we headed specifically to the supermarket to get the all the ingredients. We also got a chocolate bar (dietetic) for my gatita's little sister (Lindt). I brought over a large number of chocolates including Milka, Cadbury & Lindt but I honestly forget about the younger sister who would have been quite disappointed watching all the family except her have there lions share of yummy chocolate which is still a luxury over here considering that for the price of these european chocolates (which are obtainable over here) you can buy kilo's of rice, meats & vegetables. So this is my treat to her family without going overboard.

In fact I suggested to my gatita that we could share the chocolates with her extended family as a treat during her younger sisters fifteenth birthday and she very quickly disregarded my comment and told me that the chocolate was for her family only: dad, mum and my two sisters jejeje fair enough eh!

No smoking please - 8th April 2009

2009-04-15T02:36:00.002+02:00

For the past 8 days and with the amount of shops we have passed and indeed entered not until today I have managed to find an ash tray which I need for my smoking habit at the apartment as I have been using a plate all this time and the damn plate puts the cigarette out.

We pass a Turkish shop and see some pipes on the outside so we head into the shop and long and behold an ashtray my ashtray jejeje. When I go to the counter to pay, the attendant says 45. I thought “that’s cheap” so I ask again and this time she says 45,000 pesos which roughly equates to £12.60. My jaw dropped and my facial expression showed it. Not much I could do though but pay for it! As I need it for my bad habit. The attendand did realise that I was reluctant to buy the ashtray because of the price so he offered us two turkish eyes to stick on our mobiles to protects you from being jinxed by bad people. Not much need for it as the damn expensive ashtray has 4 of them stuck on each side jejeje but a nice jesture nonetheless so we oblige.

After this we went to the cinema and watched Dragon Ball Evolution, the cinema was world class even the toilets were very modern and extremely well maintained.

The movie was good and had a few parts which were very funny in true Dragon Ball style. After the movie we had a quick dinner at McDonalds (yes they are everywhere).

Oh another difference between McDonalds and the ones I've seen in Europe is that the sauces are all free, you get self service tubs and an infinite amount of little containers which you can fill up with ketchup, mayo, bbq, mustard, jalapeño’s and gherkins.

After McDonalds we visit a shop called Pepe Ganga to buy a hair comb for my gatita and I found a kettle which I have been looking for to boil water for coffee. You will be surprised to know that in the land of coffee (and other stuff I know) there are NO KETTLES, no where, not even online. I suppose they are not tea drinkers and hence there would be a need for a kettle. We use kettles to boil water for tea & coffee but they use percolators and not kettles.

To my shock I did find one in this shop and guess what, what a rip-off, it was 286,500 Pesos which is £80.70. So needless to say after my ashtray expenses I didn’t buy the kettle and will continue to use a pan to heat the water. We do have a percolator at the apartment and once in a while I make myself a scrumptious red label 100% Colombian coffee.

Anyways just to end today’s blog and as I am writing this my gatita has just finished washing some dirty dishes and on the top cupboard guess what she pulls out, have a guess, come on guess..... An F*ING ASHTRAY, lets just leave it at that shall we.

Road to new places - 7th April 2009

2009-04-15T02:20:00.002+02:00

Today we took a wrong turning during our daily walkabouts and found a rather classy road and a large complex with cinema's and a food court.

Guess were we are coming tomorrow jejejeje.

Lots of window shopping as per the norm, though I am always telling my gatita that if there is something she likes to let me know, someday I am sure this will bite me in the ass jejeje but for now at least she is not the spending type. Like I said lets see when the I get bitten jejejeje.

Bogota Central - 6th April 2009

2009-04-15T01:48:00.003+02:00

Today we decide to re-visit the centre of Bogota at the Plaza de Bolivar.

We do a lot of window shopping and also some shoe shopping for my gatita of course. Before we know it, lunch time had arrived. Out of pure luck we stumble onto a cheap dish of the day style place, its quite large and I notice they have fish soup which is something I always look forward to (when you find one at a reasonable price). We ignore the dish of the day and decide to go ala carte including the fish soup. It was yummy let me tell you. Nice and creamy full of squid, clams, fish, shrimp etc etc.

I remember the soup I used to have in a Colombian restaurant in London Bridge, London at a Colombian restaurant called Sin Fronteras (No Frontiers). The Peruvian office messenger called Rosendo used to take us there every Friday and I always ordered this soup as it was very very tasty (served with a side dish of chopped chillis in some wonderfully refreshing sauce). Since then and on both my visits to Colombia I have tried to find the same. We have found similar and very good in there own right but nothing like the one in London Bridge.

In all these walkabouts I've noticed that Bogota is undergoing a lot of construction work there are building sites everywhere. I don't think this is the right move as the infrastructure is not quite in place with loads of taxi's, private cars and busses, all sorts of busses provided by different firms. The only good one is called the Tranmilenio which is a Government run bus service and that does have its own road.

Here's another interesting fact, did you know that you can hail a bus!!!!! try doing that in London see how far you get jejeje. Over here you stick your hand out just as you hail a cab and the bus stops for you and believe you me in the mix of traffic there is some expert driving going on jejeje.

Coming back to the construction sites its very clear how professional they work, I watched them last year from my apartment window and in less than 17 days they had erected 2 floors (by hand - no machinery). The only machinery was a little lift type bucket puller which basically pulled or lowered materials but mainly it is used to lift fresh cement. The interesting thing is how quickly the bucket is shot up with the controller ready to stop it as it whizzes up floor upon floor jejeje.

The other thing I noticed is that they paint on the walls of the construction site. What they paint are all the adverts from the sponsors of the project/building. saves on posters and the likelihood of the adverts’ being ripped or damaged due to the rain. Pretty cool eh! I took a photo with my mobile.

Cosy day in - 5th April 2009

2009-04-14T03:30:00.002+02:00

Today being Sunday and as the Colombian sun doesn't want to make an appearance we decide to stay in all day and just be cosy in bed watching movies.

We have a good selection of channels, some are crap of course but others are well worth watching such as Fox Sports, Fox Movies, Warner Brothers, BBC, Universal, MGM, ESPN, Hallmark. Anyways you get the point, there are good channels to find sports, movies and comedies and be entertained all day.

On a different note and to elaborate on a previous post which was our shopping on the 3rd April we did at the Exito, the cost came to £58.57 and considering the large shopping list, it was cheap. In total we bought over 47 items including a set of knives, chopping board, grater, 4 food containers, condiments, steaks 500grams @ £2.20 (cheap eh!) and general food, take my word for it that it was cheap. Shopping at Morrisons supermarket in Gibraltar would have set me back over £90 to £110.

Will let you know the quality of the steak as I have intentions of eating in a blue cheese sauce.

Knowing our way around - 4 April 2009

2009-04-14T03:11:00.003+02:00

Now that we have been lost a few times in our walkabout adventures, we finally know 80% were all the roads lead to in the space of a few miles each. So we decide to go to the Park 93 and relax there for a while. Last time it took us over 25 minutes to find it and its a 5 minute walk jejejeje.

Before we head over to the park, we go to the exchange bureau as the Colombian pesos we have are running low. To exchange monies over here is not as easy as in Europe were no one questions were the money comes from. Here, you have to provide your ID card, your profession, address, contact numbers, give reason from were you got the money and even provide a fingerprint before you can get your hands on any Colombian Pesos. The attendants always look very suspicious making you feel rather worried and inspects every single note you give him. I remember the same thing happened last year.

At the end of the day they are doing there job and quite frankly they are doing it correctly over here in Colombia to stop money laundering or people exchanging money which they have stolen from foreigners.

Anyways interesting fact out of the way I change dollars but notice that the Euro rate is much better and it's good that I also brought Euros, so I'll be changing those instead next time around.

Another Exito - 3rd April 2009

2009-04-13T03:39:00.003+02:00

Seeing that yesterday we visited the wrong Exito I go online to find there are 4 of them in Bogota alone.

We head out early to the North Exito. Once we arrive we quickly realise its still not the one we visited last year.

We want to visit the same Exito we did last year as it has a relatively big shopping mall too and a cinema (which I am told by my gatita we must go to as last year we didn't go to the cinema so we must oblige of course).

Anyways our visit to this supermarket was fruitful as we found ingredients I need for the Caracoles (garden snails) for Easter which we commonly eat in Easter (in the South of Spain). My gatita is not looking forward to this but I assure her that it's worth it. The recipe requires a lot of ingredients which I have now found.

I did search extensively online for the Caracoles but they simply can't be bought in Colombia so the alternative are clams instead which I bought two packs of. I must add I did bring a jar of spices for Caracoles from Gibraltar jejejeje which I bought at ransoms.

On our way back in Taxi we did spot (to my demise) one of the largest shopping centres in South America, Santa Fe Shopping mall. To my demise as I am sure that my gatita as any hot blooded female will more than willingly want to go to, so I might as well hand her my wallet when we go there (watch this space jejeje).

We do ask the Taxi this time around to drop us off at the Park 93 simply as its only two blocks away from the apartment because yesterday the Taxi driver found it difficult to take us to our doorstep much to my amusement was watching the taxi meter go up and up (although its very cheap). We travelled a fare few miles, around 30 minutes and it only cost me 9500 Pesos which is roughly £2.70. However, considering that the taxi meter is marked with a minimum fare of 25 and 5 out of 10 taxis have tampered with there taximeters it's only right that one must find ways of making it work for you. I simply hate being conned no matter how cheap it is. Not that they conned me but lets just say it is better to minimise the chances of a rouge taxi driver trying to take advantage.

Getting to know Bogota - 2nd April 2009

2009-04-13T00:02:00.002+02:00

As it's our first day here in the North of Bogota we head out early for a walk and get to know which streets are the ones which we can buy things from and we also venture to find the famous Parque 93 (Park 93).

Coming close to lunchtime we have clearly taken all the wrong roads jejeje but we venture on and decide to have lunch at TGI Fridays.

After lunch we hop into a taxi and ask the driver to take us to the Exito Supermarket which is one of the largest chains in Colombia.

When we get there we realise it's not the one we went a year ago but at least the supermarket is as large. After buying enough stuff to start stocking up the fridge we head back home.

One thing I found very interesting was that they allowed me to spread the cost of the credit card in 3 payments which quite frankly is a really cool thing don't you think.

Once home I send a few GDA emails to the committee for them to deal with things. These being the Government summer sports programme which is intended to provide taster sessions and an intruduction to prospective new players men/ladies or youth. For years I have been asking different members of the committee to have a go but no one wants to do it. I find it very disappointing as it's an important event we should be tackling every year as it both promotes and increases our youth participation. I keep saying we should have delegated roles within the committee and I'll make a note of this for next year and assign it to a committee member to take it on.

The other email I forward to the committee is the BDO schedule which shows that (not surprisingly) the Winmau has been moved to September. I am not quite sure what justifies moving an event which has been hosted in December for quite a number of years now as all the participating countries work out there own calendar of events around December and a shift in over 3 months will simply cause problems. Then again the same question can be asked on why year in year out it is hosted in Bridlington and not in the centre of London closer to all International airports!!!!! In the good old days (at least for me) it was held in Fulham Broadway - London.

On my way to Colombia - 1st April 2009

2009-04-10T03:58:00.005+02:00

Well after months of waiting my departure date to Colombia finally arrived.

My parents kindly as usual take me to Malaga so that I can catch my flight to Madrid and then Colombia.

Its good I packed 3 magazines, Focus, Darts World (of course) and PC Advisor. I say its good as the damn audio's were broken and I missed the inflight movies grrrrrrr. I was not a happy bunny and I will do my very best to complain to Iberia on this as its not the first time its happened to me and its very annoying. The flight was over 10 hours 1/2 hours and missing out on 3 hours of entertainment as you watch other passengers enjoying and laughing whilst thet watch the movies only made me angrier with envy.

After a few checks at immigration and the usual why are you here questions and how much money are you bringing in I got through and officially arrived in Colombia. At one point I thought they had lost my luggage as it took forever to come out of the luggage hold but it eventually did.

The driver picked me up outside the airport to take me to the apartment were I was met by my gatita and we didn't waste any time of course (kissing & hugging) what were you guys thinking eh!!! jejeje. I put things away and we headed into town as I had arrived quite early and was dying for a good Colombian coffee and my gatita was quite hungry as she had waited for me from 1pm onwards and I arrived at 6pm.

1 Day to go - 31st March 2009

2009-04-10T03:11:00.004+02:00

Well packing is the order of the day as I am flying to Colombia tomorrow.

Even after all this time that I have flown to numerous countries one always feels that he is going to forget something. Through the years though I have gotten a lot better and I don't tend to worry so much, its more an annoyance if I forget something.

My tactic is to pack things early (throw them in a corner until the time I throw it in the suitcase) that way you are less likely to forget something especially when you are very busy and its all last minute.

I finish off a few GDA emails which were: notice to members about the stealing of the surrounds, email for the summer sports & leisure programme which I am hoping the youth will attend, email to the committee concerning the Med Cup and lastly a reply to the French contingency who participated at the Gib Open concerning ranking points which I am assuming they mean WDF points.

No Surprise - 16th - 30th March 2009

2009-03-28T15:51:00.012+01:00

Its with no surprise that two weeks have gone by and there have been no blog entries. I did try but after so many issues going on whether darts or personal I will simply just summarize the two weeks (and to be honest what I remember) and you can judge for yourself. Don't take pity though this is my normal routine its just that this time its gone slightly overboard.

With the Gib Open looming last week of course pending issues arose at the last minute with a few committee members not being able to attend I was forced to lend my hand at the last minute to get final details in order like printing various things, purchasing trophy plates and engraving, whiteboards, sponsor monies in cash (thanks Guy you're a star). Even though I had given firm instructions to the committee that I was simply unavailable to help during the week, in true typical llanito style things where not planned properly. Its quite annoying but there you go.

There were also issues with the players for the Gib Open Monies/Entries/Draw, Med Cup, media articles, general GDA administration and hundreds of emails sent. Basically anything you can think of I have done this week; family, friends, work, darts, its been an incredibly busy time.

In the Gib Open I lost 3-1 not a shock as its very difficult to concentrate when your organising. I even asked personal friends to come along as we where understaffed that day. Luckily a few committee members handled the Ladies/Youth side and Darren and I handled the Men's side. In hindsight it was the smoothest Gibraltar Open we have done undermanned and all.

Thanks must go to the MC's, Louise Simmonds, Allan Carrington and the chalkers who all volunteered like champions. If it weren't for you guys it would be an impossibility. Thanks to our sponsors Kronenbourg 1664, Music Corner and the Gibraltar Government. Must add a note that the Youth players behaved exceptionally well and should be applauded for that.

My good friend John Ferrell from the UK took won the Gib Open. For a few years I have always said that John is a cracking player despite the usual comments every year with people putting him down "I can beat him". Well yes so can I, but most the time I bet on him jejeje!!!! Only Henry Zapata got close in the Gib Open with a chance to win (missed doubles), unlucky but it was John's day. In the semi's and final he played really well scoring 4 x 180's and in the semis achieving close to a 35 average.

It is time you get some feedback on my personal life (which is also why there has been no blog entries in two weeks). One of things was not being able to attend the BDO Torremolinos to defend my 2 times in a row pairs title as I had no work leave (days booked for marriage).

The only grace was that a lot of people contacted me saying that my presence was missed which I thought was endearing and simply nice.

I have been in contact with my lawyer and all the legal Government offices to get my marriage in order, dealing with work issues, teaching a colleague, to take over my role during my absence which is the backups of the Government of Gibraltar and nearly its departments.

The backups procedures and strategy was all covered and my colleague was now ready to take it on until the last minute when we did a configuration change so that he had absolutely nothing to worry about during my absence. This event happened last Monday when we lost the link to over 6.5 Terra Bytes of backed up information. Must add MS Windows IS CRAPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!! Now if some of you are used to GigaBytes I'll put it into perspective that's 6500 GigaBytes!!!! equal to storing close to 2 million average MP3 songs!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say recovering that information has been an absolute nightmare. I have worked for the past week Monday to Sunday 9am to 12pm, monitoring and moving information across. All sorts of things have happened like not being able to purchase extra storage space, losing 1 hour of download because of recent daylight savings time, the PC's not having enough memory even though they should have had 2 gigs each, the IBM servers only having USB1.1 instead of USB2.0 (and USB2.0 is 40 times faster) leaving us to resort to doing the transfer over the network at 100 Megabits a second. All complete nightmare believe me. Oh and its 00:28 hours and we still have not copied all the information across.

Its been so long since my last post when I started with three A4 sheets of things to do before my departure to Colombia (which is 2 days from now), but every time I crossed something on the list 2 further things cropped up and in two weeks I have only been able to reduce 3 sheets of a4 to 2 sheets of A4.

With one day left before I leave and only having lunchtime in which to get it done, tomorrow I'll simply get through the most important ones.

Its with no surprise that the blog has been dead for the past two weeks and apologies for that but it has not been by lack of wanting but it was an extra burden I could do without so I frankly did. Get the house in order as they say.

Viva Colombia!!!!!!!!

Not even on a Sunday - 15th March 2009

2009-03-16T00:43:00.003+01:00

Blimey I've had a full working week and have even had to work on both Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 9am to 1pm. Coupled with a busy GDA week I hope that next week is a bit more relaxing and I can concentrate solely on the Gib Open and nothing else. Famous last words!!!!

I've laminated, prepared a ranking article and sent it via email (to the media, contacts, members) , changed the website accordingly, added new email contacts which I received from a UK darts friend, changed pre-tournament information sheet for the Gib Open (had incorrect info on original) which Darren will take to Torremolinos, visited Darren to discuss final issues on Gib Open before he heads off to Torremolinos tomorrow, printed registration forms for Darren too and breathe jejejeje, lastly have been looking at the member database so that I can include the latest ranking results so I can start with the new set of rankings which are the ones for qualification for 2010.

Youth Monies - 14th March 2009

2009-03-16T00:29:00.002+01:00

Today I finally visited the relocated bank where the GDA has all its money's be it because its to take out money that's not owed to me but hey we had to go and get it over with.

One of the things we did do was transfer moneys that the Youth owed the men's league as last year we lent them quite a chunk so that they could go to the European Cup. The moneys came in thanks to Government sponsorship in case you are wondering.

After leaving the Building society with Dylan I get a phone call from a player who is now residing in Gibraltar and he is interested in joining the GDA. I inform him about how to get that sorted.

I also mention to Dylan that we better get the money from the sponsor as soon as possible as I will not be putting any personal money for the prizes of the Gib Open 2009 which I did a few years back. As its simply unfair on me and I lost interest on the £2000 I took out of my bank account to pay those who won any money.

No Darts - 13th March 2009 (Continued)

2009-03-16T00:12:00.005+01:00

Hooray a cancelled Friday so we don't have any darts.

I say hooray as my Dad is playing with his group "Los Jaleo" at the Family Entertainment Centre (Cue Ball) and my sister has called me up to ask me if I wanted to go so we will be doing that instead.

If anyone is interested in knowing when his next gig is, then let me know and I'll advise.

Hey don't think just because I haven't got a game on tonight that I didn't do something concerning darts!!!! During lunchtime we had a meeting with Spanish suppliers of pens, pennants, trophies, shirts, engraving, you name it they do it. The meeting went well as we prefer to deal directly with companies and not through a middleman which is how we have done it in the past.

Its actually good that we have no game on tonight cos otherwise that would have been my lunchtime training out the window AND lunchtimes are the only proper time I have for practicing.

Did it yesterday - 13th March 2009

2009-03-16T00:07:00.004+01:00

I don't have much to say today as I included some of the tasks in yesterdays blog entry. Up to the early hours in the morning.

One thing I did send is an email to D.Y.M. who are Darts Youth Masters, a dutch organisation who appear to sponsor and train youth players. They were enquiring last week if the youth Gibraltar Open had Winmau places so I decided not to wait any longer and let them know it does.

It could be too late for them though!!!!

Sponsor money - 12th March 2009

2009-03-15T23:44:00.002+01:00

Today I sent SEVENTEEN emails and they are all darts related.

I forward the letter received by email of a pending disciplinary for the committee to digest and of course I read it too as its an important matter.

A Spanish player contacts the GDA concerning the Gib Open and I reply giving him a favourable answer that as long as I can get assurance that he will turn up that I have no problem if he pays on the day.

Darren speaks to me on MSN and he is quite distressed and annoyed seeing he is receiving no help at all from Community Projects or GDA members in general I might add. I send an email to Joe Hernandez of the GSLA just to make him aware of this and see if he can do something about it.

Further to above I send a huge email to the Sports Minister which I have spent all day drafting out, concerning our worries and for prompt consideration of a venue for the GDA. I can only say that if there is a sports Saint he is looking the other way and I need that Saint to shine some light on Government decision makers. Lets see if something ever happens as we simply can't continue like this without regressing.

During my conversation with Darren he sends me the confirmation letter for our entry into the Med Cup so I forward that to Italian Darts Federation together with the team lineup.

Dylan also contacts me via msn and we speak about the sponsor cash required for the payment of winners of the Gibraltar Open, so I immediately send an email to our sponsors Saccone & Speed (Gibraltar) Ltd asking them to please get back to me. I also make sure Dylan is reminded that we need 6 trophies this year as we also have the youth inclusion in the Gibraltar Open.

Its better to be safe than sorry - 11th March 2009

2009-03-15T23:25:00.004+01:00

In all this excitement at the prospect of hosting our 1st Youth Gibraltar Open I come to think that if we are going to offer a Winmau place we best contact Olly. I immediately ask Harry to please do so as its better to be safe than sorry.

I get a reply for Yuli from the PDC organisers and I translate it for him and send it by email.

A few further emails are sent for administrative purposes such as new members who have recently joined and a PLEASE HELP email to members that they need to help out the committee in setting up for the Gibraltar Open. Of course all this will fall onto deaf ears as per usual.

We have our captains meeting and only 8 turn up (just 4 captains) which includes committee members! I wont even bother mentioning what new rulings where approved as they will come into force next year and you those who didn't bother turning up don't deserve to find out anything through the blog anyways, fair is fair. Rather disappointing YET AGAIN is all I have to say on the matter.

More administrative tasks like adding new email contacts into there proper groups (eg. Gib Open, Media etc).

One of these new members is a lady who partly lives in Spain although she is from the UK. She seems to worry a lot and wants to make sure that everything is correct lol. She must have called me about 5 times today jejeje.

I also get a phone call from Toni Muñoz who is the only Spanish player I need to pay from winnings of a previous competition. I am glad he is doing well and he has asked to be entered into the Gibraltar Open which is good. It made me think cunningly actually because I thought mmmmm next year I won't pay any of the Spaniards and that way I get them to come along to the Gib Open and I can pay them at the venue (this way I ensure more entries). Sorry I know, I know very dodgy but it did cross my mind jejejee. Of course I'd never do that as I wouldn't like it to be done to me.

Good usage of information - 10th March 2009

2009-03-15T23:01:00.005+01:00

Today it pays to be so bothersome with all the contact details that we make members submit at the beginning of the year. I was able to supply the Treasurer with all the contact numbers of all our members which he needed to get in touch with so that he could arrange the hotels for the BDO Torremolinos Open. This is good usage of information.

However I must add it took me longer than expected as the Treasurer for some reason or another could not open the excel sheet so I converted it for him to PDF and of course its never as simply convert I had to change the aligments and shrink the page.

I send a few confirmation emails of entries for the Gib Open and a few other emails to all members informing them that there is a captains meeting tomorrow. The meeting is scheduled earlier as there is football on and to avoid excuses we have arranged it for an earlier time. Lets see how many find an excuse not to turn up, or how many don't even bother and how many actually turn up late jejeje.

Yuli, a Spanish guy who wants to turn Pro calls me up as he is having problems making a payment to a European bank account I help out as best as possible by sending a few emails to English speaking organisers.

Kronenbourg 1664 - 9th March 2009

2009-03-09T22:50:00.004+01:00

We have been recently taking down the plain red dartboard surround and replace it with the red Kronenbourg 1664 surround for our semi-finalist photo for the media.

After I took the photo recently at our last ranking, I realised 20 minutes later that we didn't change the surround so I had taken the photo on a plane surround and that's a no no for sponsorship reasons. I quickly thought of the solution which was to modify a previous photo and digitally add the Kronenbourg 1664 logo. After a bit of paint shop pro editing (3o minutes) I finally managed to get a transparent picture and I was able to add the Kronenbourg 1664 image to the surround. Cool Eh!!!!

Next time I forget, I don't have to worry! I'll paste the image on the surround and no one needs to know jejejeje. I've done a pretty good job and if I would have refrained from mentioning it here I am pretty sure no one would notice.

I reply to an email from our previous GDA secretary who is coming down to play the Gib Open and I enter all 5 players into the draw. I also by email remind Darren about the new player recently registered and that I need a proper photo taken.

In preparing an email to Joe Hernandez from the Government sports authority concerning the Gib Open setup, I receive an email from Darren for Joe. Perfect timing so I paste Darren's email to mine and forward it to Joe so that we can get the ball rolling.

The youth Gib Open still concerns me so I send a request by email to the organisers/committee so that they confirm how many will take part.

We need to consider next year that all posters are sent as links and not as attachments and request that people who advertise on their websites use the link we provide them (there is a very valid reason for this). With a link we can change the poster our end and submit the new poster and everyone will have the correct information. For example the late addition of the youth, if I add it to the poster now and send it, most likely no one will change their poster version on their sites. With a URL link it would be updated automatically for any new visitors to see, which minimises impact.

Lastly today I receive a phone call from some players who will enter the Gib Open and I answer their queries.

Colombia - 8th March 2009

2009-03-09T22:39:00.002+01:00

As you all might know I am getting married in Colombia so I have been investigating any possible locals or bars where I can chuck a few darts in Bogota.

NOTHING absolutely nothing has turned up. The only reference to darts is from the university of Bogota (Los Andes). All other references to darts refer to poisonous indigenous darts and magnetic darts for sale.

Anyways I've sent the university an email asking them if they can guide me in the right direction if they play at all!!!!! and I have offered a demonstration for those interested. Can you imagine teaching 30-50 students the sport of darts, that would be first!!!!

I also today manage to complete a pending article, our 3rd ranking and I email it to the media, members & contacts.

Did a Britney - 7th March 2009

2009-03-09T19:27:00.004+01:00

Well today I did a Britney "as I did it again". I have a habit of making tiny mistakes which I need to quickly correct! For example sending the World Cup documentation which I received back to the recipient instead of forwarding it to the committee which was my intention. Anyways I corrected this.

A Spanish player calls me up concerning the Torremolinos/Gib Open and he hints that some players are going to another competition on the 21st so they are doubtful that they will be turning up for the Gib Open. I check on darderos.com and as it turns out, he himself has posted the information on the competition which is a shame they have organised the competition on the same day as not everyone gives a place for the Lakeside Qualifiers and the Winmau so its their loss really.

Failure to chalk - 6th March 2009

2009-03-09T19:06:00.002+01:00

I receive communications from the partner of the person who failed to chalk so I forward the email to the committee to digest.

I must add however that its very difficult to overturn any penalties as there are many factors that simply can't be ignored. I'll leave it as that and I'll send the person in question an email.

Another entry received for the Gib Open and this time directly into my UK bank account (4 entries). Goes to show that my efforts to add as many payment methods as possible is indeed attracting more players.

Lets see how many we receive for the Gib Open and I'll keep you informed. By analysing this, next year I can put down the payment method most used at the top of the list, simply because people have the habit of not reading or properly digesting long forms, so adding a familiar payment method at the top might clench the deal in the future.

You can go overboard on this for example if they load up the website from Spain you can put up a Spanish registration form and translated in Spanish, however as things stand the strategy above will have to do. To our detriment as most Spanish players do not speak English but time is not a luxury at the moment so que sera sera!!!!!

Princess Anne, Princess Royal - 5th March 2009

2009-03-09T13:14:00.008+01:00

Its not every day one gets to meet a princess so it was an honour to have been invited by the Chief Minister as head of the Gibraltar Darts Association. The reception was at the Leisure Centre in Flat Bastion Road.

The event was very well organised by the Tourist Office and firstly we had the usual canapes & drinks and waited for around 30 minutes or so.

After our share of food and drink we were presented to Princess Anne's husband, Admiral Timothy Laurence, I was with a group of about 8 other sporting associations. He asked me if darts was popular in Gibraltar so I told him we had been going for over 56 years and we have a healthy association (to be honest I answered other questions but I don't remember them jejeje).

Around 15 minutes later, Her Royal Highness came around and I noticed straight away she made herself present as she fixates her eyes giving the person she is speaking to all the attention in the world. I answered a few questions and I told her that darts was very popular in Gibraltar and that we have a good relationship with our Spanish friends but we play mostly soft tip over there as that's very popular in Europe & Japan.

I had a good time and I also managed to catch up with different people I know. It was a long time since I have been able to enjoy some perks of being head of the association.

Moving with the times - 4th March 2009

2009-03-07T14:09:00.003+01:00

Finally !!!! yet another member of the committee has a proper Internet connection at home, people moving with the times jejeje.

I understand that some might never see the need of having email or good Internet access I have used the Internet for nearly 2 decades now and I can vouch that it makes my life imperially easier.

Darren comes to see me to discuss a few things and to hand me a new player registration form. He highlights several concerns that have been bothering him and I in turn speak to him on others that would make things smoother for the both of us. I definitely let him know about my concerns on the Gib Open as I will not be around to help out with the set-up.

The ball is in there court...

Darren that same day sends me an email informing a captain that a player has been suspended for not chalking. I in turn (as I know the player has got email now) forward it to him as well.

Dylan and Darren head down to the Stadium as they have a cheque to collect, when they returned Dylan told me the amount and I am not happy with the total figure they have given us. We really need a hired venue for next year as we have lost a lot of potential profit which we could have made given the circumstances. Its like I said before Dylan & Darren headed down "Lets see how interested they are in hosting it there next year" and we will know this by the amount they give us!

I reply to more comms received by email concerning the Gibraltar Open. This encourages me to send a general email to the committee with thoughts and concerns about the Gibraltar Open and the prospect of hosting a youth event too as we have 32 registered youth players this year and we should make it happen.

Roy Price (WDF President), also forwards the link to the Treasurer's report of due subs (which reminds me) and I suspect it has not been payed yet by us, to send an email to Darren so he can coordinate with Dylan and please get it sorted.

Ring Ring Ring Ring - 3rd March 2009

2009-03-07T12:45:00.003+01:00

Its mainly been on the phone day today.

I've spent the day registering players for the Gib Open too and received a phone call from Spain (UK - expats) with a few queries which I spend around 15 minutes trying to explain.

Slowly but surely I am getting all the receipts and invoices in order, so I send Darren an email to get a receipt for the 100 Euros I gave him for a mic stand we needed to buy. Its good I was able to get monies for our last event otherwise yet again the GDA would be owing me over £1200.

I also confirm by email to a single lady entry received by post for entry into the Gib Open.

Its interesting to receive communications from the WDF on behalf of the BDO with a very strict notice that they will have nothing to do with the organising of the upcoming World Cup in 2011 in the UK. This apparently is the job of the EDO. I reckon because it could be the BDO can foresee a loss of money and quite simply wants to avoid any complications. Other reasons I am sure exist but that's between the England Darts Organisation and the BDO. Well in fact its up to the EDO jejejeje cos the BDO have been very clear on this NO NO NO.

Lastly I receive further comms about the Med Cup hotel which I forward to the committee for their perusal.

WC Forms / Gib Open - 2nd March 2009

2009-03-07T10:19:00.007+01:00

I receive an interesting email from our Catalan friends who want to attend the Gibraltar Open 2009 but some interesting questions need answering by me before they are allowed into the event, I explain below.

As it turns out all their "get out of jail free cards" have been revoked by their partners and the only way these men will be allowed to come to Gibraltar is if the shops will be open, how close are the shops from the venue, how close is the venue from the frontier and they will they be able to travel up the Rock? Questions which I reply to the player of course. Quite frankly it was a well written but yet amusing email, it did make me laugh. As we say in Spanish "Cojido por lo referendos C*"£$£$" jejeje.

Darren sends me a letter concerning the disciplinary and asks if it OK to forward to the players in question. I have a read and let him know its all good and correct as far as I can see.

We do receive information on the World Cup so I forward the email to the committee in case we decide to send players over. Its very much doubtful as the committee is suggesting its very expensive. Coupled that members have been very badly accustomed not to dig into their own pockets this just makes it worse as the monies have to come from the GDA kitty and it can be too much for the GDA.

I'd personally go to the World Cup regardless of how much money it costs and its not as much as you'd think.

Flights can be obtained for £700 per person and accommodation is 425 dollars (£300). This means that player expenses (and America is cheap!) would be around 500 dollars (£350.00).

Considering that we get about 40% from Government and the GDA covers the other 60% we would ask members to offset some of the difference. Sending each player would cost in total £1200 but that's not how much the GDA would have to pay as we get 40% from Government.

The GDA would incur £720 per person BUT if each participating member who wants to attend the World Cup would pay £220 THEN it would cost the GDA £500 per head. Now there have been more expensive trips you know!!!!

Anyways it is up to the committee but I am not in favour of NOT attending the WC as its feasible and no matter what anyone says you can't compare a WC with the Med Cup (without disrespecting) its just they are too different in size.

On the positive side of things we should have an excellent team attending the Med Cup and with the increased competitions held this year, if they do not bring back Gold I don't know when they will!

Today I start one of the articles of the recent ranking played as tomorrow we have yet another ranking and I don't want to have to do them rushed. I add the result on the website too.

Another week gone by - 1st March 2009

2009-03-01T22:40:00.004+01:00

Wow 1st of March already!!!! In a month's time exactly (hopefully) I am on a plane to Colombia.

Question: Does anyone know how to say in Spanish "How much is an upgrade to 1st class?" its much much much cheaper to upgrade once on the plane and I learnt that on a previous trip coming back from the European Cup in Denmark last year (thanks Henry).

I've scheduled the 1st April as the departure date as there are 3 public holidays which fall on the 10th/13th April & 4th May. This way I don't lose 3 working days as they are public holidays anyways. Thanks Lizette (a work colleague) she suggested it and it makes perfect sense.

Darren's thoughts on the disciplinary were correct and he contacts me. So we have to follow our procedures differently. I was in the wrong on our approach which we were going to adopt so it is good to know he read up on it.

Possibly I suspect cos he wants out on this one and he does want us to handle it with care. I don't see why beacause when something is wrong its wrong and all that did wrong that night know exactly that! buuuuuut there you go, its his decision at the end of the day and that must be respected.

Lastly today I send all the documents received from Italy about the next Med Cup to the committee for them to read and be up with deadlines. That's were Amos comes in, you know it so I'll mention you jejeje. Thanks bro (in advance).

I can't attend Torremonlinos - 28th Feb 2009

2009-03-01T22:23:00.005+01:00

It is now basically a certainty that I will not be able to go to the BDO Torremolinos Open! Possibly just possibly I might be able to take 1 day off to defend my pairs title for the 3rd year running. When I get my schedule and flights sorted I will no for sure.

Something has turned up and I have all my holiday leave booked for that (I am getting married). A once in a lifetime thing and I need all my work leave to travel to Colombia to get married.

I would have had the days if Gibraltar would have the correct marriage legislation in place and I would be able to pick up something called a Certificate of No Impediment in Gibraltar and I take that to Colombia. This certificate together with my birth certificate allows me to freely marry in Colombia.

As things stand Gibraltar has stopped producing these certificates and the Cheif Minister has to approve it and its on his desk, so God only knows how long that could take and I am not waiting on his decision although he should be made aware that by delaying the passing of that legislation that we are being dictated who we can and can't marry.

I am in a position that I have to go to Colombia for 21 days then give notice of marriage at the Embassy in Bogota, then wait another 21 days so that the Certificate of No Impediment is given to me (yes that's 42 days). Then you can freely marry.

What a joke but that's the way it is and that's what I need to use all my holiday leave on.

I feel sorry for the committee that I can't help but I'll help all the way up to the Gibraltar Open, in fact just today I printed 112 coach tickets with nice perforated edges and numbered and am also getting the entries sorted so I am doing my part (what people don't see - or appreciate I might add).

Lastly today I speak to Darren on MSN on a few Gib Open issues.

Rankings - 27th Feb 2009

2009-03-01T22:13:00.002+01:00

Today I get a copy of the last years rankings as both seeds No1 & 2 will be away, so we need the list for tonight so that we are sure on who are our top 4 seeds for this event.

I also print a few other forms which Darren needs.

Usually I report on the rankings the next day but this one was one for the books. Considering the 2 top players where in Germany (DysonP. & DylanD.) I was surprised to say the least that only 24 players turned up! Gibraltarians have a funny way of thinking, when in theory it should be easier to gain points as the top dogs are away, instead we get a poor turn out. I honestly don't know how people think.

George Ramos won the event and the article will be published soon. I believe its his 1st ranking win and forever in history his name will be engraved on the Dave Obee Ranking Trophy (and the website of course).

I yet again played below par and I won't comment any further what a plonker, its very frustrating as anyone who saw me play years ago knows I am suffering a bit recently and those who have seen me playing abroad knows that I do produce the goods when needed. I just can't seem to get to grips and do it on home soil!!!!!

Tomorrow Rankings - 26th Feb 2009

2009-03-01T21:50:00.004+01:00

Its Thursday and very close to the weekend and hoping for some relaxation time planned away from darts as I have tons of personal issues to get through.

I do send an email to all members reminding them of the next two upcoming rankings tomorrow and next Tuesday.

I have been training more recently but I am still very under trained, I do try to set time aside but its just very difficult to simply find the discipline after work to get on the board after a hard days work.

However when I do train whether 15 or 20 minutes daily I am practising rather well, my problem really lies that I am finding it extremely difficult to put my practise in into play. It will/must come.

For those that might think the contrary and even remotely suggest that I don't work as much as I do simply because I am a civil servant then I give you two things to consider:

1 - Measure the way I deal with GDA matters as a guideline of how active a person I am.
2 - I work in Information Technology for the Government of Gibraltar. There are over 600 computers and 20 servers we manage, the department is 13 staff strong 4 of which are management 1 who is a technician which leaves 8 staff EACH to deal with 77.5 computers/people.

That's NOT including projects, ongoing tasks & personal work development!!!

You do the maths.

Gib Open Entries - 25th Feb 2009

2009-03-01T21:23:00.004+01:00

During my lunch break I go to check our PO Box and I receive 2 further lots of entries for the Gibraltar Open 2009.

I reply to the 1st one to confirm, as its a simple single entry. Will deal with the other in due course as they have added youth players and I need to speak to Nicholas, Harry and the committee to see if we will have a youth event.

We have over 30 registered youth players this year so I seriously don't see why we can't take a few extra boards down and have a youth event. They will not be able to play on stage simply because of time restrictions as there is barely time to get the Ladies & Men's finals on stage but they can have 4 boards for themselves to play a youth Gib Open.

AmandaS. contacts me via email (originally from the UK but now resides in Spain), concerned that there is no information on registering for the BDO Torremolinos Open, I reply and advise her that Spanish residents like Gibraltar players can register at Torremolinos on the day before each event eg. Monday for Tuesday and so on.

As promised Darren sends me the minutes of the meeting of yesterdays disciplinary committee meeting. I did inform him earlier on in the day that without minutes I would not head any more meetings. This came around simply because we got our fingers caught in the past and it simply could not happen again. I am grateful that he did. I changed them a bit to be more specific as it was slightly generalised and quite frankly members as committee need to be made accountable for what they say and when they say it.

For example if a committee member promises to deal with something then the minutes of the meeting is a great way to check up on that person in the next meeting and see if he/she has done anything about it.

Lastly today I send an email to crowsdarts who has prepared a webpage listing bars around the world who have dartboards. I ask him if it would be possible to include Gibraltar and its better to list the actual GDA as the 1st point of contact because some bars play for a few years and then drop out and we are the best contact to advise anyone who gets in touch.

I'll have to keep an eye on this site just to make sure we do not get listed under Spain in case the author's geography or history is not up to scratch. I'm sure he is though.

For those interested the website is http://www.dartbars.com/

Disciplinary Meeting - 24th Feb 2009

2009-03-01T21:21:00.002+01:00

We had our meeting today and for obvious reasons we can't get into specifics and that's all for today.

Surprised as I am yes? That this is the only thing I have to report!!!!!!

Med Cup NOT part of WDF - 23rd Feb 2009

2009-03-01T20:52:00.008+01:00

Roy Price gets back to me promptly, so the first thing I do is forward the email to the committee as both players who are PDC are part of the committee.

From his response it seems rather obvious that if anyone has any impediment that it will be the PDPA so we best be on our heels to make sure that any PDC player requests dispensation with ample time so that they are allowed to play in any WDF World or European Cup.

Our change of ranking format was a good thing as any player who qualifies has a whole year to make arrangements, giving ample time to get reserves if need be. I don't know if readers are aware (I'm sure I have posted info on this before) but the GDA has contested all its rankings in the past to conclude between October to March as we need to have all the positions sorted as our first major is the Med Cup in May. Which only give a month and a half to get everything sorted.

We changed all this and you qualify for next year which has been a good move.

Anyways, further to Roy's email he also confirms in writing what I have been saying for so long, that the Med Cup has nothing to do with the WDF, see below:

Re: The Med Cup: Please note that the Med Cup is not a WDF event and never has been. The WDF has no influence over this event, nor does it wish to.

What we do need to check is the eligibility of the Med Cup rules as there might be something in there that disqualifies professionals from taking part.

Anyways on another issue, I send an email to my Spanish / Catalan contacts as I still need to pay one of the Spanish players. The difference between the response that I get from any requested feedback from Gibraltarian players compared to Spanish feedback is quite different. The Spanish do get back to me, they advise me, gave me contact telephone numbers, one even offered to give me his address.

Lets see if the Gibraltarians' can learn from this and be more pro-active!!!!!!!!!!!

We still have a disciplinary pending so I contact Darren to see if he has done anything and he should call a meeting for us to discuss whats the best course of action.

My GDA bag is getting heavier by the day with all sorts of stuff in it, I think its worse than Sport's Billy's bag jejejeje, anyways because of this I drop a few things off at Darren's house.

DannyP. calls me up and we have a personal conversation. He enquires about the dartboards and I let him know what things I have in stock. I send him an email after we spoke as I am sure I confused him simply because I ranted on and on about the Harrows Matrix and I noticed that on my email to all members which I sent recently I called them Winmau Matrix jejeje.

As easy as yesterday - 22nd Feb 2009

2009-03-01T20:37:00.002+01:00

Today has been an easy day such as was yesterday.

With the amount of personal things I have on my mind including work issues one could think I am married with 5 children jejeje.

Luckily I am not, so I can get away with doing lots of personal stuff, including darts administration I might add. The day is slowly approaching when the GDA committee will have to run like a very well oiled machine.

I have been making a point of this for quite some time now so that the committee is fully aware of this and slowly but surely more are getting involved with running stuff which usually has ended up on my lap.

It appears I am a sucker for punishment as I offered to get hold of personalised flights for the RAOB team, I don't learn (especially after mentioning above that I am doing my best to do less jejeje). Whats done is done and I'll get it sorted.

I send Sheila Handley (webmaster) an email thanking her for publishing the Gibraltar Open 2009 poster on the darts world website. http://www.dartsworld.com/.

Further to above I contacted WDF president concerning our PDC players Dylan & Dyson as the general rules for the WDF World Cup has been revised and as such just to be clear on Gibraltar's PDC players eligibility I best get a clarification direct from the horses mouth.

Easy Saturday - 21st Feb 2009

2009-03-01T20:09:00.004+01:00

We had a good night out yesterday playing against RAOB, last time we played them I was one of the only players to lose. I shouldn't have to be honest but I did. Not this time though I had no intentions of pussy footing like last time.

Today I went to work and decided that after 1pm I would take it easy on everything. I only managed to send an email to all members advising them that I had good dartboards for sale and some dart shirts which our Spanish friends basically dropped on my lap yesterday to see if anyone wanted to buy anything in Gibraltar.

4 Harrow's Matrix Staple Free boards £39.99
4 Winmau boards £21.00
8 Unicorn Shirts £32.99
1 Mega Huge Darts Case (Pro Pak) £17.99

Links to the case & Matrix dartboard on the following link www.gibraltardarts.com/temp/

I've spent all day practising on the Matrix board and it has nothing to envy from the PDC Unicorn Pro Eclipse or the Winmau BDO dartboards.

Get in contact if interested.

Justin.

Unpaid Subs - 20th Feb 2009

2009-02-25T00:20:00.002+01:00

Can't quite believe we still have unpaid subs and although getting monies owed is the job of the Treasurer I decide to send a few emails to the members of each team with my concerns.

I send an email of warning to two teams and give them an explanation and a deadline.

Darderos.Com are good! Just yesterday after my second email (must be said) they have posted the Gib Open Poster and a few comments like adding that we have a Spanish bank accountthis year, so that they can make easier and more cost effective entry payments. I tell Darren by email.

The Gibraltar Sports & Leisure Authority confirm to me that we have the Old Victoria Stadium booked for the Gibraltar Open, so I email the committee in particular Darren for him to consider a few things that need handling eg. Van, store at stadium. I ask him to prepare a draft so that our request can be sent in writing.

I hope he doesn't take long, I know he is busy but I have asked him to do this for his own benefit really, when the time it is only Dylan and him that do all the hard grafting. I unfortunately this year simply CAN'T lend a hand for personal reasons I simply CAN'T take any days off work, sorry.

A Spanish player contacts me via the website asking about hotels in Gibraltar, luckily for me I prepared a hotel listing the 1st year we run the Gibraltar Open so these types of queries are easy enough to handle.

Media Misbehaviour - 19th Feb 2009

2009-02-25T00:16:00.002+01:00

Darren informs me that neither the BDO or Darderos.Com have posted our Gibraltar Open poster online. I advise him that it was sent on the 8th Feb (thank you google Desktop jejeje). I also answer a few queries he has.

Straight away I decide to resend as its quite important we get as much exposure as possible. This time I go one further by typing the request in both English & Spanish and including the posters in the attachment. I send it to absolutely everyone, Media, contacts, Spanish & Catalan Contacts, and lastly all WDF member darts bodies.

Gib Open 2009 - 18th Feb 2009

2009-02-25T00:06:00.002+01:00

As you are aware I went to our GDA PO Box yesterday and by coincidence I receive comms from the German players who have registered. I reply with a full listing of ways to pay, eg. Money Transfer, UK to UK, Western Union and I confirm that I have received the entry forms.

This spurs me on to make changes to the Gibraltar Open online entry form and I include over 5 different ways to accept payments including through a Spanish account. I also realise that I have received the completed entries nicely typed in which also makes me think so i get the form and convert it into Word and PDF which simply makes it easier for anyone who wants to register.

Lastly I use Google Desktop to find an email sent by Darren with the actual prize breakdown so I modify the webpage to reflect this as the totals were posted but the breakdown was all under TBA (To Be Announced).

Tranquil Tuesday - 17th Feb 2009

2009-02-24T23:45:00.004+01:00

Well I do have pending issues but today I only need to report on a few queries covered .

One was a question from the Gibraltar Sports & Leisure Authority thanking me for the recent application made for Dyson Parody (for funding) on behalf of the GDA and asking which competitions he had already attended.

I replied telling him that he had only participated in 2 of them (the Gibraltar PDC events) and that as far as I was aware both Dylan & Dyson had intentions of participating in all European events (and believe me that's why he asked as they are A LOT).

Secondly I visited the GDA PO Box and received some entry forms so I confirmed by email that they had been registered into the Gibraltar Open. I also received some bills which I dropped off at the secretary's house as its Tuesday (Superleague) and he will see the Treasurer tonight.

Emails, emails, emails - 16th Feb 2009

2009-02-24T23:23:00.005+01:00

Damn, firstly I can't quite believe we are in mid February already jejeje, it'll be Xmas soon!!!!

Oorder of the day are emails. In summary I have over 1322 in my Inbox and over 4550 in my Sent Items and yes mostly do relate to darts, I'd say at least 80% as they are the only ones I never delete. Anyways, every time I need to find an email you can imagine that it is a bit of a nightmare even with the find utility (but that takes ages).

Time for change! Did some investigating and installed Google Desktop, set it up and tested it and oh boy what a useful tool, instant search and find.

Like I've mentioned in previous posts its all about making MY life easier so I certainly made the right choice here.

Also to let you know I have further emails in our gibdarts Yahoo emergency account which once in a while I have to check as its our old legacy email before I took over.

What started this off was an email I needed to find of Ronnie of the shop Gache as I wanted to speak to him concerning Dyson's Website. I simply could not find it and I was wasting a lot of time so enough was enough.

After I installed Google Desktop and did a full index I found the email straight away so I replied to Ronnie with information on a request that was made ages ago "50th Anniversary Memento Gift". I also spoke to him on Dyson's concerns and asked him what problems exactly he was having.

Lastly I do receive a reply from the registrar in China who wanted to register all sorts of gibraltardarts.SOMETHING domains, for eaxmple: gibraltardarts.cn, gibraltdarts.asia, gibraltardarts.net.cn.

I simply told him to forward an official dispute form as it was simply unacceptable for anyone to get a similar name especially if they had intentions of using keywords that would send visitors to the other websites instead of ours.

GDA Article Day - 15th Feb 2009

2009-02-15T22:17:00.004+01:00

Oh yes, yet again another lovely Sunday getting another article out of the way (Ranking 2).

I completed most of it last night but I didn't finish it as I was investigating the average age (median or mean) of members participating in Rankings. Don't ask!!!! Why did he do that you're saying!!!!! Well I just felt like adding something new to this article and the fact was I could!!!!! And all because I have been so persistant with the records since I joined. A sucker for punishment I agree but proves my point that if the records exist things like this can be acheived quite easily.

For this I did a formula on our database that gave me the age of each player. Then I marked the players that attended the ranking and exported that list to MS Excel. This way I used the function MEDIAN to get the statistical value of the middle age which worked out to be 30.5. You can use the MEAN value instead (average age) but with outliers it doesn't reflect a correct statistical figure.

BTW an outlier is as follows; consider the ages 18, 25, 26, 33, 63, 64. You can quickly see the outliers are the numbers that could seriously affect the average. Notice the differences between the ages 18 to 25, 26 to 33 which is 7 years difference. Now the Outliers are 63 & 64 which has a difference from the age 33 to 63 of 30 years. Such a difference between the average difference of 7 years TOTALLY gives an untrue statistical result. This is why I used the MEDIAN value which is the half way point instead of the average which is the ages added devided by the total number of players.

Anyways enough of that jejejeje (it was interesting for me), the article was completed and sent to the media, members & contacts.

In the interest of coordinating my week I go back through the emails and get a few things out of the way such as forward an email to HarryP. concerning the Youth Dutch Open which might be interest to a few youth players.

I send an email to madondarts.co.uk as I have ordered some stock for a Spanish company as a favour seeing I can speak English and have requested to them if they have not shipped the order yet to please include 5 red dartboard surrounds. Lets see what they say. If they have already shipped it then we need to speak to Dylan as he has ordered these in the past and I think cheaper than what I possibly will get them for, we will see tomorrow.

Lastly I reply to an email concerning a person who wants to register the keywords "gibraltardarts". The domain registrar has contacted me to avoid possible future disputes as they have cancelled the other parties request for 5 days waiting my reply. I have been quite clear that we own the name and if other sites use our keywords that the consequences can be bad for us.

When people search for us in google using our keywords (see next paragraph), if they are taken to another site which is not http://www.gibraltardarts.com/ then surely there's something wrong.

Keywords / phrases we use are for example "darts in Gibraltar, Gibraltar darts, darts on the rock" and the like, I think you get the point. Now imagine if some big gun registers a similar Internet name and adds these keywords, slowly but surely and especially if they pay google they start appearing in front of our website. No No No No and No....

Darts For Windows - 14th Feb 2009

2009-02-15T22:13:00.004+01:00

Roger the developer of the fantastic program Darts For Windows sends me an email telling me he was in Gibraltar during Xmas and that he is just outside Benalmadena this weekend until Monday. I reply and let him know that he should have contacted me as its always a pleasure to meet fellow darters.

I just send one email back to DarrenO. concerning five red dartboard surrounds that are needed as we do not have enough for the Gibraltar Open, something possibly that should have been sorted months ago (well years ago really) but hey lets just get it sorted shall we.

On a course Mobile Off Sorry - 9th to 13th Feb 2009

2009-02-15T20:58:00.009+01:00

I'm heading for the course tomorrow morning in Reading (UK) and understandably have turned off my mobile as it's rather an important one concerning the backups for the Government of Gibraltar and no way Jose will I be distracted during this time or be told off by an instructor.

I do however in the evenings before heading off to town get through just a few things as shown below:

Changed website to reflect new coach prices as supplied by the general secretary. On this note some participants will pay slightly less as I know some people have already mailed the forms in with the old prices.

I receive and reply to an email from HarryP. who mentions there are over 30 youth which have registered. WOW over triple from last year!!!! Good good!!!!

Last day today and the course is over. It went very well. We travel from Reading to London Gatwick and this leaves me some time to check online the league standings and where I play tonight. I send DylanD. a txt message advising him I will make tonight's game against St. Theresa's.

I must add that one of the days we visited The Oracle shopping centre in Reading and headed off to a pub (The Sun) to have a chuck (the only pub I know in Reading as I spotted a dartboard from the bus jejeje). After about 30 minutes a few guys and a girl wanted to have a game or two. I played really well and had a lot of fun with the player who insisted all night in calling me Jason, Monkey Lover, Spanish, you name it he tried it just to put me off.

What he didn't know is that I am used to playing like that from my days in the UK and his barracking was not going to work. He only managed to beat me twice that evening and I had a fantastic time.

Last minute ToDo's - 8th Feb 2009

2009-02-15T20:48:00.003+01:00

Well seeing I am off for an entire week I am getting through the last minute to do's.

I review the reply of the general secretary concerning the Gib Open prize monies and forward that to Dyson who works at our sponsor and see if he can raise the issue with them.

I also communicate with a couple from Benalmadena who are concerned they will not be allowed to play in Torremolinos as they are to and fro between Spain & UK. I advise them that as Gibraltar Darts Members they should have no problems with the BDO on this issue. I also forward to them the link so that they can register for the Gibraltar Open.

As above I send emails to everyone who has contacted me about the Gibraltar Open and how to register online and I advise each by email that the forms have now been published online.

Further to this I forward the poster to the Media for publication at their earliest convenience.

Lastly NicholasC. captain of the team Rock Cosmos comes to see me to pick up the new membership sheet which includes the newly signed player.

Before my course - 7th Feb 2009

2009-02-08T01:07:00.009+01:00

I know, I know its Saturday and I shouldn't be thinking about the GDA but the fact is that I'll be a week away in Reading (weather permitting) and I must get so many things sorted before I go.

For obvious reasons I want to be concentrating on the course and not GDA during my stay in the UK and I have spent all day working on things.

On my way to work this morning I get the Saturday Gibraltar Chronicle and there it was the Johnny Neale Charity article, I did wonder when it would be published as the Chronicle is printing absolutely everything I send them which is very good of course.

One of the issues I get sorted is adding two new members into the database and I complete that task in under 30 minutes. This one I had to do because otherwise both these players would not be able to play next week without the new team sheet. I send St. Joseph's an email with the new team sheet for them to print off and the other one I send a text message and they can pick up the printout from my house sometime tomorrow.

At Darren's request I send over an email request to the Tourist Office, so that we can be included in March's Calendar of Events "The Gibraltar Open 2009". I already have them included in our Media emailing list but this is a different email for the Tourist Office so lets see if they do or not.

I have via email replied to a member with concerns about last nights incident. I said what I could and not much else. The matter will be resolved.

Finally the website Gibraltar Open side of things is online, however I am not happy about the prize money and I've contacted the committee to see why it has gone down and given ample reasons why it should be the same as in previous years or even higher. Also hoping Dyson can put his finger in with Saconne & Speed (the main sponsor - Kronenbourg 1664) and we can get a boost on the prize overall total.

I prepared a few templates for the Gib Open which I need to send to Darts World (as a jpg at their request) and another email template which I will send to the media once we agree on the total prize pool at our disposal (Dyson be quick please it's important).

In continuation of above and to show that we are having lots of good publicity of our main sponsor, I let the media know that we have reached a landmark 1000+ visitors a month on our Gibraltar darts website.

Ranking No.2 - 6th Feb 2009

2009-02-08T00:50:00.002+01:00

Darren calls me up at work to get a few things sorted for Dylan as the Minister has requested a progress report. He reminds me about getting copies sorted of entry sheets and I print off as many as I can, not many but I had to shoot off on a few jobs.

Today is the 2nd ranking for qualification for Europe 2010.

I get drawn a tough 1st round match against Henry Zapata who is getting too used to beating me so I will have to start getting my darting cap on. In fact he agreed with me that I threw the game, every game I reached under 200 comfortably and then took close to 12 darts to finish the leg. I didn't finish a single leg jejejeje and he deservedly beat me 3-0.

It must be said that it is very very frustrating as I am practising beautifully and I am just having a purple patch of not being able to reproduce it on match nights. It will happen I am too stubborn to allow a few bad games to get me down.

An interesting night with an unexpected outcome which I can't speak of in the forum unfortunately but it will get resolved.

Cancelled Youth & WDF changes - 5th Feb 2009

2009-02-08T00:26:00.004+01:00

After all the hype and media attention with the Youth we have been forced to cancel it today on the off chance that the tornado in Cadiz (Spain) gets to Gibraltar.

Were I live its OK but I know closer to the border things were very rough with gale force winds.

I send an email to the media so that they can publish accordingly and we advise by email and on the website that it has been rescheduled to Monday 9th Feb 6:30pm.

I also receive notice that the WDF has changed the ruling concerning the illegibility of players that are NOT WDF. A very interesting read and things appear to have changed which I must make a mental note to contact Roy Price (WDF President) and ask him how these changes affect us, in having 2 pro's who are PDPA/PDC players and who most likely will qualify this year for the World Cup, Med Cup.

If I understood the modified ruling correctly no PDC player will be allowed to play which is not what I have confirmed in an email from Roy Price many months ago. And if it has changed this ruling should be adopted AFTER the next World Cup as it has been introduced and the law changed bang in the middle of our season which is not very fare on national darts bodies around the world who were under different assumptions and worked out their rankings to reflect this.

I receive a few phone calls from Spain enquiring about the Gibraltar Open and I deal with them accordingly.

Lastly I make a purchase of a set of stems for one of our older members, it took me some time to find them and eventually I stopped looking and simply called my supplier in the UK and she kindly found them for me.

I speak with the Granada organiser and he agrees that it would be simpler if I pay him the monies owed to 3 players, so I make an online transaction and get that sorted. I confirm the totals to him by email and that the money should be with him in a few days time.

Only if every day was like today - 4th Feb 2009

2009-02-08T00:19:00.003+01:00

If everyday was like today I don't suppose I'd have many followers in this blog jejeje.

All I did was convert the rankings page so that a website of one of my media contacts could use it and I sent a further email to another media contact advising them that all league results are indeed online (they were interested in publishing the league standings).

I do receive a very interesting email though which has been causing a lot of controversy in these recent months whether the now pro's Dylan & Dyson will be allowed to play in Torremolinos.

The argument has been that Peter Manley a PDC/PDPA player was allowed to participate. Well from the horses mouth here is a copy of an email I received. As this is a sensitive subject and a lot of people I hear are being very nosey and others stubborn and even more people bitchy some parts have been blanked out.

Hi xxxxxxxx

I think it may of been more than 3 years ago, however Torremolinos mens single was not ranked which allowed me to play, I presume they have ranked it somehow. The only reason I went was for Crissy at the time her singles was ranked.

Regards

Peter

Funding & Superleague starts - 3rd Feb 2009

2009-02-07T23:43:00.006+01:00

I spend the majority of the day just dealing with a form that will be submitted to Government so that DysonP. in the same way as DylanD. will both obtain independent funding by the Government and a contribution of sponsorship from Government towards their professional circuit costs.

This did take me most of the day as you seriously want to get it right.

I also prepare a cover letter which was requested too by the Gibraltar Sports Leisure Authority.

Now who pays for my time eh!!!!!! Whats the title of the Blog "for the love of the sport" mmmmm..... jejejejeje....

Well its night time and I head off to the super league so that I can prepare the spreadsheet ready for input. Tich brings the laptop so I quietly sit down and get on with it. It took me from 8pm to 9:45 to get all the names in and blanking everything out for the start of the season but I am happy that's over and done.

Tich was slightly stressed which is understandable as its his first year running the super league, the only plus points are that I don't have to worry about inputting any results, calling players or receiving phone calls from players and lastly that this way other members of the committee get an insight of how all these things work and that they are laborious and tedious tasks that take up a lot of time leaving less time for other tasks one should be concerned with, eg. Overall management.

Remember you can't beat a bit of 'Bully' - 2nd Feb 2009

2009-02-07T23:11:00.007+01:00

Just to try and get more activity on the website I have added the Famous Bullseye TV Game Show Link on the main page of the Gibraltar Darts Website. The producer told me he is trying to get a version of Bullseye done on the Rock!!!!, that will be fun. I wonder who will be the contestants? any thoughts... and who would be the pro that raises money for charity? Dyson or Dylan or a famous PDC player? who will be No.1 in Gib at the time? Interesting eh!!!!

Anyways back to the boring stuff... Darren contacts me on MSN telling me he has spoken to Joe from the Sports Authority and if I could resend the request for the Victoria Stadium but with less days usage. I oblige...

Seeing we have the start of the superleague tomorrow I print off all the forms and entry result sheets that TichO. the organiser will need and I stick them in my GDA bag to take up tomorrow.

I made a few changes to the database of registered members, such as making sure the ones that have paid are all marked up.

This included changing the details of DannyP. as he now has an email of his own which is good as I have been blasting all my emails to his mum which I am sure she is happy not to be continuously bothered by me.

I finish off by sending a few emails nothing of importance, see you all tomorrow.

February already - 1st Feb 2009

2009-02-01T23:57:00.005+01:00

Blimey February already and with March looming (Gibraltar Open) there is so much to do.

Concerning the Gib Open its every year a problem as we cant advertise as we never know the amount we will charge and where it will be hosted!!!!

Darren has opened a Facebook Gibraltar Darts Association, he might come across the one I did before our 50th anniversary but I'll scrap that one as we already have more members on his.

I email him to make sure that Kronenbourg is clearly displayed on the Facebook group and I highlight briefly the importance of this as our main sponsor.

Guess what its Sunday, article day! I prepare the article for the recent Johnny Neale Charity singles which is always an interesting competition with different winners every year. This year Duncan Stewart (snr) won it.

Here is the link http://www.gibraltardarts.com/historyarchives/honours/2008-2009/GDA-27thJan2009-JohnnyNealeCharity.pdf

I also email Amos who usually deals with the coaches that we use to bring the UK players down from Torremolinos to the Gibraltar Open. I ask Amos to please liaise with Darren and to get back to me.

I can't publish info on the Gibraltar Open until we have all entry fees, coach fees and venue location. In saying that I have at least 6 emails to respond to with requests for the entry forms (even from Germany this year).

Its important all these things are sorted out including a response from Government to see if we will be able to use the Old Victoria Stadium for the event.

As a last thing to do for today I have updated the records for DannyP. I was sending all email comms to his mum's email. Now he has a laptop so I have received his email replied to it and updated our records accordingly.

Night night.

Youth - 31st Jan 2009

2009-02-01T23:42:00.002+01:00

I have emailed Harry who will be dealing with the youth league to make sure he takes registration forms down to the Paint Shop.

I've also asked Harry if EricS. who was going to run it with him is available.

The local website www.rock-of-gibraltar.com is publishing absolutely everything GDA which is fantastic and I thought they deserve a mention of course. I sent the publisher/webmaster a copy of our rankings in HTML format.

Missing Stuff on Blog - 30th Jan 2009

2009-02-01T23:32:00.003+01:00

Just had a very busy day at work and I have appreciated it really as that way I am busy without thinking that much about all the crap I have to put up with on a daily basis.

I have managed to send an email to Granada who are the 3 players that I need to pay. Hopefully Antonio (the organizer) will get back to me shortly and I can close the book on that one.

One thing that has been on my mind is that the blog is taking me some time to complete and I am definitely leaving stuff out. How I complete what I've managed to do is by basically making sure I reply or sent emails on a particular day. That way I can check what I actually got up to on a particular day.

However this leaves out everything else I might have done, eg. update website, speaking to Media, members, create letters, change forms, etc etc.

I will try to keep a little notebook and that way I don't leave anything out.

No ones ever happy - 29th Jan 2009

2009-01-29T23:38:00.004+01:00

No matter how hard you try no one is ever happy and everyone just thinks of their own interests and quite frankly become rather selfish. In order not to offend anyone I'll leave it as that, just a comment of how bored I am getting especially when everything was running so smoothly and decisions which were made as a committee.... oh just forget I am wasting my time... Let people find excuses and change of hearts whilst I get on with it.

Anyways.

We are getting a healthy interest in the Gibraltar Open and emails and phone pickups are becoming a regular occurrence for both Darren and I. I have started to get the information compiled online but I can't publish it until we have a venue confirmed, the prize money and the entry fees sorted out.

I've paid off most of the Spanish players now, all that remains is Granada which I will deal with in the next few days.

I've also prepared the new team membership form for the inclusion of two players for teams RAOB and St. Josephs. Which I will just email to them and they can print it.

My little bit of hard work did pay off as I asked Darren for the completed rankings inclusion Database and it took me less than 15 minutes to integrate into the full version.

I've converted the document and sent it to EVERYONE to see the current ranking positions. so STOP COMPLAINING. Thanks again Darren...

Lastly I also sent the quarterfinal cup draw by email to all members and the media.

Extra Rankings Results - 28th Jan 2009

2009-01-29T23:19:00.004+01:00

Darren has kindly offered to take the results of my hands and compile them.

I prepare a cut down version of the database and send it to him so that he can use a proper program to input the results. This in turn makes it easier for me to integrate the results into the main database later on. Otherwise his kindness would turn out to mean 3 hours extra work for me.

I head down to see Darren with the Extra Rankings competition draws and we discuss a few things like entry fees for the Gib Open which I always hesitate to put up (will have a think on that one). I also discuss something that a company has introduced known as Performance Rights Society which charges you for any music played during an event. Darren has kindly investigated the legislation concerning this and as a non profit organisation we should be in the clear. Anyways we never play much music in fact we do not even complete more than 30 seconds of a song for any intros, here is the article in question.

http://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/articles/2005-22o.pdf

Yesterday GBC turned up wanting an interview at the Johnny Neale Charity competition to talk about the start of the youth season and how we have prepared it and what we will be doing. It went really well. It was a bit unlucky that straight after the event I had to play against Dylan Duo but hey interviews must be done.

Quite worrying though that when I turned up at the club that the police were there because of a burglary at the club. Thankfully nothing was stolen this time around as we have had boards stolen before.

The turn out was very good indeed many more than expected. It could well be because some people were not sure that the event didn't carry points dunno could be.

GBC Radio on Youth Darts - 27th Jan 2009

2009-01-29T23:06:00.005+01:00

Was at work today and received a phone call from GBC Radio. I told them that I was not available and they kindly agreed to arrange with one of the organisers HarryP.

I heard later on, from a work colleague, that he did well.

Lastly I finally managed to see of the 3rd Extra Ranking Article "Dave Obee". These are being delayed but its inevitable. My social / personal life is starting to straighten out especially if we keep getting help from members such as Tich (super league) and Nicholas/Harry (youth).

Any other takers?

Well I'm off to the Johnny Neale Charity event let you all know how it went tomorrow.

Various things - 26th Jan 2009

2009-01-29T22:37:00.006+01:00

The day started with an early reminder of the Johnny Neale Charity event which will be played tomorrow. I did this by sending an email of course what else!!!!!

I hope people turn up as this was a change in the schedule.

It was going to be a points competition but the committee had decided that it was either put up in legs to at least best of 5 or leave as is best of 3 and no points awarded.

I received an interesting email too asking for the points for a game that College Cosmos B had already played against drop outs Cue Ball. Sent it to Darren to see if he would find it amusing and I wasn't wrong. Games already played have to stand as is unfortunately unless the rules change.

We now have confirmed the Central Hall for presentation night so that's one less thing to worry about. This leave the Gib Open so I email Joe Hernandez of the GSLA to see if we could make use of the Old Victoria Stadium for that.

Darren kindly prepared a thanks letter for publication in the Gibraltar Chronicle. I read it add a few missing entities which I personally deal with and I send it, see below:

The committee of the Gibraltar Darts Association would like to express our gratitude to all those who contributed to the success of the recent PDC Darts Tournaments.

Special thanks go to: The Hon. Peter R Caruana (QC – Chief Minister), The Hon. Edwin Reyes (Minister for Sports), Joe Hernandez and staff at GSLA Victoria Stadium, Alan Asquez & staff at the Victoria Stadium Bar, George Pussey & staff at Celebrity Wine Bar, Charlie McCann & all the staff at Stan James, GBC & all the crew, Chevrolet for sponsoring the broadcast “Pro Darts Gibraltar 2009”, 7Days, The Gibraltar Chronicle, GBC Radio & BFBS Gibraltar, www.WhatsAroundGibraltar.com, www.darderos.com, www.the-rock-of-gibraltar.com/ GibLive!, GDA members & friends who helped to set up the venue & take it all down again, and most of all the public who flocked in such large numbers to witness such a masterful display of darting skill.

We will try and make next years’ event even bigger and better.

Yours in Darts

GDA Committee

Win some lose some - 25th Jan 2009

2009-01-29T22:31:00.001+01:00

As they say, you win some and you lose some.

We will gain more youths this year that's like a certainty however I had to send out an email today that the Cue Ball B division team have dropped out of the league.

Possibly handed over the league - 24th Jan 2009

2009-01-29T22:27:00.002+01:00

Well yesterday we lost 6-4 against St. Josephs which could well mean we have handed over the league to R/J Varyl Begg. One can never say but the truth is that we need to win all our games from now on and hope that St. Joseph's can accomplish the same feat and beat them too. Otherwise the league will be simply out of our hands.

I played a very good singles game against Jadrian Pecino, but could not reproduce form in the pairs or the trebles to level the score 5 all. What a shame but its like I have been saying my plate is so so so so full right now that I am finding it very difficult to get motivated.

I head of early with Manolo with high hopes today for yet another Spanish competition in Seville. What a fiasco, had a great time but we came out at a loss this time around. Can't complain that's 7 money wins to 1 loss and I did have a very good day out.

With lots of hope - 23 Jan 2009

2009-01-29T22:05:00.005+01:00

After having sent a letter to the Minister requesting for our needs in terms of a venue I received a reply today and I can only see these steps with high hopes.

Government at least with me as head of the GDA has always to fulfil all our needs so lets just hope they can nail the coffin with this one which is the most important one of all.

TichO. the superleague organiser called me up and we decided to extend the closing date of the superleague. I changed the website accordingly and emailed all members.

I also received an email that the Pro Darts Gibraltar 2009 was going to be re shown this coming Saturday so I have sent another email. It's well worth watching.

I've also updated the main page of the website to reflect the start of the youth league and have prepared and printed the poster and registration forms, its set to start on Thursday 5th February. We should be expecting a very good turnout this year which I hope will finally start to secure the future of darts on the Rock.

The interest has grown quite a lot, last year it was only a handful of phone calls we got, this year a few members of the public have enquired but not only to me which shows that things are on the up for the youth.

Well we are done for the day, I'm heading up to St. Joseph's for our league match against them, lets see how it goes.

What a Report - 22nd Jan 2009

2009-01-22T22:58:00.003+01:00

As I'm writing this I am watching the events on TV courtesy of GBC.

What a Report it's fantastic, well constructed and I am very very impressed with Paul Grant's & Charlie McCann's knowledge in the live commentary of the semi's & finals.

Great footage & editing GBC you all deserve a pat on the back.

THANKYOU.