A couple of months ago at EPT London Melanie was harassing me over the possibility of getting a reservation at the Fat Duck. I wasn’t entirely sure how plausible it was but we set a date for after the Prague poker festival and I set about trying to get a table. It was remarkably easy actually, you just ring up 2 months in advance and choose your time.

So six of us embarked on the small village of Bray home of half of England’s 3* Michelin restaurants. After a minor debacle with late drop outs Spinks/Cath the far superior replacements of George and Andy were drafted and despite arriving 40 minutes late and myself wielding quite a touchy temper we were still very prepared for an awesome meal. Morale was raised heavily as we plowed through a bottle of Krug and a liquid nitrogen covered gin and tonic meringue and the meal generally lived up to expectations. I was less than impressed with the sounds of the sea course where you had to don some headphones listening to the sea and eat something resembling sand and seaweed but everyone else loved it and I thought the rest of the meal was absolutely incredible.

Prague too was wonderful. I made yet another deep run in an EPT but ended up coming 62nd. The 2 big pots I lost were both pretty marginal and so perhaps I should have err’d on the side of caution but I chatted with Timex who was also at the table afterwards and he sort of implicated he would have played it the same. He’s awfully clever though so no doubt he’s setting me up for some future play when we’re at a final table together or something.

I found a lot of time to do some drinking in Prague (fancy that) as well as multiple visits to the incredible Christmas market and a trip to the top of the clock in the old square. We had a couple of good lash ups especially after John Andress won the highroller who kept morale high and troops rallying by ordering round after round of shots.

I’m moving house on Saturday and I’m really looking forward to it. I think it will be a lot nicer living near some greenery and having the tube a lot closer as well as having a more homely place. After that I’ll head home for Christmas before travelling around for Jan and Feb.

I suppose my next post will be a 2011 round up as has become tradition round these parts. It was a pretty good year all in all so if you’re looking for more downbeat content you’ll have to look somewhere else I’m afraid.