Pay Da Man!!! (Or not in my case)

It's all about the money, everybody knows it, whether your too proud to admit it or not. Being a student it is doubly important for me to care about money, and this last weekend money has made my decisions an awful lot harder. Several factors have caused distress, such as my sister's birthday being at the end of one semester when my funds are lowest, to her choice of establishments she celebrates that birthday in. Couple this with travelling from Aberystwyth to Cardiff to Weymouth using the most stupidly priced commodity that is petrol and you have a painful time for my bank balance!

Things I learnt from my weekend in Cardiff:

• A £20 steak tastes exactly the same as a £10 steak so you don't have to worry about going to overly posh restaurants. 

• Retro's is a 90's dive bar, that is £5 to get in and all it is is a little square of Llanelli smack in the middle of Cardiff. (Not a happy bunny when my sister made me go in here). I won't go into to detail as one sentence will do it justice. Within five minutes of being there, I went to the toilet to be asked if I was about to do some "sniff" because I had chosen to use the cubicle instead of queuing for the urinals that were fully in use.

• £8.10 is an acceptable price for a two drink round in an "upscale" bar, even if you've had a better pint in your local rugby club. Happy Birthday Sister, I nearly cried and died of shock when the barman quoted his price. 

• It doesn't matter who you are, if you snore, you immediately become the most annoying person in the world. 

• Taxi drivers in Cardiff don't actually know where they are going, and it doesn't help when people who live there don't either.

On a side note, the US Masters is my favourite golf tournament and is up there in my top 5 favourite sporting events (Superbowl, Six Nations, Cricket World Cup, NCAA Bowl Season). It is played at the beautiful course at Augusta, Georgia that is without a doubt the best, most challenging and breathtaking course in the world. Every year I place bets on the potential winner and sit and watch four days of superbly entertaining golf. This year was no different, and I was in to make a killing until Rory McIlroy blew a 4 shot lead by dropping 6 shots in three holes. Add this to my safety net bets not coming in, it made for another loss of capital.  

All in all a fun weekend that was rather costly. My bets didn't cover my weekend losses so my meagre stake of £6 was lost too. The golf was exciting and having money on it made it doubly so, whether I won or not. I suppose that's half the benefit of betting, it adds to the thrill, win or lose. As for the night out it made my sister happy and that is what counts. It's all about the money but the outcomes from spending that money are what truly matter.


Take it easy, I know I am, sunning myself in a very warm Weymouth.