CARDRUNNERS

Is going to 4 nightclubs and an after hours spot and staying out till 5 in the morning without getting tired at all possible (assuming no drugs, of course). Yes, if you are jet-lagged the "right" way in London. I actually never got into a proper sleeping pattern while I was over there because my trip centered around nightlife and the nightlife is London is pretty incredible. I went to tons of really cool clubs/lounges in London, if anyone knows them I went to Boujis, Cuckoo Club, Volstead, Hedges, etc. I stayed with my friend Marko and his brother Ivan in central London on Jermyn street, home of the tailors. I had a great time, seeing museums, walking around different neighborhoods, hanging out with old friends, meeting new friends, shopping, partying, and seeing the sights. London is a very international city and during the trip I found myself hanging out with Croatians, Hungarians, people from various countries in Africa, Americans, and of course, the English. I loved walking around the different neighborhoods in London--it's very much like New York in the sense that each neighborhood has a distinct feel and texture to it, and it's really cool to see the different shops and attitudes of each neighborhood. The nightlife in London is ridiculous. A lot of the better nightclubs are members clubs and they are difficult to get into. Fortunately, my friends from college were hedge fund ballers and party animals, so they were well connected in the night life scene, and we didn't have trouble getting in. The only time I had trouble was during the beginning of the trip when I wore my Nike Dunk Tiffany's to go out. The bouncers weren't having that, and I had to explain that Nike Dunks (or cool-looking sneakers) is what you wear out when you go out in NY, and they seemed to buy it so it wasn't really a problem (it helped that I was wearing a jacket, I think). In any case, the atmosphere of the clubs is interesting. I didn't like the music that much--the clubs play mainly techno and house, and the DJs in general didn't seem to have too much creativity. However, sometimes they threw in a few hip hop songs and in any case people in London dance like maniacs so it's fun overall. People in general are friendly in London, and by the end of the trip I had met some really cool and interesting people.

I also was able to do some shopping on Jermyn Street, which is the home of all the best tailors in London. I ordered 4 Turnbull & Asser shirts: http://www.turnbullandasser.co...6/shirts_classic.html

They are apparently some of the nicer shirts you can get, and I have to say, I am absolutely LOVE them. I thought, like many things, the hype would be greater than the reality, but these shirts are ridiculous. First of all they are incredibly thin and soft, they don't come untucked easily (they said they have some special extra long shirt-tail length), the buttons, the stitching, the collar is all of the highest quality. The patterns are classy and can function as both work and nightlife. I bought one off the rack and ordered 3 from their bespoke service, and I can't wait to get them.

I also got a chance to explore some of London's casinos. No, I didn't play any high stakes poker, but I fooled around at some of the lower stakes games. It's amazing that poker is legal in London. I wish it was that way in New York. By virtue of its legality, there are numerous casinos and poker clubs ranging from the high class gambling salons, to the run-down casinos on the outskirts of London where you can feel the degeneracy in the air. I must say, the play at these low stakes games is absolutely terrible. The average low-limit player in London is weak-loose, and will make bluffs in spots that don't make sense. That said, these were games where the buy in was 50 pound minimum, so the stakes were small and you can't expect everyone to play like Phil Ivey. There were also a few good players that I saw, who would definitely hold their own at a 5/10 game in the States. I'm not sure what to think about the fact that gambling is legal in London. I would think that proximity and easy access would increase the temptation to gamble in the average person, but then again, if a person really wants to gamble in New York he will find a way. It's a tough situation. In any case, it was funny to donk it up at the lower stakes, although I definitely need to be motivated to play my best if the stakes are lower than I'm accustomed to.

I also got to meet up with j4mbo from CR, Jamie Lillywhite, who I showed around when he came to NY. He returned the favor when I was in London, and he knows I love music so he asked if I would like to sit in a session with his Dad in the studio. I jumped at the chance. When I was in college, one of my favorite things was going to the studio and creating music (I used to write songs), and I've always loved watching documentaries of great artists working in the studio (Fade to Black comes to mind). Jamie's dad Steve is a very well known producer who has worked with u2, jason mraz, and Dave Matthews Band. He was producing a band called One Night Only, a rock band from England whose oldest member was 19. These kids had basically just hit the lotto. They had written a few songs, managed to somehow get signed by a major record label on the strength of a few shows and songs, and had gotten hooked up with one of the best producers in rock. They moved to London in a beautiful old townhouse recording studio and got to live and work making music every day. Sick life. I heard a few of their songs, got to see Steve working, and they definitely have at least one hit song, called You & Me. Check out their myspace page. Seeing Steve work was really inspiring. Steve looked far younger than his years, and really seemed to love what he was doing. He bobbed his head and tapped his feet to the music, made very subtle suggestions (he told the piano player of the band, a great pianist, apparently, that "I know you can do the fancy stuff, but just play it simple and short," and it sounded great and fit in better with the song. Seeing someone so passionate and creative in his daily work is incredible. I hope that I am the same way with whatever I wind up doing in my life...it keeps you young and makes every day fresh and unique. Thanks to Jamie and his Dad for letting me sit in on the session, and look out for One Night Only if you like melodic British rock music.

I also got to meet up with my friend Tamas from college, someone I had not seen in over 5 years. We were good friends in college and it was really great to reconnect. He is an absolute baller in every sense of the word. He is a member of the hottest private club in London, owns a 2 million pound flat in a posh area of London, in a beautiful townhouse. The apartment was sick. Two floors, hardwood floors, incredibly tall ceilings in the living room, a massive projection screen, intricate moldings, a 4-screen traders setup, a back and front porch. Just unreal. He actually just moved to Monaco to start his own hedge fund, and apparently he had been successful trading his own personal account. It's really great to see someone you were friends with do so well. He is an extremely nice and fun-loving guy, and it was very interesting to see him talk about the market. Describing his history, I was amazed at the similarities of the descriptions of the market and poker. The variance (he once lost 70% of his portfolio on ONE trade), the study and discipline necessary to be successful. And also the passion. He said that he views the market as a person, and is very aware of the market's ability to humble you. He also said that in every step of his career (he worked in banking, then at a hedge fund, and now he is starting his own) he grew into the role he signed up for. He said he didn't know if he would be ready to do any of the jobs, but he felt confident in his ability to learn and anything he wanted to do he figured the best way to learn was just to jump in and do it. I really like that philosophy.

I also had dinner with an ex-girlfriend who I had also not seen for a number of years. She had just moved to London to start teaching at a University, and it was great to reconnect and reminisce. Certain people have an amazing ability to focus in on what you are saying and get interested in whatever it is you are talking about. She is definitely one of those people. I think she just has a passionate interest in the lives of others, and when you think about it, it's a really nice way to live your life, because in general, everyone is interesting in some way, and that curiosity and sense of inquiry into the interests and passions of others is something I try to cultivate in my own interactions with people. I had a great time in London, and was lucky enough to be able to stay with friends (thanks Marko and Ivi) and enjoy the life. I want to go back soon.

Unfortunately, poker has been going horribly. I've been playing poorly and my results have reflected that. I am inflating pots on the turn unnecessarily and not finding folds when my instincts tell me otherwise. I had my first month this year losing money online. I am going to seriously retool my game and do some studying and hopefully I will be able to turn it around for the end of the year. I am starting work soon, and I'm very excited about that and can't wait to learn. I feel really lucky to get the job I got, and I can't wait to start.

Sorry for the lack of updates, now that I am home I'll be in a more regular schedule and update more frequently.


dp

Brandon Adams has a theory that the more people a writer expects to read something the harder they try. Up to now I didnt really think many people would read this blog, but a few people have mentioned it recently so i might try harder in the future;-) There hasnt been much poker recently as ive been finishing my book so in the meantime here is some random non-poker content in the form of cool pics that were on my laptop, and some movie recommendations since I have watched so many this winter and am a huge film buff (big plasma screens and HD/Bluray really help though).

 

Top ten picks from my recent lovefilm rentals, in no order:

 

Tell no-one - excellent French thriller direted by Guillalime Canet

Control - biopic of Ian Curtis, singer of Joy Division. Bleak b/w Anton Corbjin film based on touching from a distance by debbie curtis but well worth seeing for fans.

Eastern Promise - David Cronenberg;s companion piece to A History of Violence, about Russian mafia in London. Pushes the media myth of trafficked imigarants slightly but still compelling.

Sicko - Michael Moore's scathing polemic about the US Health insurance sysytem, with comparisons to Canada, UK etc. Willdefinitely have insuarance next time i visit the states ;-)

Superbad - awesome gross out geek-slacker comedy

Blow Up - Michaelangelo Antoninis slice of London in the swinging sixties

Hallam Foe - moody Scottish indie drama

Sherrybaby - American indie with Maggie Gyllenhall as a recoving addict trying to get back on track

A Mighty Heart - true story of the kidnap and execution of WSJ reporter Danny Pearl from Michael Winterbottom.

Alpha dog - true to life story of spoilt California teens murder plot with Justin Timberlake. Not that much of him though fortunately.

 

Pics:

Flyer from awesome party at Cargo London. Free drinks turned out to be 5 per person with cool tokens on a wristband. Moet turned out to be in the free drinks category ;-)

This is my flat. Or it would be if I could take pictures than werent dark and blurry. This is actually an identical one that just sold, you cant really see much of it though, this is the main area... theres an upstairs, a bedroom, an extension and 2 bathrooms too. I think its about 1200 sq feet which is lots for central London. Why would i want to sit in a casino all day when i can stay at home ;-)

 

 

 

Finally some random London street art from Banksy:

 

 

Yo,

So today was a pretty good day.  Chelsea and walked the 25 minutes ish down to brick lane (stopping at sainsbury's on the way) to check out the market and basically hang around a little.  I reall;y like brick lane.  It is this part of london that is filled to the brim with indian restaurants and trendy hipsters.   I like to people watch, so naturally enjoy going there.  Chelsea likes the shopping and neither of us mind indian food, so it works out.  While she shopped I took pictures of funny looking people on the street.  No one seemed to catch on to what I was doing for the most part, and I got to take a gaggle of funny pictures. 

 

On our way back we stopped at the independent cineme, Genesis, to see 'Juno'.  I thought that the movie was decent but a little contrived feeling.  Still, a nice way to kill a couple of hours.  Plus, the movies at this place are only 3 pounds or abobut 6 bucks.  Compared to most other london prices (upwards of 12 pounds) it's hard to turn down a movie here.

After that I put in some hands at 50 nl.  Made about 2 buy ins but lost one due to poorly played 22 dollar sngs, satellites and one 11 dollar sng.  I used to own these sits but am a little rusty and seem to have lost my patience for them.  However, I'm gonna try to get back into them soon, because they can be a steady and reliable bankroll booster.

Finally, I watched the superbowl on bbc from 11-3:30.  What an amazing game.  I'm from NY, and was thrilled to see the Giants take it down.  It was especially nice because the game was so satisfying to watch.  It reminded me how awesome being a sports fan in.  I've gotten away from watching sports recently but should really be more dedicated to my teams (Knicks, Duke basketball, Mets and any NY football, and hopefully some soccer once I leave London in a few months).

That's it for now.

 

PEACE.

 

-matt

Lately I've been generally running on the bad side with a ton of people sucking out on me or coolering me.  However, yesterday I played in a $50/100 game with a massive fish named artur69 playing about 90/1.  With him in the game it was already juicy enough, but to add to it buck99 who's usually a good LAG player was tilting like a mofo.  Added with running really good for that short while I was able to run up a $135k stack at one of the deep tables.  The game truly was epic as well, with over 50 people on the waitlist when it finally broke.  Some notable hands:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/522691-nice flop call by the fish                                                                                           

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/522812-buck titling                                                                                             

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/522825-more buck tilt                                                                                            

  

There were also a ton of hands where I just valuetowned the shit out of the fish after hitting the nuts hand after hand.  EZ GAME WHEN YOU'RE RUNNING GOOD, AM I RIGHT?

  

I don't think I've seen much improvement in my game lately, as I've been mass tabling 6-9 handed tables, playing up to 12 tables at a time of both PLO and NLHE.  I feel volume is really important to me as I'm looking to grind out a pretty good profit for the rest of the year.  However, when/if I feel motivated I'm going to dedicate some days to 4tabling and experimenting with my game more for improvement.

  

I'm going to London on the 21st, which also happens to be the same day as the WCOOP ME--I'm good at planning like that.  London should prove very exciting as I've never been there before, and not only do I look forward to enjoying all the sites and sicklife it has to offer, I really look forward to playing in the live games and improving my live game.  In my opinion, my live game is far weaker than my online game, so I will really be looking to get in some live hours.  I really can't wait! :)

I just watched this film, and I strongly urge everyone to watch it as well:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847...

I was aware of some of the claims made by this movie, but it certainly opened my eyes to many more possibilities.  Presently I am not sure what to think, because I've always taken everything I watch or read with skepticism, but after looking through the official website and Q&A, the author appears to have a comprehensive response to most of the questions and fights doubt with a saturation of sources for each of his claims.  Part II comes out in October, and I'm eagerly awaiting it.  Admittedly my outlook on the world has been altered by this film but the thing I feel the most is selfish helplessness.  If all of what is said is TRUE, what are we as normal citizens in the world to do?  How do we as pawns escape the chessboard of life?  This is something to ponder for sure...

edit: here's a pretty good news article to put things into perspective that really verbalizes my views quite well:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=309...

In other news, I arrived in london on the 21st.  I'm staying with a group of friends, and because I've been running quite bad for the last month (-$150k below allin EV at 10/20, 25/50) I've been having spurts of playing a lot, and long periods of rest when I've had a bad day.  Lately I've been resting, and I hope to do well in the WSOPE Main Event but I'm certainly not counting on it with the way I've been running.  Oh well, life goes on, and there are certainly more important things to think about.

The past month or two has been very fun and very busy.  I've been doing a lot of traveling with my girlfriend as well as hanging out in DC with our puppy playing poker.  Poker has been swingy, but overall good and this has definitely been my best year ever (hopefully I don't jinx myself with two months to go).  Life is great though and I'm very happy settling down in DC.

Our first trip was to London during the WSOPE.  I didn't get to play the tournament due to some scheduling conflicts, but it was great to explore a new city with my gf.  We did all the touristy stuff our first day, going to Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Harrod's, etc.  That night we double dated with Brian T and had way too much wine with some decent Japanese food.  It was a blast.  We stayed one more day for some poker stuff and then booked it back home.  London was a really cool city and I can't wait to go back.  It didn't hurt that we got absolutely amazing weather the entire time.  We stayed at the Dorchester, which I would highly recommend.



The next weekend we went to Jacksonville, FL.  One of our close friends is a cheerleader for the Jags, so we met up with her for the weekend and finished it off at the Jags/Steelers game.  The Jags lost, but it came down to the wire and sporting events are always fun.



A week later we headed west with a couple we are friends with from college to enjoy wine in Napa!  We are big wine drinkers and had been looking forward to this trip for a while.  I mostly enjoy big reds so Napa/Bordeaux are my ideal wine countries.  Our hotel was the Carneros Inn, which is beautiful and I would highly recommend.  We went to a lot of really small boutique wineries and indulged in some really amazing stuff.  Day one we all drank way too much and slept through dinner, having a lot of fun the whole time.  Day two we took it a little slower and really enjoyed experiencing the whole wine culture of Napa.

My two favorite wineries were Allora and Del Dotto.  Allora is a very small winery with the most beautiful grounds I had ever seen.  Very natury, and a cozy tasting room in the cellar where we drank and ate with the owner.  We were the only people there and I'd imagine that's how it usually goes there.  Del Dotto is bigger, with a really cool cave area where we tasted wines straight from the barrel.  They really pride themselves on the customization of their wines -- each wine is separated by the location and type of grape and barrel wood for a lot of different flavors.  These wineries are must hits.  Our other favorite Napa wineries that we didn't get to visit are Shafer and Quintessa, so we can't wait to get back.  I also love big French reds, so hopefully we can make it to Bordeaux soon.




After that was last weekend, which was my gf and I's anniversary.  I surprised her with a weekend getaway to Paris, which went amazingly well.  We basically only had one day there, but I swear we walked the entire city.  It's a great city because if you are up for a lot of walking, you can hit just about all the cool touristy spots (except maybe Sacre Cour) in an afternoon.  We went to the Grand Palace, Petite Palace, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and plenty of the other big spots.  That night we ate at Table de Joel Robuchon, which I was excited about because I had heard amazing things about his restaurants.  It was pretty good, I don't think French food is my favorite but if you like it, I'd recommend it I guess.



Our puppy Joey has been so much fun and he's a great companion.  He also gets me out of the apartment a lot and keeps me exercising.



and Joey sporting his 'Skins bowtie after a big win!



I used to lift weights and run a lot in high school as well as freshman year of college, but as I started getting really into poker I lost some motivation for it.  I never got out of shape really, just lost some muscle and tone.  But the past few months I've been running a lot with Joey and working out with a personal trainer three times a week.  I'm in better shape than I've ever been and that certainly makes everything in life feel better.  A lot of poker players (myself include) struggle with finding a balance in life and I think that I've gotten a lot better about that lately.

In an hour or so I'm leaving for Vegas to play some big live cash games.  I'm pumped!  I played a little lower online this morning, 10/20, but had a big win which is always a nice confidence booster and I hope I am still hot at the tables in Vegas.

I've also been working very hard on another major poker related project the past few weeks that I will be talking more about on Monday!

Good luck everyone,
Cole

The weekend has been great although I was a bit disappointed that there was no live online broadcast of the November Nine. I guess I have to watch it on ESPN on Tuesday as I cant stand listing to it on radiob. Looking forward to it and am really rooting for Craig as I played against him a couple of times on FTP and he seems like a decent guy.  I think it will be a very tough and long final table.

I played lots of poker this weekend and continued to run hot. I played a a very long session last night after watching W in the cinema. The movie is pretty rubish as nothing really new comes to light about Bush and Oliver Stone is just playing on all the funny moments Bush had during it presidency. Definitely cannot recommend it, my fiancee even fell asleep during it. Next on my list is James Bond, I have heard different opinions about it. After coming back from the cinema I loaded up a couple of tables and played from 10pm till 6 in the morning which turned out to be great although it was a bit too long.  I really like to play longer sessions against the same opponent and on Saturday I played around 1500 hands against the same opponent on 2 tables simultaneously and winning 4 buyins in the process. This way you can really get your reads right and adjust appropriately. I read him almost perfect and have a good grasp how he plays. I definitely think I have a big edge on him and since he is a regular I played him again today on 2 tables and got him on tilt pretty quickly (through my reads) ending the session up another 5 buy ins. I am not going to post hands today as it is almost 1am here in London and I have to hit the sack to be ready for work.

Overall I won another $4.5k this weekend and am up almost $10k since getting back into poker. This is a very good result given that I only got back into it 10 days ago and played aroun 7.5k hands. I however also played a long session on 3 tables against another regular who is a bit more LAGish and ended up down around 4 buyins as we played quite aggressive and I made some thin call downs that turned against. me. Definitely have to go over that session and analyzw how I can improve my game against that opponent as I take pleasure in challenging myself and hopefully beating him up next weekend.

Otherwise, I had some after work drinks with my colleagues on Friday and it was good fun as everyone from the office showed up. Normally only the secretary and maybe one or two associates showed up. I showed off my drinking skills as 5 Long Island Ice Teas couldn't get me down. I however had to leave around midnight already as my fiancee was waiting at home and she was already a little bit upset that i stayed out so long without her :)

I had lunch with friends of mine on Sat and Sunday which was great fun as we haven't seen each other for a couple of weeks. We went to some really fancy restaurants and you can definitley feel that the credit crunch has an impact on retail and consumer businesses already as they were much emptier than normally.  A taxi driver even told me that his revenues are down 25% already this year, largely due to the credit crunch / recession.

Pokerwise I really believe that I have the skills to play as high as 10/20 profitable and just have to make sure to keep my BR management in check and not move up to quickly.  I want to have at least 25 buy-ins for any level I am playing and if I drop below that I will have to move back down again.

GL to you all and have a good start into the week.

Hey guys.  I've actually been back in the U.S. for about a week and a half but have been busy getting back into the swing of things, but this blog entry is going to focus mainly on my trip.  Hopefully I don't mess up posting pics!

So anyway, I arrived in London on Sunday, March 15.  I went to visit my sister, who's spending this semester studying abroad there.  I stayed there for 5 nights and then on Friday we went to Barcelona for 3 nights, and then I spent a long day traveling home (3 flights, 4 airports, 4 different countries, 4 hour car ride home after arriving in the U.S., ~17 hours spent in airplanes and cars, lots of fun!).  Instead of doing a typical play-by-play of the trip, I think it'll be more fun to make a list of general observations about cultural differences between the U.S., London, and Barcelona that I saw, and then do a little bit of storytelling along with pics after.  So here goes:

• The drinking age is 18 (maybe less?) in Europe and 21 in the U.S.  Obviously everyone knows this, but it really makes quite a difference in the lifestyles of young people.  It was great being able to do simple stuff like ordering a bottle of wine at dinner in Europe.  Also, we went to a concert featuring the band, "The Rifles," at a smaller concert venue in London and we had a great time.  Afterwards I was talking with my sister about it and realized that in New York City, many similar venues are 21+, so even for someone who doesn't care about drinking, their options for seeing live music, comedy shows, etc in the States are limited.  That seems wrong to me.  I also met up with some CR members for lunch/drinks/low stakes poker on Tuesday the 17th.  Most were about my age, and talking with them about this subject really made me realize how different it is.  From the middle of high school or so it's just routine for them to have drinks with dinner, in family settings, wherever.  To me, this makes a lot of sense, because I think people often develop drinking problems because it's exciting to drink due to the illegality (at least in H.S. or other places where it's not easily accessible).  I could be totally offbase here but I'd like to see some statistics on alcoholism rates in the U.S. and Europe.  The casino was quite different too, much stricter with dress codes and identification than Vegas casinos, but 18 to gamble.  Seems like some fun mid-high stakes PLO games go too, kinda bummed that I didn't get to play those, maybe next time.
• London runs on an earlier schedule than anywhere I've ever seen.  From what I've heard the bars close later on weekends, but during the week most were closing at 11!  This is even earlier than Ithaca's 1:00, which I thought was earlier than anywhere.  Clubs stay open longer, but I'm not really a huge club person (although we went to Notting HIll Arts Club and I thought it was awesome, they have different music depending on the night of the week but we went on Wednesday and I really loved the music selection and the atmosphere, basically a smaller club with loungy area and a cool dance floor that doesn't just play top 40 crap).  My sister told me that London just kind of goes to bed and wakes up earlier than most other places.  Quite a contrast to New York or Barcelona or probably 99% of cities in the world really.
• Tea and crumpets are not really popular in London, but fish and chips are.  At least that's what my sis told me.  I decided I'd have to give the fish and chips a try, so I went to a takeout place down the street from her flat.  I got cod with chips (all fried obv), paid 6 British pounds I think, and got the hugest serving ever.  This was especially weird because portion sizes at most other places I went were smaller compared to the U.S.  This thing was huge though!  I think the fish was about 10 inches long or something, and fairly wide.  I was very hungry and managed to eat about half.  It was very good but I don't eat much fried food so I don't think my body liked me after.  Well worth it though, imo.
• The number one word spoken by British people has to be 'lovely.'  It is used as a response to any typical greeting e.g. "How are you?", in place of 'thank you,' as the only adjective to describe pleasure e.g. 'This soup is lovely,' 'You look lovely,' etc.  I think that's it but let me know if I missed some!
• People in London were mostly very nice.  I had heard various things about this before the trip, but I was very impressed with how friendly everyone was, even when I needed them to repeat something because I couldn't understand their accent.  I only had one exception, the first night there we went to a small pub down the street from my sister's flat.  They had only been there once, and it happened to be someone's 50th birthday party, which ended up with them dancing with a bunch of old people and stuff.  For some reason, they decided we should go there again.  We got there, and there were 2 other people in the place, besides a live band that was playing (jazz I think).  We had a group of 7 people, 2 of whom don't drink.  The other 5 of us went up to the bar, and a man behind the bar (presumably the owner) says to me, "If your friends over there aren't drinking, they're going to have to leave."  This really boggled my mind, as this place was getting no business and then 5 of us were trying to give them some and they almost seemed to not want it.  Maybe he was just in a bad mood because of the emptiness of the place though, I don't know.  He didn't actually make our friends leave, so whatever.  But other than that little incident, everyone was extremely friendly, even cab drivers!
• Tipping etiquette is very different.  Apparently it's not really necessary to tip at all in England, except in nice restaurants and cabs.  Every time I tipped a bartender there they seemed very surprised.  Apparently they already have tip money built into their salaries.  Same goes in Barcelona, and from what I read most everywhere but the U.S.  I was surprised at the differences.
• British food is not as bad as it's reputation.  Okay well it is pretty hard to find anything but premade sandwiches for lunch, unless you look really hard, but I enjoyed most of the dinner food I had, and I went to both higher-end and lower-end places.  One place I really enjoyed was Harwood Arms, a pub that featured some good English food.  The ingredients are all from England and fresh, the deer are all shot by one of the owners and maybe some of the other stuff too, I'm not sure.  We tried a few things, and I really enjoyed one of the venison appetizers and a lamb entree.  Also, the service was great and one of the owners kept checking up on us, he was really friendly and helpful.  This place was really cool and different from anywhere else I've been, I highly recommend it.  Besides that, there were some higher-end places that rival those in other major cities.  I really enjoyed the food I had in London, but maybe my opinion would change if I ended up eating premade sandwiches for lunch everyday.
• Spanish cab companies aren't very smart.  We went to see The Killers in a venue a couple miles outside Barcelona (pics to come).  The concert was great, I've become a huge Killers fan in the weeks leading up to the concert and they did not disappoint.  The atmosphere was awesome, I spoke briefly to a girl next to me who said she only spoke a little bit of English, yet she was singing along with probably about half the songs.  I'm trying to picture me learning all the words to about 10 songs in Spanish, and I just don't see it, even if I was exposed to the music a lot.  That was really cool, and I think many others there knew just as many words as her.  Anyway though, after the concert we walked outside and tried to hail a cab.  There was a turnaround area where some cabs were coming.  The thing was, most of them were full already.  One would think that local cab companies would realize that 12,000 people were going to be here searching for transportation at the same time and subsequently send legions of cabs to the site and make lots of money.  Instead, there was about 1 empty cab coming every 10 minutes.  I think it took us about an hour and a half to finally hail a cab.  Others were still there when we left, it could have taken them another hour for all I know.  In the U.S. cabbies would be lining up outside the concert to try to recruit people to come with them.  It was basically the same story after the FC Barcelona futbol game we went to, we ended up just taking the subway, and that was in the city of Barcelona.  Note to entrepreneurs in Spain:  if you start a cab company with a brain, you'll probably make lots of money.  Preferably hire drivers who can speak English too, although that's less of a big deal than just not understanding basic supply and demand.
• Paella is awesome!  I had paella back-to-back nights in Barcelona.  The first night was at a high-end tapas restaurant, which was very good but seemed aimed at tourists.  I enjoyed the meal overall a ton, as we tried a bunch of different dishes and had some excellent wine, but the next night we went to a more authentic Spanish restaurant (server didn't even speak English!) and I got paella there and it was just unbelievable.  I want to figure out how to make my own, it's just so good and there's nothing quite like it in the States.  If you go to Spain make sure to try some good, authentic paella!
• Security is very lax in Barcelona.  Not sure if this goes for all of Spain but I'd imagine so.  I was really amazed at the scene when we arrived at the Killers concert.  There was a big wraparound line that didn't seem organized at all.  On either side of the line there was garbage on the ground everywhere.  There weren't even garbage cans anywhere really either.  I guess this is standard?  There were literally 0 security people until the very front of the line.  A couple in front of us rolled and smoked a joint while they waited in line.  Inside the concert was no different, all the tickets were general admission and everyone was just kind of pushing their way as far forward as possible.  I didn't see any fights or anything though, maybe it works here.  But it's quite different than what I'm used to.
• Beaches in Barcelona are funny.  My first day in Barcelona my sis and I decided we'd grab lunch then get a cab to the beach.  I went outside in a short-sleeved polo and shorts, and realized that I was the only person in the whole city wearing shorts.  It was about 55 degrees out, but I just relate the beach with being warm and not wearing heavy clothes.  But I was very cold so we went back to change before the beach, I changed into jeans, and then when I got there I saw people in winter coats even.  I must admit, even in heavier clothes the beach is nice and relaxing, but it's just so different to what I'm used to.  Also, the beach is cluttered with people trying to sell stuff.  I bought a can of beer for 2 Euros from a guy walking around, it was a little bit warmer than the 'ice cold' he advertised, but not bad.  The only Asian people I saw in Barcelona were on the beach too.  They were women walking around offering massages.  It almost seemed like they outnumbered the people lying on the beach, but they weren't very successful, aside from a group of drunk American guys behind us who each got massages.  I probably would have done the same if I were drunk and with some friends just for the hilarity, but it is kind of weird and sad how many of them there are walking around the beaches.  Aside from the vendors, the beaches are quite nice though, and even nicer when the weather warms up a bit I'm sure.
• FC Barcelona is good.  Really, really good.  We saw them play against Malaga, who came into the game 5th in La Liga out of about 16 teams.  Barca completely destroyed them, winning 6-0 and seemingly possessing the ball for 80% of the first half.  Malaga didn't even really get any decent scoring chances.  It was amazing to see a team play such high level soccer.  We had pretty good seats in the corner about 8 rows up and got great views on one end each half, seeing a pair of Barca goals at our end in the 2nd half.  The fans are a lot of fun too.  3 rows in front of us there was a guy wearing an FC Barca scarf and a Budweiser hat (didn't even know Bud existed in Spain lol).  He was quite inebriated and started cheers about every 3 minutes or so.  The cheers were awesome too, although most were in Spanish and I couldn't understand them.  It was a great atmosphere to see a game though and we had a ton of fun.

I might have actually missed a few things but I'll add them later if I think of them.  Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip:


me with sister with London Eye in the background


inside the Eye


looking down


cool shot of Big Ben

Note:  My camera ran out of battery so I bought a cheap digital camera in Barcelona to take all the following pics.  Quality is sorta low because of that...


the afforementioned line for the Killers concert


inside


action shot


another one


the view from our seats, Malaga warming up for the game


sister and me at the game


the crowd at Camp Nou


sadly my best attempt at a Messi action shot

-Brian