Philadelphia

So Saturday brings the first day off from Bridge since arrival last weekend.

Paul's blog provides details of our performance to date but in summary:

- Random stuff warming up in the Regional;

- Did well to qualify from tough group in the main qualifying for Rosenblum. No mega stars but a solid group which was close from the outset. I think most of the team did travel with hope rather than expectation that we would qualify but i only found out later that my 33% chance of qualifying was possibly at the upper end of expectations!

- Drawn against Irish in round of 64. Certainly had chances, leading after first quarter, close going into last set but lost a few more on the way out.

- The rest of the team now move to the Open Pairs, with Paul and I having a few days off before the start of the Imp Pairs.

To try and get my bearings i took one of those city centre tourist bus trips. These can vary from extremely poor to being a great way of seeing the city. This was certainly at the better end and had the advantage of being able to jump off/on at different places, with another bus coming 20 mins later. As well as being able to spend some time at different places of interest (trip was more of a chance to decide where to visit later in the week) it enabled you to change your tour host when their "wit" / "enthusiasm" became too much to bear. To see the photos of the tour go to my Picasa site . Main point of interest was the Eastern State Penitentiary which was the first of its kind in the world and was replicated in many places.