Malta, FTW

I've been back a few weeks now from the last poker trip, this time to Malta. At the risk of jinxing myself, I've had pretty amazing run-good the last few months on all these flights back and forth to Europe, and the Malta trip took that to the extreme.

Despite getting into Heathrow with exactly 17 minutes to get off the plane, through security, and make it to my connecting flight to Malta, I somehow made that flight, and then got off of Malta and back out of Heathrow in the nick of time at the end of the trip before winter snowstorm mayhem struck. I actually got home to Texas 12-24 hours before various friends made it from Malta to Berlin and Stockholm, with all of us leaving Malta at roughly the same time, so yeah, thumbs up to running good with flights.

Malta was pretty amazing. Well, amazing may be a strong word, but very comfortable and fun, and the first place I've run across on this recent European trips where I could really see myself living there. Which is kind of good timing, as we're seriously looking to make the move over to Europe very soon, likely next spring.

It's a mix of being practical (nearly all my work is in Europe at the moment, except for the WSOP) and just needing a change of scenery in general. Plus the fact that Sarah Palin has not, in fact, been relegated to book tour appearances in Gary, Indiana and very well might be the next President of the United States of America.

But mostly because of work, more than anything. 2011 looks even busier than 2010 as far as work for bwin and I've managed to pick up some other clients here and there, to the point where I'm once again bemoaning the lack of enough hours in the day, even after ditching the day job and the 2 hour commute and the endless hours filling out TPS reports and sitting in meetings about how it's not enough to be the BEST, but time to strive for GREAT.

Stockholm would make more sense but snowy winters and the general cost of living makes it a little meh, and Malta is surprisingly cheap as far as food, rent, etc. I can't see us living in Malta for the long haul, but it's the best jumping off point I've found so far, plus it wouldn't be a bad place to kick around for awhile as far as connections with the online gaming world as well.

It's been nice to take it a bit easy the last few weeks, as October and November were crazy work-wise. We're still trying to navigate the minefield that is Christmas as far as family expectations that we'll drop everything and travel many hours to sit around and drink too much and try not to talk about all the things that set everyone off, but there's probably a 25% chance that the wife and I may just sit home this year, which would be just fine with me.

I'll be off to the Aussie Millions for the first time in January, which I'm pretty damn excited about. But for now it's definitely nice to get in plenty of couch time on Sundays and relax a little.