DUBLIN BELLYBUSTERS

Apologies firstly for how few and far between blog entries have been recently. Time to write them has been scarce as I have been rushing to get everything done before I make my way back the US next week. Over the past 5 weeks, I have been to the hospital 4 times (stomach/digestion issues), I have had my kitchen/livingroom completely re-modelled and refurbished, I have put in decent hours through SNGMentors with my two students Sibist and Drk Confdant, I have got the wheels in motion for a settlement in a longstanding court-case and I have begun writing a one-act play entitled 'Happier Days', all while still maintaining a 40-hour poker playing week. January was nothing special as I grinded out some average money in the 45 and 90mans (2nd place in the BadBeatsPoker.net $48 90man challenge with an ROI over 100%), made a couple of K playing cap-limit cash ($2/$4, $3/$6 and a little $5/$10) and dumped over 1K in MTTS. My MTT drought refuses to end and I am now looking at a $7K+ downswing in that department. Blechhh!

It should be an exciting few months in Connecticut. Michelle and I have opened a Kids Consignment Store in West Hartford and (now that the manual labour phase is over,) I am keen to get back there to help out. It's a bit of a Dublin Bellybuster production actually as the third member of our 'Max & Lily's Closet' team is Patrick 'Dr Fill Good' McAllister. We opened our doors last Monday to take in consignments and we hope to open for business proper by the first week of March. The wager here is that West Hartford, a pretty posh suburb in a pretty posh state, is sufficiently affected by the recession to make it more open-minded to what is already a billion dollar industry in America. Rents have come way down, making a low-yield business model viable in this affluent area. The average Joe is tightening his belt and even the more well-off Mums and Dads are looking to save a buck where they can. Also, a culture shift is apparent in the US with the 'green' message getting more airtime and 'green' businesses rightly being supported by the people. Max & Lily's Closet is the brainchild of Michelle who has, ever since I first met her, dreamed of bringing an environmentally conscious Consignment Store to her neighbourhood. Now, thanks to a good year on the green baize for Patrick and I, the investment needed is finally able to match the will.