day 120
Today is a public holiday which meant I could afford to go to bed a little later than usual last night. To celebrate the occasion we decided to go to a casino and waste a bit of money. It was a relatively small place with twenty or so slot machines, a few poker, blackjack and roulette tables, and numerous bar staff with stupidly big silicon breasts and ridiculously small mini skirts.
I went with a couple of thousand pesos (about 40 Euros) and started off pretty well. After about an hour on the roulette table and half an hour of blackjack I was up 3500 pesos and feeling rich. I should really have cashed in my chips and stopped playing at that point but they kept offering me free drinks so I kept gambling.
By 2AM I’d completely run out of chips so Martin (who was doing pretty well) gave me 1000 pesos to keep going. That was a bad idea because I lost all that too! Anyway it was all good fun and a worthwhile lesson learned: avoid gambling but if you really must, at least collect your winnings before you lose them!
When we left, Sophie cashed in about 5000 pesos while Martin went home, pockets bulging, with 17000 pesos (that’s about 340 Euros!).
day 110
I’ve been making a website for this guy for the past couple of months and this weekend I went to his house to finish it off and get paid. This guy runs a business installing high tech electrical and electronic systems such as remote-controlled lighting systems, audio equipment and wireless networks.
One of his projects was his own apartment. Being a bit of a techno geek myself, I walked into this place drooling. I’ve never seen so much technology in one household. Allow me to explain.
Pretty much everything is hooked up to a big box which can be controlled from little touch screen displays built into the walls. He began his demonstration by dimming the lights in every room in the flat simultaneously. He then selected the room we were in and switched the lights to “disco mode”, where they turn into little strobes, and this was accompanied by music. He turned the volume up and down just to show off a bit more, and just when I thought I was going to die due to a mixture of jealousy and admiration, he whipped out his iPhone and proceeded to control everything he’d just shown me but from the phone. I actually nearly did die at this point.
Anyway, as if that weren’t enough, he has the same equipment installed in his office in the capital. He logged in on his PC and showed me how he can control all those things (and more) remotely over the internet. What’s more, he has security cameras installed at various sites where his company is currently working which he can view and control directly from his PC – as can his colleagues in Holland, Italy and Japan.
Obviously this guy has a satellite dish, flat panel TV and surround sound system with a gigantic sub-woofer, but what’s not so obvious is the projector attached to the ceiling which he uses for “movie time”, as he so eloquently describes it.
For my technically inclined readers, he also has Ethernet wall jacks all over the place just in case you can’t be bothered to type the password in for the Wi-Fi. This is something you’d usually find in an office block, not someone’s house! Seriously, it’s absolutely mental.
I’m sure there’s more to say but I’m finding it difficult to remember any of it as I’m currently suffering from post-technology overdose disorder.
