Loose ends.
I have a couple of loose ends to tie up today:

Left handed mouse use.

In a post titled 'Sinister', I related how my right hand was in pain due to mouse use. My solution was to switch my mouse settings to left handed and give the right hand a break. This I did for three weeks and the pain went away. I've since switched back to right hand use, as I'm naturally right side dominant. It's easy to switch your settings over and I highly recommend that anyone experiencing pain in one hand does this. Don't ignore it.

The new A40 poker club, known as 'The Western'.

In a piece titled 'My vision of poker is different', I mentioned that I would report back when I had visited the club. I can claim to have seen it, but can't say that I met any of the management. On a drive back from High Wycombe to London one morning, I decided to drop in and see whether anyone was about at 10am. I parked underneath the club and walked through the entrance. There was nobody at reception, so after shouting 'hello' a few times I walked upstairs and looked for anyone who could show me around. I met a kitchen worker who didn't seem to think that anyone was about. I told him that I was a player who knew most of the people behind the club and was visiting out of interest. He didn't try to get rid of me, so I continued walking around to check the place out.

The gaming action is on two floors. When walking onto the first floor, one enters a sort of ante room. On the right are two doors underneath a sign marked 'Kalooki'. Peeking through the windows I could see a room full of five-sided tables; about twenty I would guess. On the left hand side was a poker room. I went through and saw five kidney-shaped dealer tables lined up next to the windows on the A40 side of the room. There was a cashier on the left and eight large round self-deal tables. There was a whiteboard on the wall, like the one at the Victoria. I saw lists for pot-limit games, but no columns for limit poker.

Going upstairs, I again entered an ante room. This time the room on the right hand side contained two full sized snooker tables. The room on the left was another poker room. There were five dealer tables, also on the A40 side of the room. The room seemed smaller than the one downstairs, so I walked to the end and found a door under a sign marked 'salon prive'. Inside were two large poker tables. The chairs were a bit smarter than the ones in the rest of the club and there was a drinks cabinet containing spirits.

I might be mistaken, but I don't recall seeing a bar anywhere, nor a dedicated area for eating food. I suppose that they plan to bring food to the poker tables so that games don't break when people are hungry. I should stress that the place is very nicely appointed. There are leather sofas to recline on while waiting around. There is more space for players - in sharp contrast to the Victoria's poker room, which feels decidedly cramped. It's ideal in many ways, except that it doesn't seem to have any action going yet and it's not handy for people who don't drive.