Why should i worry, just in vain, just get my head empty and hit the road.

Why worry, if you just can’t make things go and really don’t know what

Future will bring along, really, that ‘empty your head’- thing works,

Hehheh, better do it more often.

Some airport, waiting for the third flight.

Here we are sitting and waiting for the plane to depart, only one hour in

The plane, but, hey, we got free applejuice . Later i found that one guy who

Was to fly on that same flight was sitting on the airport same time while we were

Sitting in the plane and he missed this flight as the airport crew told him that this

Flight has already gone . That is really the german timing. Yeah, and he lost

His luggage too.

Hotel, first night.

Just sitting here and only wondering what’s happening. I better go sleep,

Tired and everything . It is kinda strange when your brains tell you to go to

Sleep and you just keep on wandering around, maybe it is one kind of

Guything, whatever . It must be that weird rattle noise with no rhytm and still

With rhytm, hmmm, when at least tens or hundreds players are rattling

Their boxes same time . I guess that rhytm is in the blood already.

Second day.

Malcolm told a nice story when he was in a cab driving to airport in Copenhagen.

He started to talk about backgammon with the driver, as the driver asked where he

Was coming from . Then the driver asked how it went in the tournament .

Malcolm told something like ’ not too well, lost in the final, and after bad play’.

Then the driver told something which had more sense than you can imagine

At first though : ’ Just give luck a chance’. Yeah, well, well, hmmmm. . . . . .

Tournament night macig : if you chance money, sometimes you get more

Money back in the night than in the daylight . Or you just think you got

More. . . . . .

And there are more stories to hear :

About the psygology of players : One thing that separates a player from

Another is the difference when winning or losing . A too serious player

Is not too happy when winning, only losing brings him real passion : anger.

I better go and have a beer and sit down to think about that .

. . . . and empty my mind for tomorrow.

Third day.

Why do players assume that the luck should always be on their side ?

As it is a fact they deserve . And then, if some bad luck comes aside,

They just think that it just can’t happen to them, and they can’t see that

They can do something good with their ’ bad ’ luck . Then they get angry

And steaming and make mistakes they should never make . And that

Is happening all the time, everywhere .

Sure it is hard to act well when you have bad luck, but, hey, that thing,

Acting well with bad luck, is the thing that makes one a good guy or

A good player . Anybody can play well when they have good luck, but

Not anybody can do good when having bad luck.

Hmmmm. . . . does this make sense . . . . . . . i better go get another beer.

But it is true that worse players complain more.

This is what happens when you are just ’ melting ice ’, whatever that

Means.

Balance is that when you do the things you do with the best possible

Way no matter what. . . . . . . . . . that is: to be balanced is hard if your right

Hand doesn’t know what your left hand is doing and your head there

Between is just wondering what the heck is happening. . . .

Fourth day.

Hey, time flies when you have lots of things to do, you just don’t notice

Time, you just keep on going. . . . . .

Matches, concentration, recovering from matches, mindemptying and

Some food .

Between matches one have to think anything else but matches . Go watch a tree,

Think about the birds who have been sitting there and rested. What should

That bird think if it see you sitting there watching it ? There are lots of

Things you can think, you just have to focus on something else and try to clear

Your mind. If you just sit and think for the upcoming match, you just get

Nervous and stressed, what’s good with those ?

Even the best players make bad mistakes when they got nervous and stressed.

Keep cool. Sure, cool. . . . . .

You can know a person well only if you see him lose. Everybody can be

The nicest guy in the word when winning, but when losing. . . . . . well. . . . . .

When losing you can count your true friends.

‘Papa told me not to come, but, hey babe, this is where the action is ’

An uncencored diary from a backgammon tournament.

Tapio Palmroth