Minyans In the Mountains III Memories

More so at these 580 levels! It is understood ldquo;Big Slick rdquo; is considering a switch to professional poker should self proclaimed get any further airtime on CNBC.

It all appeared to run very seamlessly and the venues were pretty bloody good too. The ldquo;frat-house kids rdquo; performed admirably under some testing conditions at times, most notably early morning following visits to the nightclubs/bars of Vail Village. Todd and Kevin have surrounded themselves with a super team of remarkably unique individuals at MVHQ.

That they work so well as a team is awesome.

No one could find it unless they knew the system, which I have not used before. Fair enough. I did note that the gold price wasn rsquo;t on any of the home pages that were set up.

Hmmm.

He said ldquo;g rsquo;day rdquo; at the opening night cocktail party. I had no idea who the bloke was but we got chatting. He dropped a few references to a coin that sounded remarkably like one I own (or used to).

He strung me along for a while and pulled from his wallet an Italian Gold sovereign that I knew I had bought from a Sydney dealer by the written notations on its protective casing. I started wondering if maybe I had misplaced a coin at last year rsquo;s . After maybe 5 more minutes thinking ldquo;where the bloody hell did he get that from?

rdquo; he told me that it was the coin I donated to the and that ldquo;I could have it back if I wanted it rdquo; as he thought it may have had special significance to me. I was gob-smacked. I had completely forgotten donating it.

I told him that the coin was definitely his and that I appreciated his generous offer to give it back to me. It was truly an unexpected surprise to meet the person who now owns it. Wow.

We rsquo;ll know next year, I guess.

Bagging 4 rainbows and a brown (all on the same dry fly) kicked the event off perfectly for me. The Kakahi Queen from New Zealand proved to me once again that it is the best dry fly pattern in the world! A couple even generated an audience.

Meehan, you may refer to me in future as ldquo;Bass Master McGuirk. rdquo;

Commodities people are cut from similar cloth.

Good one if you bought them.

What I know and present is all in my head and attendees decide what we talk about at the time. I dunno what I rsquo;m gonna be talking about until the minute we kick off.

Another 1 run game was so appropriate. Too many highlights to name them all but Mike Santoli at 3rd base was a revelation, there were some classic missed/attempted catches including a shocker by yours truly out in center field, some great hitting and occasional witty sledging from the crowd. Sal kept The Lisa and Mrs.

Succo, the official scorers and resident loudmouths, in fine voice with a steady supply of Vin Rouge. The kegs and pizza kept everyone in the game. The one play that stands out was of rounding third at full speed after his blast over left field with a likely play at the plate with the scores close to even.

He is a pretty big sort of bloke and can run pretty quick for an old fella. There was gonna be one big collision if the catcher got in the way. The throw was wide, 3 runs scored and the ambulance was recalled to the station.

My kids love his shows and I was always kept informed about what he was up to. One time a few years back, my then 5-year-old daughter came running from the TV room to ldquo;update rdquo; me on the particular show. I got in first and asked, ldquo;What killer is that silly bloody Queenslander playing with this time?

rdquo; I had to immediately get out the maps and show her where Queensland was and explain myself. Hmmm. Kids.

Anyway, from all accounts he was a fair dinkum good bloke. Nonetheless, a stingray would rsquo;ve been quite low on my list of what animal was gonna be the end of him. Unlucky.

Interestingly, late each night someone would find me and hand it back.

The Lisa and I left the party just after the coppers visited and I didn rsquo;t give the coin a second thought as we straggled back to base. When I woke up to get the bus home, I immediately wondered where the coin was. I made a few phone calls but it wasn rsquo;t to be found.

I knew it would turn up somewhere with someone from the party, but it was getting time for the bus to leave and I didn rsquo;t want to have to chase it up from Sydney. Anyways, we were standing around having a lung-buster when I see Eric flicking my gold coin on his thumb while walking along towards us to catch the bus. I was relieved and happy to see it.

Eric blessed it and it hasn rsquo;t left my pocket since. It was knocked around somewhat over the course of the 3 days but the dings and scratches just give it some personality.

Some spoke of the luster and color, others remarked about the weight. One described how it warmed in her hands just holding it for an hour. Combining what they ldquo;felt rdquo; with discussions in breakout sessions and more-so socially that gold/silver is an element, tangible, limited in supply, historic monetary usage, physical supply/demand imbalances, peak gold, derivatives, hmmm, my guess is there rsquo;s a few new gold ldquo;converts rdquo; in the world after Vail.

The downside is very limited, IMO.

Jeff Saut are hosting the McGuirk fishing party on their boat down in Florida when the gold price is 4 figures. I rsquo;m booking my flights for sometime in 2008 and expect the bonefish to do the right thing. Will we be able to afford the fuel to run the boat?

A great part of the interaction with the Minyanship is that as a ldquo;professor rdquo; you get asked questions about what you really think, questions that if I haven rsquo;t already asked them of myself, then all the better. It puts to trial what I think and why, from any number of different disciplines. As yet no one has been able to sway me, let alone go close to convincing me, that I rsquo;m barking up the wrong tree about what I believe to be a multi-year Precious Metal Bull market, a bull market of which we are in the early stages of.

rdquo;

rdquo; I said Yes. Why, who, when, how is irrelevant. It happens in all markets but not so clandestinely.

Intervention versus manipulation is only a matter of communication as Toddo has often reminded us.

Hmmm. I thought the old rugby tour days would have exposed me to just about every drinking game known to mankind but I guess we missed one. Do you know how old that makes me feel?

??

rdquo; It is nice that someone is listening and making some good wedge. Free Beer?!

! Now that rsquo;s how to kick off a conference in style!

Small world.

I don rsquo;t get it.

Maybe we could have a ldquo;professor session rdquo; next year?

Some of the stuff was nice but the prices were ridiculous. Highway robbery comes to mind quickly when I think back. The Lisa knows gemstones and we had done some homework on prices on a few different gems.

She openly laughed at some prices. I thought they must rsquo;ve had a problem with their decimal point placement on some items. An item that could be purchased here for US$2800 was for sale at US$28,000 ( ldquo;but we rsquo;re having a sale so we rsquo;ll discount the price if you rsquo;re interested rdquo; said the sales person).

Seriously.

What a huge surprise for me at the Red Lion down in Soho. It was great fun and I look forward to seeing the photos! I might sound bad but at least I knew the words!

AC-DC ldquo;You shook me all night long rdquo; was possibly the best song you could rsquo;ve nominated me to sing as your ldquo;Aussie National Anthem. rdquo; I grew up on AC-DC at high volume. Your band has gotta get a gig at Minyans in the Mountains 4!

!

It has been my experience that within a large group ldquo;on tour rdquo; there is usually a few ldquo;incidents rdquo; late at night after a few convivial beverages. As I was in attendance at most late night gatherings, I can categorically state that late night behavior was exemplary. Oh, except walking through a screen door at the frat-house, but in the scheme of things that rsquo;s a mere flesh wound.

The late night carousing isn rsquo;t and I think 4 nights in a row is my limit these days. Gone are the ldquo;old days rdquo; of handling a 31 day international rugby tour with 25 mates. Those tours were unlike most anything you could imagine for all sorts of different reasons.

Youth is a wonderful thing!

The Lisa sends her best wishes too. Tall dark and handsome does it for her every time. Just look at me.

?

Many forget that gold and silver aren rsquo;t just metals, they rsquo;re the ultimate financial asset. Even Sir Alan said so.

Being the goalkeeper sucks almost as much as getting beaten by a couple of girls. Yes, Jenna and Dingers beat and I. 9-8 was the score.

Sorry Adam.

They are non-ferrous. Sterling silver jewelry tripped the alarm due to the 7.5% non-silver alloy content.

I tested the system differently each time I went out for a death-stick. The results were remarkable. More to come on this stuff later.

The fact that he played serious rugby speaks volumes. Professionally, he probably thinks I rsquo;m crazy after a late night chat at the bar covering many topics. Que sera sera hellip;

Your kids are gonna learn those words soon enough. You can rsquo;t protect them till they rsquo;re 21. rdquo; ndash; L.

M. to after just launching an expletive laden tirade at young Farley (after he dropped someone rsquo;s luggage on my foot). The young Wassong boys were apparently well within earshot.

Oops.

They didn rsquo;t quite understand that noise and movement scare fish away. Do you know how hard it is to catch a trout when rocks are being thrown at the fish you are casting to? Classic kids in action and I would rsquo;ve done the same given a few rocks and a nice target.

It is a baseball book about Tony La Russa and managing. Some great analogies/similarities for financial market players when it comes to risk management, options, analysis, preparation and finally, performance. Interesting for sure.

Off to the breeding barn for her. Bugger, she was a nice young racehorse making rapid improvements and headed to the big races in the Spring. She was retired a winner who collected a prize money check in each of her seven race starts.

Why don rsquo;t my slow ones break down? Someone once said that ldquo;only good horses break down because they push themselves. rdquo; Hmmm.

Is that the same as someone who has had 37 different fractures, the first at three years of age, suggesting to someone who has never broken a bone in their life that ldquo;they obviously didn rsquo;t play hard enough as a kid? rdquo;

Just watch what does happen rdquo; ndash; Sean Connery in The Untouchables as seen on the 90 hour journey home to Sydney. He could easily have been talking about Gold and the dollar these days.

How fitting.