As the popularity of my blog has exploded (I now have 1 follower, myself) I need to learn to cope with my newfound fame ;)

Anyway, wanted to mention that I also use Google Latitude, contact me to share locations.

Tonight, I'm gonna check out a private snooker club with a friend I didn't know I had in Basel! I will let you know all about it.

Yesterday, I did visit the Basel Billiard Center.

Manu playing snooker with me.

It was quite busy when I got there, but emptied out around 10pm.

A quick conversation with the bartender uncovered that they host an internal pool club (8-ball and 9-ball) that plays on Wednesdays.

They have about 12 8-foot american pool tables, 2 9-footers, and two full size snooker tables. All are well-maintained. I don't usually sample the house sticks because I carry my trusty Joss everywhere I go, but US Airways biffed and my stick is gawd knows where at the moment. So I did sample the sticks here and they were horrendous.

The tables on the other hand were very well maintained. Some spots did seem a little bit cramped (had to wait till someone finished their shot before taking mine more than a few times over the course of 2 hours) but overall lots of room and the high ceilings definitely help.

they have a full bar.

Price is CHF 18 per hour, which is quite pricey - bartender said the average for the area is about 15 and the cheapest is 12. CHF 1 is about equal to $1. Which means that by American standards the price is RIDICULOUS.

I didn't know how high the price was when I started shooting, and by the time I checked out I had racked up a CHF49 tab because I had a 'couple of beers'. well, I only had CHF40 and change, but the bartender let it slide, which would have been completely unheard of in Germany for ex.

I didn't find anyone there shooting very seriously, all were in groups and no one was looking for a game with a stranger (I didn't even see anyone with their own cue!), so I just practiced some trick shots and some 1-pocket long rail banks.

I did spot some carom balls behind the bar, but they said they got rid of their carom table a while ago.

People were overall nice but not talkative at all, except for a group of drunk-but-not-unpleasantly-obnoxious spaniards.

Here is a short video tour.

Please bear with me on the filming and commentary skills as I get used to videodocumenting...

More to come soon!

Gabe

Written here on December 23rd, 2009 at 5:45pm local time.