Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[theprawnidentity]

A bar of soap for a fiver, what on earth is happening?

Like catnip for the ladies though....

[hector62]

Evening Mr T.

I am now back from hide and seek duties and have had a chance to look for pictures of the year. This is the best collection so far, but be warned there are over 300 pictures in the collection. I think you will be fascinated by the picture of Dutch workman laying a brick road, I know I was. Enjoy.


http://graphics.wsj.com/Photos-of-the-Year/2013/#l=en&o=2&q=&x=&y=&p=196

[77dave]

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

[tikay]

Did you catch the first of this two parter on dolphins on the beeb? Fascinating stuff, thought it would be right up your street:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/episode/b03n2x1n

Thanks Dave.

No, I missed those, I rarely watch BBC these days, I am usually glued to the Documentary channels on Sky.

Thanks for the link, I'll have a look later.

There are some magnificent programmes on PBS America lately, the Hoover Dam was featured recently, the story behind Grand Central Station, New York, & last night the best of the lot, a story about the design & construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Might be the best TV Show I've ever watched. 

How are you these days? Still pleasingly plump & portly, & still threatening to become all svelte & fit? Work OK? The good lady?

Hope you'll be at the UKPC, we have some quite interesting names lined up....

[tikay]

Hey Teeks , some photos that you may enjoy.


http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-historic-moments/


http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-powerful-photos/

Wow, some corkers there David.


Hotel owner pouring acid in the pool while black people swim in it, ca. 1964


Austrian boy receives new shoes during WWII

Amazing what we take for granted these days. And to think I spend half my time arguing with, or being harangued by, poker players who think they are entitled to this that or the other.

How was Christmas, & how are things at home now? Still got the job at the School? Good to see you on Fred last week, you little degen.

[tikay]

A bar of soap for a fiver, what on earth is happening?

Like catnip for the ladies though....

For one so young, you possess much guile & cunning.....

And the ladies really do fall for that nonsense.

Bar of soap for a fiver?

No way.


But it has glittery bits in it.

Oh, in that case, fair enough, how did we ever live without glittery bits in soap?

And they take weeks before they disappear from various bath & bodily orifices.

Lush, my arse.

[tikay]

Evening Mr T.

I am now back from hide and seek duties and have had a chance to look for pictures of the year. This is the best collection so far, but be warned there are over 300 pictures in the collection. I think you will be fascinated by the picture of Dutch workman laying a brick road, I know I was. Enjoy.


http://graphics.wsj.com/Photos-of-the-Year/2013/#l=en&o=2&q=&x=&y=&p=196

Damn you hector.

You posted that at 11pm Saturday, & I ended up staying up until 4am perusing them. God, I LOVE photos. Did you see that one I Posted on a lesser Diary last week, the caravan holiday one? Incredibly evocative.

Hope the weather down there is not too bad, & Phoebe went home happy.

[tikay]

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

Never.

I have to assume there was a manufacturing fault in the bat.

How is life these days Jim? Still getting the lot in the DC game @ Luton?@ Jeez, I miss that game.

Any news on the Visa yet?

[DaveShoelace]

How are you these days?

Well I was fine until...

Still pleasingly plump & portly,

this

& still threatening to become all svelte & fit?

Actually I am in quite good nick atm. Only problem was that after losing weight, it turns out I don't have the pretty face.

Work OK?

Yes very good. Writing a book atm.

The good lady?

Yep still defying the odds there too. She is well and still putting up with me.

Hope you'll be at the UKPC, we have some quite interesting names lined up....

Keep me in the loop. I am always on the look out to do interviews with folks people have heard of.

[tikay]

Do you think a PS4 is a game, or a toy?

This is a bit Next Doorish, but it's not spammy, as it is nearly finished now.

Anyway, they are giving away a few dozen PS4 things as part of a Promo.

Me, I've never seen or touched one, but I know what it is, you buy them in the toy department of shops.

So when I heard we were giving the damn things away as prizes, & seeing that you have to be a grown-up, aged 18 or more, to have an Account, I thought it was the daftest thing ever. I mean, win one for the kids, fair enough, but not for bloody grown-ups, surely? Is this what our Education system has bequeathed us? Grown-ups playing PS4 & Candy Crush?

Anyway.......you've never seen such a thing, there are THOUSANDS of folk trying to win these PS4 things, & all sorts of bickering & arguing as to entitlement.

I wonder how many there would have been if the prizes were Annual Membership to the National Trust? Twice as many? Thrice?

[tikay]

There were over 100 fatalaties during construction of the Hoover Dam, over a 13 year period.

And the very last man to die was the son of the very first man to die.

Myth, or true?

[hector62]

Too weird to be anything but true.

The weather has been something else lately. On my trip home my train got diverted half way through the journey, and not by a short way. We had a 70 mile reroute via Bristol which added 2 hours to the trip.

I loved the caravan picture. We had a seaside holiday every year in Cornwall at a place called Portscatho, in the worlds worst caravan . It was permanently sited in the field, sky blue and even had a name- Carn Brea and for some reason my parents rented it every year. My father had some sense though as he carried on working and only visited at the weekend. Happy days though.

I have one last photo for you,my favourite one ever. Phoebe on her first day at school.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Think it's time I culled some of my interests, it is all getting a bit beyond what I can manage.

If I do things, I try to do them full on. Well, I don't try, I just can't help myself.

I rediscovered my passion - addiction? - for Online poker recently, & I've been spending a lot of time playing PLO8 SNG's Next Door. Think I've played 1,500 in 3 months. I don't play every night, but if I do, I generally play between 20 & 30. I expect Raymondo Norton plays his 180's 30 at a time, but 4 or 5 at once is about my limit on a lappie.

I could give you the precise count, per day, how much the average win loss per game, profit/loss per day/week/month, everything.  I'll spare you, but as it is a sort of Bankroll Challenge, I keep a little Diary Next Door & update it every single day, with a little backstory to keep it light & fresh.

Then there is Fred. Jeez, that thread is busy, & much of it is time sensitive, so I have to keep one eye on it every waking hour. It needs working, too, & I do a lot of that. Every bet placed is quite a job, too, trying to navigate around Online Gaming Sites, with myriads of Markets on everything on earth, takes a bit of doing when 4 poker tables are popping up & down, binging & bonging. And good bets ALWAYS seem to be Posted at the very last minute. Fred has been going 2 years at the end of this month, & we've placed over 2,500 bets. Incredible! I dangled the idea of someone taking over, but it fell on deaf ears. Don't really blame them, it's tremendously exciting, & great fun, but really time-consuming.  You need to be a sort of Kissinger style diplomat, too, people get niggly with each other, & I try to keep the peace. I loathe aggro. Too old for it, I've had enough.

Anyway, it all got a but much for me the last few days, my head sort of imploded.

I see guys on Twitter sometimes, "I'm so bored", & I think, jeez, what IS the matter with you? But there must be a happy medium between bored & where I am at the moment. 

This, with approx numbers, was my weekend......

SNG's Played - 92

MTT played - 1

PM's received (blonde) 27

PM's sent (blonde) 19

PM's received (Next Door) 23

PM's Sent (Next Door) 11

Texts received 47

Texts sent 23

i-Pad "messages" received 82

i-Pad messages sent 67

Bets placed (Fred) 28

Arsey letters from my next door neighbour because the garden fence blew down - 4

Posts on blonde 165 (most of them on Fred)

Posts Next Door 83 (mostly answering player quesries, complaints & questions)

e-mails to Company Account (most are READ ONLY) 107

e-Mails sent from my Company e-addy - 14

e-Mails to my Private e-addy - 46

Phone-calls received - 7

Things I wanted to do, or reply to, but never got round to - 19,784

Then there is the general UKPC stuff, I like to Rail the (Satellite) Final Tables & chat to the winners, da de da.

I yearn to DO things, & when an e-Mail or PM arrives, it's always "ooh, wonder what THIS one is?".


And THEN, just after I'd dropped off for a nap yesterday afternoon, the Jehova's Witnesses knocked on my front door......

So, it's all getting a bit silly. I LOVE to get PM's & stuff from my friends, of course I do. And I LOVE playing poker, and Fred, & my job........but something has to give.

I think endlessly about whether it's time to retire from Next Door, but truth is, I'm insecure, & I quite like a lot of what I do there. Not sure I'll last much longer though, I'm in my 8th year there, & I turn 67 later this year. Maybe they'll solve the problem for me.

Hello Tony, thanks for coming. It's been a pleasure to work with you these last 7 & a half years, but you know how it is.......

Who knows, it might be tomorrow, or another year. I've given my best, that's all that matters to me, so I'll be fine, if & when. I am scrupulously polite to everyone there, always. I think bad things sometimes though.....

I just enjoy so much, thats the problem I think, & I need better self-discipline so I don't overload. 

Oh, & I try to read for an hour every day, I went to Foyles last week & loaded up on some terrific books.

There was a thread on blonde, "Absolute Joke", & I normally reply to all queries, but I don't reply to rude or ill-mannered stuff, & I don't think I should. Surprise was expressed that I did not reply. Trust me, I was tempted........ Probably best that I refrained.

So, I need to give something up.

Poker, Fred, Work, blonde?

Let the dithering commence. It may take a while.

[77dave]

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

Never.

I have to assume there was a manufacturing fault in the bat.

How is life these days Jim? Still getting the lot in the DC game @ Luton?@ Jeez, I miss that game.

Any news on the Visa yet?

Games have been really good recently, half the time the game has been running as 5/5 since the GUKPT.

You know your always welcome, drop me a text if you fancy a game, Wed, Fri, Sun.

[tikay]

Too weird to be anything but true.

The weather has been something else lately. On my trip home my train got diverted half way through the journey, and not by a short way. We had a 70 mile reroute via Bristol which added 2 hours to the trip.

I loved the caravan picture. We had a seaside holiday every year in Cornwall at a place called Portscatho, in the worlds worst caravan . It was permanently sited in the field, sky blue and even had a name- Carn Brea and for some reason my parents rented it every year. My father had some sense though as he carried on working and only visited at the weekend. Happy days though.

I have one last photo for you,my favourite one ever. Phoebe on her first day at school.

Click to see full-size image.

Oh my, WHAT a photo! Phoebe, yes?

She's gorgeous. Look at those little shoes, her uniform, the smile. What a thing to be starting school, eh? You must love her to bits. Nice brickwork that, too, love "soft" stocks.

You did NOT stay in the world's worst caravan - I did. Truly. But we LOVED it. It was in a place called Praa Sands, about 15 miles from Penzance, I think. Dad got free railway travel for the family ("privs", or "Privilege Tickets), so we could travel as far as we wanted. We arrived at Penzance, & a chap from the Caravan Park came to meet us in his Land-Rover, for the cases & everything. It was the first time I'd ever been in a car, & I remember the thrill to this day.

I also remember going to the Caravan Park shop to fetch milk & bread, & my Step Mum had given me a ten bob note to pay for it. I somehow lost the ten-bob note on the way, & so she beat the shite out of me. Marv.

I repeated the EXACT same thing a year later, (I was a bit funny in the head at the time) half a crown at home this time, & was scared to death I'd get whacked again. And my sister had a little savings tin.........

Wel, you know how it is, temptation, scared of getting whacked.....so I nicked the half a crown from my sisters savings tin. Dad found out, & whacked me.....to be fair, I deserved that one, & it taught me a proper good life lesson. Including don't go round jingling coins in your pocket like Jack the lad when you are supposed to be skint. Bit of a clue, that. It was the first & last time he ever hit me. Think it hurt him more than me. My pain was mental - I'd upset the greatest bloke who ever lived.

I was about 14 when I first smoked, & I used to go in the toilet & light up. They reckoned they could smell the tobacco smoke. No way?!

Sorry, I seem to have entered rambling mode.

I'm done.