Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Doobs]

Am with Mark on Noodles Asia.  Have fine the same thing and eaten there twice just to make sure.  There is a good chinese in the MGM, the Wynn one is very good but a bit pricey.  The dim sum place in the Rio seems pretty much as you'd expect one in Hong Kong to me too.  The only other place I had badly disappointing Chinese food was the Mandarin Oriental, where we got really overpriced bad Chinese.  It was not long after they opened so they could have improved.  

If you want something a bit dull, but interesting, where you can sit on your own I have developed a liking for the Corned Beef Hash at the Terrace Point cafe at the Wynn.  If on your own you can just sit at the bar and they bring you corned beef and potatoes fried in a skillet with a couple of eggs on the top.  They will bring you coffee and orange juice and sure you don't have to chat to him much if you don't want to.  Sure it is better for you to eat ok the morning the very late at night too.   I love the buffet too, but sometimes the queue looks bad or you just want something a bit quicker.  Sure I have sat at the bar on my own and had similar at the Venetian too.  

If you want something a bit healthy you could just order a bowl of berries, enough for 4 and probably enough sugar for a week, but you feel a bit more virtuous than if you ordered the half pounder.  

[tikay]

Am with Mark on Noodles Asia.  Have fine the same thing and eaten there twice just to make sure.  There is a good chinese in the MGM, the Wynn one is very good but a bit pricey.  The dim sum place in the Rio seems pretty much as you'd expect one in Hong Kong to me too.  The only other place I had badly disappointing Chinese food was the Mandarin Oriental, where we got really overpriced bad Chinese.  It was not long after they opened so they could have improved.  

If you want something a bit dull, but interesting, where you can sit on your own I have developed a liking for the Corned Beef Hash at the Terrace Point cafe at the Wynn.  If on your own you can just sit at the bar and they bring you corned beef and potatoes fried in a skillet with a couple of eggs on the top.  They will bring you coffee and orange juice and sure you don't have to chat to him much if you don't want to.  Sure it is better for you to eat ok the morning the very late at night too.   I love the buffet too, but sometimes the queue looks bad or you just want something a bit quicker.  Sure I have sat at the bar on my own and had similar at the Venetian too.  

If you want something a bit healthy you could just order a bowl of berries, enough for 4 and probably enough sugar for a week, but you feel a bit more virtuous than if you ordered the half pounder.  

As Ralph said, I did once dine @ Noodles Asia, but I just have a phobia about foreign food, & don't like it before I eat it. If only somewhere in Vegas seved Steak & Kidney Pud.

I could manage corned beef hash, potatoes & eggs though, any day, yum yum. I'd prefer not to chat to the waiter though. Eating & taliking don't mix well in my world.

When I made Finals @ Nugget & Binions (not this year, obv...) & I finished at 4am or whatever, I always went to celebrate @ the Cafe in Binions. They did  a thing called "Gamblers Breakfast" - the sheer name excites - to which I always added corned beef hash, think it cost about 7 bucks. Proper food, that.

[RED-DOG]

You don't eat bacon?

[tikay]

You don't eat bacon?

Not these days Tom, though I used to.

Like to keep my body just so.

Been trying to eat more healthy the past few years.

[Marky147]

That cafe at Binions is such great value, but your arteries definitely thank you when you get home

I think I had that same breakfast one morning on the way back to the Nugget, and we were actually joking with the waitress about how much food it contained for the price.

If you want a taste of England, head to the Crown & Anchor next year, Tikay. In fact, I'm pretty sure they may even do some version of a roast on Sundays.

[tikay]

That cafe at Binions is such great value, but your arteries definitely thank you when you get home

I think I had that same breakfast one morning on the way back to the Nugget, and we were actually joking with the waitress about how much food it contained for the price.

If you want a taste of England, head to the Crown & Anchor next year, Tikay. In fact, I'm pretty sure they may even do some version of a roast on Sundays.

That sounds like a pub Mark. Don't do pubs. And you know Tom how sneers at drinkers.

I did go to a pub thing in Venetian with Kimber & Posh Bloke, to watch the NBA Finals, but it's not my scene really, there were people talking & all sorts.

[Karabiner]

When I was almost seventeen my parents decided to join Coombe Hill GC near Kingston. My dad had now taken up the game too and had the bug, whilst my mum was an extremely social animal and the Jewish golf club with more than a smattering of showbiz celebrity members was right up her alley.

I believe it used to be the case that there was quite a lot of discriminaton in Golf Clubs against Jewish folk, & as a result, Jewish Golf Clubs became quite popular, & there was (is?) even a Jewish Golf Society in every County.

Presumably, in this day & age, that is all in the past now, or was it partly because the Jewish preferred it that way?

There was a great deal of descrimination in golf clubs and there are still clubs today that covertly will not allow Jews to join, although they usually get around this by having one token Jew/Black/Asian member to get around descrimination laws.

Until 50/60 years ago the descrimination was widespread, so where there were large and affluent Jewish comminities such as London, Manchester and Leeds, they decided to buy their own golf clubs and write an open-door policy into the clubs' constitutions. Smaller communities such as Nottingham, Sheffield, Southport and Blackpool to name a few of around fifteen of these communities, formed Jewish golfing societies who visit some of the commutable local clubs annually on their fixture lists.

[tikay]

When I was almost seventeen my parents decided to join Coombe Hill GC near Kingston. My dad had now taken up the game too and had the bug, whilst my mum was an extremely social animal and the Jewish golf club with more than a smattering of showbiz celebrity members was right up her alley.

I believe it used to be the case that there was quite a lot of discriminaton in Golf Clubs against Jewish folk, & as a result, Jewish Golf Clubs became quite popular, & there was (is?) even a Jewish Golf Society in every County.

Presumably, in this day & age, that is all in the past now, or was it partly because the Jewish preferred it that way?

There was a great deal of descrimination in golf clubs and there are still clubs today that covertly will not allow Jews to join, although they usually get around this by having one token Jew/Black/Asian member to get around descrimination laws.

Until 50/60 years ago the descrimination was widespread, so where there were large and affluent Jewish comminities such as London, Manchester and Leeds, they decided to buy their own golf clubs and write an open-door policy into the clubs' constitutions. Smaller communities such as Nottingham, Sheffield, Southport and Blackpool to name a few of around fifteen of these communities, formed Jewish golfing societies who visit some of the commutable local clubs annually on their fixture lists.

I think the problem is more acute in the USA, I was, by chance, researching it this morning.


In one example, in 1990 professional golfer Tom Watson resigned from the Kansas City Country Club in Mission Hills, Kansas, in protest after local businessman and civic leader Henry Bloch was denied membership. Watson believed the club denied Bloch because he was Jewish. Although Watson is not Jewish, his then-wife and children are. After Watson's nationally-publicized protest, Bloch was offered a membership, which he accepted. Watson rejoined the club in 1995. Since that time The Kansas City Country Club has accepted several minority and Jewish members

"accepted several...Jewish Members".

Gee, thanks lads.

[RED-DOG]

That cafe at Binions is such great value, but your arteries definitely thank you when you get home

I think I had that same breakfast one morning on the way back to the Nugget, and we were actually joking with the waitress about how much food it contained for the price.

If you want a taste of England, head to the Crown & Anchor next year, Tikay. In fact, I'm pretty sure they may even do some version of a roast on Sundays.

That sounds like a pub Mark. Don't do pubs. And you know Tom how sneers at drinkers.

I did go to a pub thing in Venetian with Kimber & Posh Bloke, to watch the NBA Finals, but it's not my scene really, there were people talking & all sorts.

This diary is fast becoming a catalogue of things you don't like and things you don't do.

[Karabiner]

More and more senior moments for me.

I've just noticed that I mis-spelled discriminate and then repeated the same mis-spelling two sentences later. If you spot any rogue apostrophes please shoot me.

[animalpoker]

Love all the food discussion, Deffo gonna have to discuss this next year at the tables with u. The bizarre thing is I've lost weight the last 3 trips to Vegas. tbh one was cos of illness but the other  2 were becos it's wsop time and I'm stumping up a huge % of earnings for the chance of the bigger stuff. I still drink as much as I would at home but my motivation for gym sessions and "healthier" food seems to increase tenfold. let's be clear here though I'm back home 5 days and I would luv to carry this routine on but it fails for reasons I won't mention here. I still have hope I can take online as seriously and follow the same routine but it's just not gonna happen .

[Karabiner]

It seems that you don't know if a healthy balanced diet at regular intervals during the day would make you feel better as you've never actually tried one.

When in Vegas I always go for the two meals a day routine, starting with a late breakfast (I love American breakfast) around 11am and then a decent meal in the evening such as Noodles Asia if I'm near The V, or a prime rib special at The Nugget.

Surely that's as simple as sticky buns, burgers and chips.

Well when you say "healthy balanced diet", all things considered, I'm remarkably healthy, & as I posted earlier, I've never suffered from ill-health, & I doubt anyone can say they only had one day off work through sickness in 53 years.

But I do take the point.

The thing is, I almost NEVER do sit-down meals. I prefer to eat "on the move", or whilst doing something else. I just never really took to social dining, or sitting down to a meal.

Sticky buns, pork pies, crisps & choc ices can be eaten on the go, so to speak.

I suppose, in time, some concessions to old age may need to be made, it certainly seems to have served you well.

Touche!

I played the worst golf yesterday in the Saturday Medal, embarassingly poor, barely breaking 100. It came as bit of a shock after playing quite well on Thursday too.

All this on a balanced and healthy diet too, apart from the bottle of wine each day.

The sole crumb of comfort to be garnered after my horror-round was getting on the bathroom scales and seeing 11st 13lbs displayed, the first time I have broken 12st this year.

How long have you been playing golf for, Ralph, and where and when did you start, in your junior years?

My mum decided to take up golf when I was fourteen years old which was a coincidence as I had bought an old set of clubs from a kid at school for five shillings the previous term and used to hack a ball around the field known as the school golf course.

Those clubs were really old, some even had hickory shafts and I ended up selling one of them a "putter clique" to the professional at Ham Manor GC for £2 about a year later and feeling rather smug. It was probably worth a fortune, but I digress..

I came home from school for the summer holidays and mum had joined Roehampton GC and I became a junior member and received some coaching from Syd Scott and his assistants. I suppose I was a bit of a natural although quite small for my age as within a couple of years I was playing off a handicap of 12 and actually won the Roehampton Junior Open with a score of 81.

When I was almost seventeen my parents decided to join Coombe Hill GC near Kingston. My dad had now taken up the game too and had the bug, whilst my mum was an extremely social animal and the Jewish golf club with more than a smattering of showbiz celebrity members was right up her alley.

Jimmy Tarbuck, Sean Connery, Stanley Baker and Harry Secombe were just a few of the names that spring to mind, and the car park was littered with Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and the occasional Aston-Martin. It was seriously up-market.

I loved it there and my golf continued to improve...

To be continued.

Coombe Hill was the very course I visited yesterday.

I had not been aware of the Coombe Hill Estate, & never realised how posh & exclusive it was. I think £7 million is the average price. The houses are nicely set back, & there is an abundance of greenery.

Got home, went googling, & it appears that Jimmy Tarbuck still lives there, as did Dwight Eisenhower, who lived there during WWII, too, bang next to the Golf Course. You may have seen his place.

Annabel Croft also resides there. I got to know her a few years back via work, we got chatting at a do, & I got an invite to a Barbecue at her place, but I swerved it, as I don't enjoy barbecues at all. Wish I'd gone now, if only to ogle at how the other half live.

Where did you live at the time?

How much was Membership, & the joining fee? Must have been a bit steep, surely?

Make sure you continue the golf tales.


These strike any memory chords?

I've played Coombe several times since the halcyon days of my youth, most recently with Barry Disler my golfing buddy from Leicester the year before last. One extra benefit of being a member of a Jewish golf society is that we can actually get "courtesy" of the Jewish courses if we don't do it too often, ask nicely and give them some notice.


I know that putting green well and from the ouside the club-house has hardly changed at all although that water-hazard in front of the par-5 15th hole (Jimmy Tarbuck's house has a garden gate leading onto the 15th fairway) is a lot bigger than the mere ditch that it used to be.

the middle picture is of the 18th green which has a large flagstaff behind it. The 18th hole is about 420 yards long and you have to drive into a dip and about half-way up the other side if you hit a good one, leaving a blind second shot. On the 18th tee the wise golfer takes note of where the flag is in relation to that flagstaff so that he has an idea of where to hit his approach shot.

I've been playing golf well over 50 years and for the last half century I've had a single-figure handicap but I've never achieved the golfer's much-prized hole-in-one, however I did hole a 4-iron second shot at that 18th hole at Coombe Hill for an eagle two, not a bad consolation prize.

After joining Coombe Hill the first big club competition that I won was the Danny Kaye Trophy in 1966(gulp!). Danny Kaye was apparently a member in the 1950's as was Bing Crosby according to legend but more likely imo a frequent visitor when in town.

I have the beautiful solid-silver miniature Danny Kaye trophy in my cabinet at home in the company of several others that I managed to garner when I was able to resume my hot streak in the late 1960's, but my golfing career was seemingly nipped in the bud when the troublesome teenager that I was in the rebeltastic 1960's got shipped out of town to go and stay with my Uncle Eric in St Louis Missouri.

I guess that my parents thought that the Mid-West of the USA was far enough away from anywhere for me to get into much trouble, but after a few months with my uncle rather like a teenaged moth I eventually got drawn to the flame that was San Francisco in 1967, The Summer of Love..

To be continued..

[RED-DOG]

rather like a teenaged moth I eventually got drawn to the flame that was San Francisco in 1967, The Summer of Love..

 

[bobby1]

great stuff Ralph please keep going.

[celtic]

Loving Ralph's new diary.