Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Tonji]

Love that film Doobs. I was such a fan at the time. Check out the film True Stories, directed by David Byrne & featuring Talking Heads songs in a strange comedy.

[GreekStein]

bump.

how's things gramps?

[tikay]

bump.

how's things gramps?

God bless you for asking Mr C. Your first post for over a fortnight, & you ask how I am. I'm honoured.

I'd best answer to earlier questions on the Diary first, then I'll answer your question.

Meanwhile...

How are you?

What are you up to?

Have you mostly deserted blonde now, maybe too busy with real life stuff?

Where are you living now?

How's your young lady?

Marriage plans yet?

Are you still getting the lot?

Still living the dream?

Any plans to return home permanently? I know you miss your family.

Vegas this year?   

[tikay]

Letter to the Editor of the Tikaygraph

Sir,

As a lover of train travel (see how I lured him in, folks...), when you are in the Quiet Zone, how do you deal with Mr Tiptapping on the Laptop and Ms Phoning the Office (about nothing of significance but making sure everyone else can hear she's important)?

I've tried slightly furrowing my brow, casually glancing at the sign, clearing my throat subtly and I'm running out of ideas. I may have to resort to the height of British rudeness and tutting under my breath at this rate.

I turn to you because:
1. You're a man of considerable experience at being annoyed about things other people do;
2. You are blessed with a sense of proportionality that would prevent you from suggesting I become an ungentlemanly brute and actually tell them they're annoying me;
3. You won't suggest anything outrageous like turning the sounds up on my 'phone, playing loud music or fake ringing a clinic about a rash; but
4. You will doubtless nevertheless understand the gravity of this matter.

I remain, sir, your obedient servant.

Tal J. Talington
Professor Emeritus,
Filling Time while on a Train Studies
Somewhere in the Midlands University

Sorry for the delayed response Tal.

"Quiet Coaches" in trains?

By chance, I had been in one just a week or so prior to this when I had occasion to visit Head Office.

Booked a train from Kings X to Leeds & back, heading out of London at 0735, & catching the 7pm back to London.

Reserved my seat, as always - forward facing, table, quiet coach.

Don't like to be a moaner, but.......

The PA system in the so-called Quiet Coach was turned up to the max, & the lady operating the PA was somewhat verbose, with long, lengthy, rambling as we departed, & before & after each stop. Mercifully, there were only 3 stops, but she rattled on at every opportunity.

We are now leaving....... & our next stop is...... where we are due at .......

Sandwiches & drinks are available in the buffet coach (really?), & our hostess with the mostest will be along shortly with the refreshment trolley, packed with mouth watering (?) snacks.

Toilets are situated at the end of coaches B, D, F, L & M.....

Smoking is not permitted anywhere on this train, & that includes the Toilets. 

And so it went on. And on.

And it was SO LOUD. My hostess with the mostest duly arrived, & did her pre-scripted "how is your journey Sir?" thing.

Pardon?

How is your journey Sir?

I'm, sorry, I can't hear you properly, the PA is too loud.

Pardon, I can't hear you properly, the PA is too loud.

Can you get it turned down please?

Turned down?

Yes, turn the volume down a tad, perhaps?

She almost recoiled in horror, & pursed her moustache'd lips.

Ooh no, we can't do that Sir, regulations don't allow us to amend the volume.


It was really loud, & spoilt the ambience of an otherwise pleasant journey.

Tip tapping of laptop keyboards? Oddly, that never bothers me. But then I am an inveterate tip tapper.   

I absolutely love train journeys, short or long, there's a certain excitement to them, & the railways are an incredibly complex operation, & I just marvel at the whole thing.

On the London Tubes, trains run as frequently as every 2 minutes, with 3 & 4 minute service intervals quite common. An astonishing feat of engineering, signalling & infrastructure by any standards.
 
Needless to say, the Quiet Coach to Leeds was operated by Wooly Jumper, or at least, it has his Branding on the trains. I'm trying to like him, I really am.

[tikay]

Tesco knowingly delayed payments to suppliers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35408064

shares are down 30% in the last 12 months

i know you are a long term investor. do you think we are near the bottom yet?

obviously there is a property portfolio and at some stage a valuation that might trigger corporate interest from overseas, it not being a market you could enter from scratch due to planning and competition....

I never invested in Tesco shares, but I did recommend them to Ryan & others, and if I were buying shares a few years ago, I would have got a few, as I thought they were a bullet proof long term investment.

It's clear I was wrong, but even Warren Buffett made the same error, describing it as a "huge mistake".

I don't take too much notice of media noise, they tend to get against certain people or businesses, often for irrational reasons, but the more I see of Tesco the more I think there are a few rotten eggs in there.

We've had profit manipulation - moving profit forward - a whole litany of slower & slower payments to Suppliers, & plenty else besides. It may just be a perception, too, a trick of the mind, recency bias, but the stores, & the service in them, seem to be deteriorating.  

The problem with a business the size of Tesco - & by any standards, it is huge - is that they take a of of turning, like a supertanker, & once they start heading in the wrong direction, it takes many years to recover. It's not just fixing the business, it's replacing a bad culture that is so difficult.

They are not dead in the water by any means. Back in 2006, Ford Motor Company was as near bankruptcy as makes no difference, their products were dross, & the perception was awful, but a chap named Alan Mullaly restored them to the rudest of health.

http://qz.com/431078/how-ford-ceo-alan-mullaly-turned-a-broken-company-into-the-industrys-comeback-kid/

So they may be an excellent recovery play - perfect time to buy maybe? - but I sense we have not had all the bad news yet.

Appointing a good CEO, someone in the mould of Sir Terry Leahy (he was never really replaced imo) might be their salvation.

I know just the man.

[tikay]

bump.

how's things gramps?

God bless you for asking Mr C. Your first post for over a fortnight, & you ask how I am. I'm honoured.

I'd best answer to earlier questions on the Diary first, then I'll answer your question.

Meanwhile...

How are you?

What are you up to?

Have you mostly deserted blonde now, maybe too busy with real life stuff?

Where are you living now?

How's your young lady?

Marriage plans yet?

Are you still getting the lot?

Still living the dream?

Any plans to return home permanently? I know you miss your family.

Vegas this year?   

So, Mr C's question. Quite a wide question, "how's things", but as you asked.....

I've been under it with a problem since Xmas - more on which later, if time permits - but it's clouded everything else, & what with one thing & another, especially a pleasingly heavy workload Next Door, I've been low profile on blonde since Xmas whilst it sorts itself out, or not, as the case may be.

So, let's start with health.

[tikay]

I was not in great shape health wise after Xmas. Nothing serious, just generally off colour, feeling my age, even walking upstairs at home puffed me out, & I had a worldy pot belly. I weighed in at ounces shy of 15 stone, heavier than I've been for 30 years. Just an excess of sticky buns, bread, thickly buttered toast & so on. And not enough exercise.

So it was time to do something.

One month ago, today

I started my latest diet, & I've shed 1st 1lb since then. Still got the pot belly, mind, but Rennie intake has dropped to zero, & now meals are an event, something to look forward to, relish, savour, & generally enjoy. 

3 weeks ago today

I started a daily walk. 2 miles every weekday, 4 miles every Saturday & Sunday. That's 54 miles clocked in 3 weeks. I swear to God, I bet I don't walk a mile a year normally. I actually enjoy it, it helps me clear my head of stress & niggly worries. I don't amble, I march at a right old pace, & at first, I came back puffing & wheezing, but I'm a lot better now, & I'm going to increase both the daily & weekend walk length after UKPC.

2 weeks ago today

I stopped drinking latte. I've been supping that stuff since Dave Colclough got me hooked on in in 2004. 12 years, sheesh. Way too many calories, so, regrettably, it had to go. On a 6 hour round trip to the Midlands & back, which I do once per week, I'd down 3 of the damn things.  I'm now just drinking sparkling water, or tea. Bit boring, but had to be done.

2 weeks ago today

I started reducing my ciggie intake. I was at 30 per day, but I'm down to 10 per day now, strictly rationed. I ONLY smoke when I'm at home in the study, on the computer, tip tapping or pokering, don't smoke in the lounge any more, when watching TV, or when driving. Probably too little, too late, but it is what it is.


Am feeling a lot better now, but for context, I'm still nearly 14 stone, which is pretty damn bad. If I can stick at it for another 3 months, I might just end up sub 13 stone, & in better shape generally.

I'm enjoying it actually. Dieting is SO satisfying when the weight starts to drop, & those clothes which did not fit now fit OK. 

Me, walking every day, who'd have ever guessed?

[Marky147]

Good stuff, congrats on the changes.

We should restart the fatties thread, as I'm at almost peak weight, too.

I was 266lbs a few months back, but have been hovering around 250-260 since xmas, and 255 this morning.

Wouldn't mind trying to that 2miles a day walking, but it would probably take me 24hours to do it

As it goes, I'm off to the gym in 1/2 hour to throw a few 2.5kg dumbbells about...

Good work making so many changes all at once, can't have been too easy.

PS. If you're a big coffee man, get yourself a Dolce Gusto machine, and crack into the Espressos @  1cal per pod.

[Karabiner]

I suddenly feel rather svelte having read that.

The truth is that I've been feeling like a bit of a fatty myself despite playing golf once or twice most weeks. I weigh ~12st.5lbs. and have a rather magnificent pot-belly too.

I daren't even try to get into my best suit trousers.

[Skippy]

obviously there is a property portfolio and at some stage a valuation that might trigger corporate interest from overseas, it not being a market you could enter from scratch due to planning and competition....

The trouble Tesco (and Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons)  have had in my opinion is that despite it looking impossible for new entrants a few years ago, nevertheless new entrants have appeared- there seems to be a new Aldi and Lidl all the time. It's not quite from scratch, but it's close. I reckon the mistake Buffett made was assuming Tesco had a big "moat" in his language, which turned out to be not that wide after all.

[tikay]

Thanks for the comments lad, will reply tomorrow, out of time again now, a Meeting at 3, then I'm off up the allotment..

[horseplayer]

Your former colleagues timeline makes sickening reading right now,

a lot of very strange people online but especially on twitter where it is more like 1905 at times.

https://twitter.com/lynseyhipgrave1/with_replies

[GreekStein]

bump.

how's things gramps?

God bless you for asking Mr C. Your first post for over a fortnight, & you ask how I am. I'm honoured.

I'd best answer to earlier questions on the Diary first, then I'll answer your question.

Meanwhile...

How are you?

What are you up to?

Have you mostly deserted blonde now, maybe too busy with real life stuff?

Where are you living now?

How's your young lady?

Marriage plans yet?

Are you still getting the lot?

Still living the dream?

Any plans to return home permanently? I know you miss your family.

Vegas this year?   

I'm fine thanks!

Had rather a nasty trip to Macau this time round in many ways. It was the biggest money downswing in a short period that I'd ever had and it was quite stressful to be honest. I got sick 2 or 3 times which shouldnt be normal for a 28 year old guy and top it all off I broke my foot there 3 weeks ago. The only good thing about the trip was that I had lost around 10-12kilos and my fitness had much improved but now this foot makes it hard to do anything. A real spanner in the works.

I've come back to Bangkok which is absolutely just what the doctor ordered! Seeing friends, going for a massage every day, spending time with my girlfriend and enjoying some nice meals. Have played some much smaller stakes online than I do in Macau - a very even mix of $50c-1 to $5/10 and done moderately well. If only these results were mirrored in the $25/50 games I'd been playing live the past few months. Still, I'm happy to be recharging the batteries and being around people I'm close with.

Young lady is fine. Please dont mention marriage! That's rather a scary thought. Ordinarily I wouldn't really mention things like this on a public forum but I've had a few glasses of wine this evening and must admit my girlfriend is some cause for thought at the moment. I'm 29 soon and before I'm 35 I want to have a couple of kids and settle down - problem is I don't know where I want to settle down or whether we can be together long term. We've already been with each other for 4 years and it's been very happy and problem free which is exactly the problem! It's tough to end things when there's no issue as such but if I wanted to move back to the UK I'm pretty sure she couldn't handle it there so lots of thinking on my part at the moment!

I'm involved in 2 other things that bring me some revenue and I've gotten a bit of a thirst to do something full time not related to poker - by the time I really consider myself to have settled down I would like to not rely on poker at all. One of the things in particular I've made good money on in a short period of time and enjoyed it. Poker has been great to me. I've essentially had a 5 year holiday so far in an amazing part of the world where I play a game for a few hours most days and use that money to pay for it so I'm not ready for it all to end just yet but I can see that time coming soon. I'm not panicked by it because the pieces will all come together but I don't know what they are yet.

I haven't intentionally been posting less - I've just been a bit lazy and also some friends saw my diary - hence why it was temporarily removed from the forum. It felt weird having my real life friends from outside of poker reading what I choose to share with blondes. I'm still reading every day or so but just chilling out and enjoying being lazy.

I'm not doing Vegas this year but will be returning to the UK for 3 months in the summer. I'm massively looking forward to that. It will have been 2 years since I've been back which is crazy. I'm a groomsman at one of my best friends wedding and then one of my first cousin is getting married and all the family are going out to Cyprus for the wedding. I used to go at least every other year to Cyprus and haven't been in 10 years! I really cant wait for this summer. It should be great.

On the one hand gutted to miss Vegas but 7 weeks last year was enough of a fix to last me until next year and this summer I know will be fantastic.

[tikay]

bump.

how's things gramps?

God bless you for asking Mr C. Your first post for over a fortnight, & you ask how I am. I'm honoured.

I'd best answer to earlier questions on the Diary first, then I'll answer your question.

Meanwhile...

How are you?

What are you up to?

Have you mostly deserted blonde now, maybe too busy with real life stuff?

Where are you living now?

How's your young lady?

Marriage plans yet?

Are you still getting the lot?

Still living the dream?

Any plans to return home permanently? I know you miss your family.

Vegas this year?   

I'm fine thanks!

Had rather a nasty trip to Macau this time round in many ways. It was the biggest money downswing in a short period that I'd ever had and it was quite stressful to be honest. I got sick 2 or 3 times which shouldnt be normal for a 28 year old guy and top it all off I broke my foot there 3 weeks ago. The only good thing about the trip was that I had lost around 10-12kilos and my fitness had much improved but now this foot makes it hard to do anything. A real spanner in the works.

I've come back to Bangkok which is absolutely just what the doctor ordered! Seeing friends, going for a massage every day, spending time with my girlfriend and enjoying some nice meals. Have played some much smaller stakes online than I do in Macau - a very even mix of $50c-1 to $5/10 and done moderately well. If only these results were mirrored in the $25/50 games I'd been playing live the past few months. Still, I'm happy to be recharging the batteries and being around people I'm close with.

Young lady is fine. Please dont mention marriage! That's rather a scary thought. Ordinarily I wouldn't really mention things like this on a public forum but I've had a few glasses of wine this evening and must admit my girlfriend is some cause for thought at the moment. I'm 29 soon and before I'm 35 I want to have a couple of kids and settle down - problem is I don't know where I want to settle down or whether we can be together long term. We've already been with each other for 4 years and it's been very happy and problem free which is exactly the problem! It's tough to end things when there's no issue as such but if I wanted to move back to the UK I'm pretty sure she couldn't handle it there so lots of thinking on my part at the moment!

I'm involved in 2 other things that bring me some revenue and I've gotten a bit of a thirst to do something full time not related to poker - by the time I really consider myself to have settled down I would like to not rely on poker at all. One of the things in particular I've made good money on in a short period of time and enjoyed it. Poker has been great to me. I've essentially had a 5 year holiday so far in an amazing part of the world where I play a game for a few hours most days and use that money to pay for it so I'm not ready for it all to end just yet but I can see that time coming soon. I'm not panicked by it because the pieces will all come together but I don't know what they are yet.

I haven't intentionally been posting less - I've just been a bit lazy and also some friends saw my diary - hence why it was temporarily removed from the forum. It felt weird having my real life friends from outside of poker reading what I choose to share with blondes. I'm still reading every day or so but just chilling out and enjoying being lazy.

I'm not doing Vegas this year but will be returning to the UK for 3 months in the summer. I'm massively looking forward to that. It will have been 2 years since I've been back which is crazy. I'm a groomsman at one of my best friends wedding and then one of my first cousin is getting married and all the family are going out to Cyprus for the wedding. I used to go at least every other year to Cyprus and haven't been in 10 years! I really cant wait for this summer. It should be great.

On the one hand gutted to miss Vegas but 7 weeks last year was enough of a fix to last me until next year and this summer I know will be fantastic.

Cracking reply, exactly what I hope for, thanks Cos.

Without giving the details, what sort of work or business areas do you think you will end up being involved in? Restaurant business? That's what Greeks do, right? Stavros etc.

You sound very happy, which is so good to hear.

I recall when you were living in the UK, & going to work 9-5 or whatever every day, chuntering about having to catch the bus, or a taxi. You never seemed to be in a good place back then, & it showed, you were an angry young man so often. Now you're all mellow, soft & happy. Lovely job.

How much do you miss the bants with the Notts gang, Team Alex & co? And hasn't Alex done well for himself? - I'm so pleased for him, & in a strange way proud of him, he conducts himself in such an exemplary way.

 

[tikay]

Good stuff, congrats on the changes.

We should restart the fatties thread, as I'm at almost peak weight, too.

I was 266lbs a few months back, but have been hovering around 250-260 since xmas, and 255 this morning.

Wouldn't mind trying to that 2miles a day walking, but it would probably take me 24hours to do it

As it goes, I'm off to the gym in 1/2 hour to throw a few 2.5kg dumbbells about...

Good work making so many changes all at once, can't have been too easy.

PS. If you're a big coffee man, get yourself a Dolce Gusto machine, and crack into the Espressos @  1cal per pod.

Thanks Mark.

I had to go to google & work out what 266lbs was, I deal in stones & lbs.  Jeez, you have piled it on mate.

Did I find it easy? Well I can't do these things until my head is in the right place, but I was not in good shape at all, in many ways, & suddenly, it hit me, I just had to do something. Once I get to that moment, it's dead easy, in fact it's a total pleasure. I'll stick with it for another 3 months, & then, as per, pile it all back on again. You can back the truck up on that. For now, my mind is focussed on resolving the other big problem that has been bedevilling me since Xmas (work related, maybe more follows), & next weeks UKPC. Do you miss Live poker in the UK? Can't say I've seen you playing in the UK for 10 years or more, though of course I generally see you in Vegas. Usually in a distressed condition, it must be said.

If it's not too delicate a question (ignore it if it is) how are you these days, any improvement, or just stable? (well "stable" is probably the wrong word, but you get my drift).