Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[ripple11]

did you see this?

United Airlines engine disintegrates over Pacific, forcing emergency landing

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/14/united-airlines-engine-ua1175-hawaii-san-francisco-disintegrates-over-pacific?CMP=twt_gu

Click to see full-size image.

The quip for the photo is quite good....

 “I don’t see anything about this in the manual.”

[RED-DOG]

I think it was the chanting that saved them.

[tikay]

did you see this?

United Airlines engine disintegrates over Pacific, forcing emergency landing

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/14/united-airlines-engine-ua1175-hawaii-san-francisco-disintegrates-over-pacific?CMP=twt_gu

Click to see full-size image.

Thanks Tighty.

I had not seen it, no, been a bit busy with this & that.

Think that's called an "uncontained failure", in that the blade(s) that failed appear to have burst through the casing & cowling. Must have been a bit scary.

Modern commercial aircraft all have redundancy built in, so, apart from being scary, there was probably not much danger of the thing crashing, always assuming the ejected debris did not pierce the wing or hull.

What always surprises me is how long these things last - that aircraft was built & delivered to United 23 years ago. Must have clocked up a mile or two in that time. The engines, of course, would have been changed multi-times.

[celtic]

Do you and your good lady do anything for Valentine's Day?

[Karabiner]

Do you and your good lady do anything for Valentine's Day?

Please reply to this after the 9pm watershed.

[tikay]

Do you and your good lady do anything for Valentine's Day?

Morning Vinny.

No, Gill is up in Stoke & I'm in London, so other than a few lovey-dovey messages to & forth, no, we never did 'owt.

Gill & I are polar opposites in these things. I don't send cards or give pressies to anyone, ever, the only exception being I give Gill a card at Crimble, but only because I kinda feel obliged, & I don't want to disappoint her.

She sends cards to half of the UK population, and buys & wraps scores of presents for everyone except me. I have imposed a "no pressies for each other" rule, though she generally gets me a little treat or two.

She even buys Rio a present. In fact, she even WRAPS Rio's present. She reckons Rio knows it's Christmas & gets all excited, & runs a few extra laps around his wheel. Rio is the hamster, obv.

We do generally treat ourselves though. Nice Afternoon Tea at a posh place, a train ride somewhere (how exciting is that?) or spend an hour or two 'plane-spotting at Heathrow. Living the dream, huh?

She makes us a splendid dinner, too. Mmm, dinner.

I'm midst a hard-diet right now, as per usual this time of year. It sucks to put weight on so easily.

[tikay]

Off to Manchester tomorrow for the SPT. Go up Friday morning by train (yay), stay 3 nights at the Deansgate Hilton, return Monday morning.

3 15+ hour days is as much as I can manage these days, it really exhausts me.

Fun though, or it is for the most part.

I really look forward to these things, but I also look forward to Monday morning, when it's all over & I can get back I my routine.

I've grown a beard, but I don't have the self-confidence to keep it for its first public appearance, so I gotta shave it off today. That'll be fun, & I'll turn up tomorrow with nicks & cuts all over the shop. 

Gill adores it, & I'm not really fussed either way, but I think it important to turn up for an event like this reasonably well-presented. It's an age thing.

[tikay]

Not that it would interest anyone but me, but I had some good news last week, when my Contract was renewed for another 12 months. That does not mean I'll be there another year, only that, if both parties remain agreeable, then there's a deal in place until January 31st 2019.

I absolutely love working. Its inevitable that the deal with end sooner rather than later. Not a plea for sympathy, but who cares a shit what a 70 odd year old bloke thinks?

The joy, & relief at the new Contract was two-fold really. Just knowing what the next few months & maybe year holds is important. If it had ended, it would have meant a big lifestyle change for me. Bye-bye blonde & many other things. So ending that uncertainty was a great feeling.

There was also a "what if?" thing in my head. A while back I was offered a "job for life" elsewhere. After some thought, I decided to stay with Sky Poker. Quite a gamble really, SB&G is a results driven Business, amazingly successful, but at some point an Accountant or whatever will alight upon my name & say "huh, we can save a few bob there".  And the worry was that having spurned the new "job for life" I'd lose the current one.

I'm very happy there though, very happy indeed. The current Management are just great & we rub along well. I don't have many responsibilities, or much work a lot of the time, but what I'm given to do I do really well. That sounds a bit chirpy, or cocky, but it's a fact.

SB&G is a pretty exciting business to work for, too. I wish I could discuss them more here, but I cba with all the boorish mocking. It's stunningly successful, but not a soul on blonde realises the how & why. Ah well, never mind. There was an amazeballs stat in last years published Annual Report that stated that at peak times, Sky Bet take over 350 bets per second.

Think about that. 350 bets per second - 21,000 bets per minute. These pre big event peaks don't last long, maybe 10 15 minutes, but there's some impressive numbers there.

Anyway, I'm waffling away like a good 'un.

On we go.

[tikay]

Anyone watching the DTD/Party stuff from Kings Casino on TV every night?

It's quite interesting in some ways. Whether it'd encourage me or others to start playing on PP is another matter altogether.

There was a hand last night where they had straddled to £800 or whatever, then Rob Yong raised it to £5k or something with A-J suited.

"Leon", who owns Kings Casino I believe, then shoved all-in for £100,000. (May have been Euros, but 100,000 somethings).  

After the usual speech play back & forth Rob folded his A-J reluctantly, & Leon showed 7-2. As it happens, they "ran" the Board, & the 7-2 housed up.

I suppose that sort of stuff impresses some. Not me though, sorry. That's not poker, that's just cock-waving, & I very much doubt it brings new players to the game or the site.

And that's the problem with being old I suppose - you lose touch with what the kiddy-winkles like.

[tikay]

Red-Dog's friend, Tony G was on, too.

I'm going to destroy you all, take everyfink you have, all your money, your home, everyfink

All ill-disguised banter of course. God knows who it impresses.

He then took his seat & promptly got his arse handed to him on a plate.

I used to know Tony G very well indeed. In fact, he, albeit briefly, owned a lump of blonde. That sure worked out well, Dave (Colclough) & I ended up having to stump up £5,000 after a broken promise by Tony over a £10,000 Freeroll. 
 
I actually liked Tony, he was a much misunderstood guy.

Another example of my age & grumblyness I suppose, but I'd rather flush money down the toilet than pay someone like that to be an "Ambassador". Ambassador, my arse.

[RED-DOG]

Congratulations to Sky for renewing your contract. No big surprise though, 70 is the new 50.

I would have liked to see you with the beard. Post a pic please. Here's one of me sans tash & hair by way of encouragement.

Click to see full-size image.

[Longines]

If you get a chance when you're in your hotel go up to the bar on the 23rd floor, it has a glass floor in an overhanging section. Gave me the collywobbles just being near it whereas a colleague was happy to stand in the middle of it. Plus the bar has stunning views, well for Manchester at least.

I watched most of the PLO stream from Kings on catchup. I'm starting to think that the old meme about holdem Jacks is equally valid for Omaha Aces - raise the pot and then open fold, you'll save money in the long run. Rob lost a 400k+ pot with them and still only finished the night down 30k or so. Pretty redic to have 11000BB on the table at one point.

Mr Dempsey is the best commentator by far, much rather listen to him than Trumper.

[tikay]

If you get a chance when you're in your hotel go up to the bar on the 23rd floor, it has a glass floor in an overhanging section. Gave me the collywobbles just being near it whereas a colleague was happy to stand in the middle of it. Plus the bar has stunning views, well for Manchester at least.

I watched most of the PLO stream from Kings on catchup. I'm starting to think that the old meme about holdem Jacks is equally valid for Omaha Aces - raise the pot and then open fold, you'll save money in the long run. Rob lost a 400k+ pot with them and still only finished the night down 30k or so. Pretty redic to have 11000BB on the table at one point.

Mr Dempsey is the best commentator by far, much rather listen to him than Trumper.

If you get a room on the right side of that hotel, you can see all the train tracks, with the trains trundling hither & thither down below.

Flushy the best commentator? Absolutely agree, he's very good indeed. Except when he is speaking over the table banter, or vice-versa, which is unbelievably frustrating, as we can't hear either properly.

James & Jesse were blathering away the other day - good blather, mind - when both of them suddenly burst into laughter at something one of the players had said. Huge guffaws by both James & Jesse, so must have been well funny. 

Did they tell the viewers what was so funny though? Nope, we were left guessing. That's SO bad, its as bad as TV commentary gets.

And I'll wager every penny I have that Flushy never realised that we could not hear what they were laughing at. If he had, he would have explained it. I can only assume the Show does not have a Producer or Director.

Love Flushy's commentary though, those gripes apart.

[RED-DOG]

I used to know Tony G very well indeed. In fact, he, albeit briefly, owned a lump of blonde. That sure worked out well, Dave (Colclough) & I ended up having to stump up £5,000 after a broken promise by Tony over a £10,000 Freeroll. 
 
I actually liked Tony, he was a much misunderstood guy.

I would be happy to rip you off for a few grand if that's what you want.  

[tikay]

It occurs to me that I'm coming across ultra-grumpy this morning. Sorry.

I'll go do something useful.