Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Royal Flush]

Wizz air are my favourite budget airline, they do things just how they should be. cheap flights, no hidden extras, always on time, cute stewardesses, leg room and flights full of Poles who, like Americans, applaud every landing, amuses me every time.

Come to Waterford from Luton on that propeller jobby ... once the plane comes to a halt 2 inches from the end of the runway fence, you will then understand why people applaud a landing

More fun to hit the fence surely?

Ryanair is simply amazing, getting in a position to by Lingus is something else in such a short space of time

[tikay]

Wizz air are my favourite budget airline, they do things just how they should be. cheap flights, no hidden extras, always on time, cute stewardesses, leg room and flights full of Poles who, like Americans, applaud every landing, amuses me every time.

Come to Waterford from Luton on that propeller jobby ... once the plane comes to a halt 2 inches from the end of the runway fence, you will then understand why people applaud a landing

More fun to hit the fence surely?

Ryanair is simply amazing, getting in a position to by Lingus is something else in such a short space of time

Correct. It's a business miracle of google-esque proportions.

[tikay]

Finished at Feltham at Midnight, did an hour in the office on e-Mails & stuff, & was sensible for once, went across to Jury's Hotel at Heathrow, & resisted the temptation to fire up the Lappie - once I do, that's 3 hours gone. In bed before 2am, & wanted a long sleep, as the next 3 days are hectic, not to mention yesterday - a Pilot Show recorded, a Promo recorded, and the Five-O "Live", as well as a 2 hour meet with The Big Suits.

Slept soundly, but not long enough, & woke at 7, worrying about today's "list" of jobs, so was at my little desk before 0900, & I've ticked off a bunch of jobs already.

In the last hour, I've done 5 e-Mails, 4 PM's, raised my April Sky Invoice (or prepared it all), & sorted out my travel up to Scotland tomorrow. That was awkward, as Heathrow is round the corner, I could "stay over" tonight after the Show, but it means my car is in the wrong place when I return, as I want to go to DTD on Monday. I considered train, & driving, but eventually plumped for a flight from East Mids at 11am Saturday, arrive Edinburgh at Noon, & fly back at 0800 Monday. That means I'll drive home arter the Show tonight, home by 3am, & get across to EMA by about 0900, that'll do fine. Des has booked me a room at the Marriott in Edinburgh, right opposite the Gala Maybury, perfect, & the Airport is only a few minutes to the West.

I've just sorted out a Guest slot on Sky Poker for Rupinder "George2loose" Bedi - I'm delighted at that.

After sorting out a few Forum replies, I must get my Sky Poker Blog written - it was due in on Monday, oops....

I gotta do a ton of writing reports, following yesterday's Big Meet, if I don't do it today, I lose the "fresness". It was all about how we evolve the Channel, & the number of new ideas flying round my head is bewildering, I have hundreds. At least two may be useful.

I'm taking three Sky Poker Staff down to Brighton Rendezvous next week, to move the Sky Live Day arrangements on.

Vegas plans are also advancing steadily. That "delayed Final" announcement was a shocker. It'd be awful if a Sky Poker player made the Final, & we all had to return to Vegas again in November, eh?

At 3pm, Richard Orford & I do a Sky Poker Pilot Show, which is based on the Sky Poker League. Looking forward to that, will take about 2 hours, & as Sky need to develop the Format, it'll be stop & start. Once the show TX's, it will be a weekly 2 hour affair. Then "The Open" at 9pm, & done just after midnight. I love being busy.

Ok, jobs to do.

You'll end up like beef dripping on toast. Excellent, but frustrating when it's spread too thin.

 

2 weeks ago, I did the maiden Sky Sports Simulcast, a BIG day in Sky Poker's evolution. All the Suits were watching, live.

I messed up the "intro hand", & missed a chopped pot, sigh. But I recovered, & got lots of nice e-Mails & texts from the Suits, "well done, ra ra ra".

I did the Simulcast again last night. On the very first hand, before I'd got rid of my nerves, I "missed" a hand, a rivered House, taking the guy instead for trips, until Richard corrected me. I fessed up, on air.

There's been no "ra ra ra well done" notes this morning.

Maybe I'll soon get a reputation for misreads. That would be just terrible.

I hear you Tom. I wish I listened to you more though. "Yes yes yes" I always say,. Then carry on, as before. One day......

[bobby1]

We flew to Ireland a few weekends ago to attend a wedding with the Lingus mob, our return journey was delayed by 26 hours due to the sheer incompetence of this joke firm. I would rather pay twice as much in future than fly with them. Ryanair rock in my view now, not coz they have done owt special but coz Lingus seem to be terrible, Im not suprised one bit that Ryanair is catching Lingus up if thats the level of service they provide week in week out.

[tikay]

Posted by: tikay

I suppose it's that grumpy old man thing. My intolerance to bad manners, lack of decorum, & social skills is less than it should be, I readily admit.

But you are tolerant when it's raining (unless your washing is on the line?). A lot of people are intolerant to bad weather, but there's no such thing as 'bad' weather, it's just weather right? I think rudenss can be compared to a rainy day. You don't encounter it every day, you can choose your attitude to it, and it makes you appreciate the sun more. Most of us would prefer a nice sunny day but sometimes it is going to rain.

Ultimately we know that the sunshine is more powerful and attractive than the rain though.

  Mantis, you are a poet-  it's a good way to look at life and to make it easier to deal with the clowns (bad manners, lack of decorum etc)  we all come accrosss   Attitude is everything

Yes, another interesting slant by MANTIS, & Mad.

Billy Connolly said there's no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes.

To be obdurate, (for once), I'm not that fond of sunshine actually. Sunny spring & Autumn mornings, yes, lovely. But I like rain, too, especially that "soft" rain. I get amused by peeps doing their best not to get wet, newspapers on their head. It's lovely stuff! Without rain we'd all die, the animals would suffer, the lovely greenery we enjoy so would go brown, Tom's grass would not grow, & the going at Newmarket would be Firm. Rain's OK. If the sun is out non-stop, we hide under parasols & slap on Factor 17 sun-cream, & get warned we'll all die of skin cancer. The novelty has passed for me.

But yes, the analogy is a good one, & I'm trying to be more tolerant of arseholes, moaners, shouty people, told-you-so-merchants & idiots   those less well-mannered than perhaps we'd all prefer.

Back to weather - I do confess to not overly liking strong wind. I boned up on "wind" a bit back, to discover what causes it. I know why the sun shines (it shines 24/7, but it gets hidden), & why & how it rains, but I was curious as to why the wind blew as it does.

Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" solves most of these matters for me.

We all know about "low pressure" & "high pressure" in weather, the first is generally accompanied by fine weather, clear nights, & winter frost, the latter by cloudy days & rain. Well, nature does not like "low" & "high" pressure, & likes to equalise them. So air rushes from high pressure fronts to low pressure fronts, & that is what wind is - air rushing from here to there. Severe lows or highs means strong winds, & so on.

I used to do civil engineering work in deep coal-mines. In high pressure weather fronts, we were fine, but in low pressure we all had to evacuate. The high pressure "held down" the methane & coal gas, but in low pressure, it seeped out.

Well, it interested me.

[kinboshi]

We all know about "low pressure" & "high pressure" in weather, the first is generally accompanied by fine weather, clear nights, & winter frost, the latter by cloudy days & rain.

Ermm, t'other way round, surely?

[Royal Flush]

We all know about "low pressure" & "high pressure" in weather, the first is generally accompanied by fine weather, clear nights, & winter frost, the latter by cloudy days & rain.

Ermm, t'other way round, surely?

It was different in his day....

[kinboshi]

As for the weather, one person's good weather is another's bad.  I don't mind temperatures in the mid 30s (90s in old money), as long as I have a pool to jump into and a nice cool drink.  I wouldn't fancy running a marathon in those temperatures though.

Rain at Wimbledon helps the grass grow on their courts, but it's not welcome during the championships.

It does make me laugh when people are out and it starts raining, and the accompanying panic that ensues.  I mentioned the Japanese in an earlier post - and they are even worse than a lot of Brits with this.  It's as though they're the wicked witch of the west, and any rain that touches them will make them dissolve.  Every department store in Japan has stands at the front of the shop where you can store your brolly. 

In fact, brollies are one of the two things in Japan that are often 'stolen', and taking someone's else's brolly from the stands at the front of the store is generally accepted practice.  It's funny to see a middle-aged Japanese business man in a tailored suit and a pink 'Hello Kitty' umbrella.  The other thing that it's acceptable to take (and it's not really considered stealing) is bicycles from in front of train stations.  If it's not locked up, it's pretty much public property.  So if someone takes yours, you take someone else's!  Your bike will probably be back the next day...

[boldie]

As for the weather, one person's good weather is another's bad.  I don't mind temperatures in the mid 30s (90s in old money), as long as I have a pool to jump into and a nice cool drink.  I wouldn't fancy running a marathon in those temperatures though.

Rain at Wimbledon helps the grass grow on their courts, but it's not welcome during the championships.

It does make me laugh when people are out and it starts raining, and the accompanying panic that ensues.  I mentioned the Japanese in an earlier post - and they are even worse than a lot of Brits with this.  It's as though they're the wicked witch of the west, and any rain that touches them will make them dissolve.  Every department store in Japan has stands at the front of the shop where you can store your brolly. 

In fact, brollies are one of the two things in Japan that are often 'stolen', and taking someone's else's brolly from the stands at the front of the store is generally accepted practice.  It's funny to see a middle-aged Japanese business man in a tailored suit and a pink 'Hello Kitty' umbrella.  The other thing that it's acceptable to take (and it's not really considered stealing) is bicycles from in front of train stations.  If it's not locked up, it's pretty much public property.  So if someone takes yours, you take someone else's!  Your bike will probably be back the next day...

the Dutch taught them that

[Colchester Kev]

My old sales manager used to answer any moaning about the rain with "So what, you aren't made of sugar are you ?"

[tikay]

We flew to Ireland a few weekends ago to attend a wedding with the Lingus mob, our return journey was delayed by 26 hours due to the sheer incompetence of this joke firm. I would rather pay twice as much in future than fly with them. Ryanair rock in my view now, not coz they have done owt special but coz Lingus seem to be terrible, Im not suprised one bit that Ryanair is catching Lingus up if thats the level of service they provide week in week out.

"catching them (Aer Lingus) up"?

They are already bigger - far bigger. They carrry more passengers than BA now!

It has to be said, Aer Lingus are really awful. When Ryanair get them, he will slash 80% of the jobs, there'll be a wee strike, words will be exchanged, O'Leary will lay claim to domination of his Staff, & then all will be well. It'll then re-grow very fast, & everyone will get their jobs back - but have to actually do a days work.

[tikay]

We all know about "low pressure" & "high pressure" in weather, the first is generally accompanied by fine weather, clear nights, & winter frost, the latter by cloudy days & rain.

Ermm, t'other way round, surely?

Oops, yes yes, of course. Misread.

[kinboshi]

We all know about "low pressure" & "high pressure" in weather, the first is generally accompanied by fine weather, clear nights, & winter frost, the latter by cloudy days & rain.

Ermm, t'other way round, surely?

Oops, yes yes, of course. Misread.

Standard.

[bobby1]

We flew to Ireland a few weekends ago to attend a wedding with the Lingus mob, our return journey was delayed by 26 hours due to the sheer incompetence of this joke firm. I would rather pay twice as much in future than fly with them. Ryanair rock in my view now, not coz they have done owt special but coz Lingus seem to be terrible, Im not suprised one bit that Ryanair is catching Lingus up if thats the level of service they provide week in week out.

"catching them (Aer Lingus) up"?

They are already bigger - far bigger. They carrry more passengers than BA now!

It has to be said, Aer Lingus are really awful. When Ryanair get them, he will slash 80% of the jobs, there'll be a wee strike, words will be exchanged, O'Leary will lay claim to domination of his Staff, & then all will be well. It'll then re-grow very fast, & everyone will get their jobs back - but have to actually do a days work.

Ok thats good then, Are Ryanair in for Lingus at the mo?

Hve Lingus kinds gievn up the ghost and actively seeking a takeover from someone?

[AndrewT]

that is what wind is - air rushing from here to there.

I learn so many new things from your diary Tikay.