Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Cottonbud]

Welcome back Tikay

[The-Crow]

good luck with the new job as doorman of the new HD studios.

Do you have to wear a special costume to open car doors

Your  Red jacket will do just great

[Claw75]

welcome back 

[tikay]

Highlights - lowlight really - in the past month, was Holly's funeral. I can't tell you how much the whole thing knocked me sideways.

I wrote a lovely story about it, as I did after Brendan's Funeral. But, at the time, it seemed somehow insensitive to Upload it. I am "over" sensitive to peoples feelings maybe, & from what I hear today - absolutely ghastly stuff, far worse than almost any of you realise - others are not. Anyway, that's a debate for another day.

Tighty & I speak, or communicate most days, often several times. Mostly blonde headachey stuff. I'm often tempted to bounce his calls, but that'd be callous & wrong. He's an incredibly brave, strong, & clever man. He deserves more support than I have time to give.

I'm closely in touch with Nick, Rob & Co over at DTD, too. The "deal" has not exactly set the world on fire, & I'm trying to do my bit to make it work. I think I've shelled out nearly £2k from my pocket - personal money, my own money - to try & help with getting the DTD deals moving a bit better. I'm not forced to, it is just the right thing to do, & I really don't mind.

The Aqua/i-Poker deal ended of course. As per usual, the thieving sods sent us a closing bill for about £2k. It included about £600 for "processing costs". "What are they"? we asked. "They are the charges for people withdrawing their deposits" they replied. That's the Deposits they were forced to withdraw because they slung us off for having winning players.

I'm quite undecided whether to pay the £2k or not. I don't do grim, & I abhor those who do. But this is different, & they abused blonde something shocking, put us through hell, refused to pay people what was rightfully theirs, using a third party unrelated dispute as leverage. Ugh, ugh ugh. I might just refuse to pay, now they have zero leverage. If it gets paid, I will be paying it, personally, blonde does not have the cash right now. I'm 60/40 against paying it, to be honest, but I've never done that shit in my life, & it feels so wrong. We shall see. I know one thing. I ended up standing surety for 5 figures when Aqua were refusing to pay out our players, & it stessed me nearly to death.


I speak to Tom most days, well maybe 2 or 3 times a week. too. He's such a solid friend for me, & to me. We rarely mention poker, we just natter about all sorts. I don't know what I'd do without him. Ding, too - we spoke at length today, Chomps a lot, via text or Online at the other place usually, & many others. I spoke to Laxie at length today, too. Maria is very special, too, she helps me with this & that. She's a good kid. And Thewy of course, some lad him, & look how well he's looked after his winnings.

I work with Des a fair bit, we share an office, sit next to each other, 2 or 3 days a week.

And I get up to Luton & DTD, maybe once a week. It will be more soon, as my working pattern settles down.

I am at DTD this Saturday & Sunday, part leisure, part schmoozing for SP. Tough job, eh?

I was at DTD last Saturday, in fact, & it was THE most enjoyable day I've had for a very long time, very relaxing, & at last I was able to spend a goodly while chatting to Maureen & Darren. And HoldyFoldy - wow, she looks so happy now, what a change that girl has had in her life.

More.....

[technolog]

welcome back 

Great to see you again!

[titaniumbean]

welcome back 

[jezza777]

welcome back 

[tikay]

As to me, I don't think I've ever felt physically better. I'm nearly 3 stone lighter than 2 months ago, & it feels so good. I wake up every day bursting with energy, wanting to "get going", full of life, zing, zest.

And the thing with dieting is winning little battles, lots of them, every single day, & the feeling of resisting temptation is wonderful. Every night, I reflect on the days dieting success, it feels good. I don't have a daft diet plan, don't do "soothers" or cranky compounds, read daft dieting books, that's all nonsense, I just eat the right stuff. Lots of it, too. Salads, well pseudo salads, low fat yogurts, Ryvitas, Extra-Lite Philly Cheese, 1 latte per day - sweeteners, no sugar - and grapes, 300g of grapes every single day. Soon - date not yet decided, but probably another few months, I'll stop, & the binge eating will resume, overnight.

The big negative is being a "diet-bore", just as those who give up smoking get all high & mighty. I see - in my mind - overweight people stuffing food down them non-stop & I feel contempt for them, for their flabby bodies, & their stupidity. Then I remember, that was me 2 months ago, & will be me again in 2 months or so. The mind works in weird ways.

I stare at packs of food in shops, examining the exact calorie count, like an old fart I am. I know EXACTLY how many calories I consume each day. All or nothing me.

When my weight was at its peak, & I caught sight of myself in a bedroom mirror, I would subconsciously breathe in, to "hide" the fat. Now I breathe out, to try & convince myself I need to lose a lot more weight.

Big treat in store this week - for the 2nd time on this diet, I need to go buy new clothes, ones that fit me, & a smaller belt.

See - a premiership Diet-Bore I've become. Think of what you've missed whilst I've been absent, all that diet-chirping.

Happy days.

So, the job, & Twitter, Facebook, da de da.....

[jakally]

The fact is, I've got a job. A proper job.

Methinks congrats are in order.
I know you have achieved a lot over time, but I guess that you still can't beat the sense of achievement when you get where you wanted to go.

WP Mr K.

[tikay]

The fact is, I've got a job. A proper job.

Methinks congrats are in order.
I know you have achieved a lot over time, but I guess that you still can't beat the sense of achievement when you get where you wanted to go.
WP Mr K.

Thanks Neil, that is so apt, & true.

I retired, too early it seems, & then I got lucky, a door opened, then I worked at it, hard, very hard, & loved every minute.

I'm immensely proud of myself, to be truthful - in that one respect, if not others - and I know my Dad would be proud, too.

Late in life, I switched trade, or careers, to something completely & wholly alien to me, & I made a success - to a degree - of it.

Which brings us full circle, because I'm challenged by this new job now, & I refuse to let it beat me. Hence my absence, & not all the nonsense theories on the thread. I'm just busy, & I need to get topside of the job before I mess about on Forums again. No more, no less, that's all there is to it.

Good to see you the at DTD by the way. My, you've put some weight on, if I may say so. Whoops, there I go again......

[mondatoo]

Congrats on the job Tikay and great updates

[tikay]

When I had a proper job, I was MD for 20 or 30 years, & I had mixed feelings about all those "Employee of the Month" things, I really did.

The Sky Group - all the Group companies, of which Sky Bet, who own Sky Poker are one, work to a similar pattern & ethic - do it slightly different. Same thing, just dressed up different. They call it "High Achievers".

Well, the CEO of Sky Bet called me up last week. We get on well, he & I , I like him very much, & he seeks my views on this & that quite a lot. He's a very understated man, much deeper than he looks. Frighteningly bright, too. The Sky Bet Business Model is a thing of genius. All internet-based - Bet, Bingo, Vegas, Poker, & Odds-Checker. And they all feed off each other. Poker is quiet on Champions League nights, but Bet is busy. Big winners pop across to the Slots on Vegas, & Bingo is almost churn-less. Neat stuff. While Laddies & Wm Hill, Party too, are struggling big time, Sky Bet, including - especially Poker -  are recording huge year on year increases. And yes, I've seen the software.....

During racing festivals - Cheltenham, Aintree, Ascot, etc, we get, before every race, a summary of what will be "good" & "bad"" results in each & every race. If Horse A wins, Bet stand to win X, if B wins, we lose Y. I love it - it's gambling without money for me. And I represent trhe bookie. Happy days indeed.

I was at DTD during the National, & I shuddered a bit when McCoy, backed all the way diown, won, but a text arrived minutes later, "we got out of it OK, & made a profit of £xk". Love it.

So, back to "High Achievers" & the CEO.

He rung me up, out of the blue. Yup, I was the High Achiever for March. I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Then I read the "citation" (!), which was cringingly nice, but included a bit that caught my eye. "tikay is our "go to" man, when we have a problem".

I forget the rest of the words - it ran to three paras - but I loved that.

Dinner next Monday with the CEO & MD, which might be a bit "stiff", though I know them both personally, & we get along well. I think there is some prize attached, too, I'm not sure what, & I really don't care. I started afresh when I was nearly 60, & I did it, I succeeded. Thats all that matters.

[Tonji]

You sound happy in your work Tikay, long may it continue. Good Luck

[tikay]

Facebook, & Twitter.

Well you know my views. And now you know I've sold my soul.

They - we - measure EVERYTHING, microscopically, from every angle. And it turns out that FB is an effective - incredibly effective - Marketing tool, very cost-efficient, too. The cost is just labour (time), no more.

And Marketing is part of my new role.......

I had not opened my FB in about a year. So I took a look. It had 280 friends, & 450 "pending" my, ugh, "approval". Now that is an asset.

By the bye, if you don't want my FB Spam, & I don't blame you, delete me as a Friend, please. But it won't be spam as you know it, I'll mix it up, & be left-field in the blending. Trust me. I will.....

So, an Assistant was deputed to update my FB, I gave her my passwords & stuff, & she sorted it all out. Lovely, job done.

I have a "tracker", so the trick is to get clicks on the tracker. Easy, you'd think. But it was a nightmare, trying to figure it all out. You can cloak a tracker, or a link, with a short link, from a site called bit-something, all very clever, but it's a bit awkward to get it just so, & I'm failing dismally so far. Clicks recorded since we started on Friday are dismally low. And since Friday, I've "collected" another 100 FB "friends".

Then there's Twitter, that started Friday, too, my own Twitter page. Not really worked out how to use it yet, to best effect, but I will.

And we are trying to link my Twitter to my FB, & vice-versa. Nightmare.

A young lady was doing my Facebook entries & Tweets for the first day, at my request. I went to bed that night, & decided ithat was all wrong. The entries & Tweets have to be ME, be MINE, for it to work, so we reverted to that the next day.

Since then, I've been testing a few thngs, with a view to the cranky way I plan to make this work. And I will.

I googled Twitter & boned up on it. Sheesh, what a subject, what a powerful tool, but how complicated it all seems to me.

Again, it's had pitifully few clicks. I had Zero "followers" on Friday, when it began, & I have 40 as of now. Not good. But I've learned a few tricks today, so I know what I need to do. I think.

We shall see, but if you see me & my eyes are glazed over, it's because I've been researching Twitter & Facebook marketing methods. Who'd have thunk?

[tikay]

But the role is wider - much wider - than that, & in so many ways.

On friday I learned that I had got the Sky Poker WSOP gig in Vegas. That'll be 6 years in 7 that someone has paid for me to go out to Vegas. And I LOVE working in Vegas, if you work in poker, Vegas is the dream. I run so good.

Premium Economy flights - me! - & a suite at The Rio again. Jeez, I can barely believe my luck.

And I bet I can make my Twitter effective during the WSOP, when I can use my "Access All Areas" Pass to get tableside. If I fail at that, I may as well give up, it should be a shoe-in.

I loved the tikay Twitter Avatars on blonde. No, I did, I was made up. I'm not sure how it was intended, but I took it as kind of nice.

Before that, wearing my TSP Hat, I wll be at Coventry GUKPT with one of "my" lads, & SPT Glasgow ditto, & at DTD this weekend with a bunch of "my" boys.

On April 25th, I go down to Brighton for a National Pub League Final at Brighton Racecourse. "Guest of Honour", you could not make it up. But I'll do some commentating, & I bet they have a good day. And part of the deal is that they have to "follow me" on Twitter & FB. See, I'm getting the hang of it. Oh - they have 30,000 Members......And I shall have a SP goodie or two with me. It will work.