Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

lol taken. will pm you as it mentions a namei saw a heron dead in the corner of a lake once and there were hundreds of fish swimming round it. someone told me that their feet secrete something that attracts fish and is why they can just stand in the shallow water waiting for fish to swim by

That would-be Facebook grimmer from Norway?

No, never heard of the fella. Peeps don't tap me for money on FB, they just stick to good old-fashioned abuse & mockage, & thats ok, as it's so much cheaper.

Never heard that heron's feet story before, but Tom would know. Sounds like tosh to me. Fish would gather round any "easy" food source I'd guess.

I took Tom to see the heron before I went away, & he spotted two large brown trout in the settling pond. Apparently, they are brown on the top, & white underneath. That was because a predator either OVER it cannot see it, as the brown merges with the pond bed, & a predator from BELOW cannot see it as the white blends with the sky.

Clever stuff, right up there with i-Pad2 cleverage.

[Simon Galloway]

Any jobs going in the compliance dept? 

[smashedagain]

lol taken. will pm you as it mentions a namei saw a heron dead in the corner of a lake once and there were hundreds of fish swimming round it. someone told me that their feet secrete something that attracts fish and is why they can just stand in the shallow water waiting for fish to swim by

That would-be Facebook grimmer from Norway?

No, never heard of the fella. Peeps don't tap me for money on FB, they just stick to good old-fashioned abuse & mockage, & thats ok, as it's so much cheaper.

Never heard that heron's feet story before, but Tom would know. Sounds like tosh to me. Fish would gather round any "easy" food source I'd guess.

I took Tom to see the heron before I went away, & he spotted two large brown trout in the settling pond. Apparently, they are brown on the top, & white underneath. That was because a predator either OVER it cannot see it, as the brown merges with the pond bed, & a predator from BELOW cannot see it as the white blends with the sky.

Clever stuff, right up there with i-Pad2 cleverage.

yup spot on as usual. guess i'm not the only one . cheers

[tikay]

Friday I was in the Office @ 6am & started on the mountainous work backlog, then left @ 1pm to drive down to Cardiff for the SPT weekend.

Friday afternoon on the M4 is "not good", & it took nearly 6 hours, but I had a latte & a cigar or two, & I just poodled down.

Lucky, really, because a few days later, the exquisitely exciting Brynglas Tunnels  near Newport (am I the only one that finds whizzing through tunnels exciting?) were closed by a lorry fire, & one of them remains closed even now I think, & the traffic was totally gridlocked.

[tikay]

Briefly interrupt the catch up to bring you this, which I gather from MereSeeEverything that Stephen Fry tweeted.....

Amazing stuff. Spin bowling par excellence, or what?

The 50p challenge, Graeme Swann v Murali......

http://bit.ly/niKc7h

[MereNovice]

Briefly interrupt the catch up to bring you this, which I gather from MereSeeEverything that Stephen Fry tweeted.....

Amazing stuff. Spin bowling par excellence, or what?

The 50p challenge, Graeme Swann v Murali......

http://bit.ly/niKc7h

That was after editing 18 hours of filming.
I did it first time when I tried.

[tikay]

Any jobs going in the compliance dept? 

That's Tuesday, I'm still on Friday.....

Good to see you @ the AGCC thing, what a waste of a day that was! Interesting in a weird way, though. More of which later.

[tikay]

Eventually arrived Cardiff @ about 6.30pm, then it was straight to the Venue, which was "Les Croupiers", which sits in the Car Park of Cardiff City's new Stadium.

We struggle for Venues in South Wales.

Aspers Swansea built a dividing wall smack bang in the middle of the cardroom last year, & told us a few porkies about it, so that was no good, & Cardiff Grosvenor seem to have lost interest in Poker, which they made quite clear to us 2 years ago.

"Croups" is an independent, & is owned & run by a quite remarkable Gent, Gordon McIllroy I think, but he's "Mac" to everyone. He's well north of 70, ramrod upright, smartly attired, suit & tie, proper Grandad type, but as sharp as a tack, misses nothing.

His boast is that he will take ANY size bet on the Roulette as long as he is in the Pit Boss Chair, & some hefty bets go across apparently.

He has turned down any number of bids from the multiples, as he could not do with "doing as I'm told". He has 5 kids, & hopes one of them will take an interest, & take it over from him when Mr G-R arrives, but none of them are interested.

The Venue was a total success for us. We were upstairs in a large, private room, with oodles of space to be able to wander around, they had, I think, 25 Tables. Have you noticed that almost all Poker Rooms are all scrunged up, bar maybe The Vic, & Luton-G? Even DTD is a bit awkward to walk around when full.

It also has an in-house Chinese Restaurant, all meals cost the same - £5.50, & they deliver it, piping hot, to the Table within minutes of being ordered. Excellent.

[tikay]

I played Friday night, ran up a tidy stack, then ran it down again. It was only a £15 Comp, but the atmo was good, & whilst my stack was up & down, I managed a 2xup with my 9-5 which I 5 bet, & which collided with the 4-bet 9-10, but I housed up. Thin stuff that.

Went busto just after 1am, straight back to the Hotel, & was up at 4am to continue working on the e-Mail backlog, only to find that the Hotel Internet - a bizarre system that worked - or not - via the TV, did not work, & I was pretty miffed. Any decent Hotel (we were at the "Future Inn") should have a reliable internet connection.

So, went down early for brekkie on Saturday, but became quite unwell, & had to take to my bed before 8am. I was due @ the Venue @11am, but it was Noon before I arrived, & I was in a right state, but a kindly lady gave me some pills to pop, & I was soon right as rein.

I get "ill" about once every 10 years, usually for about an hour, so I'm well lucky, but I get scared & always think "this is it, it's a heart attack, my number is up, have I got clean knickers on?"

We eventually got the Tournie off bang on time @ 2pm, happy days.

Tighty was awesome, as ever. When you run these things, there are always about 10% of the field who don't have seats they should have, or vice-versa, "you promised me a seat" da de da, but it all went off fine, & Tighty was at his schmoozy best getting everyone seated. I'm usually well on top of all that stuff, but what with being in Vegas, & so out of the loop, then being unwell on the day, I had to leave it all to him. Never a worry, really.

Our winner was a lovely kid called Jamie Hurst, Sheffield boy, & I picked him out about a year ago as "handy". He went to Vegas whilst we were there & roomed with Scotty77 & Nick Pryce, & ran terribly all Vegas, coming home a bit peed off.

Then he won the SPT & collected nearly £4k (business was done & 3rd place took most), then on Sunday came 2nd in the Sky Poker Primo which was probably another £1.5k or £2k. Really pleased for him, & he was a "good" winner for us, as he plays on the Site most every night.

Thewy fits us like a glove, too, & the punters adore him, & he really applied himself well. I don't imagine its easy when folks are on your case all day, but he manages it superbly.

We wrapped at about 3am, & I was wrecked, so back to the internet-less Future Inn it was, & no poker for me.

[pokerfan]

Friday I was in the Office @ 6am & started on the mountainous work backlog, then left @ 1pm to drive down to Cardiff for the SPT weekend.

Friday afternoon on the M4 is "not good", & it took nearly 6 hours, but I had a latte & a cigar or two, & I just poodled down.

Lucky, really, because a few days later, the exquisitely exciting Brynglas Tunnels  near Newport (am I the only one that finds whizzing through tunnels exciting?) were closed by a lorry fire, & one of them remains closed even now I think, & the traffic was totally gridlocked.

The Hindhead tunnel on the A3 should be fully opened tomorrow, been looking forward to driving through it all month. The southbound side opened on Wednesday but we came down on Monday obv. Should knock half an hour off the journey time at peak.

From Highways Agency  Construction work on the scheme began four-and-a-half years ago, in January 2007. It is being opened within budget and on schedule.
 

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/3832.aspx

[redsimon]

Good to see you're back. Hopefully you will make Vegas in November. I'm there 31/10 to 13/11, that might mean you go on 14th?

[tikay]

Friday I was in the Office @ 6am & started on the mountainous work backlog, then left @ 1pm to drive down to Cardiff for the SPT weekend.

Friday afternoon on the M4 is "not good", & it took nearly 6 hours, but I had a latte & a cigar or two, & I just poodled down.

Lucky, really, because a few days later, the exquisitely exciting Brynglas Tunnels  near Newport (am I the only one that finds whizzing through tunnels exciting?) were closed by a lorry fire, & one of them remains closed even now I think, & the traffic was totally gridlocked.

The Hindhead tunnel on the A3 should be fully opened tomorrow, been looking forward to driving through it all month. The southbound side opened on Wednesday but we came down on Monday obv. Should knock half an hour off the journey time at peak.

From Highways Agency  Construction work on the scheme began four-and-a-half years ago, in January 2007. It is being opened within budget and on schedule.
 

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/3832.aspx

Yes, I heard about that, monsta tunnels those, £450 million was it?

Will deffo make a huge difference to journey times.

Wiki right up to date, too.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindhead_Tunnel

[tikay]

Good to see you're back. Hopefully you will make Vegas in November. I'm there 31/10 to 13/11, that might mean you go on 14th?

Lol, probably.

I'm planning to time it for the Deepstacks, & as far as I know, I'm not required to do any WSOP Work, so I can please myself, the only drawback being I gotta pay my airfare & hotel......

[pokerfan]

Friday I was in the Office @ 6am & started on the mountainous work backlog, then left @ 1pm to drive down to Cardiff for the SPT weekend.

Friday afternoon on the M4 is "not good", & it took nearly 6 hours, but I had a latte & a cigar or two, & I just poodled down.

Lucky, really, because a few days later, the exquisitely exciting Brynglas Tunnels  near Newport (am I the only one that finds whizzing through tunnels exciting?) were closed by a lorry fire, & one of them remains closed even now I think, & the traffic was totally gridlocked.

The Hindhead tunnel on the A3 should be fully opened tomorrow, been looking forward to driving through it all month. The southbound side opened on Wednesday but we came down on Monday obv. Should knock half an hour off the journey time at peak.

From Highways Agency  Construction work on the scheme began four-and-a-half years ago, in January 2007. It is being opened within budget and on schedule.
 

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/3832.aspx

Yes, I heard about that, monsta tunnels those, £450 million was it?

Will deffo make a huge difference to journey times.

Wiki right up to date, too.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindhead_Tunnel

Hope Wiki is wrong , last day on this job tomorrow (hopefully) Has it down to open on the 1st of August.

[the sicilian]

It was midday Tuesday when we landed, so I swerved the Kindle Shop, & went & purchased an i-Pad2 instead. I got the 64 megathing version.

Wow!

Even wower, I got it from an "Apple" Shop, & they have taken retailing to a whole new level, it's like Harrods v Aldi, or 'Stars v UB, they really looked after me.

One geezer showed me the kit, how it worked, & then another kid set it all up for me, & I've had 4 or 5 "everything ok?" e-Mails from them since.

I'll never visit a High Street "Currys" again. I always say "is it plug & go?", & they say "yeah". Meaning, no.

Sadly, everything is NOT Ok, as I'm struggling to reconcile my Apple Password & Username from 10 years back, & so I cannot get Online. I've gone round in circles for days, & it's doing my head in, to be honest, but they e-Mail me daily trying to sort it. To be fair, it's probably User Error.

Ipad 2 wicked stuff..... bought myself and the young lady one each ( as she couldnt wait until xmas )  very good stuff..bought the non 3g one as I have jail broke my iphone and can tether the ipad to it..works like a dream.  Very impressed with it and we are doing some stuff in the workshop with them so clients can use them via citrix servers... laptops days are numbered by the looks