Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I got myself in a bit of a stew yesterdy. I had loaned my new camera to someone, & they promptly changed all the settings.

This irked me just a tinsy bit.

It's like when you lend someone your car, or take it to the garage, & they move the seat back, adjust the drivers mirror, or, horror of horrors, change the radio station & leave it on a music station. It drives me nuts.

So, I had to sort out the camera, & a bunch of lads tried to help me from the blonde Camera Club, but I just made it worse, pressing buttons willy nilly.

I was starting to get a shade grumpy, but Tom rang me, all fatherly like, & worked his way through it step by step, & its fine now. He does not even own my make of camera, but he just sussed it all out, step by step. I'm such a thicko with these damn gadgets, & I feel so stupid, but it is what it is.

I managed this rather dull & grainy affair this afternoon. Maybe better if I stand outside, rather than taking the photo through a window......

"Catching" a bird photo, even at my level of ineptitude, is such a thrill - bit like catching a fish, I think. Though I've never caught a fish - that's on my Bucket List of hobbies, too.

Anyway, mock this all you like, I was just thrilled to bits to know my camera was working again. I could really take to this bird photography, if only it were not for the damn camera. 

Click to see full-size image.

[kinboshi]

At least the whole bird is in the shot. Progress.

[tikay]

At least the whole bird is in the shot. Progress.

Yup. Framed by the gable end of a house!

I don't care, I'm up & running, what fun from a little camera that cost a quarter of the cost of a DTD Monthly Deepstack entry.

[tikay]

I went down by the Thames yesterday afternoon, I just wanted an hour of nature, & peace & quiet.

Took the camera, & spotted a beautiful speckled thrush grazing.

There was a mini goal post by where I was, a 5 a side one I assume, so I steadied my arm on it to stop any camera shake, & got my little friend smack in focus. 

Prerssed "click" & nothing happened, but a big sign came up on the monitor - "CHANGE BATTERIES". Meh.

Everything seemed to go wrong yesterday. A big red warning light came in in my car, scared me to death, so I had to open the manual - I have never once opened it in 2 years since I got the car.

It appears it is a TPI - Tyre Pressure Indicator or RFI - Run Flat Indicator - for a tyre, but I kicked all 4, they look & seem fine to me. The car has no spare tyre, it has "run flats". Seems all wrong to me.

Guess that means another visit to Regards.

Last time I diaried a prob with my car, a nice little lady from Sytner BMW was on the phone to me within minutes, sorted me out for a service & everything.

Are you listening, Regards? 

[celtic]

Do you think you will ever progress on to 2 handed typing?

[rex008]

It appears it is a TPI - Tyre Pressure Indicator or RFI - Run Flat Indicator - for a tyre, but I kicked all 4, they look & seem fine to me. The car has no spare tyre, it has "run flats". Seems all wrong to me.

[tikay]

I went down by the Thames yesterday afternoon, I just wanted an hour of nature, & peace & quiet.

Took the camera, & spotted a beautiful speckled thrush grazing.

There was a mini goal post by where I was, a 5 a side one I assume, so I steadied my arm on it to stop any camera shake, & got my little friend smack in focus. 

Prerssed "click" & nothing happened, but a big sign came up on the monitor - "CHANGE BATTERIES". Meh.

Everything seemed to go wrong yesterday. A big red warning light came in in my car, scared me to death, so I had to open the manual - I have never once opened it in 2 years since I got the car.

It appears it is a TPI - Tyre Pressure Indicator or RFI - Run Flat Indicator - for a tyre, but I kicked all 4, they look & seem fine to me. The car has no spare tyre, it has "run flats". Seems all wrong to me.

Guess that means another visit to Regards.

Last time I diaried a prob with my car, a nice little lady from Sytner BMW was on the phone to me within minutes, sorted me out for a service & everything.

Are you listening, Regards? 

I'm not making this up - Regards has rung me already!

Told me to go & sit in the car & press some buttons, while had had me on the phone, Tom style. 

Seems there is a toggle switch for the onboard computer (I could have sworn that switch was for wiper speed), & I reset it there & then - now the red light has gone off, & it's fine.

What a result, mend a puncture over the 'phone by pressing a toggle switch!

Very relieved, as I need to pop up to Derbyshire & back tomorrow.

[tikay]

A bunch of things have coincided.

Vicky Coren got engaged, & I'm so pleased for her. She is bright, articulate, "sharp", & writes beautifully.

This piece by Vicky is minor stuff by her examplary standards, but notice the relaxed style, it flows so wonderfully.

There is a relevance to me, becauase at this time of year, various hard copy poker mags, Online Sites, & such like, write to me for these "Q & A" type pre-Vegas thoughts & views, & I'm so crap at them. (You have to somehow weave the question into the answer).

Her piece is not a Vegas piece, but I'm in love with, & insanely jealous of, good writing, so I'm sharing it with you.

It comes from "Poker Player.co.uk", (duly acknowledged) though I have no idea how dated it is. It matters not.


What I've Learned From PokerAuthor, TV presenter and EPT winner Vicky Coren tells us what poetry, Jesse May and her brother have taught her about poker, and why she hid her EPT fortune under the mattress…

…Playing poker has, as the kids say, ‘polarised my range’ when it comes to the value of money. I’ll shrug off a £2,000 loss in a cash game, but then I’ll carefully run the knife round the edge of a tub of butter to eke out those last fragments of Lurpak. I’ve never been a hoarder or a spendthrift, but I’m capable of rattling between extremes.

…I’m hoping at some point in the future to know how to win a WCOOP or SCOOP outright. I’m always bloody min-cashing.

…All poker players should read Rudyard Kipling’s If. Especially the second and third verses. Everyone’s soul is exposed by how they cope with winning and losing. I hope that my table personality would reveal that I can do both calmly and without a fuss. But it would also reveal that I eat too many snacks.

…I don’t find playing poker stressful at all. And tilt, fortunately, is not something I suffer from. If I get horribly unlucky, I just try to remember the times I’ve got lucky.

…I stuffed the money I won from the EPT London under the mattress and carried on playing the £2/£5 game.  The Vic regs were furious. On the plus side, my mattress is now much higher and I have a better view of the garden.

…The best piece of poker advice I have ever been given is ‘don’t sneeze when you’re hiding’. That’s what Adam Heller said when I asked him for a tip.

...The biggest lie in poker is that the game is all about bluffing. I’ve never tried it myself.

…The single biggest influence on my poker career was my brother. If he hadn’t got into it as a teenager, I’d probably never have played in the first place. The second biggest influence was Al Alvarez, who showed me that poker is one of life’s great adventures, to be embraced alongside travelling, reading, exploring and taking many other gambles. It isn’t an alternative. The third was Joe Beevers, who told me what a ‘professional poker player’ was, and how to be one.

…If someone thinks poker is boring I won’t try to win them over. If they think it’s boring, they shouldn’t play. I think Star Wars is boring. That doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed by millions of people all over the world. If, however, someone doesn’t think it’s boring but they think it’s ‘a gambling game’, I would encourage them to come to my house on a Tuesday night and bring as much money as they can get their hands on.

...My biggest high in poker was writing For Richer, for Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker. Obviously I’m supposed to say ‘winning the London EPT’, and of course that was amazing, but the writer in me says that the best thing about it was providing a good climactic chapter in my book! I was a voracious reader of Al Alvarez, Anthony Holden and Jesse May, and I always dreamed of writing my own poker book. A proper, true, gritty, funny, honest account, not some sappy PR version or dull strategy guide. I’m really proud of that book. As for the lows, they are spelled out on those pages in detail, don’t worry about that…

 

How good is that?

Might look easy, but just try it. It is a gift, nothing less.

[tikay]

Do you think you will ever progress on to 2 handed typing?

Go away. Leaves me a spare hand, anyway.

50 peeps at Walsall must have come up to me & said "do you really only use one finger to type?". I thnk you sent most of them.

Yesterday go OK, such as it could?

[Karabiner]

I love Vicky and her writing but I'm pretty disgusted to learn that she's a spreadable Lurpak afficionado.

That stuff tastes like margarine to me, and that's the only form of Lurpak that comes in "tubs".

I know these things because I won £5 at the food fair at Olympia for being able to tell Stork from Butter c1963.

[tikay]

Whilst on good writers, writers that "flow", that write almost as they speak, it brings me to Neil Channing.

I don't hide my admiration for his company, he is such a great raconteur.

I attempted to lure him to post more on blonde last week, I think he'd be a huge asset here, & he did, but it all went oh so horribly wrong, I ended up with a bunch of deleted Posts - sheer gross unprompted insults - the Mods had their Sunday ruined, and 5 or 6 e-Mails & 2 phone calls to & from Neil in which I apologised to him several times. Sometimes forums are just so dreadful. To be fair, I did receive an apology, via PM, from one of those who had a wee pop at Neil, fair play to him, but the damage was done by then.

I was up at Luton for part of the time, too, trying to play some DC, so it all rather spoiled my evening, not to say Neil's. FFS.

Anyway, as I am nicking stuff from "pokerplayer.co.uk" here is Neils version of the same theme that Vicky wrote about - "What I've learned from poker".

Very restrained in the spam department by Neil's standards, too.

What I've Learned From PokerThe Black Belt Poker sensei on how poker has changed his life for the good, the bad and the downright weird.

…My view of the value of money was always f♣♠♥ed up. People think I’ve been involved in poker my entire life, but for most of my life poker was just a small part of all the gambling I was doing. When I was 16 years old I was a full-time gambler. When I was doing A-levels I remember leaving one exam after 45 minutes to go to the races. I didn’t go to college for one of the three years as I was going to the races every day. I somehow still got a degree.

…I am constantly getting people writing to me asking to be staked and they will say ‘I don’t really play online as my skills are in reading tells’. That is the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard. The reason they can’t win online is because they have bad fundamentals.

…If you’re a cash player you don’t need to be the most talented player in the world to make a living. There is a guy called Rick who plays in the Vic every day. He’s one of my heroes of poker and is one of the biggest winners I know. He only ever plays £2/£5 and wins £400 most days and goes home. That’s f♥♠♣ing brilliant. He’s winning £100,000 a year sitting on his arse eating sandwiches. What he has got is masses of discipline and masses of patience and his fundamentals are outstanding.

…One guy I look up to is Vic stalwart Fred Carle. Fred is a 74-year-old guy who played seven-card stud for years in all the dodgy spielers in London. There was a massive rake in those games and he beat them all. If we started a £25/£50 game he would sit down with ten grand and be four-betting preflop. He’s a bit of a legend.

…Success breeds success. When James Akenhead made the final table of the WSOP that was a turning point, as other Brits thought, ‘I can do that’. A guy called Dominic Bourke who fi nished second to Daniel Negreanu in the 1998 pot-limit hold’em event was the first person I can remember having any kind of success at the World Series. That was quite inspirational to me. He was a Vic regular and a clever guy who I learned a lot from.

…When people ask me what is your best tip, I always say shorten your losing sessions and lengthen your winning ones. When things are going well press up.

…I literally can’t walk down the street without someone coming up to me and talking about poker. I was out having lunch in a quiet little restaurant and this guy came over and asked if I could sign a book for him. That kind of stuff is f♥♠♣ing weird. In 2001 to 2002 I made far more money from horse racing than I’ve ever made from poker in a year and nobody asked me for my autograph.

…There has always been this thing in poker where the higher-stakes players don’t talk to the people in the levels below them. I f♠♣♦ing hate that. I make a special effort to talk to people at the casino even though it’s not always good for my game.

 

[EvilPie]

Please don't go to Sytner to get your tyres sorted. You're basically burning money.

I took my car there and was told I needed 4 new tyres. 2 were fair enough, the tread was very low. They were 30% over the cost of elsewhere but at least I needed them.

As for the other 2 they apparently had what they called un-repairable punctures. I went elsewhere for a second opinion and the guy got a pair of pliers on the nail head that was sticking out of one tyre. The 'un-repairable' puncture was in fact a part nail approximately 5mm long which had penetrated the tyre to about 3mm. Not a puncture. just a bit of metal sticking in my tread.

The other one was perfectly ok to be repaired so they stuck a little bung in it and it was sorted.

Sytner's cost for 4 tyres £1340

Place I went to cost for 2 tyres + 1 repair + 1 plier pull £510

As part of Sytner's customer service they ring you after a service to check that you're happy. I enquired about the un-repairable thing and apparently they simply will not repair a tyre. It's not that it was legally un-repairable or anything they just have a policy where they don't even bother to check.

I've not been back since.

[tikay]

I love Vicky and her writing but I'm pretty disgusted to learn that she's a spreadable Lurpak afficionado.

That stuff tastes like margarine to me, and that's the only form of Lurpak that comes in "tubs".

I know these things because I won £5 at the food fair at Olympia for being able to tell Stork from Butter c1963.

I well remember the "Stork Test".

"Can you tell Stork from butter?"

One of the greatest, & most succesful ad slogans & campaigns ever.

Sadly, it seems to pre-date the internet by some way, & I cannot find a photo from the right era.

[tikay]

Please don't go to Sytner to get your tyres sorted. You're basically burning money.

I took my car there and was told I needed 4 new tyres. 2 were fair enough, the tread was very low. They were 30% over the cost of elsewhere but at least I needed them.

As for the other 2 they apparently had what they called un-repairable punctures. I went elsewhere for a second opinion and the guy got a pair of pliers on the nail head that was sticking out of one tyre. The 'un-repairable' puncture was in fact a part nail approximately 5mm long which had penetrated the tyre to about 3mm. Not a puncture. just a bit of metal sticking in my tread.

The other one was perfectly ok to be repaired so they stuck a little bung in it and it was sorted.

Sytner's cost for 4 tyres £1340

Place I went to cost for 2 tyres + 1 repair + 1 plier pull £510

As part of Sytner's customer service they ring you after a service to check that you're happy. I enquired about the un-repairable thing and apparently they simply will not repair a tyre. It's not that it was legally un-repairable or anything they just have a policy where they don't even bother to check.

I've not been back since.

I can only speak as I find, Mr RU55ELL, they are not cheap, but they have been good as gold with me.

I had my car serviced for th first time in two years (!) pre-Xmas, as I was heading up to Scotlland, & my car had 60,000 miles on the clock - 60,000 without a service, or even opening the bonnet! - & they charged less than £300.

That's a steal, a deal. In fact, its the ******* sale of the century.

[bobby1]

That Stork test reminds me of one of my favourite pointless facts.

The advertising slogan in the 70's designed to get more people to eat more cream cakes 'Naughty but nice' was created  by Salman Rushdie