Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Tal]

Explorer in Residence sounds like an oxymoron to me. That or he knows every nook and crannie of the NatGeo office.

[redsimon]

When you next planning a jaunt to Vegas Tony? I guess you ended up swerving Venetian Deep Stacks Oct/Nov?

[tikay]

More importantly, what do you make of what will be the new super duper New Street Station?

ANYTHING would be better than the existing New Street Station.

Truly, it is in a class of it's own when it comes to character & interest, it has not an iota or scintilla, a jot or a tickle, of either.

It is the Railway Station equivelant of Luton Airport. Utterly & wholly, lacking in a single point of merit. 

Disagree. Luton airport has one point of merit, it's a way of getting out of Luton.

I think that is unfair, Dan. Luton has a bad name, fo sho, but it is no different to any other regional town, it has good & bad, but the people are fine, or my experience of them is.

It has some real hidden gems, too. Even been to Stockwood Park, (which has a very fine Museum) or Luton Hoo? Both are within a mile of the Town Centre. Then there is the car factory, & the football stadium.

What's not to like? Apart from that dreadful airport, I mean.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

I came across this site thru various clicking on the internet.

Got a complete list of every airlines fleets in the world and all the details about the planes themselves.

Thought you might find it interesting when you next take pics of half a plane in the air at Heathrow

http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/index.php

Photos of half a plane indeed......

Thanks Ryan.

Question. How the hell did you happen to chance upon that? What were you actually looking for at the time?

Click to see full-size image.

[Tal]

Luton Town FC has not always been nicknamed The Hatters. Does anyone know what they used to be called?

[AlunB]

More importantly, what do you make of what will be the new super duper New Street Station?

ANYTHING would be better than the existing New Street Station.

Truly, it is in a class of it's own when it comes to character & interest, it has not an iota or scintilla, a jot or a tickle, of either.

It is the Railway Station equivelant of Luton Airport. Utterly & wholly, lacking in a single point of merit. 

Disagree. Luton airport has one point of merit, it's a way of getting out of Luton.

I think that is unfair, Dan. Luton has a bad name, fo sho, but it is no different to any other regional town, it has good & bad, but the people are fine, or my experience of them is.

It has some real hidden gems, too. Even been to Stockwood Park, (which has a very fine Museum) or Luton Hoo? Both are within a mile of the Town Centre. Then there is the car factory, & the football stadium.

What's not to like? Apart from that dreadful airport, I mean.

The town centre is one of the more soulless and depressing places I've been to in pursuit of poker entertainment.

[tikay]

Why the hate for the trams in Sheffield?

Beats getting on a smelly old bus!

No no Dan, I don't hate them. I'm not sure I hate anything, to be honest.

I just don't find them very pleasing on the eye, & visually, the tram infrastructure is a bit of a mess, & has totally overwhelmed the character of parts of the City, every which was you look there is Tram paraphernalia.


 



Now, tell me that this is not more appealing. Proper trams, these.

Click to see full-size image.

And did you ever see a better photo of a Sheffield Tram than this, with the steam loco & open Guards Van over the bridge, those lovely cars, all sorts?

[david3103]

Why the hate for the trams in Sheffield?

Beats getting on a smelly old bus!

No no Dan, I don't hate them. I'm not sure I hate anything, to be honest.

I just don't find them very pleasing on the eye, & visually, the tram infrastructure is a bit of a mess, & has totally overwhelmed the character of parts of the City, every which was you look there is Tram paraphernalia.


 



Now, tell me that this is not more appealing. Proper trams, these.

Click to see full-size image.

And did you ever see a better photo of a Sheffield Tram than this, with the steam loco & open Guards Van over the bridge, those lovely cars, all sorts?

Nostalgia's not what it used to be is it?

I find the modern trams far better to look at - sleek lines and a sense of purpose in their design for the age. The old ones were rattly uncomfortable, draughty, unreliable and only worked as efficiently as they did because they were the primary users of the roads they were on. Modern trams are smooth, less uncomfortable and draughty and have to be fitted in to a road network that is 'owned' by cars, buses and goods vehicles.


Ever been to Beamish Open Air Museum TK? I think you'd love it. They have trams, trolley buses, buses, steam locomotives and all sorts of other stuff from the early part of the last century.

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

[tikay]

When you next planning a jaunt to Vegas Tony? I guess you ended up swerving Venetian Deep Stacks Oct/Nov?

I don't really know, Simon. Yes, I ended up swerving the November trip. It's all been a bit uphill lately, what with this & that, & Vegas just dropped down the list of priorities.

Next Vegas trip?

Depends on the job really. I'm past retirement age now, a bit out of kilter with the market demograph, so my job security must be tenuous in the extreme. I adore the annual work trip to Vegas - who would not? - & on the whole, do a decent job for them I think, but it can't last forever, & I've taken to assuming it will all end soon. Get the psychological parachute ready, so to speak. With no work, I could go out there for the first time & just relax, chill, play poker, not worry about the job, the Blogs, the responsibilities, the headaches, which would be nice.

However, if I did not have a job in poker, I'm not sure I'd stick around the poker scene. Some aspects of it I still adore - the social side of poker is wonderful, playing it still gives me a really nice buzz, & nothing about playing it ever upsets me  - but there are downsides too, stuff which I find increasingly hard to understand, & which frustrate me a little.

Example - have you noticed how when anything happens in the poker world, no matter how trivial, everyone gets life tilt, tilted to death, tilted hard? Jeez, what is that about?! I thought tilt was a bad thing for a poker player, but half the poker world almost boast about it now!

I have so many things I still want to do, & that includes Vegas, deffo, but as my time remaining reduces, I need to prioritise things with more care.

Has to be said, this year's trip to Vegas was, in some ways, as good as any I have ever had. I ran really well all trip, won a good few bob, & did a good job, I think, for the Business, under difficult circumstances. I had some bloody awkward fences to sit on though. Met some great people for the first time, too, including Doobsy & Tal, & spent a few lovely nights just shooting the breeze with Phil Quayle. Great memories, mostly good. 

Some days I just hanker to go to Vegas & play poker pretty much full-time, or spend the whole World Series timeframe there, but the novelty would soon wear off I think, it would soon become "normal". Or, as fashion dictates we now say, a grind.

Grind, my arse. Getting up at 4am evey day & going to work might be a grind, but how is poker ever a grind?

See, there I go again. I get all feisty & cantankerous way too much these days. 

[tikay]

David.

The Beamish? Yes. I had an office up there, in Stanley, so I frequented those parts a good deal, & I snuck in there regularly.

Can't agree on modern trams, sorry, no character, all squeaky plastic, no character or soul, no "feel".

Did you know that on the railway, or until a few years ago when wooden sleepers were removed from the PW, that just by "feel" you could sit on a moving train & know whether the sleepers were timber or concrete? Wooden railway sleepers are like worn-out slippers, they just feel better. Concrete sleepers never need replacing, & are more cost-efficient, but they give a horrible ride. They may even tilt me hard. Yes, just thinking about it, I can feel a mini-tilt coming on.

[iangascoigne]

Could not agree more reference the negative impact of the Trams on the 'feel/atmosphere' of Sheffield town centre.They have carved the centre into unrelated pieces and broken the sense of wholeness creating a alienating urban void.Very sad and an impact which the planners cannot have imagined.I have a sense that the same is about to happen in Edinburgh.

[Rod Paradise]

Click to see full-size image.

A bit intrigued at the watermark on this, why the Manchester Transport logo on a picture of the Hielanman's umbrella, Glasgow? (The Hielanman's Umbrella (Highland man) is where the railway lines from Central Station cross over Argyll Street Glasgow. It is said that when the highlanders came to Glasgow, with nowhere to go, would shelter from the rain under the bridge.)




One from 1960.

Click to see full-size image.

One showing the Partick Tram in the old Corporation (Corpy) colours.


One from more modern times.

[tikay]

Ooh, thanks Rod. Except for the last one.

Note the cobbled streets. I don't know about Glasgow, but there are still miles of cobbled streets in Edinburgh.

[Rod Paradise]

Could not agree more reference the negative impact of the Trams on the 'feel/atmosphere' of Sheffield town centre.They have carved the centre into unrelated pieces and broken the sense of wholeness creating a alienating urban void.Very sad and an impact which the planners cannot have imagined.I have a sense that the same is about to happen in Edinburgh.

That's a shame because I didn't get the same impression from the trams in Amsterdam or Prague, where the systems seem so efficient & seem to bring the city together.

[tikay]

Could not agree more reference the negative impact of the Trams on the 'feel/atmosphere' of Sheffield town centre.They have carved the centre into unrelated pieces and broken the sense of wholeness creating a alienating urban void.Very sad and an impact which the planners cannot have imagined.I have a sense that the same is about to happen in Edinburgh.

I cannot begin to imagine that the planners considered that, Ian. It is just not possible, no effort has been made to "merge" the tram infrastructure & street furniture into the character of the City.

Edinburgh? Well yes, I fear for that too - or I would if I thought it would ever get finished in my lifetime. How long have they been building it, how much over budget have they run? What a palaver they have made of it. They seem to have a pretty good local transport system already, too, the Bus Services are incredibly good, or seem so to me, as an occasional tourist. 

PS - Many congrats on winning the Blackpool GUKPT. I knew you could do it.