Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Looking forward to the tournament reports from Vegas.

When is your flight? You fly with Virgin?

Thanks Greeky # 1.

Have to be careful calling you "Greeky", as the original blonde Greeky - Cos the Conk - reads this Diary, & gets a bit tetchy.

I fly Monday next, in 6 days, 23 hours precisely. That flight has departed late for the last 4 days, but is reported as departing 7 minutes early today.  Virgin Atlantic, yes.

Fair enough. Young Greeky will make him even more tetchy.

A340 or B747?

747-400 George, with refurbished interior.

[Tal]

Looking forward to the tournament reports from Vegas.

When is your flight? You fly with Virgin?

Thanks Greeky # 1.

Have to be careful calling you "Greeky", as the original blonde Greeky - Cos the Conk - reads this Diary, & gets a bit tetchy.

I fly Monday next, in 6 days, 23 hours precisely. That flight has departed late for the last 4 days, but is reported as departing 7 minutes early today.  Virgin Atlantic, yes.

Fair enough. Young Greeky will make him even more tetchy.

A340 or B747?

747-400 George, with refurbished interior.

Let me know what it's like, please, particularly if you get the chance to wander back to the premium economy section from your Upper Class seat.

[GreekWay]

Looking forward to the tournament reports from Vegas.

When is your flight? You fly with Virgin?

Thanks Greeky # 1.

Have to be careful calling you "Greeky", as the original blonde Greeky - Cos the Conk - reads this Diary, & gets a bit tetchy.

I fly Monday next, in 6 days, 23 hours precisely. That flight has departed late for the last 4 days, but is reported as departing 7 minutes early today.  Virgin Atlantic, yes.

Fair enough. Young Greeky will make him even more tetchy.

A340 or B747?

747-400 George, with refurbished interior.

Thats great. Have you flown with A380?

You remind me of the old days when I was even younger and I was able to travel business class in A340 and B747 due to family privileges with the Greek airline, Olympic Airways (if you have heard it). Missing these days now.

[tikay]

Looking forward to the tournament reports from Vegas.

When is your flight? You fly with Virgin?

Thanks Greeky # 1.

Have to be careful calling you "Greeky", as the original blonde Greeky - Cos the Conk - reads this Diary, & gets a bit tetchy.

I fly Monday next, in 6 days, 23 hours precisely. That flight has departed late for the last 4 days, but is reported as departing 7 minutes early today.  Virgin Atlantic, yes.

Fair enough. Young Greeky will make him even more tetchy.

A340 or B747?

747-400 George, with refurbished interior.

Thats great. Have you flown with A380?

You remind me of the old days when I was even younger and I was able to travel business class in A340 and B747 due to family privileges with the Greek airline, Olympic Airways (if you have heard it). Missing these days now.

Not flown in an A-380, no. Magnificent beasts.

I remember Olympic Airways, yes, it was, effectively, taken over by some money sorts, & now operates under the name of Olympic Air.

The forerunner to Olympic Airways was named "Icarus", which seems a very odd name for a Greek Airline.

Pretty sure that Olympic Airlines was owned by Mr Onassis, who later, & famously, married Jacke Kennedy, or had a bit of a fling with her.

[GreekWay]

Looking forward to the tournament reports from Vegas.

When is your flight? You fly with Virgin?

Thanks Greeky # 1.

Have to be careful calling you "Greeky", as the original blonde Greeky - Cos the Conk - reads this Diary, & gets a bit tetchy.

I fly Monday next, in 6 days, 23 hours precisely. That flight has departed late for the last 4 days, but is reported as departing 7 minutes early today.  Virgin Atlantic, yes.

Fair enough. Young Greeky will make him even more tetchy.

A340 or B747?

747-400 George, with refurbished interior.

Thats great. Have you flown with A380?

You remind me of the old days when I was even younger and I was able to travel business class in A340 and B747 due to family privileges with the Greek airline, Olympic Airways (if you have heard it). Missing these days now.

Not flown in an A-380, no. Magnificent beasts.

I remember Olympic Airways, yes, it was, effectively, taken over by some money sorts, & now operates under the name of Olympic Air.

The forerunner to Olympic Airways was named "Icarus", which seems a very odd name for a Greek Airline.

Pretty sure that Olympic Airlines was owned by Mr Onassis, who later, & famously, married Jacke Kennedy, or had a bit of a fling with her.

You are quite right but not up to date I have to point out.

Mr Onassis owned Olympic and he was the one that helped the airline grow and become one of the best/good airlines back in the days. He was married with Jacke indeed.

Olympic Airways became Olympic Airlines until becoming Olympic Air when the Greek goverment sold it to MIG which is an investment group. At the end of 2013 Olympic Air was acquired by Aegean airlines who is now the leading airline in Greece. Olympic Air is still in operation but mostly deals with domestic flights now.

Some great history about the company's logo also copied from Wikipedia:

The first logo of the airline was a white eagle, bearing a resemblance to a propeller, featuring five rings and the name Olympic. Just two years after the first flight, Onassis asked his associates to design a new logo and the coloured rings were created. Onassis wanted to copy the five coloured rings of the Olympic emblem, but the International Olympic Committee claimed the rights to the emblem, so a new, six ring logo was introduced. The first five rings stand for the five continents, while the sixth stands for Greece.[21] Colours used were yellow, red, blue and white.

[Tal]

Back to the Staking, with updated payments position, & a Tourney Report from Saturday, shortly, but for now, I must revert to type, & report some non-pokery stuff.

On yesterday's Desert Island Discs, the Castaway was Alison Moyet. She is a sort of singer.

I don't enjoy her music, would not listen to it if you paid me, but I don't dislike her as a person, suppose I'm neutral really.

She did a very odd thing lately, she wanted to divest herself of years of "baggage", so she took her Computer to a shop, & asked them to completely wipe the contents. 20 years of e-Mails, songs she wrote, diaries, everything. She also threw away all her Gold Discs, & celebrity memorabilia. Not quite sure what that was about.

Anyhow.  

So Miss Moyet & Sue are chatting, & Miss M says "I'm actually quite remarkable".

At which, there was a sort of pregnant pause, almost a sharp intake of breath from Sue.

Alison is certainly not a chest-thumper, she is very modest actually, so to describe herself as "remarkable" sat a little odd.

Alison then explains, thusly.....

"Yes, remarkable. I mean, I was in the public eye, a chart-topper, so a lot of people discussed me, & made remarks about me".

So remarkable (or perhaps "remark-able") was being used in a completely different context to what I'm used to.  

I wonder if that is a correct way to use the word?

It literally means "worthy of remark", but we wouldn't consider it to be another way of saying "noteworthy" really (although, I suppose you could argue that something being worthy of commenting on it out loud is better than something worthy of just noting down).

The dictionary is largely neutral on whether it's good to be remarkable. There are times where we'd use it in either a neutral or a negative setting:

"It's a remarkable coincidence that, the day after I win a big comp, I get a text from a load of the guys from the local casino who 'just want to catch up, as they haven't spoken to me in ages'"

(Maybe that use is sarcastic, actually)

Compare that to another word: fantastic:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fantastic?q=fantastic

Although we only really use it to describe something really good, that isn't what it really means. But, usage dictates definition and the times have moved enough for the first alternative meaning to be recorded in the dictionary as being something "extraordinarily good or attractive". Think of it like wicked, sick or gay.

As to the case in hand, Ms Moyer might have been making the point herself that she likes the old, traditional, literal use of the word remarkable and threw it in to generate a little conversation among the listeners about it.

Given we are discussing her use of the word, it would seem to me her description of herself was - at least in this context - accurate. Quod erat demonstrandum, and all that.

[typhoon13]

Shipped

[tikay]

Back to the Staking, with updated payments position, & a Tourney Report from Saturday, shortly, but for now, I must revert to type, & report some non-pokery stuff.

On yesterday's Desert Island Discs, the Castaway was Alison Moyet. She is a sort of singer.

I don't enjoy her music, would not listen to it if you paid me, but I don't dislike her as a person, suppose I'm neutral really.

She did a very odd thing lately, she wanted to divest herself of years of "baggage", so she took her Computer to a shop, & asked them to completely wipe the contents. 20 years of e-Mails, songs she wrote, diaries, everything. She also threw away all her Gold Discs, & celebrity memorabilia. Not quite sure what that was about.

Anyhow.  

So Miss Moyet & Sue are chatting, & Miss M says "I'm actually quite remarkable".

At which, there was a sort of pregnant pause, almost a sharp intake of breath from Sue.

Alison is certainly not a chest-thumper, she is very modest actually, so to describe herself as "remarkable" sat a little odd.

Alison then explains, thusly.....

"Yes, remarkable. I mean, I was in the public eye, a chart-topper, so a lot of people discussed me, & made remarks about me".

So remarkable (or perhaps "remark-able") was being used in a completely different context to what I'm used to.  

I wonder if that is a correct way to use the word?

It literally means "worthy of remark", but we wouldn't consider it to be another way of saying "noteworthy" really (although, I suppose you could argue that something being worthy of commenting on it out loud is better than something worthy of just noting down).

The dictionary is largely neutral on whether it's good to be remarkable. There are times where we'd use it in either a neutral or a negative setting:

"It's a remarkable coincidence that, the day after I win a big comp, I get a text from a load of the guys from the local casino who 'just want to catch up, as they haven't spoken to me in ages'"

(Maybe that use is sarcastic, actually)

Compare that to another word: fantastic:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fantastic?q=fantastic

Although we only really use it to describe something really good, that isn't what it really means. But, usage dictates definition and the times have moved enough for the first alternative meaning to be recorded in the dictionary as being something "extraordinarily good or attractive". Think of it like wicked, sick or gay.

As to the case in hand, Ms Moyer might have been making the point herself that she likes the old, traditional, literal use of the word remarkable and threw it in to generate a little conversation among the listeners about it.

Given we are discussing her use of the word, it would seem to me her description of herself was - at least in this context - accurate. Quod erat demonstrandum, and all that.

Honestly, I'd never realised that "remarkable" meant, literally, that.

Quod rat demonstration & all that, too.

I saw a weird expression elsewhere today......

suggests a strong odour of piscine decomposition.

An odour of WHAT?
 

[RedFox]

Hi Tony

Please let me know your bank details please.

Cheers
Malcolm

[tikay]

Shipped

Confirmed RECEIVED, thank you young man.

[tikay]

Hi Tony

Please let me know your bank details please.

Cheers
Malcolm

Will be with you within the minute, Malcolm.

[TightEnd]

piscine, Latin for fish or pertaining

piscine decomposition - rotting fish

Piscine was of course made famous as the first name of the protagonist in Yann Mantel's Life of Pi

the young man's name was Piscine Molitor, and the other lads called  him "Pissing" so he shortened his name to Pi

great book, top 10 book in fact

[GreekWay]

When will we have the first report?

[tikay]

When will we have the first report?

The day after my first Tourney, which is Tuesday, fingers crossed, so, given the time difference, it'll be Wednesday afternoon here.

It'll not be "conventional" Tourney Reports, just sort of observational stuff, usually concluding with "did no good".  Certainly won't be Hand Histories or bad beat moaning, might throw in some concrete stories, photos of sticky buns, & glitter gulches though. Might be brief in-running stuff on my Twitter feed, too, "@Tony_Kendall".

Enjoyed your piece on Olympic AirWays/Lines/Air. 

[RedFox]

£65 sent - good luck

I feel very envious (not been to Vegas for 7/8 years) but no time to burn at the moment so thanks for giving me an interest.

Looking forward to reading your excellent road trips.

Cheers

Malcolm