Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Think you'd like this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8703/index.html

What a great story that is. Although I can't help but think it more suited to the 'other' diary, given that there is no mention of either concrete or trains.

Did you confuse the two?

Thank you David. As it happens though, I am familiar with this story.

If you want a surprise, check out the price of Mercedes G Wagons, both new & second hand.

I think they have pushed up the trim a bit since that one was built.  I am fairly sure they used to be around the same as a range rover (though even those are quite different cars than they were when I was younger).  So they have an AMG Version that isn't going to be anything close to what they are driving.  AMG make very powerful and fast Mercedes cars if you aren't aware.  

I was a bit surprised when I just looked up the cost, & it seems a bit of an anomoly, an AMG boat/barge. In West Africa, the SUV of choice seems to be the Toyota Land Cruiser, another boat cum barge affair.

[tikay]

Congratulations on 40k!

Took me a while to work out what that meant, but I got there eventually. Shame that 35,000 of them are probably mine though.

Did you win your Chess thing yesterday?

I must say, I've not slept all night, I was tilted to death by that matter we won't mention on SCD last night. An ouitrage, an absolute outrage. Sick, so so sick.

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[Tal]

Behave!

I did manage to win my chess game, although the team lost the match. I'll do a piece on the chess thread if time permits. It was a mad game. There's an old quote by Saveilly Tartakower that chess is won by the player who makes the second to last mistake. It was one of those yesterday.

[tikay]

Mutual approval at it's most awkward......

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[sunny1]

 

[tikay]

Bernie approves, too.

If you think about it, Bernie is in quite a tricky spot. F1 is a major enterprise, & he can hardly pull the plug on the Russian F1 GP, after he personally negotiated the deal with Putin way back. That was before the Ukraine affair, & MH117, of course.

I suppose we can take the high ground & say "cancel it", but if you were in Bernie's shoes......

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[Tal]

If you ran a major sporting operation with the aid of only those of incontrovertible virtue, you'd find it difficult to get anything done.

[RED-DOG]

If you ran a major sporting operation with the aid of only those of incontrovertible virtue, you'd find it difficult to get anything done.

There's a difference between incontrovertible virtue and unconscionable immorality.

[Rod Paradise]

Saw this one and thought it belonged on here:

The man who invented the cryptic crossword has died. The " real fun crazy interment" (7), will be on Thursday.

[tikay]

Saw this one and thought it belonged on here:

The man who invented the cryptic crossword has died. The " real fun crazy interment" (7), will be on Thursday.

Very good, & easy enough, even for me.

Think this may be my favourite funeral photograph.

The guy had been a JCB driver all his life.

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[AndrewT]

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A brutal leader, famed for his rule with an iron fist, his entire rise to power littered with underhand and strongarm tactics, criticised by many but proving impossible to remove from power is photographed with the President of Russia.

[tikay]

Andrew OWNS.......

Fair to say, those 2 guys do have a habit for getting whatever they want, & doing whatever it takes to get their way.

[neeko]

Andrew OWNS.......

Fair to say, those 2 guys do have a habit for getting whatever they want, & doing whatever it takes to get their way.

I think Putin can learn more about being a dictator from Bernie than vice versa.

[tikay]

Andrew OWNS.......

Fair to say, those 2 guys do have a habit for getting whatever they want, & doing whatever it takes to get their way.

I think Putin can learn more about being a dictator from Bernie than vice versa.

Bernie, whilst trying to cut a deal with someone, was once quoted as saying....

"You can have anything you like, as long as you pay too much for it"

[bobby1]

Morning Tony,

For a nation that most people think don't like/understand/ won't watch because there aren't enough goals in there were over 55,000 fans at the Seattle Sounders v Vancouver Whitecaps game last Friday night. That was for a game that theoretically the Sounders didn't have much to play for but is considered a rivalry.

The atmosphere at sporting events over here is just so different, they promote respect to each other and have frequent sign, .scoreboard messages promoting good behaviour  and to be honest it just seems to be the natural mindset of the spectators at all the games I have attended.

I sat next to 4 Whitecaps fans in the regular Seattle section that cheered and shouted for their team and not once got any abuse or threatening comments. Was more banter and jokes instead. They were celebrating their 40 year anniversary and had a roll call before the game of past players and they gave out a golden scarf to Alan Hudson, that's seemed to be their kind of induction to their hall of fame type thing.( yes, that Alan Hudson)

The crowd was really eclectic and had a lot of families including youngsters, sport just seems so much more a family event than dad goes to football today that it perhaps is back home.

The game was awful, serves me right for taking In a soccer  game :-) and the Whitecaps won 1-0.  One thing that was interesting was their were a set of corporate tables between the crowd and the pitch, decked out with company names and cutlery. These started to get full and I asked the guy next to me why the tables were there and he confirmed that companies hire them to take staff/clients to the games. I mentioned that in the UK the corporate boxes were usually high in the stands and he just matter of flatly said that sounded terrible 'what's the point of putting your fans that are paying the most to watch the game and paying for guests as far away from the action as that'. when the Sounders  players came out to warm up they were just yards away and it must be part of their role to talk to some of the corporate tables and pose for photos before the game. There were no getting out their mobiles to stop the fans chatting to them, they just came out ten minutes before the Whitecaps did and did their required PR stuff before warming up.

When the game started they ate and had drinks brought to them by table staff, just looked a brill idea.

The match featured a good few players known in the UK, Clint Dempsey and Obefami Martins were the strike force for Seattle tho the body language between them looked very poor. Dempsey worked his socks of and Martins was awful as there seemed a lot of tension between them. Pretty sure the Obrien in the Whitecaps team was the guy that played CB for Newcastle too.

They just have such a way of treating sports like main events with all the fireworks and cheerleaders, clean football chants etc. At each new kick off they had a flame thrower type thing that fired a stream of fire into the air at the top of each goalpost and fireworks went of when they kicked of both halves. All the loud music and chanting the players names as they were introduced etc, it's more of an event here than just a sports match. Was a strange to see tailgating at a soccer match too.

There is talk of London getting an NFL franchise in the next 5 to 10 years but it wouldn't amaze me if the US got a Premier league team or two in the future. Everything just seems in place from infrastructure and fan base and the logistics of getting soccer teams to travel to the US to play games is much easier than it is to get NFL teams to travel to London.

Cheers