Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I am trying to get this Diary up to date, so you'll have to bear with me as I have a lot of dtd stuff to write up, but I'll mix it up, but one more dtd thing first.

Order a pot of tea at dtd, & you have to pay for it, it's not free. But you CAN order a pot of tea! Name me a casino where you can order a pot of tea, The Broadway apart. How wonderful, a pot of tea! China pot, too. And china cups. And a sugar bowl. And a milk jug. I feel like the bloody Queen when I go there. Silver spoons too, not wooden lollipop sticks, not plastic cheapo daggers.

I mentioned this to Rob one night, the sheer elegance of a proper pot of tea, like you get in Harrods or Fortnum & Mason or Ye Olde Tea Shop in Harrogate - a value so rare in this day & age. He told me he had personally hand-picked evey single item of crockery & cutlery, & that it cost £xxxx. Attention to detail again, see?

You want food? It'll be especially cooked for YOU, & the Valet will bring you the food, & a little table, too. And she''ll do that weird, kinky thing. Smile. "Enjoy your meal, Sir".

Even the Bouncers - great big big gable-end type bruisers - smile. It'll never catch on.

Priceless.

[M3boy]

Especially vital at traffic lights, when two lanes merge into one shortly after

Unless you can do 60 in under 6 secs you'll have to filter in behind, and that is quite a dreadful experience

Personally I like all my cars to hit 60 in under 5, just to make sure

 

Also means i can make Luton in 30 minutes ( yes it saves 20 minutes, but takes years off your life!! lol)

[RED-DOG]

I am trying to get this Diary up to date, so you'll have to bear with me as I have a lot of dtd stuff to write up, but I'll mix it up, but one more dtd thing first.

Order a pot of tea at dtd, & you have to pay for it, it's not free. But you CAN order a pot of tea! Name me a casino where you can order a pot of tea, The Broadway apart. How wonderful, a pot of tea! China pot, too. And china cups. And a sugar bowl. And a milk jug. I feel like the bloody Queen when I go there. Silver spoons too, not wooden lollipop sticks, not plastic cheapo daggers.

I mentioned this to Rob one night, the sheer elegance of a proper pot of tea, like you get in Harrods or Fortnum & Mason or Ye Olde Tea Shop in Harrogate - a value so rare in this day & age. He told me he had personally hand-picked evey single item of crockery & cutlery, & that it cost £xxxx. Attention to detail again, see?

You want food? It'll be especially cooked for YOU, & the Valet will bring you the food, & a little table, too. And she''ll do that weird, kinky thing. Smile. "Enjoy your meal, Sir".

Even the Bouncers - great big big gable-end type bruisers - smile. It'll never catch on.

Priceless.

I said I fancied a chicken ceasar salad (not on the menu) and the chef whipped me one up there and then. He even did Iron a haggis. How's that for service?



Btw- The haggis is a small Scottish animal that spends it's entire life on the side of a hill. To make walking easier, it's legs are shorter on one side than the other.

[tikay]

Had a bit of a busy week last week, & filled every hour with hedonistic self-indulgence. But overdid it a bit, & that sleeping sickness thing got me again by Friday. My own fault.

Somehow I'd cocked up my Diary, & found myself in a 1pm meeting in Heathrow, & thence down the M4 to Cardiff for the APAT weekend. The M4, at 3pm on a Friday? No, not too bright.

Anyway, I get to Bristol, & hit a 1 hour, 8 mile jam at the M5 junction. And I become overwhelmingly fatigued, & just HAVE to stop & have some sleep, which is fine, I'm in no rush. But you are trapped in a jam, you can hardly pull nto the hard shoulder for a kip. I did it once, many years ago, & got a Police Caution. I said to the copper "but I was falling asleep at the wheel, I was a danger to others", but he was having none of it.

So, somehow, I stayed awake, got through the jam, & pulled into the next Services - just across the Severn Crossing (how fantastic is THAT Bridge?), & fell aleep instantly, & had a good 2 hours. Woke up right as rain, bursting for a jimmy, & needing a coffee, so went into the garage & filled up the car with diesel, got a coffee, had a jimmy, & back onto the M4.

And for some reason, suddenly realised. I'd not paid for the diesel.......SHIT!

Swung round at the next junction, toed it back to the Service Station, went in & explained. Too late, the Poliice had been informed. Bollocks. Anyways, I apologised, paid for the juice, & was careful to keep the receipt. They said to 'phone the Police & inform them I'd now paid, but I never bothered - imagine how hard it would be to find the right "desk", & expain it all. I paid for it eventually, & that's that. It is, I was informed, still an offence, even though I came back & paid, but I doubt if I'll hear any more. But if I get pulled in the next few weeks, I'll have that receipt handy, 'cos I know they'll be on my case. Quite right too.

tikay, drive-off merchant. The shame.

[M3boy]

Forgetting to pay for fuel - priceless Tony

Tx for that - made me smile

[tikay]

Arrived in Cardiff, APAT had put me up at the splendid Future Inn, superb, it meant I could abandon the car for the weekend, I don't mind the walk from the Future Inn to the Grosvenor, it's only a mile or two. Roughly.

I'd played all-night Cash three of the previous 4 nights, made a bit of dough, too, but it had caught up with me, & I decided "no internet tonight". I failed in that, & did my e-Mails - they pile up so badly otherwise, & decided enough was enough, & went to bed, & decided to watch a bit of telly.

Telly, when I was young, was an addiction in my Parents house. It went on when we got up & went off when we went to bed. Some upbringing for a kid that, 24/7 mindless tosh, but I think most families are the same these days, more's the pity. But I weaned myself off it, quite deliberately, it was mashing my mind, &, I've not watched telly in years, & don't miss it one bit, rather like alcohol really. I watch a bit on Xmas Day, & New Years Day, but the Nature/Wildlife spectaculars apart, it's all tosh. (To me). Talking of addictions, by the bye, I'm doing well with curing myself of my mobile phone addiction, & never took it into a cardroom once last week, not even APAT at Cardiff over two days. I'm well pleased with myself.

Anyway, I found a channel - BBC Four? - which showed three - THREE - great pop/modern music documentaries, back to back, they were terrific. Is this what BBC Four does, all the time? If so, I may watch more often.

And as a bonus, I watched a nature jobbie about a woman & an otter, she was reseraching otters, & sort of "mothered" a baby otter. This little otter was gorgeous, kind of like a dog. It smiled, wagged it's tail, barked, ran round in circles of delight when given a fish, even swam with it's "mother". Eventually it grew up, & ran away - or swam away - all rather predictable, but still quite sad, & I cried my eyes out watching it. Not for the sadness, but the sheer beauty of nature. They showed otters, & kingfishers, herons, all sorts. Beautifully filmed. I'd watch that kinda stuff 24/7.

[tikay]

If you have sent me a PM in the last week, apologies for the lack of a reply. Bear with me, I'll reply soonest, I'm just struggling to fit everything in, life's too good, & I know it won't last.

[Ironside]

BBC Four is the high brow stuff and is ideal for your taste


bit of forgien films but mainly documentary style programming about bridge building and old musicians

[TightEnd]

BBC4 is excellent, minority viewing but interesting

take a look at the New BBC Iplayer feature on their website

programmes from all BBC channels over the last 7 days, to watch while you are playing online etc

Excellent service, all the BBC4 programmes are on there

[tikay]

One of the Documentaries on BBC Four was about the emergence of pop music in the 60's & 70's, which was my pop-era. Great, great, stuff.

Times have changed beyond belief! Sandie Shaw - she was, really, famous because she did this amazingly edgey, attitudey thing - she did not wear shoes! Imagine, no shoes. And she was front page in all the newspapers, because of that.

And Brian Ferry. Still as cool today, as he was then, with the sharp suits, loosened tie, top shirt button undone, hair casually perfect. If I could be "an image", I'd be him, or Clapton in that cream suit, when he had his hair short. Or Steven Tyler, or Lennon in his anonymous New York days, with the beret & short hair & NHS glasses. In later years, I'd settle for that guy in Lightning Seeds, with the designer stubble & chessy glasses, too.

Noddie Holder was vox-popping, I never realised what a bright guy he was, he so understood the market he was serving.

And they went through the various Beatles Managers, Epstein, Klein, etc. Terrific stuff.

Some donkey from The Who  - Townsend? showed himself to be the eejit he is, but I suppose it takes all sorts. And they had the world's blandest, naffest, refuse-to-move-with-the-times, "I've always had my hair as daft as this so why should I change it?" load of tosh that goes by the name of Brian May, still trying to live the Queen Dream, rather like Ernie Wise did with M & W after Eric died. I don't like Brian May, by the way.

Before that, they did a quite splendid piece about how "Dark Side of the Moon" was made - it was sheer brilliance, & I guess I'd better go buy another copy of it - my 5th or 6th, to explore the new nuances I saw them construct. Gilmour & Mason have aged quite wonderfully, they look in peak condition, thickened out a bit, understandably, & look quite modern, & have not tried to cling to their past, Brian May style, Waters not quite so, he seems a bit loopy to me. To see Gilmour with a guitar in his hands is to see someone at one with his instrument, it's an extension of him, he caresses all gentle-Jesus like, & makes wonderful music.

Next up was a Bowie docu, about the "death" of Ziggy Stardust, but it was a bit arty for me, although he's another super-cool guy I've always wanted to be.

Please God, don't let me become addicted to telly again, but I did enjoy that stuff a lot.

[RED-DOG]

Some donkey from The Who  - Townsend? showed himself to be the eejit he is, but I suppose it takes all sorts.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=29896.msg625375#msg625375

[Bongo]

BBC4 is excellent, minority viewing but interesting

take a look at the New BBC Iplayer feature on their website

programmes from all BBC channels over the last 7 days, to watch while you are playing online etc

Excellent service, all the BBC4 programmes are on there

Bit of trivia: It's also been accused of giving illegal state aid to Microsoft.

[tikay]

Some donkey from The Who  - Townsend? showed himself to be the eejit he is, but I suppose it takes all sorts.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=29896.msg625375#msg625375

That's it! He's about 60, & still thinks it's grown-up & big to swear on telly, presumably because he lacks vocabulary & articulation. And anything between his ears.

[Tonji]

BBC4 is excellent, minority viewing but interesting

take a look at the New BBC Iplayer feature on their website

programmes from all BBC channels over the last 7 days, to watch while you are playing online etc

Excellent service, all the BBC4 programmes are on there

Agree Tighty, the little quality thats on TV is found here. I'm in the minority that loves foreign films, so much more interesting than any Hollywood tosh.

[tikay]

BBC4 is excellent, minority viewing but interesting

take a look at the New BBC Iplayer feature on their website

programmes from all BBC channels over the last 7 days, to watch while you are playing online etc

Excellent service, all the BBC4 programmes are on there

Agree Tighty, the little quality thats on TV is found here. I'm in the minority that loves foreign films, so much more interesting than any Hollywood tosh.

Purlease! Hollywood IS "foreign".......I hope.