Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Wow, what a week......

I was Offline from Friday afternoon until Wednesday, so much to do, so lttle time.

I need to get this Diary up to date now.

Rewind to last Wednesday.

[tikay]

I had to go down to Brighton last Wednesday, to sort out the final details for the Sky Live Three Event at the Rendezvous Casino.

I collected a colleague from Sky's massive building on the Great West Road in Isleworth, after stopping overnight in Luton, to break the journey South. Derbyshiire to Brighton & back is a bloody long drive.

We met some other colleagues in the Casino, & had a terrific meeting with Leo, the Cardroom Manager, & Campbell, the GM. Leo is incredibly enthusiastic, & we got everything we wanted. I took pages & pages of notes, & they were gonna need typing up, & confirming to everyone. There are so many "Departments" in Sky, it's quite an art to keep everyone properly informed as to what's going on.

We finished the Meet at about 3pm, & on a whim, I decided to go take a look at one of my favourite buildings in the UK - Roedean School. It's a Private Girls School.

It's not so much that it's a grand building, but it sits so well, it's sited right on top of the cliffs, overlooking the Channel, with a clear, unobstructed frontage from the School to the Sea, interrupted only by the A259, though that is invisible from the school.

During WW2, it was temporarily used by the Royal Navy, as "HMS Vernon, the Admirality Torpedo, Mining & Electrical Training Establishment".

It's a really lovely building, so beautifully sited, so when next in Brighton, you really should take a quick look. It's about 2 miles East of the Town Centre, just past the Marina.

[tikay]

.

[tikay]

.

[tikay]

I love this pic - it says so much about bygone days.

[The_nun]

They were never all boarding that plane, surly not.

[Dingdell]

I love this pic - it says so much about bygone days.

Wow yes - I wore a boater to school in the summer and a beret in the winter. Wonderful memories - thanks Tikay.

[tikay]

Eventually, we left Brighton, & headed North.

I had already decided we would stop off at the Hickstead Hotel & have a coffee - this Hotel is just lovely, and it's just a few hundred yards off the A23.

It has a little bird sanctuary, with "hides" & suchlike, & some marshy wetlands to encourage waders. It also has a decent-sized pond, inhabited by quite a variety of ducks & birds.

We were there about an hour, sat under a grand old oak tree in the garden, after a really beauitiful day's sunshine, & the animal kingdom was in it's element.

I spotted......

Rabbits

Mallard

Canada Geese

Cormorants

Swans

Magpies

Swifts

Swallows

And my current favourite bird, the Blackbird. I prefer the Male Blackbird, it's jet black (the hen is brown), & it's only in the last year or two I've come to learn & appreciate the different "body language" different birds exhibit. Blackbirds fittle-fattle about on lawns, foraging for insects, beetles, worms, & fly very low, just above the ground, sort of swoopy-woopy, to their adjacent nest, usually in a hedgerow at fairly low level. They are very "busy" birds, & sing beautifully. I learned only yesterday, from Tom, that they are seriously territorial.

[tikay]

.

[tikay]

So, eventually, it was time to rejoin the rat-race & get back on the A23, & drop my colleague off in Feltham, via the rush-hour clogged M23, M25 & A30.

I was set to head home after that, M25, M40, M1, but my will is weak, & I ended up stopping off at Luton, to play their little Wednesday night Tourney.

No sooner I walked in, then I got invited into their DC game, & I was a bit hesitant, as my "form" is awful right now. Weak-willed as ever, I sat down, & soon ran £500 up to £1,300 via some extraordinary strokes of luck, just "good cards, good situations".

The most bizarre was heads up against Lalit, when I was showing, in Super-Stud, A-2-3-4, & he was chasing some sort of high.  I hot perfect every street, & the 5 came on fifth to give me the cherished wheel. Lalit's hand? Trip Fives! (Which failed to fill). Scoop.

I ran the £500 to £1,300, than back to £300, then back to £1,500, & it was chucking-out time before we were done. I'm a bit coy about leaving Cash-Games when I'm nicely ahead, it feels wrong. I enjoyed that nice profit though. Needed it, too.

[tikay]

Nature has grumpy days, too. This spectacular picture is the recent Volcanic Eruption in Chile, mixed with a violent electrical storm. Powerful stuff.

[tikay]

A better Blackbird pic.

[tikay]

And a Song-Thrush.

[tikay]

A New-Zealand Robin. How beautiful is that?

[tikay]

Thursday was e-Mail "catch-up" day, I missed all Wednesday, so they had piled up. Some days I get just a dozen or so, others there seem to be scores & scores, sometimes as many as 80 or 100 by the time I've replied to the replies.

Sometimes I get a little tired of all the hassly stuff, the complaints, the moans & groans, & I feel like quitting, & just run away & do my Scotland Coastal Trip. But generally, it's OK, & most of it is reasonably natured stuff, which I'm fine with. I just seem to have lost my tolerance to life's negative people, they only see the downside in everything, who don't realise how lucky they are, what a wonderful earth we inhabit. We are all addicted to Poker, to a greater or lesser degree, but we need to keep it in perspective. It's just a game. How can they get so arsey & smll-minded about a game? There was the mother & father of a barney at DTD last night, over 200 chips in a Tourney.....I mean, ffs......200 chips!

I spent the evening working, & arguing with folks Online about stupid & totally unimportant stuff. I get so cross when people steal my precious time on irrelevant nonsense. 2 hours arguing is 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. It's something only the more elderly people realise.

And so to Friday, which was one of the most enjoyable days I can recall in many-a-moon. I'm afraid this episode may get a bit boring, but I had the most wonderful day........