Bill and Ted's Excellentes Aventures

[edgascoigne]

Ian,

To get from the City to Heathrow, the Piccadilly Line (1973 rolling stock, 6 car sets) is easily the quickest (45 minutes) if you don't mind mixing with the general public.

Highly recommended. The train, not the public.

Depends very much on your starting point Teeks. If you are near a,Bakerloo line stop then I would go up to Paddington then the Heathrow Express. I think even with a single change required on the tube (ie. Starting on the viccy line or whatever) that route may still shade it.

Bonus point for the answer to this....

Which two tube stops feature all five vowels?

Will write a post on puntering and pokering soon.

[Tal]

South Ealing and Mansion House.

Some recriprocals for your flight:

1. Give me a nine letter, one syllable word.
2. What connects inept, dissaray, inadvertent, innocent, dismay, unthinkable and impeccable (and others)?
3. Who is the only US President whose full name includes all of the letters of the word criminal? (I'm not including Clinton, as his real surname at birth was Blythe)

[tikay]

Ian,

To get from the City to Heathrow, the Piccadilly Line (1973 rolling stock, 6 car sets) is easily the quickest (45 minutes) if you don't mind mixing with the general public.

Highly recommended. The train, not the public.

Depends very much on your starting point Teeks. If you are near a,Bakerloo line stop then I would go up to Paddington then the Heathrow Express. I think even with a single change required on the tube (ie. Starting on the viccy line or whatever) that route may still shade it.

Bonus point for the answer to this....

Which two tube stops feature all five vowels?

Will write a post on puntering and pokering soon.

Yes, fair point Ed.

If you can access Paddington easily, I agree, the Heathrow Express runs every 15 minutes, & the journey to T1 & T3 takes just 15 minutes, or 21 minutes if you go to T5. Platforms 6 & 7 at Paddington are dedicated to HE.

Uniquely, Heathrow Express is NOT part of National Rail, it is owned by Heathrow Holdings, (formerly BAA), & so is not subject to franchising. VERY punctual, too, over 90% punctuality.

Even better - it has a First Class option (£52 return), & from time to time, I treat myself to that trip, just for the buzz.

[RED-DOG]

              So looks like Ed has phoenixed the diary from our trip to France last year for some laughs this year in Galway. Well let's start with some background. Ed booked some time ago for a Monday to Friday gig built around the 'Galway Race Week' which I think is a big horse racing festival. For those of you who don't know Ed knows EVERYTHING about odds,value,price movements, the flow of money,jockeys,owners,conditions.....the list is endless.The only thing he cannot do is pick a winner. Apart from that he is a good guy to go racing with. His obsessive nerdish personality is perfect for horse racing.
            Anticipating huge losses on the track he expects to be able to win it back playing cash games all night with ' drunk Irish punters' over in Galway for the racing. He has high EV hopes here. If he wins more in the evenings than he loses in the days it will be a nut best week and he will return to poncy Wimbledon Village with enough cash to buy a frozen organic yoghurt from the corner shop.
              Last week I decided it would be good to watch this disaster unfold and checking my calendar saw I could escape the corporate machine at about 12.45 on Wednesday. I could make the dash from somewhere in London ( I could tell you but try not to mix work with pleasure) to Heathrow for the 15.15pm Aer Lingus  flight to Shannon. This will not be straight forward and still trying to work out best strategy for the dash from the City to Heathrow.
              Assuming safe catch of flight I have hired a car for the trip to be picked up at Shannon. I actually enjoy driving on holiday as I do,so little of it during the week.  ( slim).
              Drive to Galway and check into very expensive hotel ( due to race week or because its 5 star) whereas Ed has gone for some student digs to keep his costs right down as this trip is all about him winning money . Really ? I VERY MUCH look forward to updating both readers on his P&L account for this trip.
               At the moment I have a flight that is due to,return on the Saturday which is a bit silly as having got out there it would be more sensible to stay for a while and as I have actually booked holiday I could stay all week................
                So that's about it for now. I will keep a Guinness tally and once Ed shows me how to upload from my phone to this site I will also post the odd picture of Guinness glasses, very small towers of chips and Ed looking very serious if a little like a nob.
            I do hope loads of Blondes win loads is seats on DTD and make it over for what I am hoping will be an hilarious week. Any race tips,pub recommendations welcome....................

Lurve it Ian.

"( Slim )" Hahaha!

[iangascoigne]

   The starting point of the dash across town is Chancery Lane / St. Paul's  so favouring a quick cab to Holburn and Picaddilly line to Heathrow. Let the adventure begin. It's the journey not the destination. Just read up on the Race Week. Looks as if half of Ireland descends on Galway for the week. There also looks to be some wonderful beaches in the vicinity so glad I have hired a car. Obviously I will be spending a lot of time exploring the area as it would be stupid to travel to one of the nicest places in the world and spend all your time playing poker and drinking Guinness. That would be moronic.

[iangascoigne]

Click to see full-size image.

[iangascoigne]

    Sorry for the random picture but result of photo training
by Red Dog at DTD. Mixture of Photo Bucket and fat thumbs. Will at least take the shirt to Galway. Well,Ed will.

[TightEnd]

What became of these guys taken under our hero's wing at an early age?

Click to see full-size image.

[edgascoigne]

Right then...I've realised I've been rather quiet having promised a post on poker-ing and punter-ing a short time ago. This has been to what I believe in the trade is referred to as "writer's block".

In short, I'm not too sure what to say. When I started this thread ahead of the Deauville trip a while back there was a clear subject matter to babble on about - the French. Love them or hate them, and readers of yesteryear will see Father certainly oscillates between the two, I know them and their country well enough to write in a (hopefully?!) relatively amusing fashion. Now, with my departure to Galway imminent, I am at something of a loss. I have a huge respect for the regular diarists on here. Be it Tikay, Red-Dog, Alex, Sean, Nik, Matt, Monda, Tomsom (apologies to those I have left off) they take their time to post, poking their head above the parapet of public judgement each time, just so as to mildly amuse us, their viewing public. So thank you.

The promised piece on punter-ing may take a while to construct. My livelihood remains in the industry and I need to be a little careful about what I write, and so unfortunately when I get around to writing something I am likely to remain on the cautious side of full disclosure. The industry fascinates me, and I have now spent five great years working closely with a subject matter of great interest - as I'm sure most will agree if you have a passion for your 'job' the whole thing is infinitely more pleasurable.

Poker-ing however is something I can certainly talk about freely....so here we go.

IN BEFORE TL; DR
I mentioned previously that my beginnings in the game were in the 6th form common room, before playing SnG's once every couple of weeks at University. I then played a bit at Notts Gala, before attending DTD when back home. I was smitten with the game immediately. I like to think I am highly numerate, I am competitive (although in an increasingly controlled manner). I like 'solving' problems. I like doing well at things. The game could have been designed to fulfil a role for a mind like mine.

Viewed through the other end of the lens the above are all a curse. With a grasp of the numbers at hand in poker you can easily draw conclusions as to the approach of others that are often incorrect. A competitive nature can be difficult to appease in a game of which a large part is losing. Not every problem has a 'correct' solution, rather there are huge areas of grey and uncertainty. Normally you lose in tournaments.

My 'eureka' moment came around the time of the Deauville trip. I'm not sure what clicked, but I think I grew up a bit. Where once my focus was hugely introverted, I began to pay attention to others, take an interest in their behaviour, listen to what they say, watch what they do. Cambridge taught me intense focus, an ability to process vast amounts of information, distillation of this information and subsequent presentation of it. It taught me to value success above failure, it taught me to be results orientated. My time at Cambridge in many ways delayed me from 'growing up'.

Where once I focused on myself probably to the prejudice of others I have grown out of that. It's been a combination of things - I have a wonderful partner, a (relatively) settled lifestyle, a clear view of what I want my future to be. Above all of this I know exactly what I value in life. We can delve into all this trippy-hippy nonsense at a later date if anyone can be arsed to listen....

Then it happened. When at the poker table instead of being self-centred, introverted, focused on reasoning through specificities of the 'world according to Ed'....I looked at others. Talked to them. Listened to them. Understood them.

I am not Tom Dwan. I am not Phil Ivey. I don't have anywhere near the technical proficiencies of any number of players. But, through screwing my head on properly; focusing on other people both in life and at the table, all of a sudden I started to win. Not huge sums, not life changing money, but a sustainable amount at a rate that seems reasonable in comparison with the data I have consulted (there's the newly controlled competitive streak!)



Sorry, this is more waffle than one of Ian's posts, and I'm sober as a judge. I guess if I could boil this down to one key point: in life and in poker think about the people around you. They're more important than you might think.

[edgascoigne]

Boom. Rungood initiated.

Plane kisses the  tarmac at 1344, I make the (hourly) bus at 1355 - strong!

Edit: free wifi on the bus and the sun is out - life heater confirmed.

[tikay]

Enjoy it, Ian.

Was great to see you at the weekend, & I hope you got along nicely with the chap I introduced you to, Adam, the Lawyer bloke chappie. His wife is a Corporate Lawyer, too. They live in Blackburn of all places. Not sure why, but it seems hard to imagine Lawyers living in Blackburn. I thought they were all chimney sweeps up there.  

[RED-DOG]

Boom. Rungood initiated.

Plane kisses the  tarmac at 1344, I make the (hourly) bus at 1355 - strong!

Edit: free wifi on the bus and the sun is out - life heater confirmed.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[cambridgealex]

Boom. Rungood initiated.

Plane kisses the  tarmac at 1344, I make the (hourly) bus at 1355 - strong!

Edit: free wifi on the bus and the sun is out - life heater confirmed.

That IS rungood!

Enjoy Ed. Won't see you there unless I win the friday night DTD package, but have a good one!

[iangascoigne]

  Alex to win package on Friday. Ed to post pictures this evening. Me to catch plane on Wednesday. What could possibly go wrong ?

[iangascoigne]

Enjoy it, Ian.

Was great to see you at the weekend, & I hope you got along nicely with the chap I introduced you to, Adam, the Lawyer bloke chappie. His wife is a Corporate Lawyer, too. They live in Blackburn of all places. Not sure why, but it seems hard to imagine Lawyers living in Blackburn. I thought they were all chimney sweeps up there.  

Confirmed nice couple.Natalie new follower on Twitter taking me up to about 30 followers. As for living in Blackburn not much to add. Cannot imagine there is a lot of work for Corporate Lawyers in that wood of the necks. :-)