Author Topic: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog  (Read 200094 times)

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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #480 on: July 01, 2013, 15:16:24 PM »
So...I have a HUGE amount of travel research pretty much ready to roll pending confirmations.

Cardiff Travel Tips are already up and I"ll be knocking out the UKCOAP list fairly shortly.

Dublin...I booked the hotel on the day of the formal announcement and rammed in the flight booking this afternoon. Flight arrives about 5pm on Friday in Dublin which isn"t necessarily a bad thing.

I figure 20-30 minute cab ride to Baggot Street which means I"ll be in Larry Murphys by 5.45 at the latest and then the carnage can commence.

Fortunately, Aer Lingus can sort me out from Southend which is a darn site easier for me that any other, so called, London airport.

Unfortunately, flights to Prague don"t go from SEN so LHR or LGW will be the choice. Not sure whether I will be "required" for the full 5 days or I"ll just be able to make it for the long weekend. It"s a "must attend" one for me since I missed Tallinn (DAMN IT!).
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #481 on: July 03, 2013, 12:53:51 PM »
Dublin is booked

Area Map: http://goo.gl/maps/fYs3Y

Hotel:

Latchford Apartments (just steps from Larry Murphy"s)
Studio: £170 for 3 nights (free cancellation)

Flights:

Flight   EI3307 - Fri 27 Sep 2013
Departs:   London/Southend (SEN) 15:10
Arrives:   Dublin - Terminal 2 (DUB) 16:55

Flight   EI3306 - Mon 30 Sep 2013
Departs:   Dublin - Terminal 2 (DUB) 13:10
Arrives:   London/Southend (SEN) 14:45
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SirPercival

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #482 on: July 03, 2013, 13:26:03 PM »
Free cancelation? Does this mean you have reserved your seat room without a fee?

Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #483 on: July 03, 2013, 14:10:35 PM »

Free cancelation? Does this mean you have reserved your seat room without a fee?


Yes. Room booked through Booking.com. No cancellation fee.

The seat I will sort separately. I
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #484 on: July 29, 2013, 10:08:50 AM »

Took the car into my local garage this morning and, as I have had to do all week, commuted to work via omnibus and choo-choo train.

A lot is riding on the outcome of the diagnosis....

If it is something easy, perhaps as little a couple of hundred, I"d wince but bear it.

If it"s in the half-grand region, Prague would be in severe doubt but I reckon I could still swing Vegas.

If it"s in the grand region, I would have to extract the digit, bite the bullet and do the sensible thing and cancel Vegas.

Any more than that and November/December was looking like a very long time to spend at home.

The phone rang at midday.

"Mr Davis?", the greasemonkey enquired.

"T"is I", I replied

"Baht yer motah".

"Aah, yes. How is it looking?", I asked with some trepidation (see above).

"It"s ready for you to pick up".

"Oh...that seemed quick", I opined with hope rising.

"Yeah, it was just a stone caught behind the back plate".

"So nothing major wrong then?", I queried with hopes soaring.

"Nope, all sorted"

"How much to I owe you?"...I had to ask.

"£30 should cover it"

Vegas baby, Vegas.



There is a corollary to the story above which had my heart beating a little faster.

I"d arranged to collect the car on Saturday but, due to some construction work being done, the garage wasn"t going to be open that day so they arranged for me to collect the keys from the unrelated car showroom next door.

This was not problem but I jumped in the motor only to find the ba*tard wouldn"t start.

Fortunately, so far, a quick jump start from a battery pack had me going this morning but I had visions of another (minor) wedge going out of my pocket for a new battery.

Hopefully, it was just a glitch.

New tyre this week before the Cardfiff run and, since, these guys have been quite efficient I may have some minor trim work done before DTD at the end of August.

Enough car related stuff, it"s depressing.
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #485 on: August 07, 2013, 15:02:42 PM »
Saw comment on Curlarge"s blog to the effect the he (and I suspect by extension most of us) don"t blog enough.

True dat!

We (certainly I) only write about sh!te stuff that has happened to me AND may be of interest to the APAT community (or at least a vocal subset thereof).

For me, other than busting out of Coventry on the first hand and getting "Sofakinged" at Cardiff...it ain"t been much.

Looking to the future though, there"s a  lot coming up.

DTD (Team shenanigans)
Dublin (Oh yeah)
Vegas (after a dry October)
Prague (after a liquid Vegas)

There should be something to write about in there...you"d think.

Further out...I dunno.

Not sure about the Team event in Feb. My old LPM mates are pretty widespread by now and getting a team up might be an issue.

LPPL Festival of Pub Poker - I need to know more.

WCOAP - Aspers in Stratford is probably the closest casino to me and yet I"ve never been...so it might be a giggle.

WCOAP - TBC - Watch this space then. :)

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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #486 on: August 19, 2013, 15:18:44 PM »
Reserved Akcent Hotel in Prague for 5 days just in case.

Not many left on Booking.com so getting in early (with free cancellation) might be best.
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #487 on: November 08, 2013, 17:42:37 PM »
Las Vegas - 7th November 2013

I'm A Workin' On The Railroad

A relatively quiet night at the Gatwick Marriot with the rest of the reprobates where I retired fairly early to get what turned out to be a poor nights sleep.

I don't know what it was but I only got a couple of hours at a time which made for a somewhat disturbed night.

Whatever, with that I made it downstairs to meet Ger and the others in time for the early shuttle to the airport. Check-in was a breeze and we were soon esconsced in The Wetherspoons for a spot of breakfast.

The flight was a few minutes late getting off but the pilot did a good job of getting us there at the scheduled arrival time..the landing was pretty good too..I kind of apply a rating of my own to those and this was a solid 8.

Of course, getting down in one piece earns you a 4. :)

Service on board was excellent as always and despite a warning that we might have delays in clearing Immigration we found no queue whatsoever and were through in seconds rather than minutes...or longer as has been the case in the past.

I left the others once through customs to find my pre-booked VIP shuttle while they collected themselves together for the stretch limo.

My ride was fair sized town car and although I did have to share (which I expected), my driver, Mark did a bang up job.

Arrival at Main Street Station was in decent time and check in was hassle free. I asked for a quiet room and got one on the 14th floor which should be well clear of any traffic noise or racket from the Fremont Street Experience.

Good size room, with a nice seating area.






The slight downside, if you will..It's called Main Street Station for a reason.

It's on Main Street and it's near the statton, in fact...it backs on to the railroad so the occasional train passing by can be a factor. If you are paying attention you can hear it but I don't think it will be a huge issue for me...or at least I hope not.



After getting myself sorted in the room I had to deal with glitch with my phone. No reception.

I fired off an email to the people at MrSimCard...thank you Wifi...only to get the reply that I'd told them I need activation in December.

Doh!

Still, they brought my activation forward with no hassles or extra cost and I was ready to rock an roll in a few minutes.

Great customer service there...just saying!

After that I tried to grab 20 winks but gave up on a proper nap...it just wasn't happening, so I washed up and headed down to the 777 Brewpub for a couple of beers and something to eat.

Southern Fried Chicken Tenders and a couple of cold ones $20 including a decent tip...the beers were $2...probably because there was football on or something...I wasn't going to argue.

However, the food and beer has a soporific effect plus the long flight and time difference meant that I was wiped out by 9pm.

I wandered back to my room for what I hoped would be a good night's rest
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fandango

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #488 on: November 08, 2013, 17:57:00 PM »
Good to hear you all arrived safely.. Love the updates always, just makes me more jealous lol..

Have fun run well  :)
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #489 on: November 10, 2013, 15:32:43 PM »
Las Vegas - 8th November 2013

Horses For Courses


The relatively early night seemed to get me over any jet-lag or time difference issues that might have been an issue and the occasional train during the night didn't disturb my sleep.

I still didn't leave the room until late morning and I wandered a hundred yards or so to the Plaza and the Hash House A Go Go for a late breakfast / brunch.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Bacon Bloody Mary..very nice but the first sip nearly took my head off...that's one spicy drink.



I decided to keep the bacon motif going with BBBLT..that's a BLT with extra bacon.

I arrived and I finally managed to bring it under control but sticking a knife through it...Walking Dead style.



Having polished that off I got a message from Curlarge in response to posting the image of the Bloody Mary on FB and he rocked up with SusiePea. While they were enjoying their own Bloody Marys, Ger and Glenn arrived and let us know that the rest of the gang were already at Binions so we all headed over.

I think I was the only one who wasn't going to play their 2pm tournament but we had the bar at Binions pretty much surrounded with APATers all playing VP while waiting for the tourney to start.

Eventually, they all went off to play and I wandered Fremont Street for a while. I scoped out the Sigma Derby and quickly became addicted. It's a silly old fashioned game but people can get quite emotional about 5 mechanical horses.



Continuing on I located the other potential venues for further activities but spent a couple of hours in the pleasant afternoon sunshine at Park on Fremont. Cool little hangout.







Could have been a stop on the Bloody Mary Tour.


Eventually, I made my way back to Binions to see what the state of play was. Apparently, APATers had made up a good 50% of the field and I sucked back a few brews and chatted to bust-outs while waiting for the deals to get done.

I led some of the party over to the D for Sigma Derby but it looked like not everyone was as addicted as I was so we headed over to Hogs & Heifers.

In my youth I think I would have enjoyed it more. Oh the bartender we had was a real looker and she could shake it like it doesn't get shaken very often but the music was so loud we were all screaming at one another just to order a round...which was mostly done with hand gestures. I guess I'm just too old for that environment any more..and from the looks of it, I wasn't alone.

We only had a couple of beers and a round of shots before it became apparent that everyone would be glad to call it a night.

I wished the rest of the lads a good night and walked back to MSS for some food at the 777 Brewpub before getting my head down.
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #490 on: November 10, 2013, 15:36:26 PM »
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AJDUK

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #491 on: November 10, 2013, 20:19:26 PM »
Good read as always Paulie. How"s your poker?
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MintTrav

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #492 on: November 10, 2013, 20:24:32 PM »
5th place - Portsmouth Snooker Club £10 rebuy

Liz Lieu borrowed my pen - 01/06/2013

Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #493 on: November 10, 2013, 21:02:29 PM »

Good read as always Paulie. How"s your poker?


Other than Sigma Derby I haven"t gambled a penny yet...no Poker, Blackjack or PaiGow.

I expect that to change today.
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Paulie_D

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Re: The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog
« Reply #494 on: November 12, 2013, 17:49:01 PM »
« Last Edit: November 14, 2013, 07:41:46 AM by Paulie_D »
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