Vegas

Well I just got back from Las Vegas, we had a great time.

My first stop in Vegas is always the New York New York hotel where I get myself a slice..or 2...of the best pizza with a beer and start to chill out and get ready for Vegas! I can't remember the name of the pizza place but it is just opposite the Times Square pub, its good pizza.

We went to see 'Zumanity' at the New York New York Hotel, it's a Cirque Du Soleil production with fantastic acrobats, and yummy bodies, that was the 2nd time I had seen it and I enjoyed it just as much. The show prompted me to go to the gym the next morning!

We went to Fremont Street for the 'Summer of 69' festival where some really nice restored vintage cars were on show with fabulous music being played by some talented bands, the crowd was enjoying themselves and everyone was chillin' and making new friends. The cars were beautiful, the owners spoke about them with so much pride, telling the story of how they happened to come in possession of them. There was this really nice old Ford Poplar which reminded me of the days when I was child and my family were living in England. We would drive down to Brighton beach in that old jalopy with our sandwiches and flask of tea that mum had prepared. We looked out the window at the cows in the fields and hoped they were standing up, which our dad told us meant it wasn't going to rain. If it rained by the time we got to Brighton dad would park the car facing the ocean and we would eat our sandwiches and drink our tea with the windshield wipers going so we could see the ocean through the rain......how British is that! What I would do now to get my hands on that car!

While in Vegas we also visited Freezone, one of the gay bars off Paradise Road, the barman was a cute Aussie guy now living in Vegas, we had fun talking to him and hearing his story, everyone has a story of how they ended up in Vegas....some funny, some sad. We went back there on Saturday night to see the drag show, it wasn't too bad, it was a pity the audience were so loud talking amongst themselves and some not paying any attention to the Queens, they did a good job despite the fact that the MC made some derogatory remarks about lesbians....well, women in general, really.......she was trying to be funny I guess, but it didn't go down too well with myself and a few of the lesbians in the house!

I didn't get much pool time in which is unusual for me as I love lying by the pool burning to a crisp! We did a lot of walking up and down the strip, there is a ton of construction visible and we were told that the construction has been halted due to the economy so there is a lot of unfinished buildings along the strip....unsightly.

The big luxurious hotels are still a delight to visit and walk around, some of the lobbies are beautiful. The Bellagio still has it's lobby decorated with Dale Chihuly glass works, great big poppies tower over you as you walk through....did you know that the Bellagio has 3933 rooms which is more than the number of residents living in Bellagio, Italy?

I always enjoy visiting the Paris hotel, its quaint and has a personal feel to it, I love the little bakeries, their nic nac shops and everything written in French along the cobble stoned roads.

The Luxor hotel has a great display of Chris Angel's motorbikes, I am not sure if they are his personal collection but they are absolutely gorgeous. I tried to get some photos but they were encased in glass causing alot of reflections on the photos. There is a light beam shooting up into the sky from the top of the Luxor which can be seen for 250 miles from an aeroplane on a clear night....don't know much about Egyptian history so I don't know if that beam is just a Vegas thing or something to do with Egypt....don't know why I was compelled to write that little fact about the beam!!??

We stayed in one of the older hotels, Excalibur, because we got a great deal and it was a spur of the moment decision to go on the trip. I had never stayed there before and I would not recommend staying in an older hotel, which the Excalibur is, if you get irritated by the smell of smoke, the older ventilation systems can't keep up with the amount of circulating smoke from the 'smoking' rooms and casino. By the end of our trip my chest hurt, my eyes were puffy and irritated and I just needed to be on top of a mountain somewhere breathing in fresh air! One of my friends, who is a smoker, also commented on the smoke, so it must have been bad 'cos he smokes like a trooper!....well I guess that is what Vegas is all about...smoke, booze and gambling....and you can't forget 'girls direct to your door'! Yes, they are still 'flicking' those cards of semi naked women and shoving them in your face as you walk by! The streets are paved with buxom blondes staring up at you as you walk along the strip!

While we were in Vegas Mike Tyson got married at the Hilton Wedding Chapel, we didn't see him but heard about it when we returned home. We were told that there is 361 marriage licenses issued in Vegas daily!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that......well maybe I can, there were so many drunks proposing to each other and falling in love!

Anyway, its good to be back home...sober, unmarried and broke....no matter where you live or where you go...there's no place like home and home is where you make it aint that right Toto?