Las Vegas - March 2013

Nobody believed it would ever actually happen, eight ladies going to Las Vegas, Nevada to celebrate Marguerite's 40th birthday but here are four of the eight in a taxi on the way to Heathrow to board flight BA0275 to McCarran International.

Alison and I had been so organised we were ready ahead of time and waited impatiently with our modest sized suitcases for the taxi.  We got to Heathrow and met our travelling companions who all but one seemed to be going on a much longer holiday. 

The six bottles of duty free prosecco came in very handy as pre dinner drinks but the, now well travelled, bottle of Vodka remains unopened awaiting the next book club meeting.

After 10 and a half hours aloft in a plane with a sound system that prevented any enjoyment of the in flight entertainment we finally arrived in the dessert.  On the way back I tried my own earphones and discovered that to be the problem so I got to see Argo after all (very good film by the way, highly recommended).

Following a slight delay waiting for the the second limo we set off for the Bellagio.  Our driver did not stop talking from the moment we set eyes on him until the moment we shut him up with a tip.  If only we had known we could have tipped at the beginning of the journey and travelled to the hotel in peace.  The only time he didn't comment was when we were stopped at an intersection and (Jodie I think) mentioned that this was the intersection where a fatal shoot out had happened recently.

Everything in Vegas is geared towards getting you and your wallet into the casino - even the lift.

We managed to stay up until after midnight on the night of our arrival.  We looked around the hotel, made a donation to the casino and had a snack at one of the restaurants in the hotel.  This was our introduction to the enormous American portion sizes.  We didn't ever seem to learn that one meal would easily feed 3 or 4 - I'm sure more food gets thrown away in America than gets eaten.

Thursday morning bright and early we crossed the road to breakfast in Paris.  Not very French but delicious non the less and so good to be able to sit outside without a coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

Spot of sunbathing beside lovely pool with purple bikini clad waitresses delivering frozen margaritas as $15 each and interesting mix of American guests to eavesdrop on.  Two late middle aged ladies in (very expensive looking) identical swimsuits with matching wraps and full battle makeup and a New York princess discussing the price of her bikini with her dad! 

After changing and having the holiday argument with Alison over who was going to wear her gillet we got our transport for the horseback riding experience.  Short drive from hotel and you are in the desert, literally in the middle of nowhere.  Being English we all wore the helmets provided unlike our guides in cowboy hats.  One and a half hour ride through red rock up and down narrow path in single file.  Very peaceful and enjoyable, fortunately I wasn't near the wrangler, another one of those chatty friendly types who cant bear any silence or the sound of anyone else's voice. 

As the sun started going down we came around a bend towards the corral and there were two ancient men with guitars standing on the top of the ridge singing 'Home on the Range' to welcome us back.  They kept up the singing until we escaped for our return trip.  Outsize steak and baked potato eaten we sat around a firepit outside to make and enjoy toasted marshmallows between two chocolate chip cookies (it should have been Graham crackers - we didn't get an explanation why it wasn't).  I'm still cleaning bits of marshmallow off my phone.

Friday morning the four helicopter girls went to Serendipity, part of Caesar's Palace for breakfast.  Nice tea served in biggest cups known to man and each breakfast was easily big enough to feed all 4 of us.  Good job we ate a lot because lunch provided by Maverick Helicopters turned out to be miniscule. 

Three reasons to avoid Las Vegas - fortunately there are lots of other things to do. 

I wonder what Augustus would have made of Las Vegas?

Helicopter trip over Hoover Dam and on to Grand Canyon was amazing.  Very noisy so you had to wear ear muffs and the refreshments were a little odd but fantastic experience.  We landed in the canyon for champagne (domestic) and lunch (celery stick, few grapes, 2 Ritz crackers and small portion of processed cheese).  Pilot was chatty but not exhaustingly so and having promised ourselves we would not tip due to the extortionate cost of the trip we succumbed to his charm and tipped him anyway.

We were travelling in the newest of the Maverick fleet, apparently costing $3 million.  The very high tech looking piece of wool in this picture is to indicate whether you are flying straight apparently even if it looks as though the pilot snagged his jumper on the way in.

Could this be the only completely square golf course in the world?

Alison, Jodie, Sara-Jane and I got back to the hotel before the Jeep girls and decided to go for a cocktail at Olives while waiting for the others.

Dinner was delicious and the fountains in the background every 15 minutes kept reminding us where we were.  Unfortunately the waiter was not much of a photographer.

After dinner we went into the casino for a little flutter, very successfully in my case.  

Queueing for The Bank (nightclub) is a very odd experience that seems to make no sense.  Bouncer upsets Laura resulting in our fast track with free drinks, still have no idea what any of it was about.

Saturday morning back to Serendipity for breakfast.  Spring Break, college football and St Patrick's day weekend meant the whole place was heaving and we had to queue for a table this time. After breakfast we went to the Mirage to and went into the zoo to see the tigers and other cats and the dolphins.  Set off back for the hotel past various people in all sorts of costumes were hanging around having their pictures taken for tips.

I decided to do some shopping and got lost in the Forum shopping centre.  Got back just in time to change and set off for the birthday dinner at Stratosphere.

Another waiter who can't take photographs.

Great meal in revolving restaurant that provides a great view of the whole town.

Another interesting element of the meal was the bungee jumpers going past the window while we dined.  Only in Vegas!

Limo from Stratosphere to Fremont St.  Helen & I play giant slot machine (without success), queue too long for Jodie to do zip wire.

On to Treasure Island for Sirens show!

Back to Bellagio.

Sunday morning arranged for an extra half day on one of the rooms then back to Paris for breakfast followed by quick tour to Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur hotels.  Saw the sharks, komodo dragon and touched the rays at Mandalay Bay.  Monorail between these 3 hotels then cab back to Bellagio past New York New York.

Another frozen margarita by the pool and top up of vitamin D before setting off to the airport and back to the cold and rain.

Overall verdict - brilliant venue, lovely company - 10 out of 10!  Where to next?

Goodbye 2012 - welcome to 2013

What a year 2012 was!  A few highlights:

The Hanagan's Heroes book club started in January and is still going strong with 10 books under its belt in 2012:

Alice, Eva Hanagan

Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

Warhorse, Michael Mapungo

Alone in Berlin, Hans Fallada

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell

Charlotte St, Danny Wallace

Notes From the Underground, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, Barbara Comyns

The Care of Wooden Floors, Will Wiles

Gents, Warwick Collins

The Wreck of the Mary Deare, Hammond Innes

The Weight of Numbers, Simon Ings

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

The Minotaur takes a cigarette break, Steven Sherrill

The Ickenham book club reads for 2012 included

One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest, Ken Kesey and Robert Faggen
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Roots, Alex Haley
Winter in Madrid, C J Sansom
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skoot

Me Before You, Jojo Moyes

Took my first trip to Ireland to participate in the SPAR Great Ireland Run in Dublin in April.

Joined 1340 people dressed as super heroes running dressed as various super heroes along the Brighton sea front in May.

I made my first (and hopefully not last) visit to the Caribbean and the beautiful island of Barbados in June.

Got soaked watching the river pageant on the Thames for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the next day attended a fantastic street party in Hillside in June.

The weather finally came out for Lawrence's 21st birthday in July.

The Olympics and Paralympics of London 2012 were stunning.  Being at Greenwich Park for the showjumping final was an amazing experience in August.

Discovered a clarinet teacher in my office and restarted my clarinet playing in October.

Returned to the Cape Verde islands after 36 years for a Xmas holiday in the sun in December.

What will 2013 bring?

Boa Vista

Lawrence was a little perplexed at the size of the seat and its proximity to the one in front.  On the way back the person in front complained that his knees were in her back - but there isn't a lot you can do about the length of your legs.

It was all worth it though because the resort was lovely, the sky was blue and we didn't see a cloud until we got to the (open air) departure area (couldn't call it a lounge) for the return journey.

Everyone knows what a keen reader Lawrence is.

Temple of Doom steps down from the jacuzzi area down into the pool. The steps come out in the archway (see picture below).

Slightly odd stone sunbeds.  Unsurprisingly there was no scramble to get a towel on these.

Abby and Lawrence on the bridge over the pool.  Suddenly it makes sense why university students would go on holiday with their mums. 

One of these Santa's is wearing an inflatable suit - can you guess which one? 

Christmas dinner, bangers and mash - Pity they couldn't even stump up a glass of fizz for the xmas day flight, especially as they don't permit consuption of your own alcohol on board.  No frills air travel is to be endured as a means to an end. 

Hanagan's Heroes

The Hillside North End (or is that Heritage Hillside) book club celebrates its first anniversary.  The seven members, who span two adjacent postcodes, braved a 42 mile journey for a Christmas bash at the George and Vulture in Cornhill, London.

What started as a remark at the No 11 Chilli and Champagne get together last Christmas has turned into a fully fledged reading group, now with outings (last month we braved the 700m walk to the library). Thanks to Cheryl for knowing where to have fun in London and for organising the event and providing a pass the parcel, chocolate Santas and crackers.  A minor confusion about the date added a slight frisson to the occasion.

 

We met on schedule beside the Monument to start our afternoon in the city. After a quick one in The Fine Line, Cheryl led us to the George and Vulture, a historic chop house rebuilt after the great fire where Charles Dickens is said to have written parts of the Pickwick Papers.  By the time we got settled in with our crackers pulled and our hats on things were looking quite festive.  

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The menue was quite Dickensian and unsurprisingly there was not much to satisfy any special dietary needs.  This meant that Shaun ended up with pretty much his own bodyweight in mushrooms with stilton.

Clive warms up to the idea of wearing a hat later in the afternoon (see picture further on) but at this stage he looks a little skeptical about the idea.

Notice the wine bottles with loosly fitted corks behind Clive - there is not an extensive choice of wine at the George and Vulture, its red or white, with no mucking about tasting it or sniffing the cork.  I think George might have been up all the previous night making it.

We managed to get through enough of the aforementioned wine to have a rather loud game of American style pass the parcel. The present at the centre was a posable figurine of Charles Dickens with a 'removable (but not replaceable) hat' seen here paddling in a communal stilton.  I hope the previous nibblers at this cheese treated it with more decorum.

When we'd finished our lunch the waiter took us upstairs to the private dining rooms (the availability of which caused the confusion over the date) where Dickens allegedly penned some parts of the PP.
The smaller of the rooms had been vacated by its diners but emboldened by Chilean and South African courage we gatecrashed the tail end of a lunch a group of posh city types with a Hong Kong connection were having.  Fortunately they were very welcoming and offered us a glass of their port and took our picture.

After leaving the G&V we still had some life in us so we went to Leadenhall Market for a post lunch drink.  Unfortunately it was so crowded we couldn't get near a bar for a drink but Clive managed to charm the hat off of the bouncer at the Lamb Tavern whilst he was evicting us and we went back to The Fine Line.  Things went a bit awry then for a while, Cheryl dashed off to get lost in Balcome, Clive and Barry lost the rest of party on London Bridge and we got separated for a couple of hours.  All was not lost though.  Cheryl made it to a fun jazz evening and we met up at the Bear back in Horsham for a quick one before dashing to the Co-op for a pint of milk on the way home.
I think a great time was had by all - we just need someone to book that trip to Berlin now, any volunteers?

21 Today!

At last the sun shone on Lawrence's birthday so we went to the site of his first disastrous (raining and cold) birthday in the UK 15 years ago for a photo shoot.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

I read this World Book Night 2012 gift along with the other members of the Hillside North End Reading Group.

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

To a discerning eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness -

'Tis the Majority

In this, as All, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane -

Demur - and you're straight away dangerous -

And handled with a chain - 

                                  Emily Dickinson

Maggie O'Farrell uses this epigraph at the beginning of this novel, first published in 2006.  I either skipped over or ignored it before but now I see how apposite it is.  

Euphemia (Esme) spends 61 years, five months and four days in a mental institution.  She was diagnosed with dementia praecox but her real condition was that she was an inconvenience to her family.  She is released to her great niece, who was unaware of her existence even though she has a photograph of her in her flat, because keeping her has become inconveniently costly to the local authority.  

The story of misunderstanding and revenge is told from three points of view, Esme's and her great niece Iris' in the third person, and the first person ramblings of Kitty, Esme's sister who has Alzheimer's and lives in a nursing home.

I loved this book and got so much more from the second reading.  Its short and written in a very accessible style.  Look out for a copy there are doing the rounds as a World Book Night release.

What's not to like about Cricket?

Pimms? - don't mind if I do.  

At last the sun shone for the first day of the first test - England v S Africa at the Oval.  

Not only did we have a great day's cricket but look at this queue, right out the door, for the men's.

And this blue door behind the man in the blue shirt is the door to the Ladies'.  No queue there through the door or inside.  I thought it was worth a picture.