Viva Las Vegas!

Las Vegas

So we made it to the airport at the un-godly hour of 4:30am. Checked in and had another un-memorable flight. Think we're both getting pretty pee'd off with flying these days but I suppose you can't complain. Didn't help that we had to change at San Francisco and had a 3 hour wait for the flight to Vegas.

(May I just say, as we're writing this, there is a bloke in the internet cafe playing guitar, stamping his feet for his drum and singing at the top of his voice, and it's pretty distracting, so if anything doesn't make sense, i'm sure you can understand why)

Had another flight to Vegas and arrived into a very hot Las Vegas. Finally!! Got our shuttle to the Stratosphere Hotel at the North end of the Strip. And all I wanted to do was crash out and goto sleep. Sian wanted food!! (All I had eaten in the past 8 hours was a bag of cheetos and a bag of pistachio nuts and a mars bar, and an apple, and a steak lunch......only kidding, just the first two) quite a filling meal if you ask me!! Had a pretty exciting evening consisting of doing the washing and drying, having a shower and cutting our toe nails. Also throwing in a meal downstairs at a place called 'Roxy's diner' which was an old 50's diner selling Cheeseburgers, Hot Dogs, Chilli, Pizza, French Fries and Onion Rings. What a bloody surprise!!!!! The only feckin' things they make for you to eat in this country. Had a beer and played some video poker before heading back to bed. What a day!

We decided to walk the entire Strip the next day. All 5 and a half miles from where we were until the very end. And then we got to walk back again at the end of the night!! It was very hot. Not really muggy though, which I had heard from everybody that had been there, but really hot. The absolute size of everything was just ridiculous. They were so massive it was untrue. You could walk into one casino/hotel walk to the other side of it and then you were about 10 blocks down the road. We went for our breakfast in the Mirage, and even the sandwiches were huge. Like 4 deckers huge. Me and Sian decided to have one......Ours came with 2 slices of bread each. Quite the let-down. We kept on going and time does go by fast walking the strip. Before you know it, you left the hotel at 11am and walked past about 5 casinos and it's 5pm. Ended up in 'M&M's' World. 4 floors of M&M stuff. You name it, they had it. Cups, Bibs, Cars, T-Shirts, Toothbrushes everything. Sian met her lifelong hero....Yellow (a peanut m&m) She was made up. Had some dinner somewhere that we both can't remember to be honest, there's not a lot we can remember from Vegas as it seems so long ago.

Wednesday I entered a Poker tournament. I was pretty nervous!!! It wasn't like playing with them chumps at home. These other people in the poker tournament could actually be good!! So I went in and took my seat. Wasn't quite sure what rules we were playing because at home we kinda pick and choose the best bits from alot of games. Kept on getting free beer though!! That was nice. First place winner got themselves just over $1000. I knew it would be me. Walking off with that big wod of cash. I felt it in my loins. Played a few hands, won a few. All was going to plan. Had alot of chips. Then the hour mark went by. New dealer. This Chinese woman, who didn't have a clue what she was doing!!! I think it must of been community service or something. She came in, started dealing cards to the wrong people, giving chips to the loser of a hand instead of the winner, forgetting to move the dealer chip around which only she's allowed to touch. She did have one plus point however. In Texas Hold 'Em poker, there is a thing that you do that encourages betting called 'Small Blind, Big Blind' (Fella's, I do have to say, even though when we play I was against this coming into our game, I am fully behind it for the future, it's definitely the way to go) this woman managed to say it in such a brilliant way that I couldn't help laughing every time. "Small Bine, Beeee Bine" That made me chuckle, other than that, she was a useless human being. And she gave me rubbish cards aswell. Game carried on, then Sian came by to watch. She was certainly 'The Cooler'. I was losing chips out of my arse while she was there. Had a break told Sian to go away then carried on. Went all in on 2 7's that were given to me. Another guy went with me, he had 2 9's. And like that. I was gone. And all I wanted to do was go and play again!!

After the poker. And through no reason really other than I had never had the opportunity before I was about to go on.........my first ever Rollercoaster. It was on top of New York New York Hotel/Casino, and it looked cool as hell. While we were waiting to get on, there was a wind problem which gave us a little delay. And then we were going on. Got a little bit lucky as a couple in front of us didn't want to sit at the front, they asked if we would...of course we would!!! Sian's eyes were closed already. Basically, we got thrown around upside down and swung all around for 45 seconds on top of a Vegas casino. Very cool. After I got off. I looked like I had been electrocuted. My hair was standing on end. Sian got a photo for you all to see, however, Sian won't be quitting the HR world for the photography world just yet as you will be able to see from the photo. (It was the camera not me!!) you've all heard the one about the bad tradesmen blaming their tools. Came off the ride and played in Coney Island. Won lots of these things called 'smiles' where Sian got herself a pink car. Certainly worth all the time. Can't really remember what happened for the rest of that night, but i'm sure we must of had a cheeseburger, hot dog, french fries, chilli, or a milkshake.

We also made a discovery that there was this bus called 'The Deuce' which ran up and down the strip all day and night. Which had a very annoying repetitive voice recording going on all the time "Hop on!! Ride the Deuce, Have Fun, $2 Dollars one way $5 Dollars all day, Ride the Deuce" every 30 seconds this went on!!! On the way home, I mistakenly gave our Deuce fare to the waitress as a tip.....Sian wasn't happy after we ran for that bus only to find out I only had $20's and you had to have correct change.

We spent the most of the next day sorting out tickets to see a show. On the first day we found this half price tonight show tickets place, where funnily enough you could get half price tickets for that nights show! So we headed to the shack, i had decided (By the way this is Sian now) i wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show, there are loads of them so i picked the Beatles LOVE tour at the Mirage. However, when we asked about it they were like 'Sorry we got no tickets for that tonight'!! I was pretty crushed, but then he said 'but i do have tickets for KA at the MGM Grand, Good Show'. I wasn't sure so we went and grabbed a bit to eat and had a chat about it. (Addie, i had a World Famous Bowl from KFC and it was goood!!!) We decided we would go and see KA, went and booked the tickets and as i watched the advert for it i realised it was the show featured on CSI!!! I was now extremely excited!!! Once we booked them we had to head to the MGM Grand and get our seats assigned. The show started at 7pm and it was already 4.30pm, we had to get to the other end of the strip, then back to get ready and then back again, it was tight!! We got to the MGM sorted our tickets, then as we were ready to head back and get changed, i spotted lions, real lions, walking around the casino!!! We had to stop for a bit and pet them. (Only joking, there were lions but they were in a glass enclosure). Got back on the Deuce and headed for home, the journey took forever, we arrived back at 5.30pm. Jav said i had 30 mins to shower, wash my hair and make myself beautiful. This was not going to happen. 5.50pm i walked out of the shower with only 15 mins to dry and change. Jav was sitting twiddling his thumbs as he was ready at 5.32pm!!! Finally left the hotel at 6.15pm, we had to be seated by 6.45pm or we couldn't get in (or so we told). (Jav again, i'm back from my smoke) Got back on the deuce instead of getting a taxi (that was a smart move) the bus was going nowhere fast in rush hour traffic, stopping every 6 yards. We decided to 'Hop Off the Deuce" and hail down a taxi. Only every taxi that went by had passengers already in there. It wasn't going well. It was sweating as well!! Carried on walking for a little bit. Decided to get back on the same Deuce that had caught us up and get off at a casino for a cab. Got on, didn't move anywhere, then Sian spotted an empty taxi going past us, we literally jumped off the Deuce again ran down the road where the taxi was at a red light. Asked if we could get in, he said sure, but you gotta be quick to get in.....there was a little problem with this.......a 4 foot metal fence separating us from our chariot. We decided to jump it. Quite a funny sight to see a girl in a dress jumping over a fence. No time to laugh though. Got in and it was about 6:42pm. 3 minutes to seating time. Told the driver in a movie like fashion to step on it, he was a good bloke, taking us down the backways but saying "You don't forget this when it comes to tip time, I don't want no $!" Dropped us at the back and we ran in through the casino. Sian, taking off her shoes and running in bare feet (well classy) got there at about 6:50pm and it was no problem at all. I had time to get a beer and Sian went off to the loo. Basically it was all for nothing because there were still people coming in at around 7:30pm!!! And I gave the cabbie a $12 dollar tip!! (The fare was only $8, this got a 120% tip - Sian) Nice fella though. Saw the show, and I have to say i'm not really a theatre kind of person. Personally I think they're more for your Hurst Street kind of person, or Chaps' cliental, but it was a pretty decent show. Not enough flying around and shit if you ask me. (Now that's a review!!) I'll put Sian back on so she can tell all you ladies how 'fabulous' it was......It was totally awesome (shes been in the States too long - Jav) I loved every minute of it, it was everything i expected and more. The story was great, the actors were great, the effects were great, it was GREAT!!! I had a real amazing night and was pretty sad when it was over, Jav, however, was glad i think!!! (Jav's back) We then went to this bar called 'El Diablo' pretty cool place and had an amazing drink. It was the weirdest thing ever. Can't remember what it was called bit it was Gin, Ginger Ale, a jalepeno pepper thrown in and some chilli sauce.....whooooooooooooooo! Everybody, go make it now. Like Now! Try it. Finished off with a bowl of Nachos that as the barman said "would feed an army". There was also some peeps who came and sat next to us and asked the same barman if they sold "Smirnoff Ice" the guy just stared at them for a couple of seconds and then started laughing "No. I do not sell Smirnoff Ice" Imagine saying that in England! Had a good few drinks, then set off to Freemont Street on the Deuce!!! Basically, a poor man's Strip. Some sleazy looking holes but a kind of fun atmosphere. Went into one of the casinos (I say casino, it's like one of those amusement places with fruit machines you get in England) for a wee then got out again. We had to wait 30 minutes for the light show which was pretty cool and then it was over. Back to the Deuce to take us home. The bus was packed and even though I couldn't tell you anything he was saying right now, we had the funniest bus driver in the World. He just seemed like he was bored of driving so decided to talk on his microphone on the bus. Saying absolutely hilarious things, telling gags and all. It was ashame to get off the bus. Except we got to get away from a drunk Scottish man who was trying to talk to every one on the bus. Funny thing is, he was staying at our hotel, but didn't get off at our stop. I wonder where he ended up....

I apologise for this pretty rubbish blog entry. However, this is due to the fact that it seems like an eternity ago. We spent our last few hours in Vegas in the casino. I played in the poker tournament again which I didn't win again. Then played some Roulette. I lost all of my chips in about 3 turns. Sian did a little better. And then we went off to find ourselves somewhere to live in Los Angeles (Now that blog is an exciting one, stay tuned for that) and then got our stuff together and got our asses to the airport again for our 45 minute flight. Back on them planes again...............

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