slot machines and hurricanes

We shall open with some learnings from the tacky, shiny, glorious world of Vegas:

- Roulette is the fastest way to lose 20 bucks. Poor spud.
- Ignoring the mexican guys who click their little prostitute advertising cards at you is surprisingly easy.
- It is cruel to dress drinks waitresses in shiny blue leotards and high heels.
- Pretending to play slot machines in order to get free drinks is poor form when beers are only 1 dollar at the bar.
- It is just a ceiling in a mall painted LIKE a nightsky. No, really, brain, its an illusion. C'mon brain, believe me.
- Chain smoking at every hour, in every location is acceptable.
- Lions in a glass enclosure in a loud casino do not make a tourist attraction. They make for a depressed/ disgusted/ distressed tourist.
- Fake breasts always look fake. Really, they do.
- If you have the audacity to order a salad instead of fried goods, expect it to be drowned in oil.
- Rich americans dress just as poorly as poor americans, they are distinguishable on account of obnoxious behaviour.

Vegas was fabulous and we were big fans, though I'd suggest that staying there for more than a few days would destroy my soul. Or at the very least, overstimulate me to the point of hysteria. We treated ourselves to the Cirque De Soleil performance of Love (a Beatles retrospective) which was an incredibly good decision. Thanks for the tip-off, past vegas-travelling friends. Other highlights were ridiculously dressed fellow tourists and drinks waitresses (the covert hand squeezes and eyeball gestures came thick and fast), spud's cheap beers, gawking at the interior of themed casinos, my birthday present of a day spa trip and a lovely big hotel room.

And the ultimate highlight? Probably the fact that our cable had 'weather channel' and thus we were able to avert a potential disaster by hearing about hurricane gustav BEFORE we caught our flight to new orleans, which is predicted to experience the eye of the storm. Yup, once again the god of holiday travel has looked upon us and decreed that we shall have to spend some extra dosh and experience some extra stress in order to make some flight cancellations and last-minute rearrangements. So now instead of New Orleans, we shall head to New Jersey tomorrow and drive around New York State, to Boston, and to Quebec City. Being a long weekend it appears that we may not have anywhere to sleep, but at least I managed to book a hire car in Jersey from tomorrow night... I wonder how we will go about equitably dividing up space on the back seat of a mazda 6?... sigh...

On the upside, we figure that the logistics of changing our holiday plans would be nothing compared to the logistics of flying our bodies home post-hurricane - hope you parents are grateful!

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