Viva Las Vegas!

So I headed to Las Vegas this weekend to hang with Obama and JT who were also in town. Meant a butt crack of dawn flight to Los Angeles (which is HUGE by the way!) where I killed time in a bar, and then a quick trip over to Sin City itself.

It is EXACTLY how you imagine it. We’ve all seen it in The Hangover, Oceans 11, National Lampoon, Knocked Up and What Happens in Vegas etc. etc. But to actually be there is still pretty damn amazing! The juxtaposition of affluence to poverty is interesting; the Mexican people of all ages who stand on the sidewalk and hand out cards for ‘hot girls straight to your room’ 24 hours a day don’t seem to be enjoying the ‘Land of the free’ all that much. And the homeless people outside some of the most expensive hotel casinos in the world are a sad sight. But the two things that surprised me the most were the fashion and just how many overweight people there were! When I say fashion, I really should prefix it with ‘lack of’ as I think I saw about 5 nicely dressed people. Even my 10 pound dress was ‘so cute’ and ‘where do you find gorgeous things like that?’ ‘Ummm back in London.’ But, to be fair, I believe this is because it’s Vegas and there aren’t many places where people can wear whole beach scenes on their hats whilst they carry around cups shaped like blenders, courtesy of Jimmy Buffet’s Magaritaville! So I’m sure when I visit New York and other areas of America I will be pleasantly surprised and my dress will once again look like it came from Krisp (it did). And the overweight thing? Well can’t really be surprising when you see the sorts of foods on offer, and the portion sizes! Seriously what they dish up for one person could probably feed a family of 4! But nothing too surprising there….so back to my experience of Vegas.

I arrived at the Imperial Palace, one of the older hotels it’s not exactly known for being up there with the Bellagio or Caesar’s Palace in terms of classiness but it’s in a wicked location right on the strip and we don’t plan to spend much time in the room anyway. Anna is already there after doing her mammoth trek from Perth to Sydney to LA to Vegas! Since we are there to celebrate Kathy’s 21^st we decide to get some champagne and really celebrate. Then I get ready for my first night out in Vegas and hop into bed. You see Kathy was at college that day so wouldn’t arriving until later, we weren’t exactly sure of the time, and both Anna and I were rather jetlagged. So had a little ‘nap’, meaning Kathy’s grand entrance at whatever ridiculous time it was didn’t have quite the effect I had imagined. Let me just say here, that shit definitely went wrong on this holiday, we still had an amazing time but you will see. This is the moment that Kathy informed us that her luggage had been lost. She had flown Minnesota to Denver to Vegas and her bags had not. The next day we were informed that they weren’t in Minnesota or Denver either….big fail to the airline on that.

Didn’t deter the birthday girl though, drinks were poured, speeches were made and then we headed out. We were on the guest list to Rain, the ‘Playboy’ club at the Palms so that is where we went. Obviously not used to how this whole system works, we very patiently stood in line whilst the group of guys in front argued because their names weren’t on the guest list. Solution to that problem? Hand over 500 dollars to secure yourself a table. That’s how it works in Vegas baby! Being ladies it wasn’t so difficult for us, one of the door people just called us over, asked how many of us there were and then gave us tickets. We head inside where DJ Jazzy Jeff was on stage, it’s packed with sweaty drunk people, so pretty much like every other club. Well, not quite, 3 vodka redbulls and 2 tequila shots was 84 dollars!!!! Maybe this is not the place for us. After being grinded on by the sweaty drunk people we decided to head upstairs where the VIP tables were, although we weren’t actually at any of the tables we had a dance up on the balcony overlooking the club. I swear Mark Zuckerberg was there but when I asked him his name he said ‘David’. He could’ve been lying to me! But anyway it was sometime around now that I noticed my bag undone and Kathy’s wallet missing. As she didn’t have her suitcase she had given me her wallet to carry for the night. It was her wallet with everything in it, all her cash, cards, apartment key etc. So the night took a turn for the worse here, trying to get in contact with Australian banks to cancel cards from a hotel in Vegas, where reception apparently can’t dial international, can be quite an ordeal. Thank goodness for phone booths that have internet and Facebook where friends are online who can call your Mum and get her to call the bank!

Obviously no one was in much of a party mood at this stage, and since we had only gone out at 1.40am it was some ridiculous time of the morning and the only thing anyone felt like doing was going to bed. When these sorts of things happen it does change parts of the holiday, you now have to spend time chasing things up with authorities who make everything more difficult than it feels like it has to be. And poor Kathy was doubly unlucky, airline loses your suitcase? No worries, go stock up on new clothes and toiletries and you can claim on insurance later. Have no access to money to buy said products because your wallets been stolen? Well then you’re kinda fucked.

But we are the not the types to let this sort of thing dampen our spirits! We were here to celebrate Kathy’s 21^st Vegas style and this is exactly what we did! Basically as many clichés as possible please!

In no particular order we:

• Wandered the Strip, there was a street party there on Saturday but I think you will find many interesting characters regardless. Some people’s job is to dress up as a movie character and stand on the street where people take photos with them and then give them money. I met a ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign and Elvis.
• Went to m&m’s world where you can get pretty much everything m&m related. This is where Kathy found the wall of m&m’s and decided to ‘try’ the goods. (You are supposed to get a bag, fill it and then pay. She put it in her hand and ate it. Good work).
• Went to ‘Coca-Cola World’ Don’t know if it was actually called this but it’s basically the same as above except substitute m&m’s for Coke. Had a photo with the creepy polar bear. Could’ve bought a 6 pack of the picture for $40. Bargain! We resisted.
• Visited the Venetian where indoors is just like being outdoors in Venice. We ate Asian food.
• Went to Caesar’s Palace where we pretended to check in and hung out around the amazing pool.
• Went to The Mirage to see Cirque Du Soleil’s Love show which using all Beatles music. It was AMAZING! I would go again in a heartbeat. And definitely want to see more cirque shows.
• Went to the psychedelic Revolution bar where we had cheap cocktails and they played Beatles music. Later it turned into a club and was open bar for ladies (something we would get quite accustomed to).
• Went to Jet, the club at the Mirage where a suited man who worked there decided to escort in even though there was a big line (with guys and girls), told us to lie about a name on a list and go in and enjoy the open bar for ladies. Note: Open bar does not mean you just get anything you want for free, there are restrictions, it’s usually ‘well’ drinks, which is a spirit and a mixer. Why they’re called well drinks I don’t know but still, we didn’t complain. Met some people who were celebrating something (a birthday maybe?) and joined them at their VIP table because we wanted to experience ‘bottle service’.
• Had a late night burger at one of the 24 hour restaurants at the hotel. Rank, but had to be done.
• Went back to the Palms to retrieve Kathy’s wallet that had been found, with 90% of its contents missing.
• Got a limo to Target. Seriously getting a limo in Vegas is a must do, right? Well it was going to cost us about the same to get a taxi there so we thought, why the hell not? (The trip to Target was so that Kathy could buy some new clothing).
• Went to Serendipity 3 at Caesar’s for their famous desserts. They have one that costs a thousand dollars! We got three. Slight exaggeration there…But we did get a candle in Kathy’s sundae and the waiter sang with us.
• Went to New York New York and rode the rollercoaster.
• Went to McDonalds to use their wifi and check if any money had gone from any of Kathy’s accounts.
• Tried to ride up the Eiffel tower at Paris, but whenever we went it was either too long a wait or they weren’t running it because of the wind.
• Gambled. Lost money. Won money. Came out having doubled my money (woo 18 dollars!!!)
• Watched the fountain show at the Bellagio, as wonderful as everyone said it would be!
• Had a birthday dinner at Planet Hollywood where the food and drinks were delicious. Toooo delicious, felt sick after that one.
• Went to the wedding chapel at the hotel and posed for fake wedding photos. Got pretty creeped out by the desertedness of this area of the hotel and how much it reminded us of The Shining.
• Checked into the MGM Grand where the other girls are staying for the rest of their trip. Slight upgrade from the Imperial Palace.
• Had a MASSIVE traditional farm breakfast.
• Went to the airport. Flew to San Francisco and then flew home to London. Now verrrry tired but will probably head out tonight instead of sleeping….whoops!

I’m sure I’ve forgotten some essential thing that we did, but my brain isn’t working all that well thanks to lack of sleep! So that was basically my whirlwind trip to Vegas. I could definitely go there again, there is a lot to see and do. But for me, the most amazing part was getting to see my little sister for the first time in over 14 months! Happy 21^st birthday Kathy!

Working Girl

Apparently I moved to London at ‘the worst possible time’ in terms of employment. Many different people have told me that. With Britain’s economic state and the worldwide recession I was told that finding a job would be near to impossible. I’m not so sure. I believe that as long as you are not too fussy (or too desperate-you don’t know what kind of job you might end up in!) you can find yourself doing an alright job. It just depends on attitude and what you’re looking for.

That’s not to say it was easy to find a job. I struggled. I think that is one of those rites of passages of living in London as a foreigner. There was a literally a 2 week period where I was jobless and homeless (that’s a wholeeeeee other story!) and I felt like I was trying reallllly hard, with absolutely no luck. I felt terrible-because of the housing situation-I was staying on a friend of a friend of my sister’s couch and I thought they probably thought I was a lazy bum. It was not a promising time; even companies that called or emailed me to say they were interested never contacted me again. It wasn’t that I was getting rejected as such; I just wasn’t even getting a look in. And I’m one of those people that really believes you can’t tell what someone’s going to be like in a job from looking at a piece of paper. You need to prove yourself in a job, by actually doing the job! So I needed someone to give me a chance. And eventually they did. After one particularly disheartening week I ended up getting some interviews, then after the interviews came the job offers, I ended up with so many I was turning them down and calling people to say I wasn’t going to show up for the interview at all. I think this is a common experience. I’ve heard tales of so many people who at first struggle to find anything and then BAM! They have job offers left, right and centre. It’s not rare to hear the story of someone who has their bags packed to go home-it’s hard to survive, pay rent, buy food etc. without an income-because they were struggling to find work. And then that day they are called and offered a job! Sounds like an urban legend doesn’t it? But I swear it’s true. Anyone who says you won’t get a job in this town is just plain wrong.

The fact that it is sometimes difficult to find work means people can take advantage of others. One ‘marketing’ job I went for where the offices were lovely and modern and everyone was very friendly and the other candidates were all in suits with copies of their English degrees ended up being an un-paying job. Not an internship or anything, just a job where unless you get the company some money you go home empty-handed. And the job itself? Door knocking! Asking people to sign up for a direct debit donation to a charity. You got a certain amount for each person that you signed up as your pay. I went out with them to see what it was like, before I knew about the pay situation, and in an 8 hour shift we signed up one person. One person! I can’t remember the amount that the girl who I went with was going to get for this but I can’t imagine it was enough to cover, well, anything really. Of course they assured us that in only a few months we’d be making 6 figure sums! For some reason I highly doubt that. So I never went back. They actually offered me the job and then when I said I was going to Scotland that weekend for Halloween they were shocked that I would still considering going when they wanted me to start the next day. Um, no thanks. Turning down a job when I really needed one wasn’t all that easy but as my mum always says, ‘they need you more than you need them’.

 

And apparently I was needed by other places, places that actually paid! My first job in London was working at Erotica. It’s basically like the Sexpo back home, a sex exhibition, describing itself as ‘an Adult Lifestyle Show’.  Use your imagination and yep, you’d be right. It seemed to have quite an older crowd, I saw wayyyy more menopausal boobs than I’ve ever wanted to. Amongst many other things I saw that I basically prefer to not remember. Let’s just say it was interesting. Thankfully my job was quite tame; I was working in a shoe stall. A ‘stripper shoe’ stall of course! Part of the job involved wearing the shoes for the entire shift, 15cm heels for seven hours…not actually that bad! The platform makes them surprisingly comfortable. And at the end of my shift I got to keep the shoes. Woo! They are still in their box in my wardrobe, but you never know they might come in handy one day!

Around the same time, I started both the other jobs that I still have today. A bookstore and a pub; quite an interesting combination. They have provided me with a few stories that I do not have time for now, but will try and blog more soon.

Opinion

This something that I have no right to have an opinion on. But guess what? I do anyway. I’m not a mother (yet!) and right now, with where I’m at in my life, I’m very glad about this fact. However there is something that bugs me. More than it really should.

'Bugs' is such an appropriate word here. Because it’s these new fandangle buggies that get my goat! Buggies, or prams as they have been known my whole life until I moved to England, are just ridiculous these days. And I’m not referring to the absurd prices that people pay to have the ‘latest model’, but rather what they look like and, more importantly, what they do/achieve. Ok so there are these ones that are like a vertical upright board and the baby kind of sits in a sleeping bag that is attached. But basically the child is FLOATING, if they weren’t strapped onto this board I imagine they would fall down into the bag. Or off (not even out of) the buggy altogether! These don’t bother me too much. I just think they look kind of dumb and maybe even uncomfortable for the baby. I don’t know, no babies ever told me. But what I imagine they would NOT like is the new, double tiered prams. Basically they have one child in the pram and then….another child underneath! Yes, underneath, back in my day I’m pretty certain this was where nappy bags and shopping and things like that were kept. Well not anymore, now it’s the perfect place to store your other child! OK, I get that a double stroller would probably cause problems and would be difficult to manoeuvre and probably annoying. But I just do NOT like these double decker contraptions. I believe that a young baby/toddler/child needs to be stimulated; they are in awe of the world around them and learn so much simply from the act of observation. And we now put them underneath another part of a buggy so all they have to look at is canvas-or whatever material prams are made of. Or the other option is putting the older child/toddler in the bottom compartment (can’t think of a more suitable word). The result of this-that I’ve seen-is a child not being able to face forward, their nose would’ve hit the pram above them if they did, so instead they are uncomfortably positioned to always have their head turned. Well it looked uncomfortable to me. Therefore NOT a good thing to be sticking your loved ones in, right? Anyway I think my point is made-I don’t like them.

Feel free to show me this in ten years or so when I have children and this is the only buggy I can afford. Or I’ve been convinced by the other mums that it is the (latest fashion!) ultimate in children moving vehicles. But right now, I think ‘UGH!’ every time I see one! Or maybe I should just be grateful that I don’t have to deal with things like prams yet…..

Travel Advice

Travelling is still on my brain, (Vegas in just over a week!!!!) so I may finally get around to writing some more things on here.

I remember before I left Aus there were many well intentioned people who took it upon themselves to give me a lot of advice, whether I asked for it or not. And now that I’ve been here I have actually been asked by people to give them advice.

The best advice: there’s nothing that anyone can tell you that can actually compare to being here. And being here will be different for every individual person. Your experience is your experience.

Whilst the Broads were travelling around we had a book that we wrote quotes in. We called it the ‘quote book’, original I know. We would write the quotes that made us laugh and then we would look back on them and laugh some more. A simple, but effective, concept. The quote book was a great success. Until I lost it in somewhere between Poland and Ireland.

But not only did the ‘quote book’ have quotes we also thought we could record advice we picked up along the way.

The two pieces of advice I can remember:

• Get drunk before your next leg of the journey (plane, train, bus etc.).

We put this into practice in Madrid before heading to San Sebastian. Being a little tipsy before we had to deal with train stations and buses and everything made the journey a little bit more tolerable and a whole lot more hilarious and fun.

Another time I put this into practice was when I got a bus from London to Glasgow last Halloween. It’s a longggg journey and as I was arriving after 10pm on the Friday night I had been instructed by Mollie that we would be heading straight out. So I took with me the dinner I had made the night before and a bottle of red wine. Yes I was alone but I really enjoyed that journey, I spoke to home, read, listened to music and enjoyed secretly drinking out of a yoghurt container!

The trick to this is aiming to maintain the tipsiness. If you begin to sober up, or even worse-start to feel your hangover you will not enjoy the experience AT ALL. Not so fun being stuck on a bus and really needing to be sick or use the toilet! This tip is definitely flawed and not one we did on every trip between places but can be fun to try.

• Invest in a Sleeping Mask

These bad boys will be your best friend when you need to grab sleep at any opportunity. Being on the move constantly means it often hits you, when you finally stop, just how tired you actually are. This will often be when you are waiting at a station or on a bus or plane-therefore not exactly the greatest places for sleep. A mask WILL help. You will easily fall asleep and more than likely wake up not knowing where you are!

One word of warning: You will probably also be photographed whilst sleeping. By other passengers; sometimes your friends, sometimes other backpackers, sometimes creepy old men…true story.

So all in all, not the greatest advice really. Don’t think I would be very helpful to anyone who was thinking of travelling or moving here. But when people do ask, I do my best to help. And as I have quite strong opinions on most things you are pretty guaranteed you will get an honest answer. Opinions to come.....