A P.S. on Vegas

When I got back I was talking to my colleague M who has a unique perspective on life, quite different from mine. She asked me how the trip was and in the course of answering her I was describing the guy asleep at the slot machine and told her that if eventually that was where I was headed, kill me now. Her response was, “But think about all the fun he probably had in getting to there. You’d miss all of that”. And she meant it. She always makes me smile.

Some People Really Need to Hold On To Their Identity

The size of the truck on narrow UK roads, the license plate, the price this person must pay at the pump when they fill up, is unbelievable.

This was parked in our parking lot at work on Friday and the driver must have been in the pub across the way.  I bet if I would have walked into the pub I would have heard driver's voice above the other patrons.  Something tells me this person might like a little attention.

Oh 2010...

If January is any indication of the upcoming year, I think you're getting the better of me.

The night before I left we had a major catastrophe with our washer/dryer. Another downside to the retarded washer/dryer combo machine, if it stops working you have neither a washer nor a dryer!

While we love the space in this house, there is an electrical situation happening in the kitchen that is slowly driving us insane. We are on our second washer/dryer combo since moving in which now doesn't work. Repairman is coming on Monday and I am so grateful that H will be there to deal with it.  When this new one was delivered the installer wouldn't actually install it.  He told me that because it was still connected to the water, he was not allowed to touch it because you never know, he may disconnect it and the whole house could flood.  So when I asked well, can you tell me how to disconnect it and I will do it so you can complete your install he told me that it would be too tough for me to do.  H walked in the door after work that night and had the old one disconnected and the new one connected in about ten minutes.  They have a term for that installer here - jobsworth.

Las Vegas

So during our time in Vegas we experienced more rain in a few days than they had in all of 2009. The sun finally came out towards the end of the week and was full on for our journey home last Sunday. We were staying at a hotel complex about 30 minutes away from the action that had lots of hotel rooms and meeting spaces as well as a casino in the middle. Even though I walked through the casino multiple times a day I never put a single cent in a machine. In fact, the casino seemed pretty depressing to the point that one of my colleagues nicknamed it “the pit of despair”. I had jet lag and one morning while waiting for the workout room to open I paced through the length of the hotel a few times which meant I walked through the casino at 4am more than once. Who’s in the casino at 4am? A lot of people that shouldn’t be. I walked past a lot of senior citizens during the day but at night it looked like people who maybe had come from work. There was a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, dosing off at the slot machine. It was strange to walk through a building that on both ends where the hotel and meeting rooms were located was non-smoking but the pit of despair was not.

We did get to the strip the last night and it was good to see some of my U.S. colleagues and even caught up with my buddy S, a Vegas lover if I ever saw one! I miss them so. A few of my UK colleagues were amazed at how the Americans just melted at the sound of their accents.

As we were leaving one of my colleagues asked me if being in America made me homesick and if travelling back was going to be difficult, but no it wasn’t. As any business traveller knows, when you spend the whole trip in hotel rooms and meeting rooms, you could be anywhere in the world. So nothing of the experience made me go, oh I miss this!

One thing that did strike me as I was standing in line at Starbucks in the hotel one morning was the size of the muffins in the display case. No one really needs to eat a muffin that’s as big as a small planet do they?

Didn’t get much rest on the plane on the way home but watched a really sweet film called Away We Go.

As I was taking the train home from Gatwick Airport, one of my worst travelling nightmares almost became a reality. I called H to tell him I was heading home and as I exited the train at Victoria Station I noticed the other woman that had been in my car had my suitcase instead of her own and was exiting the train. To get her attention I had to sort of yell at her which seemed to really shake her up. When she realized her mistake all she could say was, “Well done”. Maybe it was because I had then been up for over 24 hours but I was annoyed that there wasn’t an apology but instead a well done.

Wow

Me and a few of my colleagues from the UK are attending some training and meetings north of Las Vegas.  We couldn't believe our luck that we were able to get a great deal on a direct flight from Gatwick to Las Vegas, and even better, the plane was practically empty.  Have you ever seen a plane in the air like this?  Everyone had the opportunity to stretch out and catch a few ZZZs once the plane got off the ground.  The luck turned when we arrived in Las Vegas and the pilot announced that the weather was EXACTLY the same as it was at Gatwick, cold and pouring.

It's a new day today.  Mr. Sunshine, please come out and play.

Winter Guacamole

Yes, the tomatoes this time of year don’t resemble tomatoes so skip them. Sunday night we had carnitas for dinner and I’m going to call H’s avocado concoction “winter guacamole”. Yum


Dice one ripe avocado and put it in a bowl. Add the juice of half of a lime, two cloves of garlic minced, and chopped cilantro to taste. Mix and mash a little to make it as chunky or smooth as you would like.

Make sure if you’re planning to kiss someone that they eat some of this too!

Peer Pressure Can Sometimes Be A Good Thing

I have tried to suggest volunteer work to A and I’ve been met with outrage at the thought. Lessons or physical activity, I get the same response. A and her friends though are starting the Duke of Edinburgh Award program and it requires that she do all of the above as well as hike! I guess as long as it’s not my idea it’s a good idea. The program is made up of four parts: Volunteering, New Skill, Physical Activity, and Expedition. It looks like she will actually end up with two volunteering jobs: one with an organization that offers dog walking services to the elderly so that they can keep their pets, and the other at the farm that we visit for eggs and meat. And yesterday I took her for her first riding lesson as she has been asking to start these since she got back from the Cornwall riding camp in October and wanted to use that as her physical activity. She absolutely loves it and even after falling off of a horse when practicing jumping at camp she’s ready to go!

As we waited for her lesson to start we walked around to visit the horses and A petted most of them. At that moment, as a horse looked to me for some attention I realized I am petrified of horses. I’ve only ridden once and didn’t like the idea of the animal I was sitting on having a mind of its own. As A told me stories of girls being bitten or kicked by the animals she then suggested that I take lessons just like her friend J and her mom do. I was thinking hell to the no! Why do we even ride horses in the modern age? This is crazy! They are beautiful animals and I will admire them from afar. I’ll leave the up close and personal to her and the other horse girls.