Sexy footballers part 1

This is obviously an important ongoing blog project... sexy guys playing in the world cup.  Of course I had  a picture of Fernando Torres in there, but will save that for another day instead!

Robin Van Persie
Roque Santa Cruz
David Villa
Iker Casillas

Sleep

It's been a strange old week.  I have felt exhausted most of the time and ready for bed as soon as work finishes. And sleep don't come easy either.  I cant blame it on the holiday and jet lag as that was nearly a week ago.  Who knows what's going on in my brain, though Pete is also struggling to sleep and function properly

For the record, today (June the 18th) is our anniversary.  11 years ago we met on a works night out and then sat on the terrace in the crappy flat Pete shared in London, chatting until the sun came up.  I will skip the details of what happened when the sun came up

It's been a dull week overall and the entertainment value in the football World Cup is mixed. This is often the case in the group stages as no teams wants to lose. England play tonight and I pray for some quality attacking play.  I told you my brain wasn't working properly

Still looking for pictures of cute footballers in the World Cup - more to follow.  On the football theme, it looks like Crystal Palace are saved and a new manager has been installed with ex-Scotland manager George Burley joining us.  Good times ahead!!!! Brain still not engaging.

A couple of weird things from yesterday when I was out seeing clients:

- A big fat man on a rusty 1970's Chopper bike struggling to ride along the pavement near Ascot.
- A sign pointing to "Historic Egham".  Two words you don't expect to see together.
- Listening to NPR music and the presenter said he didn't like Fleetwood Mac.  What a narrow minded blinkered prat.

June Movie Update

Here are the films that Pete and I have received from Lovefilm.com and watched on TV and DVD (and on a plane) over the past month or so, in reverse order, with my ratings out of ten from my movie list on IMDB.

Shrek Forever After 7
Cant compete with the first two films, but it's still clever and funny.

A Single Man 7
Perhaps seeing this on a plane didn't do it justice.

I Love You Phillip Morris 7
I thought it was funny, but I think that the story is interesting enough to be made into a drama instead.

Un prophète 8
Violent and has a complicated story - but a great film all the same.

Me and Orson Welles 7
Zac Efron is a better actor than he gets credit for (and he's gorgeous of course).  He needs to make more "proper" films like this.

The Informant! 6

Humpday 1
Was this crap made up as they went along?

Greek Pete 1
Awful documentary about a gay rent boy in London, complete with friends who think life is all about scrounging benefits, taking drugs and acting like idiots.

Fantastic Mr. Fox 7
Better than the reviews gave it credit for.  A fun film all round.

Fauteuils d'orchestre 7
A surprising French film that was witty throughout.

Before Sunrise 6

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 6

The Men Who Stare at Goats 6
Couldn't decide whether it was funny or up it's own...

Mr. Right 5
Gay film that had a few too many camp (annoying) stereotypes for my liking.

Hannibal Rising 6

Home

And so the holiday comes to an end and I am dreading going back to work.  I am sure that my inbox is full of goodies to bring me down to earth with a crash.  I need to sort out quite few ongoing things this week which is tough with zero motivation, I need to arrange an appointment to take my manager with me so he can "see me in action" (I hate those meetings) and I have to plan the next team meeting and have few ideas so far.

Post holiday blues suck.

On the blog this week I intend to post a list of the movies I've seen lately and perhaps find pictures of sexy footballers at the World Cup just for the fun of it.  I'll not comment on the England v USA game until England have played again.

Oh no, here comes Monday...

40th: Day Seventeen - The journey home

So the holiday is coming to an end and shortly we will be making our way to Las Vegas airport. We have done so much (as you have possibly read) and I cant say it's been cheap. Being a good financial type person, I've actually been saving for this for 2 years, a little each month. I like the little pots that Intelligent Finance let you fill with money online.

Anyway, the experience of 17 days in the USA has been extraordinary. So I intend following up the holiday with some thoughts on this vast and surprising country. Watch this space.

A couple of closing thoughts on the holiday however:

Gambling:  I have not mentioned the gambling too much, but we've done some obviously.  I was tempted to enter one of the poker competitions that are everywhere, but felt that I wasnt experienced enough with the game.  Most tables had a $30 buy in, but in the Wynn, the amount changed daily and were as high as $2700 (a random sum it seemed to me). The more private "high stakes" areas had limits that were not shared with us common people.

Tattoos: I did a rough tally that two-thirds of American guys under 30 in Los Angeles and Las Vegas have tattoos on show. I don't mean little ones like mine, I mean BIG impressive ones. It must be a right of  passage along with losing your virginity, to get a tattoo.

Drinking: We have seen now trouble due to drinking on this holiday and that's a bit surprising in Las Vegas as you can find $1 drinks everywhere.  The only drunks we have seen were British.  What a surprise.

Smoking: In California, smoking is frowned upon, in Las Vegas, you can still smoke indoors which seemed strange after a few years of smoking ban at home.

World Cup: To my surprise, adverts for the World Cup are everywhere and there is plenty of opportunity in the casinos to bet on it, so I hope that the USA enjoys the event.

Food: They don't do small portions.

See you all in the UK, but to end with, a silly picture...

40th: Day Sixteen - Love in Las Vegas

We failed with the gay night out last night. We spent too much time eating, drinking and a bit gambling. We got to the club around midnight (and it took a while to walk there in the heat) and it looked pretty empty. We were unsure whether to risk the $20 entrance to find it empty, so we went to a bar and carried on drinking $1 frozen Margaritas. They are great drinks, but do have a habit of removing the feeling from my legs.

We started the day by the pool listening to 3 rich girls doing Paris Hilton impersonations without realising. They were so dim saying such things as "let's go smoke, it'll be.. oh like such fun" and "The suite in the Trump is so cool, it's like soooo big". One of them called someone up and asked for $7,500 and it didn't sound like they were after a loan.

Anyway... we found a cinema today and watched the latest Shrek and then more casino's, shops etc. We checked out the latest Lions at the MGM Grand and saw a very fat Elvis singing Karaoke.  I'll will blog about the gambling another day, but the casinos are vast and the amosphere is electric, especially in the early hours.

We had bought tickets for the Cirque Du Soleil "Love" show which uses remixed Beatles songs as the theme. Although it cost a small fortune, it was a sellout and we got into the purpose build theatre around 9.50pm ready for the show. And what a show it is! It's a mixture of circus, effects, gymnastics, ballet and a lot of showmanship.  There were so many great parts including trampolining over a red phone box (you had to be there) and some amazing moves by a topless guy with a stunningly beautiful body.

When we got back to the hotel, we were in the lift with guys going to the the 64th floor - the top floor where there are 4 massive penthouses.  Had we had more time, I'm sure that we could have got an invite to a party!

Tomorrow we will start on our way home.  We've done so much and it seems like months ago that we landed in San Francisco.  I have lots of thoughts on the USA, it's way of life and interesting people - I will blog about it all over the coming weeks. Watch this space

40th: Day Fifteen - Las Vegas

An early blog posting today as we will not be back in the room until well into tomorrow if Pete has his way.

We spent the morning lazing by the pool (and eyeing up the poolboys again) and then went to the newest of the resort hotels which is blandly called City Centre.  It's a collection of massive hotels, casinos and shops aimed at the big spenders.  Every shop that I cant afford to walk into is there already or due to open soon.  Although the site is only half finished, it's looking good.  Just a shame that they didn't give it the inspiring name that it deserves.

I had to come back to the room for a sleep this afternoon.  I think that the heat has finally got to me and I needed a siesta.  That's far better than saying I needed to nap.

Tonight we are going gay.  I've already mentioned in previous blogs that Pete and I hardly ever go out to a gay bar, but tonight we are going to a huge club called Krave that says that's it's a gay club that is "straight friendly" but does feature a porn night with stars attending.  There are few gay bars or clubs in Las Vegas, I assume it's because gay guys are looking for the same things in this camp city as the rest of the pack. We decided to avoid some of the seedier places downtown, though the underwear only club looked interesting.

40th: Day Fourteen - Downtown Las Vegas

The Legends show last night reminded me of the cruise shows we saw last year. It was OK, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you get keen price.  The guitarist was particularly good (and cute) and the Aretha Franklin impersonator had a very powerful voice.

This morning we lazed by the pool for a while and I went to the gym for a short workout, but it was too warm for such things. So we sat and drank smoothies watching the extremely cute pool boys. We then made our way to Downtown Las Vegas - the old Vegas that we all know from films.


It's a couple of miles from the modern "strip" and in the daylight, it looks a little sad.  The main road is Fremont Street and is about 4 blocks long and features the Golden Nugget and other casinos that were the place to be in the 1950's and 1960's.  The hotels and casinos now look like they need a really good makeover.  However, to invigorate the area, they have covered the whole street with an LCD screen that can be used for amazing animations.

After a few $1 drinks (which is a fine way to sell beer and cocktails) we got a bus to the outlet mall.  A couple of hours later we returned to Fremont Street to see the regular light show.  It was truly fantastic to see and hear.  I would recommend that everyone who visits Las Vegas makes a special trip to Fremont Street in the evening.

40th: Day Thirteen - Las Vegas

It's been another oppressively hot day in Las Vegas.  We decided to explore the casinos and shopping centres today.  The strip is about 2 miles long and we went from hotel to hotel for hours and hours.  There is so much to see.

I was very impressed with both New York New York and the MGM Grand.  New York New York is a massive hotel built to look like the city skyline, complete with Empire State building and statue of liberty.  It also has a roller coaster going round the buildings.  MGM is just huge and has lions brought in each day from a ranch (lions on rotation that is).  Whereas some of the casinos look a little like English seaside amusement halls but on a much larger scale, these 2 look classy.

The pyramid at the Luxor is impressive, but not too practical I think.  We walked to the end of the strip but it was far too hot to go looking for the old "welcome to Las Vegas" sign.

Tonight we are seeing show - it's the "Legends" show featuring music by famous artists.  Looks fine to me, I will let you know what I think.  We had considered seeing the Beatles Love show, but it's not running for a few nights.  The shows are not cheap here, I assume that big profits are being made from the shows.

The desert still seems like a crazy place to build a resort. Tomorrow we intend going to old Las Vegas with the iconic images of the tall waving cowboy etc.  I am trying to talk Pete into getting a small tattoo, but he keeps pretending not to hear me.

40th: Day Twelve - The road to Las Vegas

We left early while it was cooler (80 degrees is cool these days) on the 220 mile trip from Williams to Las Vegas.  The road was pretty clear across the desert.  We had a good breakfast and made the Hoover Dam by about 1pm. 

Ever since I saw a docu-drama on the building of the Hoover dam, it has fascinated me.  So to see this huge structure in real life was a treat.  It wasn't exactly as I expected, sitting in a narrow valley with lots of electric pylons and supporting buildings and structures all around.  But it was still fantastic to see this damn fine dam.

The road across the dam will soon be supplemented by a new bridge, but at present is 15 mph one lane each way, so the traffic jams can be horrendous.  We walked across the dam some incredible heat and I am sure I have never felt me uncomfortable in my life due to the sun and the hot air I was breathing.  I know one of my brothers would have been crying as he suffers from a fear of heights.  It's a massive massive piece of concrete.

We then made it to the Trump International in Las Vegas.  This 64 story gold hotel is pure luxury at the end of the strip.  It lacks a casino and lots of bars and restaurants, so is not your typical Las Vegas hotel.  The room on the 58th floor is pretty huge and I particularly like the TV in the bathroom mirror, but we wont be renting a $400 cabana at the pool tomorrow.  We had a walk down the strip (as we had to drop off the Mustang) but the temperature was 117 degrees and it made moving around a sweaty ordeal.  The aircon in the casinos, shopping centres and hotels is welcome.

Pete won $60 for a $1 bet on a poker machine so is happy and this happiness was completed by finding a Cher shop in Caesars Palace.  Anyone who may have wondered if Pete was gay would have had it confirmed at this point.

I just took this night time shot from our bedroom window on the highest floor I have ever been on.