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Sunday, April 18, 2004
I'm writing this in my hotel room in San Francisco - they've got wi-fi and have lent me their iBook. Yes, people in San Fran have good taste in computers. I've already been in the Apple Store here and caressed the Macs... But enough of that - let's talk Vegas. Las Vegas - Day 1 The 1st thing you see when you get off the plane at Vegas Airport are slot machines. This is to acclimatise you to what you are about to behold: stepping into the New York New York hotel/casino, all we could say was 'Oh my God.' I've never needed a map to find my way around a hotel before - we wandered slack-jawed between the slots and poker tables, soothed by the chirruping, babbling machines. It's a bit bigger than the amusements in Hastings. Standing iin our 5th queue of the day, to check in, we watched the obese people wobble by. One woman - let's call her Martha - had grown so large that she needed a wheelchair to get from her room to the slot machine where she spends her days, her husband at her side, wondering what happened to that slim lil thing he married. Perhaps Martha ate her. Day 2 And we thought Japan was mental - Vegas has to be the most insane place on earth. Our hotel looks exactly like New York - they've even shipped in a few miserable subway cops to complete the effect; Paris is just down the road and a Disneyland-esque castle is opposite. We walked down the Strip in the baking sunshine and I needed to buy some shades, so we stopped off in a mall called the Desert Passage. There, I met a nice man called Chase who was in Nam and shook my hand three times during our transaction. I think he might be coming to stay with us soon. We watched some lions run around their enclosure at the MGM Grand. I was hoping for a Siegfried and Roy style mauling, but no such luck. Speaking of S & R, there's a gold statue of them halfway along the Strip that I keep having nightmares about. But the Strip at night is, like, 11 on the awesome scale. Neon drips, fountains dance and sway, faux-gondoliers sing at the Venetian. Amazing. And amazingly shallow. Day 3 Waiting outside the hotel for the bus to take us to the airfield for our flight over the Grand Canyon, I joked that the bus would be full of Japanese tourists. The bus pulled up. It was full of Japanese tourists. We flew over Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam and beside the Canyon in a tiny plane with big windows. I was a bit worried upon take-off when I noticed the pilot's lucky rabbit foot. The views, though, were as spectacular as you'd expect, as was the turbulence. As we were landing, Butter handed me a sick bag. 'What am I supposed to do with that?' I asked, moments before she grabbed it back off me and half-filled it. When we got off, the pilot quipped, 'I see you brought your lunch with you.' We and all the J-tourists got on a bus and listened to the tour guide tell appalling jokes that I'm too weary to repeat. But the Grand Canyon itself was, like, 12 on the awesome scale. Bloody huge. And home to a number of cute squirrels. On the way back, Butter added to her collection of used sick bags. ...So that was Vegas. San Fran is fantastic - a great city, and today we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and I did loads of shopping. The weather's lovely, though it's a bit nippy in the shade. I'll write more about San Fran when I get a chance. Sunday, April 11, 2004
Wednesday night was my company's annual quiz 'event', and although I hate to show off I'm afraid I'm going to have to, well, show off. My team - me and Mike - romped to victory. This is not because we're clever, but because we both spend most of our youths being obsessive about pop music. We were languishing in last place after the general knowledge and film rounds. Then came the music round, when we played our joker, and shot from last to first, managing to hang on until the end, when we won by half a point. I confess that by this point my competitive streak had revealed itself, and if we hadn't won I would have been parrot-sick. Instead I was over the moon. The bottle of champers is in my fridge now and Butter keeps threatening to quaff it, although half of it belongs to Mike. So, Mike, if I end up bringing in an empty bottle, it's not my fault... This will be my last post before we head to California. We hit Vegas on Tuesday, then on to San Francisco, Carmel, San Luis Obispo, LA and finally San Diego. We're, like, stoked to the max, dude. As they used to say in the 80s. Did I mention I'm going to see Morrissey in LA? Plus we'll be flying over the Grand Canyon, watching polar bears plunge, tasting wine and crusing down Highway 1, the air conditioning in our hair. See y'all later. Sunday, April 04, 2004
My boasts a fortnight ago that I'd finished Sayonara Baby have turned out to be somewhat premature. The day my friend LV was supposed to show it to her agent, I had a last-minute panic and told her to hold fire. This is because it has a major flaw which I'd been trying to ignore... Anyway, it needs major surgery, which I've embarked upon, and I'm confident it's going to be a lot better. I did send her the outline, which she proclaimed "Rather good!" and she still wants to see it when it's finished. So...I'm working flat out to get the flaming thing done. Update on Killing Cupid - we still don't know what the Beeb are doing. Or whether they're doing anything at all. We will aparently hear more this month. It's a year since I went out with the director and writer and nothing has happened since then. Aspiring writers beware - you need to be very, very patient. Of course, all this means that MarkCity will be neglected again over the coming weeks. Especially as we're off to Cali on the 13th. I will, however, be keeping a journal out there (I hope!) so you'll have lots to read when I return. Commiserations to my Arsenal-supporting readers. I enjoyed yesterday's FA Cup semi-final very much, especially when Henry blasted the ball about 50 metres over the bar. Well, he's talented, rich and gorgeous (er, according to Butter and every other girl I know) so it's nice to know he's not 100% perfect 100% of the time. |