Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada!

And fabulous it most certainly is.
We had a wonderful weekend and I highly recommend Vegas to anyone and everyone.

We flew at lunchtime on Friday, and got there at dinner time.
Unfortunately some of the booze Simon had been taking (for his conference, not his addiction) went all over my clothes en route so I had to put everything in the laundry.

We were pretty knackered, so we had dinner in our hotel, at Benihana.
It was excellent. I know they do the same stuff in all the Benihana's, but I bet only in Vegas do you find a Chinese chef with really bad teeth doing it all with an Elvis twist!

I of course had the disgusting house cocktail, because it came in a Buddha mug which I got to keep!

The next day we walked from our hotel to the strip, despite our concierge's horror when we asked for directions, it was just a five min walk.
The weather was nice, sunny but not hot.

The strip is insane. Vegas is mostly just a normal town, but with this one stretch of road which is like Disneyland for grown ups.

Everything is themed and covered in bright lights and huge signs. Its crazy.
I will put all the pics on flickr when Simon is back from the conference with my camera.

There is Circus Circus, I bet you can guess what that looks like. And New York New York, a mini Eiffel Tower, Venice complete with canal and gondolas, the Pyramids, and lots of other totally over the top ridiculousness.
I loved it all.

We went into all the hotels which are impeccably well kept.
I thought it would be a bit grubby, but not at all.
Tacky yes, but clean and tidy. There is no litter, not even any gum on the pavement.

All the hotels are like little towns of their own, they all have restaurants, shops and of course casinos and slot machines.
The shops are all designer, way out of my league, but nice to look in.
The restaurants are all pretty fancy too, even if you manage not to lose a fortune gambling just being in Vegas is pretty expensive.

We went to the Secret Garden at the Mirage, which has white lions and white tigers and even a baby leopard. There was also an aquarium with four dolphins, two baby ones!

We saw the fountain show outside the Bellagio, which was incredible, even in the daytime.
And in the foyer of the MGM Grand are another couple of lions, who were nonchalantly chewing on some bones when we got there.

My favourite hotel was the Mirage, because it was were we found a roulette machine with a cosy seat for two people and a minimum bet of just a dollar.
As soon as you start gambling a waitress appears and offers you drinks, which are free, and of course you say yes. Even if it is 11am!

But if I ever went back with loads of money I'd stay at the Wynn, it was really spectacular, and not even themed, just fancy.

On Saturday night we went to Ka, which was incredible. At one point I was so scared by the amazing stunts I thought I might be sick. Luckily no one died.
If you get the chance, see it.

On Sunday we finished the last bit of the strip we hadnt made it to the day before, and went to the shark aquarium at Mandalay Bay which was really cool.

A definite tip - both days we had lunch outside. Saves you from completely losing touch with reality and getting all disorientated from being inside non-stop.

Then we went to the Mirage to spend the last of our pennies on our lucky machine.
We were too scared to play on the tables, it was a $10 minimum bet, so we stuck with the machine.
I think we did bloody well, we bet $300 in all, and came away with $306!!!
A profit, and all those free drinks made it even better!

That night we went to L'Atellier Joel Robuchon.
It was incredible. And deadly.
I ate more calories in one meal than I had in the last month combined, but it was worth it.
We had the six course tasting menu and it was all completely delicious.

After that we hit the machines for a final bet and a final couple of drinks, before crashing.

Sadly it took me all of Monday to get back to NYC, because of delays in Minneapolis and also the time change.
But it was totally worth it.

We're going to ... Vegas baby!!!!!!!!!

more soon.

DUMBO

On Friday I was supposed to go up to Long Island and hit "the mall" with Vicky all day, but I got a migraine which delayed me by an hour, and then I missed my train and was delayed by another hour because of our lift.
The stupid lifts in our building are always broken and very busy, and so I waited 20 minutes to get to the ground floor of the building!

I got there in the end, and its probably a good thing we werent there all day. The place was huge.
So big, in fact, that we needed a map to find our way around.
But we had a mission, to find jeans for both of us, and we had great success.
Little and large (30" leg and 34" leg!) got matching jeans from Lucky in the sale for a mere £35!

Saturday passed in a blur of hangover and chores.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, and it was actually quite warm too.
We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge which was really nice, even though I forgot my camera, and went to a flea market in DUMBO.

It was heaving, and full of tat, but of course we bought stuff.
Simon got an old musical cocktail shaker. Yes, musical.
And a pretty old soda bottle.

I got jewels.
Some little broaches, a necklace and a butterfly hairclip.
Havent worn a hair clip since I was about 6, but I'm willing to give it another try.

My New York weekend

I think I will always remember last weekend as being one of my most "New York" weekends, as in, it was just how I thought all my weekends would be, before I actually moved here.

On Friday night Simon and I got dolled up and went out.
First we went to a super swanky cocktail bar called Death and Co.
There is no standing room, so they dont even let you in until there is a seat free.
But I know a man who knows a man, so in we went.

All the cocktails are fancy, there's no Sex on the Beach here, so after realising that I probably wouldnt like anything on the menu I ordered what looked like a posh rum punch.
It was amazing.

Then we went for dinner.
We were supposed to have the cheap restaurant week menu, but all the other stuff looked so much better and we were drunk on cocktails so we went crazy and a la carte.
The food was all yummy, and the wine was too.

On Saturday we went to Macy's to do some shopping (not for us sadly, but still fun) and then watched a movie in the evening with Chinese take away. It didnt come in those cardboard boxes they have in Friends, but was jolly nice.

And then on Sunday we saw a certain someone, as I may have mentioned, before spending the rest of the day in MoMA.
Despite my reservations about "modern" art, it was amazing.
The contemporary gallery didnt really do much for me, but the photography exhibition was amazing, as were the sculptures and paintings.

And to reward myself for all that culture, I went home and had a delicious chocolate chip cookie!