to recap: i am now in New York for one week. fly back to LA on September 11th. and i'm in New York, and i'm probably going to go see ground zero. there is irony in there somewhere. i find if you say those three components slowly and point in random directions with a weird smile on your face it tends to get the massage across.

the time difference has changed so i'm now 5 hours behind england. it was weird flying here because whilst i was flying in real physical time, i was also flying forward through time. so i was in two places at once, but they were the same place at same but also different times. it's crazy i know. i try not to think about it too much.

ANYWAY...

let's talk Vegas.

i didn't realise that the actual advert for Vegas is "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". i had heard the expression before (thank you The O.C.) but thought it was just something they came up with. silly me, i should've known better. so yeah, i purchased what i thought was a train ticket there through amtrak. i later found out that the LA to LV train does not exist and i was to be bussing it. no biggie.

when i first got on the bus at union station i had a seat to myself AND it was air conditioned. jackpot. however, this was not to be the case for much longer. we made a stop in el monte (a town by arcadia) and the person behind me (who we'll call Richard) decided to get off. i thought "go ahead old boy, you do what you want. this is the land of the free after all". in meantime, we picked up some strays in el monte. one of these being a big fat mexican woman (who we'll call Judy). Judy decided to sit in Richard's seat, but because she was so fat, and maybe because of her Mexican blood, she took up two seats instead. Upon Richard's return he obviously had nowhere to sit and asked me if he sit in the spare one next to me. I responded "go ahead old boy, you do want you want. this is the land of the free after all", or words to the effect.

all was quiet on the western front, until we got to about 100miles outside of Vegas, where things toook a turn to the strange. until then, no words between Richard and myself had been exchanged, maybe the odd grazing of the arm or two, but only everso often. and even when this happened nothing was said, no sign of apology from either camp. so, 100miles outside Vegas Richard starts to become rather animated, gasping and pointing out the window, "go ahead old boy" i thought, "you do want you want. this is the land of the free after all". big mistake. this only encouraged him. his pointing and gasping turned into poking me in the ribs, stroking my arm, and even more disturbingly (if possible), growling like a dog. for real. i humoured him for a while by agreeing that the same sight of the same desert that we'd been looking at out of the same window on the same bus for the last 4hours was rather exciting. perhaps if he was going through the same weird time/parallel-universe-but-not-really event as i was on my flight earlier then i could've maybe let him get away with it. but he wasn't. i wasn't. nobody was. this continued for the next 100miles. he even began doing the same pokey/touchey/growley routine for someone else across the aisle. not once did jealousy cross my mind though, after all this is the land of the free, he can do what he wants. Or so he may think. a few miles from Vegas someone complained to 'the man', and the man had a not so quiet word over the p.a. and told him in no uncertain terms to "leave people alone, and be quiet". it was a small and dignified victory, but a victory nonetheless.

i stayed at the rio which is just to the west of caesars palace and the bellagio. we had our own casino and all that jazz. i sauntered over the road to try the tables at a few others but with no luck. i had my best time at the roulette tables at the rio. on the last night, i turned a measely $20 into a manly $180. most of which has now been given to goodwill aka, me, aka, my liver, aka, the las vegas drainage department. great time had by all. the pool area was split into three sections at the rio 1)childrens 2)everyone 3)adult. i rocked the everyone pool for a few days and slowly made my way up to aduly, which you had to pay for. still debating whether it was worth it, but i'll always have the memories (/paris. anyone?).

the bus home was fairly uneventful, i sat at the window seat and had an old chinese woman for company. finished my book, and for some reason, listened to a somewhat eclectic mix of dj shadow, hondo maclean, and coldplay. don't ask me why, it is what it is. when we stopped at barstow for lunch/breakfast i saw the funniest thing in my life and just wish i had my camera on me at the time. there was a small group of chinesers on my bus who happened to be all standing together in a team huddle, perhaps they were practising military drills or gymnastic formations, i don't know. what i do know is that they were standing by a sign saying 'handmade gifts: oriental style'. best thing ever?! can i get an amen?!

i have loads of photos to put up but i'll do a seperate post with all the choice cuts for your viewing pleasure

there is also loads of other things that have happened to me but i have to go out to bex's mate's birthday dinner and don't have the time.

peace!