That rings a bell

I was sitting in my office today when the phone rang. So I picked it up and answered it. But it continued to ring. I pressed a few buttons on it and was mildly annoyed to hear the dialing tone. I seem to have an office phone which is both ringing and also giving me the dial tone. Most mysterious.

I was just trying to wrap my head around this concept when the ringing stopped. Thank goodness. I picked up my mobile phone and glanced at the display out of idle curiosity. I seemed to have missed a call recently. Interesting. I'm sure I would have heard it ring.......

I'm blaming jetlag for this. That and the fact I've got new mobile and office phones recently.

Re-arming

 
..but don't leave it loaded

I was most upset when my gun broke. I've hardly used it.  Instead of making a healthy "thwack" when I pull the trigger all I get now is a weedy "twang". Not right. I'm not really into guns. Unless they are five quid from Tesco and fire foam bullets you can use to shoot at Channel 4 presenters.  Of course I've taken the gun to bits. I found that a small part of the trigger locking had failed. The plastic had just given way. I put it down to my habit of leaving the gun loaded, ready for action, at all times. After all, you never know when Davina McCall is going to pop up next. Unfortunately this stresses the trigger and so after a while the gun breaks itself.

So today I got another gun. Same type, so I can reuse the ammo. This one is going to be left unloaded. If you arm the mechanism it becomes a bit like one of those Samurai swords which have to be blooded once you have taken them from their sheath.  Fortunately, with Big Brother on the horizon I'm not going to be short of targets.

Home

Back home today. Me, a couple of cases, a bag of washing and a whole heap of jetlag. It is nice to be back, even though the cloud was so low that any lower and it would have been underneath the runway. Which would have made the landing even more exciting than it was.

Heading Home

Will I ever stay anywhere as posh again?

Well, today I packed up all my stuff ready for the journey back. Every time I go abroad I end up buying a new bag to take stuff home with me. This trip was no exception. I got a rather racy red number (should show up well on the luggage belt) for 14 dollars into which I can put all the presents that I bought for the folks back home. Just to make sure that they are sincerely pleased to see me.

Then, having purchased the jelly beans for number on daughter, it was off to the airport. 

This is the 'Vegas arrivals. Note how there are slot machines so that you can gamble even as you wait for your suitcase to appear.

I took me a while to time this photograph correctly, but take a close look at the screen at the far end and....

 
Imogen Heap is playing 'Vegas!

Very surprised (and impressed) to see that Imogen Heap is playing 'Vegas. We saw her live in York a few weeks back and she was jolly good. If you are in 'Vegas you should drop by. Or you could save the travel and just buy the album "Speak for Yourself".

After that surprise it was onto the plane for the journey back. I've found a way to survive long journeys. It is called the Archos AV500 and Veronica Mars technique. I managed to watch five episodes whilst waiting on various planes and in airports. If you have not seen it before, I'd advise you to take a look. Take a bit of Buffy, a pinch of OC and add just a smidgeon of Twin Peaks and you have Veronica Mars. Snappy, sassy and set in a High School campus.  More stereotypes than an advertising excutives handbook, but quite fun nonetheless.

And then back home for blessed sleep.

Bus Trip

 
Being on top of a bus does have its advantages...

On the final day of my visit to 'Vegas I thought I'd take a trip around. Now, I always try to make use of public transport when I go abroad. In the 'states this is usually a good deal because taxis can be expensive and you do see a lot more of the local life by catching a bus.  So I did. I bought a five dollar ticket which entitled me to a day's worth of travel and set off to take in the sights. And the Las Vegas Outlet Mall where I planned to buy some trousers. What a jetset lifestyle I have eh?

Anyhoo, I got on the bus, driven by someone whose nametag said was called "Jimmy". Jimmy obviously went to the "Attilla the Hun" school of customer relations. He contrived to be rude, unhelpful and unpleasant in around five words and three gestures. Then someone on the bus took a bit of a turn and had to go and sit down for a while at the stop I got on. Jimmy first ignored the problem, then went outside and shouted at them for being unwell, then, when the person had wandered off in search of a cool drink, called for an ambulance, stopped his bus and threw us all off onto the pavement.  Nobody liked Jimmy much. He seemed to me to have had a very unhappy childhood. At least, I hope he did.

His replacement, who was so efficient I've forgotten his name, turned up in a virtually empty bus a couple of minutes later.  And the really good news was that I got to sit on the top deck, in the front, with a wonderful view of the strip. And a camera.  I took loads (and I mean loads) of pictures. There are a bunch on my Flickr site.  Didn't buy any trousers though. Such is life. When evening came I went out again with my cameras, just to get a few final snaps.

 
The view outside my hotel at night

I made it as far as the Harley Davidson Cafe before I caught a bus back. Not driven by Jimmy.