In a little more than 48 hours I`ll start my trip back to Europe. It`ll be my first trip back to the continent since my emergency last minute departure back on 29th April when I was not even sure if could even get back in to the USA. This time I`ll be out in Paris for 3 weeks, back in the UK for a couple and then returning back to California …… where I`ll stay until Thanksgiving then head back to Paris for the rest of the year.
So not much time left here in the USA this year then.
So I have been making the most of it.
What could be more American than a good ole BBQ in the sun?
So I`ve had 3 in the past 3 days.
Saturday saw me go to Lucille’s bbq Which was very nice, and not too pricey either.
Sunday was the big one we had waited for, for some time. The BBQ around at Fred’s place. Fred is a colleague without whom we would not be back over here in the USA, such a massive help he was in getting our visa situation resolved.
Although I think he only had us around to show off his new back yard.
Fred certainly knows how to throw a BBQ.
Then to complete the BBQ hat-trick (btw, no-one in the US knows what a hat-trick is) Monday night was the old tried and tested BBQ at Brains bar.
The local bar puts on a bbq every Monday night during the NFL season, and we make a habit of being there every single time picking up our 2 dollar steak tip sandwiches, 1 dollar hot dogs and 2 dollar beers.
So now I`m done with BBQs, which is a good thing because as of Thursday its frogs legs and snails all the way.
At last I have some closure on the farcical treatment my hair received back in March this year.
Some of you will remember my ‘hair shocker’ treatment when I went into a hair stylist and asked for my ‘tips to be done blonde’. A long story short is that because the people working there did not understand English I ended up looking like Stripe from Gremlins.
Now I know why.
It turns out that the people who own the butchers shop – I mean hair stylist are from Vietnam.
Tips means Black in Vietnamese.
So I went in asking for my hair to be black and blonde, which to be fair is exactly what I got.
I still think I`ll try somewhere else next time though.
I`ve made it back from my 4th trip to Vegas in the past 14 or so months.
We headed out on our drive across the Mojave desert on Sunday and returned on Wednesday afternoon, amazingly still with some cash left in the bank, unlike the last trip I took to the Disneyland for Adults.
This was a Vegas trip entirely different (well almost) to the 3 that had gone before. Not least by the fact that I wont have to live off my toe nails until my next pay day. This trip was actually me tackling a list of things I wanted to do in Vegas, but never got around to in previous trips because of spending the entire time drunk or passed out.
With a strict budget in mind I booked myself into a Tower room at the Excalibur hotel and casino, the one that looks like a castle:
Great value for money it was too. Nice big room, King bed, 42 inch plasma tele, big shower and not a bad view:
all for 51 dollars a night. That also included 25 dollars in vouchers for restaurants in the hotel and 2 free spa passes.
Sunday was spent wondering the strip and finding lots of cool free stuff to do; like a trip up to ‘The Mix’ nightclub at the top of Mandalay Bay. 60 odd stories up gives you an awesome view of the Vegas strip. Cant remember too much more after that which means I must have drunk too much.
Monday however was a fun packed day. Up, showered and breakfasted I set off to the Tropicana casino and inparticular towards the Titanic exhibition http://www.tropicanalv.com/ent_titanic.asp.
A great experience it was too. Over 4000 artifacts raised from the wreck itself including what was left of the …… whatever the boat equivalent of a steering wheel is that was used to (try) and get the ship out of the way of that pesky iceberg.
I have to say I was disappointed to find out that the ‘Big Piece’ (13 tone part of the Titanic bow raised in 1998) was not on show, but they had a re-creation of the grand staircase and a mock up of the Titanic’s decks with the air con simulating the temperature the air would have been on 14th April 1912 when it hit the iceberg.
After all that I took at trip to the Munich Hofbrauhaus – German beer hall where everything starts to get a bit hazy. My last memory there is been determined to sample every single one of their beers:
Not sure how that one went, but judging by the fact that I only have sporadic memories of being in http://www.mirage.com/nightlife/jet.aspx Jet nightclub at the Mirage, voted best nightclub in Vegas 2008, then its fair to say things went rather well, and thinking about it, that this trip was not a million miles away from the others after all.
By Tuesday I need to just chill out and relax, so a day by the pool was in order, and with the spare cash I had left over I booked out a cabana.
Just 75 dollars for the whole day got you your own personal cabana bith room enough to easily occupy 5, with a 42 inch plasma tele, a sofa, an electric roof fan, free towels and pool rafts, and a fridge stocked with water and fruit juice which they replenished throughout the day.
Not a bad way to spend a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
The evening saw me venture into old town Vegas, Freemont street is pretty much how you think the place would have looked back in the day. Everywhere there are signs for 8 dollar prime rib, 2 dollar beers and promises of ‘eating free’ – as long as you are gambling that is. I was not interested in any of the above, but I was interested in the light show. Its shown on a giant canopay 90 feet high and 1400 long housing 12 million LEDs. There is a ‘show’ every hour on the hour that lasts for about 10 minutes. I took a video here:
But to be honest it doesn’t do it justice. You just have to experience it for yourself.
So that was it really, A few beers later on the Tuesday night, a spot of gambling and up we were for our return trip across the Mojave desert on Wednesday morning.
Well it seems that my new visa works. I did a quick pop over to Tijuana, Mexico a few days back and managed to cross back into the US without the immigration giving me any more hassle than telling me that I looked like Billy Idol. I didn’t even have to give my fingerprints.
Sweet.
Good thing that the visa works too. One of my colleagues, Mat has been stranded in Paris since our visa fiasco kicked off way back at the start of April. Unluckily for him his old B1 visa has the now famous “CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE” stamp all over it so he could not travel back with me and Dave on 29th April. So he has been sat there in Paris ever since.
And so has his apartment in California.
You see Mat thought, like the rest of us, that the visa extension was a formality, and had no idea of the craziness which was to follow; hence he travelled to London with clothes enough only for a few days.
Now he’s been there for 6 months.
The company has graciously given him 100 pounds to spend on new clothes. I guess he must have had to pay for the other shoe himself.
Happily for Mat though his visa fiasco should soon too be over and he will be returning to Orange County and back to his apartment.
Which has not been cleaned for 6 months….
…. nor has it had the fridge cleaned out for 6 months.
…… and I`m fairly sure the air con has not been on for the whole summer.
I don’t really fancy being around when he opens the front door for the first time.
I`m fairly sure there`ll be some pythons in the trees, and a tiger sat on the sofa watching tele smoking a pipe.
I don’t even want to think what’ll happen when he opens the fridge.
I suspect that the milk may start talking to him.
I bet the blue brae wont be doing too well either…. especially considering that it started out in life as a cheddar.
At very long last my visa nightmare which started on 8th April this year is finally over.
A few days ago my passport arrived back from the US State Department where it had been waiting to be processed for the past 11 weeks. All was well, I thought, but of course there was one final moment of agony when I did open the passport.
There was a visa in there …. but it had the words “CANCELED WITHOUT PREJUDICE” stamped all over it in huge letters.
Oh god no.
Fortunately before the heart attack kicked in I flipped to he back of the passport and there it was; my lovely shiny new NATO5 diplomatic visa.
So its official, I am now a diplomat. Of course I tired out my new found powers immediately, but sadly it turns out that being a diplomat does not get you served first at the bar, nor does it get you a free lap dance at the local strip club.
Its hardly worth having really. All its good for it seems is being able to live in the US permanently….
… oh, and allows me to apply for a green card, which is the next step……
