Blogzilla!

I have been so bloody crap, haven't I???! The more time that has passed since my holiday, the more stuff has happened - and the list of things to cover in my Blog has become ridiculous! Heap my Christmas Crapness into the fray, and what you have is an official seasonal meltdown chez Haylois!

Bris-Vegas...

So where to start... where to start? Lets go back in time to early November now (sniff)... I had THE most amazing week with Jen and her family in Australia. Mark joined me there (having visited Andy and Srey Neath in Cambodia), and we got spoilt absolutely rotten by Jen, her family and her friends. Not only did I get to meet her two absolutely darling twin boys for the first time (I miss them SO much since I got back that I can barely bring myself to ready their blog entries), I also got to reacquaint myself with the gorgeous little Miss Lenabel (Jen's beautiful and characterful three-year old daughter) - an absolute little gem. I was also delighted to meet Jen's Sister Louise and her family of three little girls (all five and under!) on my first morning. Quite an introduction to the family! Six children all at once... but they were lovely, and we went for a delicious lunch in a park close to where Louise lives. The rest of the week was incredibly busy just looking after the babies really (I loved every single second - despite the nappy changing faces I pulled!), but we managed to squeeze in several outings, including a trip to my fave wildlife park (Lone Pine), where I managed to cuddle a rather reluctant Koala called Damien (not as nice as Oprah, who I cuddled on my preceding visit!). We also had a delicious lunch with Jen's parents (I think that Mark and Jen's Dad formed a mutual appreciation society); their new house is just amazing (I didn't think I would ever like another house as much as their old one, but this has surpassed it!). I got to see Jen's Grandmother at her place, which is always an absolute pleasure; I have yet to meet a more gracious and welcoming lady. Jen, John and Mark and I had a wonderful night out at a teppanyaki restaurant called 'Kabuki' in Brisbane. This was quite an experience! The chef was highly skilled and a bit of a performer! We had to catch eggs in bowls (I, of course, missed mine and ended up with rather alot of raw egg on my skirt! heh...), and we were literally showered with pieces of egg omelette, which he cut up at an amazing speed. It was great fun though! Good job they gave out bibs to wear!

At the end of the week, John offered to babysit, and Jen, Mark, Helena and I headed down to the coast to visit Nerida and Miles, and their two adorable children, Ollie and Tessa. Jen's old school friend Leith also joined us, which was really lovely. We spent the afternoon on the beach making sandcastles (and mermaids!), and in the evening Miles cooked up an amazing meal - delicious BBQ'd steaks and prawns, washed down with plenty of fizz and a thrilling game of Balderdash to follow... an excellent evening! The next morning, I left Mark sleeping off the wine, and Jen, Nerida and I took the children to the excellent 'Eumundi markets' (a Camden stylee affair - but a good deal hotter!), where I purchased myself a rather excellent early birthday present - a beautiful handmade silver pendant, made by a local artist. At lunch time that day we went to an amazing Thai restaurant with Nerida and Miles, which really really did feel like it was set in Thailand, complete with lizards and absolutely beautiful food and Thai beers.... bliss.

As ever, when I leave Jen - our parting is so full of sorrow. The realisation that we will have to part generally kicks in the first moment I see her face, which often leads to tearful moments throughout our time together. I must admit that missing out on her children makes it all the more difficult to cope with - but it was wonderful that we got to spend an entire week together this year. I am ever hopeful that at some point we might get to share the same continent (a move to Scotland?!). It would honestly feel like she was down the road! The children are so gorgeous. Helena was rather taken with Uncle Piggy (Mark), and his constant 'hat snatching' and impromptu songs about Jimmy Hill served to tickle her more on his first day in Australia than I managed the entire week ;-) We did start to wonder how this mysterious 'Jimmy Hill' figure presented himself in her mind, as by the end of the week we felt that he was contactable by phone, and lived somewhere close by in a house with a 'red front door'... The boys, well... I was well and truly smitten. Despite offering to perform some strange twin deprivation/separation experiment on them, it was a thinly disguised ploy to tempt Campbell into my suitcase - Aidan, I would have been back for in a few weeks time. Although Jen and John have truly got their work cut out (I cant say that I really got into the Australian time zone, proper - we were on some strange 5am to 9pm time zone), they are so so lucky to have three such beautiful children and live in such a beautiful area. They have a park to walk the dog (dear little Flossington) and the children literally a few steps away from their driveway - and their new house is just beautiful. I bet it looked a good deal tidier after we moved out too ;-)

Anyway... Jen - just to say thankyou again and again for letting us stay for the week! We really really enjoyed it. By the way, my sister says thankyou for the gorgeous shirts for the boys. I would get her to write to you, but since I haven't received a Christmas Card from her once in the last thirty-plus years, I would say your chances are remote! She was really surprised and pleased with them though... and the koala ears were a huge hit!!!! :-D

Las-Vegas

Having pouted my way across Australian airspace (along with the Australian royal family, no less - Steve Irwin's wife and children!), and then across New Zealand (she got on our next flight too!), we made our way to Las Vegas via Los Angeles - and landed in a heap in The Luxor hotel, right on the strip.... what an amazing looking hotel! We really couldn't believe that the place looked as cheesy as it does in the brochures!

The main purpose of the trip to Vegas was a side-trip to the Grand Canyon - which is what we did mid-week. Mark treated me to an overnight stay in a cabin on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, which was absolutely magical (and by far the highlight of our week in the US). We went with a company called Scenic Airlines, which picked us up the first morning at around 5am (my body clock had given up all hope of normality at this point), and flew us out on a tiny 16 seater plane to the canyon. Absolutely amazing. Anyone that spoke to me beforehand knows that I was adamant about taking a coach to the park, as I was terrified at the prospect of going up in a tiny plane - but it was wonderful wonderful! A really smooth trip, and the views were stunning. When I download the photos you will be sickened by the number of photos we took from this plane. The trip out of the canyon was not quite so smooth (we actually had a failed take-off, which scared the pants off me!)... but I can highly recommend it all the same! We stayed in the Maswik Lodge hotel, which was less than ten minutes walk from the rim. We had such a beautiful afternoon and evening there just wandering around - we watched the sunset, had a meal and had a few beers in the bar (saw some beautiful deer, some chipmunks and some crazy looking squirrels) - only to get up at 5am again the next morning to catch the sunrise. Stunning! It is something I will remember for the rest of my life...

My birthday evening was spent at The Plaza hotel (downtown Vegas), where we watched a Rat Pack tribute show (which was really rather good!), and then had a nice Chinese meal in a restaurant called Shanghai Lily's.

I must say that although Vegas was quite a spectacle - and something I have glad I have seen, I don't think that we will be rushing back anytime soon. Neither of us are particularly into gambling, although Mark did become a little bit hooked on the Black Jack machines - but only $20 hooked, not several thousand dollar hooked. I think I found the whole 'timeless' thing there a little frustrating. All of the hotels are linked by walkways and shopping malls (you have no need to step outside into the glorious sunshine, even once), and the casinos all look the same inside - sprawling spaces, with technicolor carpets, thousands of loud machines, no clocks, no daylight, and scantily clad female cocktail waitresses wandering around and offering you drinks and cigarettes to keep your firmly rooted to your particular machine of choice. The smoking thing was a big shock to me actually - I didn't realise how much I didn't miss going home smelling like a tramp's jock strap every night! The casinos, which lets face it make up most of the space in Vegas, look the same at 2am, 2pm, breakfast, lunch, midnight... day in, day out.. the same drink addled, smoke worn, tired looking faces - some celebrating, some commiserating, but always the same big melting pot... I had always thought that it would be rather fun and romantic to get married in Vegas - boy was I wrong! It would be rather like getting married in a shopping mall, or in your local Whetherspoons pub! It wasn't cheesy in the good cheesy way... it just looked a bit miserable! Anyway... maybe that's just me ;-). So not much to report about the rest of our time in Vegas... we did a bit of drinking, we watched the Bellagio Fountains rather alot (which WERE really beautiful and amazing), and spent much time gaping at various goings on (not least the literally dozens of men standing around giving out cards re: female escorts in the streets). I did experience my first breakfast in a Dennys (yumm!), and even managed to drag Mark on a bit of a shopping trip. We did remain true to form and paid a visit to the Atomic Testing museum; you know we are 'atrocity addicts'. The Venetian hotel, with its gondoliers was well worth a look... but some of the hotels looked like a rather bad installation in a theme park, especially The Excalibur. In fact really the whole place was like "Disneyland for adults!".