Christmas Trees

I have a friend who tells me I’m too distracted by anything that sparkles. He even has a name for my distractions – Christmas trees. It was Christmas time when he discovered this habit of mine. All of  Las Vegas is one giant Christmas tree.

My plane landed and I headed to meet Nicola and Tiffany at their gate. “We’re just waiting for one bag” came their text. 30 hours of travel did not put Tiffany in exactly the right frame for my query if she was the bag.

We hopped in a cab with a  driver eager to talk all about the difference between Brits and Americans and headed to the Aria – oh baby what a hotel. Like all of Vegas, the assault on your stimuli happens the minute you walk in the lobby. Lights color and the calls of success or defeat from the casino floor. We were happy.

Nic and Tif stepped up to check in and I was next in the queue. That was the moment they closed check in to upgrade the system, Seriously? We paid a lot of money and its only 7pm. Isn’t’ that a 2am thing? I’d have to wait.

After a couple bad well drinks and good champagne, I was able to check in. My friends are on the 50th floor, said I. Could I be as well. No, came the answer, the 50th floor is filled. How about the 39th floor, that’s just one floor down. I don’t understand a lot about Vegas, but I have a fabulous room on the 39th floor.

After a bit more exploration, our body clocks kicked in and we headed to bed. The Aria hotel is very very high tech. Which is cool, but how the hell do the lights work? the curtains? How can I make the muzak stop? These are important questions when you’re exhausted.

When it was all sorted – though god knows where there’s a wall socket, I drifted to sleep on fabulous linens and awoke to find there’s an all 80s channel on their in-house pandora.

Lets gamble.