Viva Las Vegas!

Graduation was exciting. RK and Jean came from London and Pops and Black Cobra drove up from NYC. It rained most of the time. Hotel Commonwealth botched up their suite and the poor things had to be relocated to the horrid Sheraton downtown for one night but at least they sorted it out the next day and had the rooms ready. They were so apologetic that we managed to get the limo I'd been wanting to book but was unavailable so that was nice. The Family did get a little annoying with multiple requests for ham sammiches for which Black Cobra and I had to traipse around in the rain for but it was good of them to come and we did have champagne and the limo and Bombay Club for dinner after so it was all good.

The ceremony was very exciting. I was a bit bummed about getting the wrong color tassel but the folks at the GPO sorted that out. Pins were borrowed because I have an unusually small head and the mortarboard wouldn't sit. The speeches were lacking quite frankly. And Ivers went on and on about donating the gowns for the next graduating class and even though he put in a Scottish bit for me, it was a little boring after a while. The keynote was completely useless. Black Cobra, bless her heart, kept the fun levels up regardless. Drove all the way back to NYC in the rain that night she did, poor thing.

Then to Vegas the next day. United Airways managed to muck about with our flights as well so we were stuck in Philly for 5 hours longer than we wanted to be. Pops kept wanting to go out to smoke which meant that we went in and out of security about 3 times. They looked at us very suspiciously. We sat at the food court and ate chips and did crossword puzzles. It was very boring. Plus the people in Philly are ugly.

Finally reached Vegas and the lovely lovely Bellagio with our standard suite on the 34th ready and inviting. The next day saw some shopping (-$66) and some gambling ($-12k). Went to Gandhi for dinner and the food was appalling which is odd because they're usually quite good. The Strip's changed a bit. Aladdin's been bought out and remodeled as Planet Hollywood and there's lots of construction happening with the new City Center place and condos and wotnot. Bellagio's got the flower spring theme so it's drowning in fresh roses everywhere and so of course I want to take them all and pack 'em in my bag and bring 'em back to Boston with me. We do have a lovely large vase full in the living room. Very nice. I oo and aa in my head all the time. Khan would love it here.

More gambling today (+$2k) and off we go with mine host, Olly, to see The Mansion at the MGM Grand. I may not have mentioned Olly to you before. He's hot. I met him for the first time at the Bellagio's art gallery at the Monet exhibit. I wanted to do him then. He's got a little paunchy after his girlfriend moved in with him and he looks stressed out and is greying at the edges and I still want to do him. Since that won't happen, I'll just dream dirty dreams of him.

So The Mansion is the exclusive, secluded, unknown and unadvertised villas at the MGM. As Olly said when we walked in, "if you don't know about this place, you don't need to know about this place." There was a Ferrari, a Raybach, a few BMWs, two Benzs and two Ducatis parked outside for guest usage. I like to imagine Olly offering to go on a ride with me on the Strip but that could just be another dirty dream. They have 29 villas so very secluded from each other, we must have seen about 2 people there and they were fully booked. There's an indoor atrium about 4 stories high where the temperature is maintained at a constant 75 degrees throughout the year. The pool area is the only area that is open to the outside and also the only area (besides your villa of course) where you can smoke. That's right, Vegas has banned smoking in public places. Go figure. The villas itself come in contemporary skyloft style or old English antique with indoor pools, heated bathroom floors, wireless everything and Steinway pianos. There is a private theatre screening room and conference facility at your disposal as well as a lovely restaurant manned by two award-winning chefs. And they're good too - we had lobster in spicy sauce, chicken kung pao, massive baked prawns, wontons-the-size-of-my-small-head soup and lovely petit fours for lunch. Listening to the sounds of the fountains in the atrium feeling the cool breeze scented with the hint of lemon (they have trees in there with giant lemons). Even the lemonade tasted gourmet with a hint of raspberry and ginger. RK thinks we might stay there next time around. I would like that. You can bring your own personal chef because the villas have fully stocked kitchens and he'd like that. Negi won't like it - there's no tandoor for him and he doesn't speak much English. But that's never stopped us before.

They've all pottered off to sleep now. I think I'll go read my book and look at the fountains from the living room window.