Life returns to normal

We've had a good holiday and both parents are upright this time. C's Mum has stopped smoking (I think the shock of having double pneumonia at Xmas is what did it!)

The first week we just sort of lazed around - they got their bearings and C's Dad bought a digital camera. The second week was spent in Las Vegas - losing our shirts.

When you go to LV you have to realize that the money you take with you will disapear into the coffers of one casino or another. I did extremely well on the slot machines (the so-called experts will tell you that table games are far better odds but does anybody really understand craps (!!!) and blackjack is just glorified 21. I played "I dream of Jeanie" but getting to the bonus was really difficult for me. For C it was easy but every time he picked a bonus bottle it was the "return to bottle" bottle. In the end we teamed up - he got he bonuses and I picked the bottles. We didn't just gamble though. 4 in the afternoon would find me and C's Dad in the pool - OK it's only 3 1/2 ft deep but it was cold and the Germans hadn't nicked any of the sun loungers.

We did the Star Trek experience again - they have a new ride and the price had gone down so we went again. I know I've said this before but Trek is not my sci-fi bag. My dad used to watch the old ones on BBC2 and I've watched Next Gen with C but Enterprise is just painful, but the Borg ride was pretty cool and wearing 3D glasses makes the action happen right in front of you (and we won't mention the poking or the blasts of CO2!) C came out with that wrap around daft grin of his so no surprise there.

No trip to Vegas is complete without vising that pavement cafe in the Paris, yummy real french food. They now have a sign up that basically says that what is available is what is on the menu - you can't substitute french cheese for american (why the hell would you want to - american tastes like cardboard!)etc etc. I still heard some whiners trying to eat like a yank but they got a "non!" every time.

If you are in Las Vegas in the near future and in the Luxor - where we stayed - go to the Fusia, it's the replacement for the Papyrus, which was some of the best chinese food I've ever tasted. Fusia is a mix of asian and european and very very good but it is being under advertised and could soon disapear if people don't use it. They also have a very comfy bar, which we ended up in most nights before dinner, as La Salsa has really gone downhill. Watery drinks and indifferent service, yuck!

Coming away from Las Vegas was like coming down off a high (not that I know anything about that) you miss the constant noise and the ching, ching, ching of payouts, the shouts of men winning at craps the constant drone of conversation, it takes a couple of days to be able to tolerate complete silence again.

A & F went home last week but I had a publishing deadline to meet so no rest for me last week. This week the stuff went off to the printers - yesterday in fact. Next week is going to be back to normal ie one field trip of three days down to St George again to collect seed.

Oh yeah, we almost ran foul of the law! Don't worry Mum I didn't start a new career as a bank robber, let me explain.

Last year we had Spring Cleanup - for a week the street looked like a bomb had hit it, dead fridges, washing machines, lawnmowers, trees, etc but then the council came along and took it all away. This year with our dead tree we thought we'd put it out for Spring Cleanup, but guess what there is no Spring Cleanup this year I mean who needs it with the amount of trees that came down over the winter. Much better to put it off until the Autumn (could the SLC council have been privatised and taken over by Horsham District Council??) We got a warning about littering and took the thing to the tip end of story.