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This is pretty limited as the batteries were on their way out.

I’ve been in Las Vegas now for over a week and had very little time to post to this blog. The ACB covewrage has kept me pretty busy and most days I’m starting work around 7AM and finishing late. The ACB Radio volunteers have been fantastic and have really done the project proud. The AV team as the Riviera are fantastic, although the hotel itself can be difficult to navigate.

Outside of work, On Saturday eveing I visited with Jeff and his wife at their comfortable condo which is 6 miles away from my hotel. On Tuesday a group, mostly Floridians, went out for an awesome meal where I enjoyed a 24oz steak. And on Wednesday a small group of us visited the Star Trek exhibition at the Hilton.

I will record a podcast probably on Saturday.

Recorded late Sunday night or should that be early Monday morning.

Heh I recorded this in the “rest room”. 🙂

I’m starting to write this at 13:21 UTC on Wednesday 29 June which is 2:31 PM in London and 6:31AM in Vegas.

Well today has been a bit of a mixed bag thus far. With: sleep deprivation which I guess is partially self-inflicted, broken down trains which won’t open their doors to let one out, unhelpful or non-existent assistance, all conspiring against me. I’ve already declined two wheelchairs today, one because on a day when I have a 10 or 11 hour flight I want to take every opportunity to stretch the legs, and more importantly presumably wheelchairs are a finite resource and really should be allocated to the people who genuinely need them. While I’m having a rant, the airline food, chicken and pasta, was rancid, and economy seems to get smaller every time I fly.

There are some positives to take from today though. I was invited to the Virgin club house and treated to a full English breakfast: sausage, bacon, mushroom, tomato, toast, coffee and grapefruit juice. A gentleman was walking round even polishing shoes, heh and they even gave me new laces! And lovely fast wireless internet. Save for the plastic cutlery and the 5 quid per hour for the WiFi, I could have been in heaven!

I also had the company of a lovely young lady Estelle who originates from near Manchester in the UK, her mother still lives here, but Estelle lives in the Virgin Islands. Estelle has just returned from a cruise around western Europe with her mother and was waiting to board a flight to Antigua. She regaled me with tales of visiting places as random as Moscow and Fiji, and could well also be someone else who has-been around the world more times than the International Space Station! I must be the last person on the planet not to have done it yet? 27 days and counting though.

I took my seat aboard flight VS43 to Las Vegas at around 10:30AM although the flight didn’t get away until around 11:30, 45 minutes later than scheduled. The pilot reckons the flight should last just shy of 10 hours which sounds pretty optimistic when the flight is scheduled to take almost 11 hours to make the 5200 mile journey from London to Las Vegas. I guess time will tell, and the pilot has probably got a better idea about these things than yours truly.

The passengers to my right are pretty sociable and are off to the US for a year on some inaugural student work placement project set up by Sheffield Hallam University. One guy has never been to the US before and has signed up for a whole year without much idea about what he’s getting into. So really my little jaunt for a few weeks should be a comparative piece of piss.

Right, must think about battery life as I still have no clue where I’ll be able to buy a power cable for the Thinkpad. And I’ve get to get through American immigration unshaved. Ooopse, Freudian slip.

From seat 22D aboard a 747 heading west at 32000ft, bye for now.

And it’s very nice thank you very much. What lovely people my airline are.

The train I was on sat at the platform with the doors refusing to open and the lights blinking off and on.

Oh pants just realised I may have left part of my Thinkpad charger at Martin’s. agrgrgrgrgr. I wonder if I can get him to ship it to me.

anyway, where was I, they eventually fixed the train, I checked in and found myself in posession of an invitation to the club house where I have just had my shoes polished and enjoyed a full English breakfast and am trying to make the most of the £5 per hour wireless internet access.

Anyway, will have to conserve power until I can figure out where I’m going to get a replacement Thinkpad power cable. Agrgrgr.