Las Vegas – 13th September

I got up early on Monday 13th September and crept out of the hotel room so that I didn’t wake up my room mates. I’d not heard from Captain Caveman since I’d arrived and wanted to try to get hold of him. I also had a couple of holiday quotes I needed to do, chase up some balance payments and a couple of urgent queries. I’d found an area near the exit to a car park and a Starbucks where I could quickly log on but it soon got very busy with guests and the music was just too loud. I decided to walk over to one of the connecting hotels and I did find a couple of nice spots to put my headphones on and get absorbed in my to do list. I had missed a call with Captain Caveman so didn’t get to speak to him and had to wait a few hours. When I did, he had finally taken himself to A&E after being in agony for so long. It turned out he had sprained his ankle and had not realised it so he was now back home with crutches and was pretty down. We think he did it on the cobblestones in either Poland or Belgium but had soldiered on thinking it was his gout. Being such an active person he really struggles if he’s at all unable to move about.
There wasn’t much help I could be while living it up in Vegas and he still had to work so he had strapped it up and was taking the ibuprofen. I came off the phone feeling a bit rubbish to a message from Louisa asking where I was. It was already 11.30am and the girls had been waiting for me as they thought we were all going to the Venetian today, so that we could be back before being picked up for Karaoke at 4.15pm. I’m not sure if it was my menopause brain or my hearing but I didn’t recall making this plan. I’d misunderstood as I knew Jamie had just booked the karaoke room in China Town for 2 hours so that it didn’t interfere with any evening plans we may have had. I apologised and said to go without me and I’d see them later. Instead, I finished everything but the trainings from my to do list and felt a bit better for almost getting on top of things. I’d not eaten breakfast yet, which I still wasn’t used to missing, but nothing appealed and I felt like I wanted to go back to bed as I was tired – I didn’t. In the afternoon I got a bit peckish and ended up buying a pretzel and a water, for £12, more for the convenience and cost than because they were good.
I dropped my stuff back at the room and caught up on some prescheduled social media content. I was really looking forward to a karaoke night as it reminded me of times in Vietnam with Louisa & Jamie and Sheffield Singstar nights with Briony. I sent the girls a reminder message before 3pm as Jamie would be swinging by at 4.15pm to pick us up from the valet parking.

At 4.10pm I bought a couple of $3 margaritas from the bar and I noticed the free pour of tequila seemed rather generous so I gave the bar tender $10 and said to keep the change. Jamie was bang on time and in the front seat was Janet, Jamie’s aunty from England. I passed her a margarita and we were introduced. Jamie had said for me to bring any washing any of us wanted doing so I brought mine. I apologised that it was just me and that I wasn’t sure if the others were coming or not. Ideally tonight, after karaoke, Jamie had offered to drive us all to the Vegas sign for a photo but we weren’t sure if they would make it. Jamie sent Briony the location in case they wanted to come over afterwards and we drove out to China Town to Q Karaoke. I got introduced to Jamie’s friend, Angela, who was joining us as she also loves a good karaoke session. Janet and I ordered soju drinks to share, and Jamie accidentally ordered a cocktail and then had to leave her car. The karaoke was just like being back in Vietnam and we sang anything and everything. Jamie ordered spicy Korean snacks and syrup coated fruit, both of which I didn’t have but I did have some other nibbles which were tasty. More drinks were ordered and I was getting a bit tipsy – on a school night too! After the time was up we weren’t sure if we should check if we could extend. Jamie’s sister and her husband had popped in and agreed to be the sober ones to take the car so that Jamie didn’t have to leave it in the car park, which was nice.
We got an update from Louisa and Briony that they had not seen my message until 6pm and had lost complete track of time while out sightseeing. They were having fun and were going on the High Roller and I was pleased that the 2 of them were getting on really well. We decided to have one more hour of karaoke and moved rooms. We were now a little merry and forced the sister and brother-in-law to sing a duet. It was a great 3 hours of karaoke which Janet and I thoroughly bonded over – getting excited at each song that we knew.
Around 8pm I was going to get the bus back to the hotel, or even try to get a taxi but Janet and Jamie suggested I might be better off going home with them than travelling alone. I’d done it before on Friday and had not felt it was unsafe to do that but when Janet said she had a bottle of wine that needed sharing, I decided to say yes. Angela had not been knocking the alcohol back like we had so that she could concentrate on some fab rock ballads so she offered to give us a lift. Her family had requested she pick up In-N-Out Burgers for dinner. I tried to pay towards the karaoke and Jamie was having none of it which was very kind of her and we passed on the takeaway. At Jamie’s we sat in the garden and drank wine and this was the first time I’d seen Thành, Jamie’s husband, since I’d arrived. He was still the same as when I last saw him in Phong Nha and it was good to see him again. He invited all 3 of us over for a traditional Vietnamese family dinner tomorrow night which I thought would be amazing – I was so desperate for some home cooked food and Vietnamese food is one of my favourites. I was sure the girls would love it too as they both like spicy food. Louisa, in particular, loves Asian food and met Thành on her first visit to Vietnam. I loved being in the fresh air and away from the noise of the strip for a bit and the 2 kids had grown a lot since I last saw them at the Duck Stop in the Bong Lai Valley! That night, Janet insisted that I share her bed and Jamie got me something to sleep in and a spare toothbrush. I sent a text to let the girls back at the Excalibur know that I was staying out, so they didn’t worry, and then fell straight to sleep.

Gratitude List
1. Getting enough work done
2. Karaoke with friends old and new
3. Spending only £20 today.