Archive for April 2012

Strip Soccer

Monday, 30 April 2012

It is a great source of amusement that we have been here for two weeks and yet have managed not to visit Vegas proper. This isn’t strictly true as we did enjoy a late lunch at the Ballagio on Friday and took in a couple of performances of the dancing fountains, but we soon sought refuge back in peaceful Gagnier Boulevard. And I forgot my camera.

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When Checkout Girls Go Bad

Sunday, 29 April 2012

One of the striking things about America is how friendly, helpful and attentive the shop assistants are even in the most down-market store, and you very quickly start to take it for granted. But when a sales assistant turns bad it’s a real shock to the system, like getting a kick in the nuts from the Dhali Lama or having a Jehovah’s Witness telling you to f**k off. It’s ain’t natural.

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Bluebird of Happiness

Saturday, 28 April 2012

Before I leave Bryce Canyon behind, here is a photo of a little fella we saw when we were up there. It isn’t a great photo as he wasn’t very cooperative and shot off when he saw my camera. By the time I’d switched lenses, he was off in the distance which is why he’s a little blurry. But I’m pretty sure he is a Mountain Bluebird and he proved to be a good auger of happiness for the next stage of our trip to Utah.

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A Surfeit of Wonderment

Friday, 27 April 2012

Our decision to visit southern Utah instead of southern California has proved to be fortuitous, not least because the west coast has had late Spring thunderstorms since Tuesday, so we could have been wandering round Los Angeles in the rain.

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Panguitch

Thursday, 26 April 2012

If there is a place you might expect to be lectured on the evils of alcohol, a Mormon town in Utah would be it, but the person you’d least expect to receive the lecture from would be the person trying to sell you a beer. We drove up to Utah yesterday to see some of the great natural wonders of the state and landed in Panguitch where we were to spend the night.

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O is for Annie Oakley

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

This is my contribution to ABC Wednesday and for Round Ten I am focusing on people from the past, some famous, others less so. You may not know the name Phoebe Ann Moses, but you will recognise her by her stage name – Annie Oakley, sharpshooter and star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Her name is synonymous with the world’s view of life in the American west, but she is also the subject of one of history’s intriguing ‘what ifs’. What if she had drunk more whiskey the night [...]

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Would You Credit It

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Aren’t credit card companies wonderful at saving you from yourself? I finally got round to booking hotel rooms for our trip to Utah when Master Card intervened. The first booking at Panguitch went through without a problem, but the problems started when I tried to book rooms in Springdale and the websites kept refusing to authorise payment. It took a while before the penny dropped. Credit card security had seen the first ‘suspicious’ transaction and put a block on the card.

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Have A Nice Day

Saturday, 21 April 2012

When coming to the US, we were more a less prepared to be told to ‘have a nice day’ at every turn and so it has proved to be, but not in the cosmetic, corporate customer training way we expected. People do appear to be genuinely interested in you as well as your money. The weather has been getting increasingly over the last few days and sticking close to the pool the best option, but I had a trip to yet another store with our host today to stock up [...]

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Don’t Fence Me In

Saturday, 21 April 2012

We finally got round to making plans for where we want to go go while we’re in the US, or rather we got round to ripping them up. Our original intention was to hire a car and drive over to Los Angeles to take in some sights there before heading south along the coast road to San Diego where the big attraction was the zoo.

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