Lopez Blogs

December 30th 2009:

It's very early on New Year's Eve as I write this and for some reason my normally brilliant powers of recall are eluding me as I try to think of what happened yesterday. Oh yes... we drove down to Primm Outlet Mall on the edge of Nevada. I was hoping for some shopping nirvana on the edge of Nevada, but once again it was not to be. I even (gulp) ventured into Old Navy Outlet but was so bedazzled by the use of primary colours (the likes of such not seen since Steps Love's Got A Hold... video!) that I was forced to run out again with my retinas screaming...

So it was a forty mile drive back through the desert to the Strip, looming in front of us like the garish neon concrete jungle it is. God, I love it though! We parked up at Luxor and I got my daily Starbucks from the slowest barista in the world. She got everybody in front of me order wrong so there was a lot of huffing going on. Mine was perfect and delicious though, so I guess she learnt and grew. Hurrah and marv.

Went to see Bodies: The Exhibition, not the Robbie Williams video. It was rather fascinating. If you like corpses dipped in polymer and donated to medical science. Which i didn't think I would, but now feel all edumacated and knowledgeable. Though honestly, I can't remember it all - I know that Rusty takes Polymer Science in Greek the tv show and I can name every single Kylie single released in the UK in chronological order, but the important facts about my body? Water through a sieve!

Then went to see Sherlock Holems - mainly because I felt it was time to forgive Guy Richie for Swept Away. it may have been a hasty decision. A dismal first hour nearly bored me out of my skull, though the second hour was an improvement and bought everything together nicely. And Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law were quite charming. Perhaps it's one of those films that once you know the ending, the second viewing is more rewarding. Honestly though, it just made me want to watch Veronica Mars (for the detective bits) and Ally McBeal season 4 (when RDJ was in it and it was quite good, before she had to date Jon Bon blooming Jovi in year 5. Though that year had James MaRARsden in it so it's swings and roundabouts!) Right, time to get on with NYE!

New Year's Eve!


No more champagne, and the fireworks are through... NYE was exhausting. It started off well enough. Yes, more shopping. It sounds like that is all we have done this week. it is not. There was some spooning in there too. Just so many shops around, i have to have a quick butchers whenever I pass. The Forum Shops at Ceasar's Palace were perhaps the most successful trip of the week so far. Darren got an aces (and v v heavy) winter coat from Abercrombie and Fitch (complete with the traditional and beloved - by me - half naked man on the bag) and we both spent ages in Express for men getting undies, trousers, shirts and t-shirts to a rather magnificent soundtrack of (surprisingly & super pleasingly) Girls Aloud (love is the key), Shayne Ward (Damaged) and Tommy Page (Dance To The Beat of my Heart)! In store music is so much better than the 6 dreadful radio stations here that insist on playing I Gotta Feeling and that Justin Beiber over and over. Ghastly.

We went back to the suite for an afternoon nap (all our mornings for some reason this week have been ridick early starts - 5am! We just can't stop waking up early for some reason) only housekeeping hadn't been, so I put the Do Not Disturb on the door and continued reading the latest Alex Rider novel (Crocodile Tears). I was of course wide awake at the time I could finally get some decent sleep! And Do Not Disturb meant nothing to housekeeping. I was just just dropping off when they rang to see whether we wanted to be disturbed for housekeeping! Incredible. I was not best pleased and i think they sensed that from my "no thank you not today"! It was cutting :P

I want to do a whole separate feature for the blog on the shows we went to see, but lets just say that Darren seeing his idol Bette Midler for a second time was rather joyous for him. And she was on fine form too, with it being filmed for a dvd. Plus! Festive tracks from Cool Yule were thrown in (inexplicably $35 from the Bette gift shop!) and a nice pop-ballad version of Auld Lang Syne left us right in the mood for some celebrations! The strip at midnight was massively crowded and you couldn't even move for love nor money, but it was totally worth it when the perfectly timed fireworks launched off the roof of 7 hotels. Quite an amazing atmosphere too and words can't really do justice to what a lovely new year's eve it was!! We were most amused by the people touting for some Jesus business though! How Stephen Baldwin of them :)


The last few days...

Already 2010 is flying by. How typical that i quickly scribbled a daily dairy for every day of this trip and the new year rolls in and I can barely remember what has happened since! Some of it was doing laundry in the hotel laundromat (ooo rock and/or roll!) Some of it was listening several times to Happy New Year by Abba (an annual tradition and one that is even more poignant at the end of each decade). Some of it was watching the news report informing us of what a crappy decade it has been - and it has. Horrible, terrible, world changing catastrophic events happened. But of course good things happened too - for all but 4 months of the decade I was with Darren and it's nice to start off the next ten years with a bit of early morning spoon.

You can imagine my delight at discovering Starbucks do ice cream in the stores stateside. this was only balanced out by my disappointment that I only discovered this with 3 days to go :/ I'm not ashamed to say that there was a significant amount of drool going on. I plumped (literally if I eat the whole thing) for the oxymoron like hot chocolate ice-cream. Unfortunately the freezer part of our fridge in the room is crap, so it was a bit like eating runny plop. Meh, it all goes down the same way. Deliciousnessnessness!

Miraculously, i lost 25lbs in 2009! As you read the next sentence you will understand why that is so very amazing. In 2 days not only have I had a half tub of Starbucks Hot Chocolate ice cream, but I also purchased a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Already, I feel those hard lost lbs creeping back on. Good thing we have walked everywhere this holiday. deliciousnessnessnessness.

On a relaxing last day, we caught one final movie. Because every so often, a wacky take people out of their comfort zone because they have witnessed a crime type movie pops up. First there was Sister Act (now a musical, musical fans with 4 very good songs and the rest ranging from a bit above average to quite good). Then there was Connie and Carla - which Darren and I also saw some years back in the Vegas (and which once when i was off work ill, I made a whole stage musical out of with some new original songs interspersed among the existing numbers. It was quite brilliant, i modestly tell you now! I was hocked up on theraflu at the time though so who knows)! And now there is Did You Hear About The Morgans. With Hugh Grant (being Hugh Grant) and Sarah Jessica Parker Broderick being generally unlikeable again (just like in The Family Stone and when she cheated on Aiden in Sex & The City). It was only ok. Mildly amusing at best. The previews for Alice in Wonderland looked proper immense.

Home tomorrow (which I am now at, so ergo this is the end. feel free to express your appreciation at this mammoth endeavour and peek into my mundane life)! Back to music soon!