My year of books....

This year I decided that if someone recommended a book and it sounded okay I would read it.....it's leading me down some very interesting pathes.  One of the joys of the Kindle is that you can download a sample chapter, so when someone recommends a book I can, if it's available electronically, at least check it out.
This has lead me to some interesting books.  The Professor and Other Writings is a series of essays from a Stanford University Professor described as a "cultural scholar and essayist".  Not at all sure what that means but the essays themselves are very entertaining.  Given they are written in biography form she's more than willing to share details of her life.  Best of all (and most necessary) the Kindle has a cool function where I can look up all those words I don't understand.....given she teaches 18th Century English Literature this function comes in handy every other page!
One of the best reads so far has to be Don't Stop the Carnival. Written in 1965  "It's the story of Norman Paperman, a New York press agent who, facing the onset of middle age, runs away to a Caribbean island to reinvetn himself as a hotel keeper".  It sounds awful doesn't it?  It wasn't it was a great read and very well written.
I succumbed to the Twilight Saga too. Vampires are not usually my thing but I have and am really enjoying it.  It's really a love story focused on human's, vampires and warewolves.  Nice easy, entertaining read.
Here's another one I really enjoyed - Long Way Down.  It's about two guys motorcycling from Scotland to South Africa (follows on from the movie Long Way Round).  It's a fab story about perservarance and getting outside your comfort zone.
My heaviest tombe to date has to be Cultural Amnesia it's written by Clive James.  It's a compendium of 110 biographical essays of a whole bunch of different people (artists, politicians and intellectuals). This one I dip in and out of - it's a fascinating read.
The next two I picked up last year but are so worth mentioning.
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise is a great read.  It's written by a woman who used to be the NY Times food critic.  It tells the story of how she used to dress in disguise and go out to various restaurants, with varying results, depending on how she looked.  I loved the way she describes some of the food as well.
Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an all Night Runner - this, folks was the inspiration to run a marathon.  I'll say no more, check it out.
So there you have it, some proof that I do more than work, run and go to the gym!

Frog Fail

Not something you see everyday.

Old Friends and Visiting NZ

Rachel has been here for a week and it's been a lovely visit. In an unexpected turn of events it just so happened that while here she has had her 40th birthday! Low key affair with Rachel, Michelle and I having dinner at mine (ummm Rachel cooked, was that a bad thing?). Best of all Michelle organized the famous Princess Cake, which proved to be a hit. Over the week we have had lots of laughs and it's been a remarkably easy time. I've still had to go to work and did see Case and my acupuncturists (well crossing the finish line in NY won't happen just because I want it to.....and Rachel was very gracious about it, given we haven't had a lot of time together).

I did manage to, for the first time, schmack myself up in training. I missed the box when I went to do a box jump and gave myself a nasty shin scrap.....ow ow ow. Of course it was at the beginning of the session so I sucked it up and told Case we could keep going (it was my second jump and I had another three sets of 25 to go - no point dwelling on it, job to be done). Best of all was coming home and Rachel having some magic gel to put on it - my personal bathroom cabinet is a little light on these things!
Last week I decided I needed a break and, given how the work front is going, think that if I am going to visit in NZ it needs to be sooner rather than later. I'm heading back for 2.5 weeks in May. Auckland and Wellington of course and four days in Queenstown. Finally going to visit Karen and Brice's - really looking forward to that as I want to bungee off the platform at the top of the gondola. It would also be nice if it didn't rain the entire time I was in NZ (unlike last year) so May seems a good time. Honestly I am so tired I'd love to have a break in April but I have the Nashville half marathon on the 23rd. I really am looking forward to that!!!!
Despite our collective best efforts and the release having gone remarkably well, we are still in the final stages so I am co-ordinating daily messages.....and was a little startled to be reminded that the distribution includes a number of very senior executives, so the fact that I am over it shouldn't be confused with the visibility the messages have.
On another note, may have found a prospective room mate when/if I make the move to San Francisco. Waiting for a few other things to fall into place but think my time in Santa Cruz is done. Nothing to happen in the next two months but could move July/August....so will patiently wait to see how things fall.

Voice is back, release is done and visitors

My voice arrived back on Sunday so my near silent vigil lasted two days....much to the delight of my work colleagues. It really was the oddest thing. It's hard enough to be understood at the best of times (what accent?) without the added complication of being the horse whisperer. The room service guy told me he thought I was playing a joke on him, most embarrassed when he delivered to the room and realized I really couldn't speak. I gave him a tip anyway, he wasn't rude so much as giggly on the phone! The release has gone fine, with a few odd moments. I'm over it though, been there, done it, got the medal etc etc etc. I did get to watch movies in the hotel, which was nice - small compensation for only getting two hours sleep. Jill did arrive into the office at 2am with coffee and a Hershey bar - would I usually eat a Hershey bar at 2am (or any other time for that matter) or have a very strong black coffee at that hour???? No. Did I? Hell yes....it was soooooo boring I had to fill the time, it's not like I could chat to anyone - my voice didn't start to come back until later in the day. Hershey's bar....I had eaters remorse.
This weekend Rachel Rose comes to visit! I haven't seen Rachel (beyond Skype) for maybe 7 years!!!! We were at University together and, well, have a history (I know Rachel reads the blog so shall say no more). Rachel's now a buddhist nun and, frankly, looks fabulous in her robes. I think there is a certain irony in my now having long hair while Rachel has none.... It will be lovely to see her and she knows Michelle as well (well at one point we were all at University together) so going to be quite the kiwi reunion. I still have to work, which is a bummer, but might see if I can swing an "at home" day so we can hang out together some (even if she is reading a book while I'm on a call!).

Speechless....literally

No voice......reduced to a whisper, the "almost cold" has taken the words right out of my mouth. I am sure it's a pleasure for some but a little awkward given I am in communications and working this weekend. Oh well, lesson in patience I guess......other people's.

Almost colds and working life

All this healthy living has resulted in the "almost" cold! Everyone around me has been crushed by this hideous cold that's been going around (and at least two got stomach flu). I'm so full of vitamin C and whatever mysteries lurk in the chinese herbs that I seem to have some low level cold that doesn't amount to anything beyond being tired and having a gravelly voice. Oh well, not complaining so much as explaining.
Big release is this weekend ..... I'm so bored with it all. Spent the last few days "explaining", "repeating" and "revisiting" what we have been doing for two years! Off to stay in San Jose for Saturday night. One of my peeps is going to come onsite with me for the 11pm - 10am shift. Wants to see how it all runs - it will be a moment of disillusionment (and all my secrets revealed) but she has promised to bring "real" coffee, as I'm refusing to drink the coloured water that is usually available.
Michelle has a new job in LA (yay Michelle!!!) and we've just been out having a little celebration. I am also thinking about moving into San Fran. Santa Cruz feels a little over for me - need to move on to the next thing. It's been lovely living here but it's not really my town. Mostly I will miss my rideshare, we've been commuting four days a week for two years now - hard to believe. I will also have to give up Case, but he has finally got into his nursing course, although doesn't start until January next year. Really I just think somethings are going to change, seems inevitable given how my life runs.

Doin it for Charity - ING NYC Marathon 2010

I can't quite believe I've signed up for this, but I have. November 7, 2010 I'm hitting the road and running for charity in the NYC Marathon. Makes me feel nervous just typing this. I decided I wanted to run the marathon before my Marin race last year and, as it moved closer to putting in my entry, I found out more about options for entry. I started reading up about other people's experience of the marathon and realized that it would, indeed, be very cool to do it for a charity. The main charity is Team for Kids, which fights childhood obesity. You can read more about it if you check out my page, you can also make a donation if you want to. Basically I've pledged the full amount ($2.6k) and then I get to go and beg money from folks. I've never raised money for charity before - always having written cheques. Given I'm not much of a "joiner" it's novel for me to land into a community of folks all with the same goal in mind....running the marathon and raising money for TFKs. I figure it means I'll have some people to hangout with on the day too (unless I can lure some buddies to NY to hangout with the 2 million other folk who line the roads and watch!). I'm not sure exactly how many people TFKs aim to enroll but last year they got fully subscribed. It's early days and I think there are less than 100 of us at the moment. I am so freaky nervous/excited about it that I've already booked my accommodation! ING negotiated discounted rates but it's still ridiculously expensive to stay in NYC, but I figure if I'm going to run then where else would you want to stay but in Manhattan?

Groundhog day

It's quarterly release time, which means late nights and lots of grumping at people while we prepare for a Cisco wide IT release that sees all our systems go down globally. This time around we've added some new "tools" to our box of tricks so it's been beyond painful to get the information we need and we've had to engage with a whole new set of people. Best moment so far is when I contact someone who is funded to provide support to our project team and supposed to be my go-to guy when I have a problem:

Idiot boy to me: "okay well Jody if you can set up a meeting and invite ...."

Me to idiot boy: "I'm not your executive assistant, if you think you need a meeting you set it up, I'm escalating the issue to you to fix it and this is a courtesy call before I send the email letting everyone know that's what I've done. If you think it requires a meeting go and organize it yourself."

All this at midnight I might add and it didn't quite end there but enough to say HE did set up the meeting and I got a very conciliatory message from him. He also helped solve my problem (which was his job) - none of which excuses him from thinking I'm here to organize his meetings. I don't suppose he will ask again.
On a more "only in America" note. My landlords have replaced their very nearly new couch with a new couch and want to swap out my very old couch for the very nearly new one. All fine and dandy but in order to get the new couch through the front door they have to take off the door frame.....true story. They seem very happy to do it and I am very happy to have a new couch - nobody seemed at all phased at the logistics so I just nodded, smiled and said having a new couch would be nice, thanks. What are we doing with the old couch? Well putting it on the street of course, whatelse?

Chicago and life in general

Michelle and I had a great time in Chicago! While temperatures were below freezing, each day had clear blue skys and snow on the ground....quite a change from California. The Swissotel, where we stayed, was very near to downtown and not far from Millennium Park where we went to visit the bean. Delightfully when we went to use the hotel gym we discovered it had spectacular views both over Michigan Lake and downtown - making the whole treadmill thing way less tedious. Michelle's panel went very well and her presentation was a hit (pix below on the right is the post presso cocktail). It was interesting to hear the other presenters as well and I did manage to get in for free as nobody seemed to be checking! We were both pretty exhausted so spent the following day lounging around the hotel and generally lapping up the luxury.

Friday we went out for dinner and to a bar and Saturday we wandered around town.  I concluded I could very happily live in Chicago!  We stumbled across the Scuba Team as we were out walking (see pic below).  Given the temperatures my pick is you'd be long frozen to death before they dragged you out of the river, but then I guess that's not really the point is it.........
I am back into training with Case and have now extended my health regime to include not only acupuncture but chinese herbs.  Some special concoction he's put together to help with hydration etc etc etc.  Anyway, in my usual fashion I've happily said "sure, lets try that" and he's smart enough to know I really really don't need to know what each ingredient is, so much as enjoy the ride.  
Biggest change probably is that I have decided not to apply for my job at Cisco.  Had an epiphany and realized I'd done the job, why would I keep

doing it (for less money I might add) and I was aiming too low.....I need to be braver about the next role I go into - think bigger.  This has all been encouraged by people I've been talking to about what I should do next.  Boss at Cisco has been grand about it - she'd like to keep me as long as she can and is extending my role into a new area, although I think there are some better opportunities emerging elsewhere.  I guess nobody is surprised to read this.  It's been nearly three years at Cisco, about the time I always get itchy feet and look to make a change.  If I am really clever I will land a role that works to that timetable....they are out there, I just have to get one!

I did manage to watch Precious - now I get what people are raving about.  I had dreaded that it would be much like the usual hollywood/American tale - struggling kid in dire circumstances, heroic committed adult saves the day - it wasn't, it really is far grittier and deals with some very taboo subjects.

I'd recommend it, not when you are feeling down though, any sense of optimism you are left with is tenuous at best!

Done and dusted

Beautiful day, clear blue sky, cool and perfect.....if one feels the need to run 21ks!  It was lovely, 10000 people entered in the combined half marathon and 5km run (funny that they talk about the metric 5 and 10ks).  Looking at the results 6080 finished the half (7000 entered the half with 3372 women). Results: 1:59, overall placing 2457 and 863 among the women, age group placing 127 (but then I can't seem to figure how many women were in my age group!).  I'm well puffed up coming in under two hours. I gotta say the last mile hurt!!!  Official photos i.e. the sweaty shots posted sometime this week.  In the meantime.....me and Michelle the night before the race.

It's fair to say we had a different approach to
preparation but Michelle did get up to catch the shuttle with me at 630am for the 8am start....oh and she did know the most fab Korean restaurant we could go to for dinner.....we stayed in Japan Town so we were surrounded by the most devine eateries.  Second shot before

the start - I was cold so spent sometime draped in Michelle's very stylie jacket, trying to warm up, or at least not have my lips turn blue!  Michelle met me at the end (having gone on her own little marathon from the start line!).  Post the event we hailed a taxi (I so love that in America you can just raise your arm and not have to hike to some taxi stand and get in a que ......) headed back to the hotel where I got to have a long soak.  Along the way we had a vintage American moment.  The taxi driver was as startled as we were and took photos on his i-phone.  Never pays to question really, just to enjoy the moment.  Showered checked out we 

went out for a very lovely lunch. I'm not one for taking photos of food but I'd so earned this meal....and the beer was mine, all mine.

Then off to a local girlie bar to watch the Superbowl.  Home by 7pm, not a bad days work.

Countdown, tennis and Chicago

Less than 24hrs to go and I have that slightly sickly feeling....wondering why I am deciding that running 13.1 miles, possibly in the rain, is a good idea!  Then I imagine finishing at least close to my target time and feel all happy and excited again. Besides which, this is a warmup for Nashville!  Michelle and I head up to the city this afternoon, staying in a very nice hotel that offers a shuttle to the start line in the morning (cheap rates for racers so way better option that driving up from Santa Cruz at 5am in the morning).  Even so with 10000 people running this will most likely mean an early start...I'm not sure I told Michelle exactly  how early.  After the race Michelle and I are heading off to a bar to watch the Superbowl - at which point I will down a beer or a Bloodymary and most likely fall over (yes she is driving).
We fly to Chicago on Thursday.  On Wednesday night we are staying in San Jose and going to the SAP Open Tennis Tournament to watch a singles match with Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco.  Why?  Ummm well the University had courtside tickets and there is a small group going and, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time and and and......we are catching some god awful flight the next morning (like 615am) so staying in San Jose makes sense.  Michelle gives her paper  on Civilising Images: Violence and the Visual Interpellation of Maori Women" at the visual arts conference that afternoon (long day for her) then we get to play. If we can find interesting stuff we might go to some of the other presentations as well.  As geeky as it sounds the conference itself is actually quite a fun thing for me - this is all wildly outside my corporate life, so fascinating insight into other worlds.  Other than that we are planning to go dancing, see the sights and generally kick back and relax.

Don't Ask Don't Tell

I can't embed this and I'm not sure how long it will stay where it is but watch this: http://www.ktvu.com/video/22418151/index.html, put Alameda: Local Naval Commander Reflects on Senate Hearings in the search box and it will come up as the first item on the list, video will play from there (I hope!). Zoe is a key player in fighting Don't Ask Don't Tell and is the co-chair of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.  She is part of the change team I work in at Cisco (she is also a keen runner so we have become fast friends.....even if she can run faster than I can!).  Given my passion for all things military and interest in Don't Ask Don't Tell it's been amazing to meet her and hear about the work/lobbying she is doing for SLDN.  She's a frequent media commentator but these particular Hearings are unprecedented......it's not if they remove the ban, it's when.

U.S. Suspends Haitian Airlift in Cost Dispute

Ugh - how do you suppose this happens?  All the more terrible because nobody is surprised "....It was not clear on Friday who exactly was responsible for the interruption of flights, or the chain of events that led to the decision."
Worse yet, Florida hosts the Superbowl this coming Sunday and 30 sec advertising slots cost around 3mil each.......do you think the networks could donate some of that revenue to the Florida hospitals supporting Haiti's injured?

Freak'n - in a good way

In the long ago past (as in 5 years ago) when I lived in Wellington I started getting acupuncture for pain in my ankle.  Long short story about near death motorcycle accidents, crushing ankles and breaking femurs on the Hutt motorway means that I have one gimpy leg that, despite the odds, serves me quite well.  Taking up running again isn't necessarily what everyone would recommend given the previous injury, so I decided that I wouldn't wait for the pain but go and get some preventative acupuncture.  I am not a scientist and don't have a scientists curiosity, acupuncture is magic.  There is a certain logic to how they think it works and that's pretty much all I need to be convinced.  Once a week I see (yet another) very sweet guy, who needles me.  Tonight he suggested that we might needle the scar I have on the front of my ankle; it's quite impressive but mostly goes unnoticed unless you look closely (and nobody does).   It's actually where the surgeon did his magic so is tidy but wide (I won't go into the gruesome details).  Given Marc was recommended by Case my immediate response was "....well it makes me a little nervous but lets give it a go" (with Case I leave out the nervous part as it just prompts him to greater excesses).   Actually the thought of it made me more than nervous, it freaked me out (at least on the inside).  As it turned out it wasn't quite as painful as I had thought it would be...not painful at all to be honest.  And now Marc is promising that I might actually see a change in how the scar looks and the needling will help with the other mysteries around how it interferes with the "flow" of something or rather that contributes to the occasional swelling I have around my ankle.  One of the high points of the whole adventure had to be the delight on Marcs face as he gazed down at his handy work and noted it was "quite a picture" - acupuncturists have their own unique view of the world I think!  Regardless of how this particular treatment goes the three things the acupuncture has already brought, 1. the best nights sleep I have all week is the night following my treatment 2. way less ankle swelling 3. knee pain gone (very specific treatment I asked for after I did "something" to it during a training session).  I live in the land of magic.

Changing things, 14 milers, adventures and working....

Busy week on all fronts.  For those that have noticed I've been playing around with the blog and added some things, most notably the countdown clock and the list of races I have registered for!  Maintaining two blogs just became too much and, given running has become my fav pastime I decided to dump it all in here.  One race that I can't yet add to the list is the NYC Marathon in November 2010.  Two ways you can get in, lottery draw or sign-up as a charity runner.  I've written to the official charity and asked for an application as I like the idea of both being able to run and raise money.  We shall see.........
Friday I ran 14 miles (22.5k for the kiwis), per Case's instructions.  It's a long way with the last two miles feeling particularly long.  I did manage to do it in 2hrs 13mins though, which made me quite happy.  It does mean I am ready for my half in February.  It's around Golden Gate Park in San Fran and Michelle is coming along to cheer me along - well most likely drink coffee and eat cake waiting for me to finish.  This race will be huge with 1000s entered, I think we can assume that I will be back in the pack among the minions slogging it out.
Weekend of Feb 13 (well the Thursday before) Michelle and I are off to Chicago, her to give a paper at a conference - me along for the adventure.  We are on the hunt for some fun things to do and trying to figure out where we might find the girls, well go dancing I mean.  While Chicago will be cold it will be fab fun and I have been before.  Fortunate for everyone I didn't get that job.
One fun, out of the box thing, at work this week.  I ended up presenting a case study to a perspective new client outside of Cisco.  I haven't pitched for work in eons so it was an excellent opportunity to dust off the skills and generally enjoy walking into the unknown.  It was for a very large global company and it really dawned on me just how much I've learnt in the last few years - I could honestly talk about the challenges of global comms.....having now been doing it for nearly three years.
It's Sunday, the rain has finally stopped.  I'm off to the gym to see Case.....simple life for me.

Bible References on Gun Sights

I've been following this one in the news.....here and in NZ.  Wow, this just strikes me as plain weird.  Weird in a way that only the US can be weird....and exactly how long have they been doing it? Trijicon, the manufacturing company originally issued a statement saying "As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state-of-the-art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation.".... then backed down the following day saying  they would remove the references given concerns raised blah blah blah....well actually given their single largest customer (US Department of Defense) probably said, stop it or no more contracts from us!
My bet is that every military inventory system around the world who has these sights not only has the serial numbers included but also has the biblical reference as well - when do you suppose somebody noticed?

Rain and running adventures

I'm always loathe to start out by talking about the weather but right now it's truly awful.  Big storm hitting California..... weirdly though every time I've had to commute on the 17 it's cleared and been event free, which is a near miracle given the chaos on the roads!  It's been raining for about 5 days, it never rains for five days here - it's reminding me of Wellington on those dark winter days, although the wind is less relentless here.  All this dreary weather is making me depressed, California has made me soft - where's my sun???

To cheer myself up I've signed up for the Country Music Nashville 1/2 Marathon in April.  What makes this fab is that all along the course there are bands playing....country music, signing up has made me ridiculously happy.  They have a rock equivalent but, you know, I love country music!  Even better I know people who are going (which finally prompted me to signup).  Lila, who I house sat for in San Jose last year and is on my team, her husband, daughter and a cousin are all signed up, so I will at least know some folks to have a drink with post the event.  I've spent the evening registering, finding a hotel and checking out flights....long way to Nashville!
My "other" race is also looming - Feb 7 is my first half marathon in San Francisco.  I ran 12 miles the other day and the half is 13.1 so I just need to do 14 this week and I will feel set to give it a good shot.  Case has done a fine job of preparing me and Michelle is coming along to cheer me on.  It's around Golden Gate Park and there will be thousands of people in it, so very different from my Marin 6 miler.  M and I are going to stay in San Fran overnight and I expect I'll be just as nervous as I was for Marin, but with a better idea of how it all works.
I've also gone back to acupuncture, trying to make sure my gimpy leg doesn't let me down.  So far it's been good and I'd like to keep it that way, acupuncture will help.

Adventuring with The Mother

Alright given The Mother has been staying with me I’ve been a little lax on the blog…busy busy busy.

Fun things we have been doing.  Went to my first Ice Hockey game.  20,000 people jam packed into the stadium and the local team (The Sharks) won in the last 58 secs, the place erupted.  It was great fun to watch and we had excellent seats.  It was cold though, poor mum was freezing and the food was terrible (surprise!).  It’s all very well put together though, huge TV screen hanging over the ice that gives you some real up-close and personal views.  One startling moment; gloves off two players started pummelling one another……which is what you expect but nobody intervenes, it goes on for several minutes, everyone just sits back and watches until they are done – oddest thing.  Well then they both get sent to the sin bin for 5mins.  That aside, it was fun and I’d definitely go back again.

Two weekends back we headed to San Fran to see Wicked.  This is a great musical that tells the story of the friendship between the two witches from the Wizard of Oz, before the actual Oz story.  It’s funny and a little dramatic, costumes were amazing and the singing fantastic.  We stayed over night given it was quite a late show.  Because I’d hesitated to get tickets I ended up going to a reseller site and was delighted to end up with center block, four rows back.  Had a lovely meal at the hotel we were staying in before we headed out and enjoyed 2.5hrs of great entertainment.  Highly recommend it.

Lots of shopping happened too and mum cleaning our my entire wardrobe....new me had to go and buy new clothes as mum decided my "big clothes" had to go.  Mum was very cynical when I suggested we put the bag of big clothes on the street and someone would pick them up!  Took maybe 4 hours and they were gone, including her broken handled suitcase!

I’ve been back at work for two weeks and immediately found myself recruiting for four new roles – yikes!  I don’t much like recruiting, all that chatting to try and figure if someone is a fit, but gotta do it, does have the team implode to 16 though.  No sign of work slowing down and I can’t complain given the economy here is still tight, although some signs things are easing.

Vegas: The Food

Once the foodies arrived eating out became a whole new thing!  Okay mum and I did enjoy a nice meal at Outback, which is a chain restaurant based on ??? Yeah Australia.  Challenge with Vegas is that it's either up market or low rent, not much in between.  Although I didn't know it was renowned for its restaurants with a lot of well known chefs opening restaurants (I say that like I would know who the well known chefs are!).  Anyway Outback is kind of in-between, nice enough for steak and chips and pretty consistent wherever you go....okay okay, cheap copout on my part. I did manage to have us go to one very nice place in the MGM Grand before the foodies arrived.  Emerils is all about cajun food and owned by Emeril Lagasse......if anyone reading knows chefs by name.  Food was very nice but portions massive.  The picture to the right makes it look a bit glitsy and trashy even....I don't remember it looking quite like that, in fact not at all like that!

Karen and Brice's arrival heralded some more upscale experiences including the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Paris.  Now this was very fine.  Looking at the "Tower", which is exactly half the size of the real thing, the restaurant is in the base (the dark line you can see above the legs).  You take a lift from the Casino floor and it opens out into the kitchen!  That was pretty startling and fascinating to watch all the chefs at work.  We sat in a booth looking out over the strip and enjoyed a very lovely dining experience on Xmas eve, including a lovely glass or two of Tattingers (yes I did drink something over the break....not much, but something).

Xmas day was a whole different treat again.  Aureole is in the Mandalay Bay  Casino,  They weren't working Xmas day but this place features a two story wine "cellar"...well glass enclosure, where "wine angels" abseil up and down the wine racks pulling out bottles for diners.  I had the most lovely sashimi and fresh fish for my Xmas dinner....as odd as that sounds!  It's quite a stark atmosphere, very stylish.
The other place we went to that I loved loved loved was Julian Serrano's.  This place was tapas paradise and, for those that recall, that was something I loved about Barcelona.  The small plates here were fabulous - I would love to eat like that all the time.
Final note, as always, a good cup of coffee isn't easy to find in the US of A - Starbucks it was, if there was a better place we never found it!

Bodies the Exhibition - not for the faint hearted!

I'm going to write up Vegas in little chunks....so here's chunk one! Post Karen and Brice's arrival we had a a day of "forensic" investigation, part of which included seeing this exhibition. No, this isn't my video but it does capture the feeling....it's fair to say that Brice and I looked at everything but didn't dwell (unlike mum and Karen, who were fascinated!). Despite having been told that lots of people think the bodies look plastic I didn't think that at all - all too real was more my thinking. It was interesting to see, I'm glad I went but won't be going back, once was enough.
After Bodies (which was at the Luxor Hotel - the big pyramid) we headed back to the MGM Grand and tried out CSI: The Experience. You get to choose one of three crime scenes to examine and solve a case. It's not done on a computer, you actually work through a series of stands, taking notes and answering questions, including examining the crime scene, then toxicology, autopsy etc etc. Finally you enter your results into a computer and Grisholm tells you if you have it right. It was fun and an easy distraction - yes, we all guessed correctly, although we didn't all get all the clues right.