Vegas Part 2

"You are going back to vegas?" They looked at me as if I was the patient not the doctor. "Don't you want to go somewhere else? Vietnam? Thailand? South America even!"

"No."

Whilst it is true my last trip was just 2 months ago there was unfinished business to be taken care of.

Sadly Nadir and Mash, 2 fellow Vegas afficiandos would not be joining me this time.

Both were engaged at this time. More specifically one to his girlfriend and one to his love of cruises.

"You are a very brave man," the cab driver said as he drove me towards Victoria station. I had hoped he would see the white ipod headphones in my ears but if he did he was taking no notice.

"And why's that?" I turned down the volume.

"Did you see the Air France thing the other day?"

"Yes I did, absolutely awful."

"YES! And you are seriously going to the airport after THAT!?" He looked at me in amazement in his rear view mirror.

Oh Lord here we go.

"Well statistically flying is still very safe."

"Rubbish! Are you a gambling man my friend?" I was not going to tell him my destination was vegas. But I was relieved that he had changed the subject.

"Not really."

"Well if you are flying today you are gambling with your life! Do you know why planes fly at 30,000 feet?" Nor was I going to tell him I am a qualified commercial pilot.

"Tell me" I said involuntarily shaking my head.

"Well you see they fly at that height because things go wrong so often that it's a sensible height so that they can glide into most airports for when the engines explode!"

"Righttttt." I sighed.

A few hours later I was crusing over the Continental U.S. watching some of the UK Apprentice that i had missed, the contestants really were extraordinarily bad.

"I bring ignorance to the table."

Yeah remind me to use that corker in my medical ARCP review in July. I was glad to be leaving the country for a week.

A few hours after the 747s wheels touched down on the long tarmac at McCarran airport, and after 2 aborted takeoffs last time with Jenna, we finally met up and went to the new Rare 120 in the Hard Rock, it was a really fun night with really good food and always fun to watch the TPT that incorporates the Hard Rock circle bar. Crazy thing about that restaurant is the waitresses wear small skirts with lingerie, it was like ok is this dinner or a strip club, i guess it is both in a way. Very vegas. Very distracting.

Anyway so Jenna tells me about her time working at Tao and such uber cool pools/restaurants/clubs etc! She goes on to shock me by telling me that the waitresses get weighed weekly. Bare in mind this is not a hospital, not an eating disorders unit, but a commercial venue. She qualifies it by saying, "Oh only the model waitresses get weighed not the normal ones."

To her this did not seem totally outrageous and I imagine if you are living in Vegas full time you adjust to anything, a bit like when I was a vascular surgeon as a junior doctor, I amputated a man's leg threw it in the clinical waste and went and had lunch. You really can become used to anything.

Moving on - the weather was crazy hot, the poker was providing cash and entertainment, the hard part was sleeping this trip, there is no sleeping at the HRH pool where they blast crap like "Nickelback" at 100 decibels. I wrote on my comments card they should have an area just to chill, I can imagine that comment card is winding its way to the nearest Vegas recycling yard as I type this.

I got to hang out with Matt, a cool guy from Florida that I met last trip, we played some poker together and had a funny afternoon in "Pink taco" (yeah don't) a mexican restaurant. The mexican food in there was amazing, although you can only imagine how calorific it is, not to sound like a girl but they asked if i wanted "fried icecream for dessert!"

Anyhow we found ourselves sitting next to 2 girls at the bar who were playing video black jack and playing with their faux diamond encrusted iphones. Lame!

"So I am Matt and this is Mark, what are your names?" Matt asked them.

"Guess!" One of them squeaked.

"Ok, what does it begin with?"

"A"

"Amanda?"

"No"

"Alice?"

"No! I will give you a clue. It is a season."

"Autumn?!"

"Yes it is Autumn!" She giggled.

Matt and I looked at each other - hookers for sure. I went back to sipping on my corona and we said our goodbyes.

On my last night I watched the Lakers kill the Magic whilst playing poker, my friends and I had a small wager on the Lakers and we won a fair bit so i bought my new friends at the table a drink each, baring in mind each drink in the casino were only a dollar I'm not sure why they kept telling me I was a "gentleman and a scholar."

I looked up the origin and the American Urban dictionary.com assures me that (and i quote directly from the site) "it's the highest compliment you can pay someone, equivalent to you have kind eyes and a beautiful soul but no where near as gay."

Emily and I got to hang out which was great as we have been friends for 2 years now.

I booked Tao for dinner, one of the best places in Las Vegas, and when we walked in, Emily looking stunning in a black small cocktail dress, they handed us a stupid remote vibrating buzzer thing to let us know when the table was ready.

I turned to the Maitre'D and said "Oh wow I did not know I booked TGI Fridays!"

Funnily enough after that it took them a long time to bother to seat us. Hilarious. He was not impressed.

I got drunk, Emily got "buzzed" whatever she meant by that and told me stories of wood floors and roof tops.

I did not do any flying this trip and I would NOT recommend spending almost 2 weeks in vegas. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, I read something quite apt in someone's column in the Vegas newspaper, it countered "the things that stay in vegas are your cash and your dignity." So true.

Having said that I want to go back for my birthday at the beginning of October and this time Sergio, Jas and Julie you are bloody well coming! Hawker jet and all.