I am always thrilled to be going to America – New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and anywhere in between.
Two weeks ago, I set off for Las Vegas as part of a trip to plan an event later in the year. My flight from Terminal 5 was at a civilised time of the day so I made my way to the luxury of Fortnum and Mason for a late breakfast. This is a perfect bar in the middle of the terminal, where I often have a light lunch or supper before a flight. The staff are charming and remember who you are, the coffee is delicious and the food simple but good.
I had just come back from working in Nice, Paris and Rome and was looking forward to a long 12 hours rest courtesy of BA and was fortunate to have a comfortable window seat. I was also testing Jet Candy, a new homeopathic anti-jetlag remedy. It comes in the form of pinhead-sized pills and you take a series of them before you take off, on the flight and when you land. It seemed to have worked well and I certainly wasn’t as wiped as usual!
Las Vegas is always fun for a couple of days. We were looking for private dining rooms here for when the guests arrive from Europe but managed to squeeze in a great drag show called Divas whilst we were there – very fun! After a few eye-watering buckets of gin and tonic (mostly gin!), we went to Fremont Street to see the zip-line (you fly from one end of a huge shopping mall to the other 20’ off the ground while above your head an incredible video and sound projection plays).
We found the perfect venues, shopped in Venice – the bizarre copy of the Grand Canal two floors up in The Venetian Hotel – and had an excellent dinner at Le Cirque while watching the dancing waters of Bellagio. A quick bit of gaming and then back to the Mandarin Oriental.
In the hotel, a young couple were celebrating their wedding and having their photographs taken in the lobby. Unfortunately, they hadn’t realised that in every picture there was a huge vending machine in the background – I told them and I think they were pleased that for the rest of time they wouldn’t have the MO drinks dispenser in their photos.
Vegas: “tick” – we covered everything one needs to do, apart from the Cirque du Soleil shows. Perhaps next time…
