THE UNITED STATES OF AWESOME- PART 2) LIVIN' LAS VEGAS LOCA

I always have lyrics in my head for moments. I sing when I ride, I sing if someone says something that reminds me of a song. And this time I’ll take a song directly from my fav CD ‘Richard Mercers best of Love song Dedications’ that best describes my sister on her wedding day:

 

I’ve never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight,
I've never seen you shine so bright, And when you turned to me and smiled, it took my breath away,
And I have never had such a feeling,
Such a feeling of complete and utter love, as I do tonight;

But I hardly know this beauty by my side;
I'll never forget the way you look tonight.

 

It's funny growing up with parents that are so ridiculously in love, that you couldn’t imagine them apart. I have always aspired to find it. Unfortunately for me I have only once been in that moment at the same time with someone and as usual he turned out to be a dick. I’ve been in that moment when they haven’t, or they’ve been in that moment when I haven’t, but only once has it been at the

same time- and when it is, it is magic. That’s how it is with Bianca and Andrew. Andrew is so good for her, he makes her tolerable when she is stressed, he looks after me like a big (in this case, Giraffe sized) brother and he makes her look even more beautiful (which is still not quite as beautiful as her younger sister.)

My arrival in Vegas was strange, I was almost nervous to see my family- a bizarre feeling really. I found Dad at the hotel first, and we soon caught up with the girls. I barely felt as though I’d arrived when I was reminded that tomorrow was the hen’s party. I thought id have time to rest!!! The first day was spent poolside, trying to compensate from my lack of vitamin D in London, I then went for a team buffet which basically was force feeding me different cuisines (my pet hate) to get my monies worth, followed by feeling instantly sick, turning green in colour, vomiting and leaving. I suppose my body will never get used to the food in America. I hate it. It doesn’t even taste good, usually fried or smothered in cheese- it’s the sort of food I crave hung over- even their salads are unhealthy and most things contain gluten- my fav enemy.

The hen’s party was a pool party at the MGM grand Wet republic. All us girls convened in my hotel from 10am and were in our Bungalow from 11:30- which was superb. The boys were at a tops optional pool party and we had some worried girls until Tatiana received a text from Dale around midday exclaiming that they were at a gay pool party. I’m unsure whether it was the truth or a strategic text to put their minds at ease. We danced to great tunes and lived off cocktails before leaving circa 6pm for Mexican dinner at 8pm.When we left for a seedy night club rather than head to Tao I decided to leave and walked back to the most isolated hotel in Las Vegas- the Trump.

 

After a crazy morning sorting out Greg & Katie’s room break-in at the Trump I went off and did my own train tour of the strip- starting at Mandalay and ending at Excalibur where I won back some of the money I owed the old man. I made it back to the hotel just in time to meet mum and dad and head to the 2810 Mansion. The mansion was exquisite- absolutely stunning, had a pool grotto, massive spa and to quote Anna Gallard:  
‘scary’ waterslide. I took custody of a pool lounge and settled in for the day, trying to avoid bridezilla who had taken over my sister’s body. Before we knew it, the wedding day was here- I woke up first, and commenced the set-up, setting up the decorations and making the beach guest seating. Pickup was at 2pm for photos so we were done up at noon and got to see Andrew and Dad’s reaction when they saw Bianca for the first time. Andrew had his fangs on show, his smile was so wide!

Just as we left the mansion to get the wedding photos done- we saw Chris Mead rolling in, looking battle worn, barefoot, shirt buttons torn open, looking as though he was straight from the hangover movie! (Maybe June next year we’ll be reconvening in Vegas welcoming all the children that were conceived that weekend).

 

The wedding was spot on. I woke up refreshed and surprisingly not hung over from the nights festivities prior, having been to the Irish pub to watch the world’s 2^nd most boring grand final ever- (second only to last years) I did what I did last year- went hard and went home… and passed out. After a brief encounter with Bridezilla in the morning, I managed to do a bit of decorating and organising before it was time to get ready.

 
The bride looked great, Lino had a sparkling eye when he first laid eyes on her and looked ridiculously sharp in his Hugo Boss suit. Lynny was sparkling in Blue. Tears welled when reminiscing about those that can’t be with us. I’m particularly missing my g- parents, those past and those present albeit not in attendance. Pa would’ve been so proud. The day before he died he was so out of it but so with it when we walked in- he saw Andrew and he goes ‘G’day Champ’ he loved talking footy with Andrew and even spilled his biggest regret to Andrew one night, having missed a goal in the dying minutes of a GF and his team lost by a point. As soon as I landed in Vegas and saw the machines I thought of Granny and even had a poke whilst waiting for my bags to come out. My grandparents travelled the world, a travel bug inherited through the generations. Mostly when I think about Nonna I remember the smell of food from her house- it will be weird not seeing her house when I go back. It’s weird because I don’t remember much about Nonno, but I can still smell his aftershave as if he were still here and his gold chains used to make a chink noise that I will never forget.

 The reception was even better, and first to get their gear off and jump in the spa was yours truly. After brief resurrection of Bridezilla (refusing alcohol on all the spa go-ers) order was quickly and sneakily restored when dear cousin Christian used his foresight to flog some vodka from the stash. A few drinks later and we all called it a night, resuming the following day for a BBQ and pool party.

Vegas was tame this time- only one big night of four- much different to my last appearance- where I had 44hours on with 4 hours sleep.. thankfully it was pre-blog and what happens in Vegas… stays in Vegas.