Having made a new friend in LA, cheap flights and nothing planned for my next 10 days off. There was little to no excuse for not going back to LA and doing a little more exploring.

After a bit lazing around Hermosa beach, shopping and going out in LA, the initial plan was to head down and pop over to Mexico, but the banditos scared us off so we headed for Vegas. Its just how you picture it from the movies, neon lights everywhere, a casino in every building even the petrol stations have slot machines. I saw at least half a dozen brides running around the lobby of our hotel. We had a play in a Casino, naturally losing our money in the blink of an eye. Abby had the hook ups at some very cool clubs, allowing us to get on the VIP list to avoid the multi hour ques and cover charges. Although the club was a pretty high class, this was vegas after all so there were still girls in bath tubs and dancing on raised platforms.

After Vegas, we went to the Nevada + Arizona border to see the Hoover Dam. I was a tad disappointed - as it was a lot smaller then I imagined. But a pleasant surprise was seeing some Wild billy goats. It was a relaxing trip, off to Snowboard in Italy next week.

Last week, I awoke to the bone numbing effects of London snow. I take a lot more interest in the weather these days as it effects my job, with cold weather comes higher demand for both gas and power and hence higher prices. A little volatility goes a long way to helping make a buck or two. In true London weather fashion, all public transport gets effected, its odd - it doesn't matter what the weather is, it is going to effect the rail ways somehow. In...
Summer: "We are sorry, the heat has caused rails to deform - the next train has been canceled"
Autumn: "We are sorry, leaves on the tracks are causing delays"
Winter: "Ice on the tracks is causing issues with the breaks, the next train has been delayed"
Spring: "The next train has been canceled due to lack of staff" - I think they take Spring off to recover some of the over time due to the slow trains in the rest of the year.

Abby arrived to check out London as a possibility of one of her overseas transfer options, so I was going to try and give it a good impression. Naturally after a mild winter she arrived during the only cold snap. Regardless, we went and saw Wicked the musical. This was most likely the best musical I had been to. It is based on the Wizard of Oz and holds true to the story but shows the path of the Witches, it very cleverly merges with the original story giving it a good twist. I would recommend it :)

The next day, we jumped on the Eurostar across to Paris, just for the night. Picked up some cheap last minute tickets so it was a good excuse to show off how easy it is to travel and it had been a month since I had gotten out of the country. Again, as in Europe - I was impressed with the trains, quick easy..its just a shame its not a tad cheaper in comparison to flights. So we jumped up the Eiffel tower at night to get some views of the city and went to the Louvre. Most of the time we just strolled around the city and entertained ourselves.

Once back in London, we did the footpath tour. Taking in most of the highlights from the street, me trying to make up the history and stories about London. With Abby pointing out each time some obvious flaw in my mythical history lesson and catching me making it up. We did manage to catch the Changing of the Guards which was one thing I had been meaning to do for the last 3 years but never actually got around to. We had a really good time, and I'm going to LA tomorrow for a week, hopefully we can get a road trip in there down to Mexico for some margaritas, tequilas, senorita, a bull fight and anything else that brings Mexico to the mind.