The Lucky Donut

Does this look like a complimentary room offer? I thought it might be a mistake but they have actually charged it now. Screw you, Suncoast.

I can’t really wear it for a few more months but it’ll keep. This is why post-Christmas outlet mall shopping rocks.

I also got another one in a slightly different colour, but that was a whopping $4.98.

Or you may get one of these as an actual Chrismas card next year.

Happy Christmas!

The gallery may not actually grow any more now I’ve decided to brag but at least there are some wins to report already 🙂

The two video poker wins were very nice. Two grand at the four queens, proving once again that The only way I can make a royal flush is to fluke it from a very weak draw. My career record so far: twice from two cards, once from just an ace and once on the deal. I have never hit a royal from 3- or 4-card draw.

The other was a $1000 win at Harrah’s Laughlin on dollar deuces wild which Claire hit while we were trying to work out if that machine would let us get in enough play to retain Diamond status. We played too scared and decided to take the money instead of losing it back to get a shiny players card. Maybe I’m losing focus…

The slot wins are just for fun obv.

Photos from the Gift of Lights show at Sunset Park.

I didn’t know much about this until I turned up and drove around it but it is pretty cool.

You stay in the car the whole way round and drive through and around lots of Christmas lights.

It looks like the displays are donated by businesses. Some even insisted that their own name was written in lights.

Others had provided a traditional Christmas scene.

Because it’s Vegas, there has to be an Elvis.

Some of the casinos even made an appearance. This is an approximation of the Circus Circus sign. You may need to squint a bit.

And then some were just completely random. The relevance of Nessie to either Las Vegas or Christmas is…?

I booked an economy sized car but thanks to bmi diamond club I had a voucher for a free two-class upgrade and thanks to Hertz being shit last time we used them I also has $75 in credit to use. Basically I turned with all this junk and said “how big can I go”.

The answer was a Subaru Outback.

I don’t know what size they class it as, but it’s practically an SUV.

So imagine my surprise when the valet brought it to us this morning and said “I like this little car”.

It is pretty sweet. But little?

It also claims to have this feature:

Partial zero emissions vehicle.

Because some fraction of zero equals… ?

I’d heard – although not really believed – that the new British Airways route from Heathrow to Las Vegas was not just to get British tourists to Sin City. Apparently it also gave Americans a whole new way to travel to Europe.

People fly to Las Vegas to transfer onto another flight? I thought I’d believe that when I saw it. And then I saw it.

The girl sitting next to us on the transfer from San Francisco clocked our accents and asked for some advice.

“Do you know how I can get from the airport to Birmingham New Street?”

She did indeed pronounce the “h” in the name of the city, which to be fair is the way that it’s written.

My first reaction was what a nightmare it would be having to do that on the train on your first trip to England and particularly when there’s a little bit of snow on the ground which is often enough to grind the whole country to a standstill.

Apparently it’s because of the snow that she was having to do this. Originally her English friends were coming down to meet her at Heathrow but a dusting of snow mean that it would be “easier for everyone” if she got the train instead.

That’s the kind of friends I know I would fly around the world to spend Christmas with.

I tried my best to help including launching Tube Deluxe on my iPhone as a visual aid. Having no idea whether there was a way to avoid central London (maybe you can get to Watford Junction or Milton Keynes) I showed her how the Picadilly Line almost went to Euston station (but not quite) and said that I thought that would probably be easier than having to get underground at Victoria with a lot of luggage if she took the Heathrow express. Then I wished her good luck.

“Are you staying in Birmingham for Christmas?” I asked.

“Actually they’re taking me to Willenhall”. Which she also pronounced with an “h”. I could hardly contain my excitement.

“Is it quite a small town?” she asked.

“It’s got a market”, I offered.

I’m sure there’s a Christmas tree somewhere too.

I am not sure how much of this will work and how much I’ll have time to upload before we take off. If I only have GPRS then it takes about 5 minutes an 10% of he phone’s battery to post one picture.

But below should be a gallery from Flickr of my photos from the lounge and plane as I fly first class with United.

If it fails, search for “theluckydonut” on Flickr.com.