Eastern Europe Trip

I've just (some 7 hours ago) returned from a week in Las Vegas, where I was attending IBM's worldwide "Impact" conference. I obviously won't bore you with the details of what the conference covered (it was, after all, an IT conference!) but will recount some of the more interesting tales from the week, bearing in mind the old adage "what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas" (if only anything had happened that warranted keeping it to myself, I'm sure the story would be more interesting!!)

We (that's Dave, a colleague from work and me) caught the flight from Manchester via Chicago last Saturday morning, and arrived in Vegas around tea-time, taking full advantage of the -8 hours time difference (meaning it was really about midnight). After checking in to the hotel - the "Signature" at MGM Grand - we discovered our rooms were a bit more plush than those we normally get. A full 5-star suite, complete with kitchen, jacuzzi bath, walk-in shower and king size bed! I immediately regretted not convincing Tracy to come with us (she couldn't anyway as she had doctors and physio appointments, more of them later).






Having had a quick shower we headed out for dinner, only to almost fall asleep in our Chinese, so it was an early night - I turned in at 8.45pm! The following day was hot and sunny (not surprising, as Vegas is in the desert) and we went for a long walk down the strip, admiring the views and wandering round the shopping malls, before finally settling down outside the Harley-Davidson cafe for a few cold beers... chilled out at last!






The rest of the day was at a leisurely pace, and we were joined in the evening by Paula (another colleague from work) who had flown from Edinburgh (via London and San Fransisco). How she stayed up with us through dinner until 11pm, I'll never understand!

On Monday morning the conference started in earnest with a razz-matazz kick off which included music from a quartet of beautiful women playing violins and cello, acrobatic performances from some of the Cirque du Soleil performers, the CIO of Harley-Davidson riding a bike on stage and finally the cast of the American version of "Whose line is it anyway" who performed several improv sketches throughout the kick-off session (which also included some presentations from the IBM exec team, which was the "work" bit). Carlie was not best impressed when I texted her to tell her I was sat watching and laughing at the cast from her favourite TV comedy programme!






The rest of the conference was much more work-related, but still very interesting and certainly worthwhile, if not a little hard work - with the daily sessions starting at 8.30am and finishing at 6pm. As we had meetings arranged with key IBM execs and architects during most of the lunch breaks, it was pretty intense. But the fun hadn't finished, as we discovered that none other than Tom Jones was playing in our hotel! I guess that as he's famous for playing Vegas "it's not unusual" but it was too good to miss, so we went on the Tuesday evening. He was truly excellent, banging out old and new songs and really putting on a show. Not at all bad for a 67-yr old bloke!






Then following the sessions on Wednesday we had the "Inner Circle Gala Event" which started off with dinner in one of the hotel's nightclubs (where we had yet another meeting!) and then off to the theatre to see the Cirque du Soleil performance. I really struggle to explain what this is, as it's something I've not seen the like of before. It's like a cross between ballet, theatre, martial arts, circus-style wirework, dance, and an opera-style story. To say it was superb would not do it justice, as it was truly stunning. For a better description, see here

Our week in Vegas was rounded off with a final evening out at a great steak restaurant, and then an early flight home which meant leaving the hotel at 7.15am. The flight from Vegas to Chicago was delayed, but thankfully we still managed to make our connection back to Manchester, arriving nearly 40 minutes early and so back home and off to bed for an hour or so to get some much needed sleep (it's odd, arriving home early on Saturday morning, having left on Friday morning!). I then had to go and collect the van Tracy had managed to sort out for me to take Lydia down to her brother's on Sunday. Once I'd got the van home, I then put on my bike gear and took Lydia for her MOT in the sleet and snow... what a contrast from walking down the strip in the sun just a couple of days ago! Fortunately she passed her MOT without problem, and is now all ready for the trip to Craig's in the morning...

Whilst I was away, Tracy had an appointment with Mr Watson, the skins and plastics consultant who examined her arm. He has decided that it does need a further skin graft, to cover the area on the top of her forearm that has still not healed. They wanted to book her in for next Wednesday, and perform the operation under local anaesthetic, but as she was in the car on the way home she got a call telling her the results of the last swab - which show more signs of infection, so the graft operation will have to wait. She's now waiting for the chemist to get the necessary strong anti-biotics in, before starting another 2-week course. If that doesn't clear it, she'll be back in to hospital to have some more IV-anti-biotics. Not a great piece of news. The physio has said she needs to attend hand clinic once a week and go to their gym to strengthen the muscles in her legs and back. But at least she can make progress on all these without being dependant on getting rid of the infection in her arm.

The observant amonst you will have recalled my teaser in last week's post about my present to myself... well, I collect it tomorrow, so watch this space!!