blonde poker forum

...then it still wouldn't be as good as the first ever official blondepoker wedding!

As you may have gathered, this is going to be THE official blog for all the domestics, arguments, plans, budgets etc that come with planning a wedding. My wedding, to be exact. To our very own joobie538 (currently nicknamed Jugs538, please change it back Bongo!), whom I met in passing at blonde Bash 6 and then "properly" met at blonde Bash 7. 3 years later, and we're getting married. Hopefully.

Why hopefully? Well, when I'm not doing live updates for blonde, my day job is as a Customer Service Advisor for BT Openreach. However, I work on a temporary contract through a recruitment agency which was scheduled to run from June 1st 2010 for 3 months. 7 months later and I'm still there. They keep renewing my contract but only ever renewing it for a month and making me sweat for half the month to see whether it's going to be renewed!

Anyway, onto the main story...

I met Joobs properly at bB7 lliterally on arrival at the Days Inn. It must have been love at first sight (for her) as she fell for me. Literally. My first sight of my soon-to-be wife was when the lift doors opened and she fell out on top of me! Just about managed to catch her before she hit the floor and it went from there. Hands up who sure did see us apart for more than 1hr that weekend when not actually playing poker? Yeah, didn't think there were many. Went back home to Chester and it took me about a week before I jumped on a train to Weston-super-Mare.

And never left.

Since then, we've been practically joined at the hip relationship wise, and it took me 10 months to realise that I knew I had found the woman I wanted to spend my life with, and it was July 21st 2009 that I popped the question. She said yes (obv, or I wouldn't be writing this lol) and it's been one of the best periods of my life so far. All relationships have their ups and downs but thankfully we barely argue or have major disagreements, Joobs knows how to deal with me when I get pissed off at something and vice versa, and we just...work.

Close friends on here will know we've been through some shit times since we got together, and I'm not gonna go into detail as that's the past. Thankfully we've got past that, and are now comfortably settled in Chester with our cat Lilly preparing for the wedding! I'll cover the wedding plans in the next post probably.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy and follow from now until the big day, which is tentatively pencilled in for Monday 21st November 2011.

 ;goodluck;

Hello Adam

Thanks for the offer to be your best man. Will let you know soon.

define "properly met" please? ;D

looking forward to this - glglglgl

congrats.

gl with the blog. Some poker content too for the degens like me :)

Cheers :D


Hello Richard

We'll talk about this in Bolton, I guess? :)

File this somewhere safe Adam - http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/is-divorce-ahead-recognizing-the-signs-of-trouble.html (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/is-divorce-ahead-recognizing-the-signs-of-trouble.html)

wedding singer more apt, surely?

Cheers Cos.

There will be poker content as well. Gotta spin up the spending monies somehow! I'm also gonna put in some life content...want to do a music thing like Clawbird did and a few other ideas.

like he has a choice!

If its a Vegas wedding are you having a theme jobby ?

norrr - doing ruin the thread by putting all that dream theater shite in

Properly met? Well, at bB6, I didn't really get to know her. All I did was take pictures of her tits. Well, hers, yours and a few other ladies! Whereas at bB7, we got to know each other on the first night (and some facebook convos the week before) and it all spiralled from there.

we better not talk about that at the moment...

I want to get married on the Newyork Newyork rollercoaster!

It's ok they grow on you after awhile

Sure is happening.

Don't care that The Duke has offered to pay for it. It is not happening.

Congratulations! It couldn;t have happened to two nicer ones
















and sharplea......

OK a cheap joke but had to give it try

Moving on from the minor domestic...

WEDDING PLANS

As is our want, these have a nasty of habit of changing. Hourly. Currently though, the plan goes as follows.

16th Nov 2011 - Fly from London Heathrow to Las Vegas direct with BA on one of their rather posh 747's, in Business Class.
17th-20th Nov 2011 - Meet up with various members of various forums who are going out there (Duke, Laxie, Jon MW, Wee Man, technolog, to name a few) and have some fun.
21st Nov 2011 - Get married at 10am at the Little Chapel of the Flowers. Hopefully (if it's on) play the Venetian Deepstacks at midday.
22nd-24th Nov 2011 - Celebrate the wedding with friends and family. Then they all go home.
25th-28th Nov 2011 - 3 day honeymoon in Vegas. Fly to LA on 28th AM.
30th Nov 2011 - Fly home from LA. Land on 1st Dec.
3rd Dec 2011 - Wedding Reception at home for friends and family that couldn't make it out to Vegas.


As I said earlier though, these do change very often. Mainly when we revise the budget every week. Budget is currently at the wrong end of £7k and that doesn't even have the spending/gambling money added to it! Kinda scary considering that we have £1.5k saved so far and 42 weeks to go. Gonna be cutting it fine...as I'd quite like to have £5k for food/poker/shows when out there (between us).

that would be awesome!

I wanted an elvis drivethrough for my last wedding, but nearest i could get him to agree to was in the nevada desert :(

That's sure what she was getting at........

yes dear but we have already bought my dress and sorted your outfit, so it not that bad.

Sounds a great wedding plan!

Book those flights ASAP, you know the price will only increase.

 ;goodluck; :)up

Waiting for June - apparently there's gonna be a sale between now and then for November flights.

Actually, that leads me into a nifty trick I discovered. Assuming you are flying on your own with BA, you can book any Premium Economy seat (whether it be a sale seat or a regular fully flexible seat) and for the small sum of 25,000 BA miles, you can upgrade to Club (Business) Class.

A Club Class seat costs approximately £3,000 for a return.

A Premium Economy seat costs about £1,000 for a return. (Both to Vegas)

25,000 BA miles? Well, members of BA Executive Club can buy 24,000 for £400. The remaining £1,000? Get £10 of Clubcard Vouchers or 2 stays at a Holiday Inn.

Simples!

OK my turn..

Who would have known that my drunken "one night stand" would have led to this back when this all began in 2008.

I blame poker... and those who introduced me to it, mainly Tikay and Snat.

Poker did a fantastic job of completely destroying my previous relationship, but good on it for bringing me this one.. soppy shit alert  He may be the complete opposite to me, sometimes grumpy, with overgrown facial hair. But i have never before felt so comfortable with someone, never felt so close to anyone, never had anyone understand me so well (it's a hard task, I don't even understand myself sometimes). Yes we have had our ups and downs and during the very early stages we went through things that would have tested even the strongest of relationships.. yet we survived.  I'm the happiest I've been in well...... ever!


Anyway whoever said buying a wedding dress was a difficult and stressful task really needs to come shopping with me!

July 09 - quick search of internetz see a pretty dress way above price range. think nothing more of it
Dec 10 - local wedding dress shop having a special designer day with the woman that designs the dress i like. 
Friday 14th Jan 1pm - find out the dress i saw online has been discontinued, begin to ring stockists to see if anyone has it.
Friday 14th Jan 3pm - find a stockist in Morecambe with it in my size
Saturday 15th Jan 12pm - arrive at wedding dress shop
Saturday 15th Jan 12:30pm - leave wedding dress shop having paid for dress - fits perfectly not a single alteration is needed.


SIMPLEZ

Congrats to you both  ;goodluck;

Congrats both! I went to a Vegas wedding about 15 months ago now, and it was properly awesome. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun.

Of course it did help that Button won the championship while we were out there, netting the groom (who happens to price up F1 for a spread betting company) about £20k. I think a fair chunk was spent at the poolside bar of the MGM Signature in the last couple of days.

GLGL.

i'm getting married this year to. trying to have nothing to do with planning it apart from the paying.

the betrothed thrust a wedding mag in my face today with an article thats says our venue is one of the coolest in the country, it frigin should be for that moeny!!!!!! gl alll getting married this year, i'd happily spend £200 in registry office somewhere.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii  Cat out of bag and soooooooooooooo looking forward to November!!!

Excellent this could be a great thread.


Would you say Joobie has shown you kindness, shown you beauty and shown you truth? ;)

I'm ignoring most of the 2011 new diaries but shall be watching this thread intently as I am also engaged and just starting to realise the financial enormity of the situation, please post any money saving tips you find along the way.

Do what MrsB and myself did. Small wedding at a townhall (We had 14 people total), pay for everyone's drinks and everyone's food (Proper meal etc, no cheap stuff) rather than invite 200 people, most of whom you don't know or don't like, to a shitty reception with a crap band and have them pay for their own drinks (WTF, is all that about? Inviting people and then saying "But you pay for your own drinks"...GTF!) . total cost approx £1200 :)

Have a meet with everyone you don't like, that would otherwise be invited to the reception because you happen to work with them, in the beer garden of a good pub or something like that.

Lovely news - congratulations!!! X

Have a greek style wedding mate. This is what happens at ours.. the bride and groom get up to do the first dance and everyone goes and pins money on them. After that + gifts etc, the wedding almost pays for itself.

(http://homebusinessopportunitiesuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Home-business-opportunities-uk-greek-wedding.jpg)

xx

Never one to miss a trick, eh?

I went to see a Greek stand up comedian once and he talked about Greek weddings, he said they were the reason most Greek blokes ended up with fat birds.

Greek birds >>>>>>>>>>english birds.

In weight?

Only kidding, I was paraphrasing a greek comedian after all (therefore making any racially insensitive comment perfectly ok), perhaps you could start a fit greek birds thread as I am trying to add a bit of variety into my tommy tanks. 

There are plenty of tips, but probably not the right thread for them imo.

Hi Adam, good luck with everything.

Whereabouts in Chester do you live?

You know you're on a poker forum when no-one picks up on this bit. Surely playing poker would be the last thing on your mind at this point!

He'll sure get to play this...let him dream for now.

lol that's why poker players should only marry other poker players - if the Venetian Deepstack isn't on - they will just find another tournament to play instead

I'll be stunned if they will find another tourney to play. Pokerplayer or not, no chance that Joobs will go for playing poker immediately after the wedding. Even if she doesn't know it yet and thinks that it does sound like a good idea ATM, or probably a "what the hell" idea, the closer they'll get to the day the less the idea will appeal.

I went to my friends wedding at Little chapel of flowers last year and it was suprisingly nice,Good luck with everthing and check your pms.

I got this offer from Groupon yesterday:

Today's deal: Celebrate The Big Day In Style with a Hotel Wedding Package including Full Hire for up to 70 guests with a Finger Buffet, Three-Course Dinner and a Luxurious Room for the Newly-Married Couple at The Brook New Bath Hotel, Derbyshire for £2,000 instead of £5,000

I didn't quite know what to make of an offer like that.

Ok haven't received invite to stag or hen night, Adam no Ann summers on stag night this time

Stunned, Boldie?

I'm loving this particular tangent...the whole poker playing on the day was HER feckin' idea!

Will do mate, and good luck with your own preparations.

Money saving tips so far...well Joobs decided she wanted a dress from 2009 that was discontinued - so the bridal shop reduced it by about 60%. £1200 to £500, nice.

i'm willing to bet that they've already consumated the relationship, so no need to put off the after wedding pokerz imo.  Also pretty sure that Joobs will want to play in her dress!

ldo

Awesome Sig Joobs. This thread is going to be interesting! :)up

Hell of an Omaha hand we had tonight Adam

Top set, you vs my top two, flush draw and gutshot straight. I hit it all on the turn. You rivered the house

What a game.

LOL, didn't realise it was you! Was a great hand.

[ x ] Sure used them well.

Have done, will send you a reply tonight at some point. Cheers.


I reckon Duke will be organising the Stag night - and that thought is actually terrifying me!

Spent some time recently planning the reception over here when we get back.

Believe it or not, take out the flights and this is the most expensive thing on the budget for said wedding. We plan to have an intimate meal with families mid-afternoon, then an evening do for friends and other relatives with some entertainment. Continuing with the gambling theme, the entertainment is going to be a DJ along with some fun casino tables for people to play on, and we're gonna offer some prizes for people who cash out the most at the end of the night. No matter what we do though, we're looking at £2,000+ it seems for this, which makes me laugh considering the whole Vegas trip for 2 weeks is coming in at £4k!

I suppose it doesn't help that we don't get back from Vegas/LA until 1st December...

Oh, some of you may have noticed that Joobs is offering a "Cocktail Masterclass for 6" in Leeds on her FB. Offers accepted by PM please. All monies go towards the wedding fund.

I'll let her explain that one in more detail ;)

The best wedding stories are the one where the groom gets stood up at the altar.

You can do it Joobs :)


Good luck to you both.

It was supposed to be a surprise!!!

oooh - Now I have a plan for this

Is the stag night just for the Lads or are the girlies going too?  Seeing as we're basically blokes with long hair anyway......

Part of the plan  ;whistle;

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii - I loves yer stag do's!!!  Lasted longer than the groom to be last time.   rotflmfao

And you'll probably outlast me. Just to inform all you lot - wedding will prob be around 9am-10am.

Just remember Duke, no booze for me and no hookers. Rest is fair game.

i suspect duke is gonna be feeling a bit out of his comfort zone with this one!

and is that no hookers for you, or no hookers full stop?

No hookers for me, ldo. Joobs would shoot me!

shoot you?... you'd consider yourself lucky if I only shot you! lol

I'll have ur hookers Adam!

I'm hoping to be in vegas in November around that time so hoping for an invite  ;whistle;

 ;gobsmacked;  Good god!  Yer trying to kill us!   ;surrender;

if the deepstacks are on they start at noon, we have to be ready to play them!

You can buy in to the deepstacks up until 2pm.

Typical - you're confident you will be in the November Nine so you don't start a staking thread.

Is the Wedding off?

That would be epic. Not as epic as Adam being stood up tho obv. Would make for a great thread.

lolz not yet...

nothing exciting happening at the moment we have an appointment at the uk venue next saturday to have a look round and do some serious haggling on price.

 The bit i'm looking forward to the most during the wedding planning, is choosing the cake!! I dragging adam round every wedding cake shop within a 20mile radius getting plenty of samples... then probably get a friend to bake it a a fraction of the cost :D

joobs, get a picture of what you want and I'll get my father in law to give you a good price.

as long as i get to spend at least 2 weekends tasting i don't mind.... note to self must go on pre wedding diet afterwards.

Could be arranged

Nicky  might even show the two of yuo round the palace

Cheers mate, and congrats on the little'un. Hope everything's good there!

Sorry it took so long to reply, this got caught up in the hoopla about playing poker on the day itself and I managed to miss it until now...

We live in Hoole, pretty much next door to Chester Train Station. Useful for work and getting into the city itself - useless when we want to sleep and all we hear are sirens...

The Rings

So far everything we've planned has gone pretty much like this " yep nice.. we'll have it"  wedding planning is starting to seem ridic easy. But we thought with something this important we would take our time... shop around and find the perfect rings.

We (I) want matching rings.. I say matching, not 100% matching but along the same theme. I drag Adam into a Jewellers on a whim, see the ring I want, try it on and it looks perfect (although my fingers swelled in the 5mins from arriving in the shop and putting the ring on, cue 15mins of frantic yanking, pulling and twisting with a nervous shop assistant watching my every move)  There was a matching one for Adam too and looks nice, fits his bony fingers no stickage there, thank god. 

Now we (I) have a dilemma..

we (I) want those rings, and are totally uninterested in shopping round (it's only £50 over budget and I was £100 under with the dress so all good) we (I)  just want that one. But I'm pretty sure we can't just keep going like this wedding planning has to get hard at some point right?? 

What Joobs has forgotten to mention is that we would have put the deposit down on them there and then...if I hadn't already drained the account for my suit and the rest of it is in a savings account. Oops.

I think we'll be getting them though. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop on this whole "wedding planning is a nightmare" saying now.

nope - breezed through mine.  if you're pretty laid back and not high maintenance no reason it should get tricky - you'll be fine :)

Yep totally.  I think it really totally depends on how laidback you both are but if the girl doesn't have a princess fantasy and isn't ridic high maintenance (and Joobs doesn't seem that way at all) then it doesn't have to be a headache.  If there are a couple of things that you definitely want to happen then focus on them and then just let the other stuff sort itself out but most of all relax and enjoy it.  It really is the best day of your life.

Marriages not my strong point - do you have to do anything specific to arrange the wedding in Vegas aside from finding a venue?
What documentation do you need?  Do you have to register it here? etc etc

Best of luck to you both.

not a clue.. Adam is sorting it, not sure how wise an idea that is but heyho :)

I can answer this one.  It's dead easy - all you have to do is grab a marriage licence once you're out in vegas, and you're good to go.  no need to do anything legal this side.

Get the licence over there - need your passport and both to appear in person. Cost is $60.

Many thanks, seems a shame she has to come with me but it will stop her stalking Matt Goss for at least one afternoon I guess.

Oi Joobs!  Are we doing a hen night thingy or just one big group session?  And if we're doing a hen night, ummmm....what aren't we allowed to do?

I'm torn between Vegas hen night and UK hen night. Not sure yet but surely piss-ups don't take that long to plan so no rush.

Oh BTW  hen and stag nights will not be the night before the wedding for a few reasons:

1. I don't want to look and feel minging on the big day.
2. It would be nice for the guests to actually be up in time for the wedding.
3. I get the feeling I might need to have time to collect Adam from wherever he was shipped to after being rammed in the back of a transit or something.

So if i have a Vegas hen night it will be the night before the night before. oh and unlike Adam anything goes (anything legal that is)

I think you should have banned tea pots.

Really? He's in to some dodgy stuff then.


I obv know you didn't say this but it would have been funnier

Yeah now Hoole well, live in Upton now, over the bridge, through Newton.

PS, at the countess theres a guys name on the sign as you walk in, John Sharples, any relation?!

Definitely no relation of mine! And I used to work there...

Can we come to this one instead then  :dontask:

Time for something that has nothing to do with weddings. Music.

Joobs and I decided that we would copy use Claw's idea of posting youtube vids of our favourite artists/bands. 2 for me, 2 for Joobs and 2 that we both like. See if you can work out which is which. Let's start with A...

Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi_GN1pHCVc

A-Ha - Take On Me
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXxMlIExpo

Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwf2qt6BJAQ

Anthrax - Got The Time
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be7iNHw8QoQ

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLrnkK2YEcE

Apollo 440 - Stop The Rock
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4Usj3hHNc

And a bonus - see if you can figure out the book/tv mini series this song is based on:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcXSj8QeL70

erm.... no :P

Gonna see Avenged Svenfold in the summer - not sure what I am getting myself into.

Thought the Anthrax song was about Randall Flagg?  Has The Stand or one of the other books he pops up in been a Mini Series? 

Avalances, top band once again promises of a new album in 2011, but hey they said that about 2010, 09, 08, 07  . . . .

Head banger stuff is Joobs.  Odd stuff is Adam.  Will go with Avril and/or A-Ha as the ones you both like.

PS  You said 2 for you, two for her and two for the pair of ya...but there's 7 songs there.  Sort yer shit out man!

I said 6 artists/bands. Learn to count!!

went to have a look at a UK venue yesterday, but can't book it...

not because we're not sure it's right coz it's perfect for what we want. But because of the dimwitted wedding planner the venue have employed...

brains of a carrot!!

I'll explain more after I've been knocked out the team event this afternoon.

fyp :) glglgl

Until Sharp posts his favourite DT vid I'm ignoring this thread.

That'll come when I get to "D".

I'm having to choose between The Mirror, Panic Attack and The Root of all Evil though.

That avenged sevenfold song is the one I was going to use for your first set of RSQ questions.

Still fuming at this woman's lack of sense, I have a string of emails offering certain things and now she is saying we can't have it at the price she quoted and wants and extra £500. I'll post more once i've calmed down but we are on the hunt for another cheap venue..... unless my chat with this bints manager proves sucessful.

 :)up

This union has my blessing, you may continue. :)

 ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave;

congrats to both of ya  ;applause; ;applause; ;applause;

Sigh, not going to get to D in the music list any time soon, are ya?

Will do eventually, Boldie.

Venues are coming along. Doesn't look like it's gonna be the original one we planned now as a rival Holiday Inn in Chester has offered us 2 suites plus everything we need for £1200. Joobs is gonna call them on Weds to get a final quote and if we like it, holiday booked!

Sadly, nowhere will consider us for a Saturday reception (without charging £4k+!), so the reception has been moved to SUNDAY 4TH DECEMBER 2011.

Venue choosing is a pain in the ass. That is all.

Back to the music I think...A's went as follows:

Avenged Sevenfold + Anthrax - both
Avril + Apollo 440 - Me
A-HA + Avalanches - Joobs.

B's to come tonight.

Bullet For My Valentine - Waking The Demon
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pthqce7HUKQ

Breed 77 - La Ultima Hora
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTlLHORbMPM

Black Lace - Music Man
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5aqrccEVz8

Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiHefsYBnnE

Berzerker - Last Mistake
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5NTR5dgvwo

Beautiful South - Rotterdam
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onKrpUeocUk

Objection. Suite Life.

????

stop posting on this board during RSQs then

I never thought i'd see anyone who I thought was a worse QM than sharplea...

And I still haven't.

*cough*delboy*cough*

Not long to wait...

Again. RSQ question setting should take precedent over any forum posting.

Got a wedding Q for everyone.

My missus is mad keen for there to be NO CHILDREN at our wedding, after we went to a wedding where this little sod angel decided to go and stand in the middle of the bride and groom and start screaming during key moments. This suits me, but the problem is most of my mates have just had kids and the wedding will be in Norfolk, not Sheffield, where I am from, so I think its a bit cheeky to ask them to travel and get babysitters. I reckon the happier medium would be to find some way of distracting the kids during the ceremony (she is fine for kids at the reception, just the magical moment where I make her a Shoelace she wants to be be interrupted) - any suggestions? Should we get a clown or someink? Do they do mobile creches?

Why would the parents of any children going to the wedding allow their child to disrupt a wedding?

I have no idea mate, but I have been to four now where there has either been a baby screaming or a toddler running up and down while the parents just idly sit there with an embarrassed "theres nothing I can do" look on their face.

Obv, not being a parent myself, I don't actually have an opinion on this...but

Just say "No Kids" the parents will probably love you for it as it means they can enjoy a day without kids.

Grrr, me too, so annoying, there is something they can do though. Take them outside for 2 mins!

Although, what Boldie just said would be better for the parents etc.

Dont think thats feasibly possible as Barry says that wedding is prob gonna be an overnighter for all persons involved.

Also, at what age do you define "kids". I know I wouldn't want babies/toddlers...but wouldnt care about 10yr olds. A family member issued a blanket "no kids" for their wedding a few years back - kids included me FFS and I was at university at the time!

10 year olds are fine, I think its literally when they are at an age where they can ruin the ceremony is what we are looking at, so probably 0-5.

Most of my mates will be ok with the no kids policy, and as boldie says some will love it, but I have a couple of mates I reckon will find it expensive to travel, stay overnight and get a babysitter and one friend who will probably look at us like we are pure evil for suggesting her lovely littlebabywabycoochycoochycoosnuggywuggypuggybuggybabywabyprincess cant come. 

You're about to get into the car to go shopping for the day just as some plonker parks his car right in front of your driveway....blocking you in.  Don't know about you, but I'm going to ask him to please move his car.  

So on a big day like your wedding, why would you be worried about stating 'no children at the ceremony' on your invitations when you know there's a chance they'll ruin it?

Slight difference really, the first one is really ignorant and the other is a perfectly acceptable thing for my friends to be able to expect. My only real concern is that I'm asking my mates to travel quite a distance and fork out for a hotel overnight, so I think it will make it really awkward/pricier for them to also have to arrange a baby sitter.

Im not scared to tell them, if we cant think of an adequate way of isolating and distracting the babys during the ceremony we will simply be saying NO BABIES, I just dont want to have to make it a pain for them to come if I can help it.

Wedding in Kings Lynn Barry ?

Looking that way yes, Gina has been looking for some fancy venues around Norfolk in general (including a windmill) but recently has started to gravitate towards Kings Lynn town hall. The pictures look good, she is going to view it next week properly - she likely to be disappointed?

Ah ok.  In that case might be no harm to contact the venue where you've booked the wedding.  They may have details of qualified locals/business contacts who can help you out by setting up a sort of creche/play room at the venue with their staff.  

Qualified child care workers obv the key.  Not sure what the ratio is over there, but I know it was 1 adult to 3 infants and 1 adult to 8 pre-school children over here.  

Also, I'd be weary of bringing in some sort of clown or whatever.  As it is, the wee ones aren't going to be thrilled about an hour or two with strangers.  A clown could proper scare some of them if they haven't a parent with them.

I've never been inside mate , so i couldn't say. Nakor is probably better suited than myself to give advice.Send him a PM, i'm sure he could give you some worthwhile advice/recommendations.

I luckily got married in a hotel which didn't allow children to stay or even let them in  :D

Guests will surely take out kids who are screaming/crying.

Maybe get your best man to have a quiet word with parents about leaving with them ASAP, and to sit at the back near the door!?

To be honest I wouldn't worry too much, its a special day just relax and enjoy.

I don't have kids but isn't this what grandparents are for?

my sister paid one of the staff from her daughter's nursery to look after the kids at her wedding. worked well as most of the kids already knew her and kept me happy as she was really quite cute

Just married, November 24th just Gone.
Stag Do - Vegas
Wedding/Honeymoon - Mauritius
Reception - England
Price tag - redonculous.

Glad to see you've managed to save some bucks, thanks for the buying air miles tip. Will defo use that next time i go away. Not really an expert on advice for wedding planning as I did nothing but neck my cocktail and climb out of the pool 45 mins before i was due to get wed. I would say get a professional photographer (chapel might include them?) as you dont want your only pics of the big day to be taken by family/friends etc just showing your missus' pom poms or random back of head shots. Also maybe prepare some words, my registrar started ad libbing and saying stuff like "so tell me Dave, how does Donna make you feel", "why is she the one for you?" I was not expecting this and didn't really give a well thought heart felt response. actual response = "ermmmm she's alright" so just in case you get put in the same situation.

post wedding advice:

If your missus suddenly gets all moody, hopefully its not an indication of how the rest of ya life will be, apparently a large % of women get post wedding blues. Keep an eye out.
Never go to bed angry.

I have always hated weddings, have been best man 4 times and even turned a 5th offer down. Was not looking forward to my own remotely but i had a great day and really enjoyed it. Sure it will be the same for you. Unless you actually already like weddings...

Hope both of you have a great time. Great thread!

If Carlsberg did arrivals....

(http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/cia260895/scan0005-1.jpg)

FYP

Had to get to the airport somehow m8 :)

And a motorbike doesn't get you  there?

Silly sod ;)

I've done a bit of research on this for you, 99% of venues will happily provide a room near the ceremony for you to organise a creche, although according to the wedding coordinator I saw today, for insurance reasons you have to provide your own childminder. 

The Venue - UK - sorry it's a long one.

Looks like I've finally found the hard part of wedding planning, certain considerations have to be made, size, location, facilities, accommodation, cost and the menu. These things are simple enough. My opinion is if people really want to come and celebrate our wedding then they will put up with our choices, if they're not prepared to then they don't matter. So I wasn't really anticipating any trouble with this.... How wrong I was!!

I'll start from the beginning

While staying overnight at the Holiday Inn Coventry over Xmas, we noticed some advertising for the £1000 wedding, this is everything you need for a wedding all for £1000, awesome! especially as we are on a tight budget for this and was about to ditch the whole idea.
 
So after seeing that deal I call a local Holiday inn asking if they do something similar. I speak to the wedding coordinator (this woman is def more than a few sandwiches short of a picnic). Her first email quote after I enquire about the £1000 wedding was......  £2875. Cue a sarcastic email response and back to the drawing board...

or so I thought.

She emailed me back about 2 weeks later saying she could do the date we wanted for £1500, OK a little over budget but the venue itself was perfect in size and location, the menu was a bit shit but hey I'm willing to compromise, so we set an appointment.

Stupidly we booked the appointment for the APAT team event weekend so were limited to the time we could spend with the dippy cow. After rejigging what we wanted we finally came to agree a figure of £1200 for everything... Now if I had had the time I would have booked and confirmed it there and then, but in a rush I asked her to confirm everything via email and we would book on the Monday.

When the email came through she has added an extra £500 room fee that we were not aware of, AND that price wasn't available for the Saturday night saying she was never aware of the dates we wanted and could have told us a long time ago a Saturday in December was out of bounds!  REALLY???  3 quotes via email say otherwise! Basically I told her to stuff it and the search went on.


After 3 or 4 more run ins with hotel wedding coordinators (they must employ any old sod for that role, none of them actually listen to what you tell them) I have a choice between 2 venues both coming in around £1200 for everything.

One is nearer town but the rooms aren't quite right, ridic small bar area and public access running right through the middle of the 2 conference rooms we would book. The second is a lot further out of town, but the room is perfect there are gardens for pictures it's own private entrance and plenty of room for everything we want, AND the wedding coordinator actually knows what she is talking about, unlike the others she hasn't peroxided her brain into a dribbling stupor!

As I said in the beginning I believe the people that matter will turn up no matter where we hold the reception but some of the more local ones are complaining already lol  

We have a second viewing booked tomorrow as Adam is yet to see this place fingers crossed he agrees that it is perfect.

UK venue.....   DONE!

next step is vegas wedding chapel followed closely by the invitations.

FYP ;)

Forget all that.

Next step has been the US Hotels. These are now planned and getting ready to be booked. Settled on the following:

Bally's for 3-4 nights dependent on when we arrive. Check out Sunday 20th. Move to Venetian for wedding days. Check out of Venetian on Wednesday 23rd. Move off-strip to a highly recommended Gold Coast. This is actually booked already - $300 for 5 nights including the weekend. Bargain! We're then flying to LA on Monday 28th.

Just catching up with the thread...

Are you all loons? Maybe its just greek culture but I think its terrible to say no kids.

I'd allow kids too, but different strokes for different folks.

I agree, the biggest celebration of family in your life, yet you disqualify a possible large proportion of your family.

seems more than a little hypocritical to me, but as Laxie says, different strokes and all that

Different strokes as everyone says.

Just for clarity, the no kids thing is for the ceremony only. Personally I don't mind but as I previously said I have managed to take Gina to four weddings where the ceremony was interrupted by babies or children (one outright ruined imo) and the parents involved appeared to do very little to stop them. Realistically thats probably a very small sample and a bit of bad baby wedding variance, but it was enough to worry her about kids, and although I dont mind much myself, I can see where she is coming from.

As for the biggest celebration of family, I think thats true again in most cases but both Gina & I are not from exceptionally close extended families (There are actually more 'family friends' I consider like my own family than blood relatives) and most of our extended family are a bit older/dont have young children, so I guess we are not used to being around babies & toddlers as many of you will be.

That would be my point of view as well, but I do see where the argument comes from - and it's really more to do with the parents than the kids.

Generally if parents have raised their children to behave when they're meant to, then they won't disrupt the service. Obviously that won't apply to babies and the occasional tantramic outburst from a toddler - but if they took it upon themselves to just take them outside to cry or calm down then it wouldn't cause much disruption. It's the parents who think the rights of their child are so much more important than the rights of anyone else that I think was the issue.

To give you an idea of what happened when the one kids ruined the wedding, it was a lovely little ceremony in this small cosy room in a big country house. Everyone was much closer to the bride & groom (all stood up) so I guess this in itself carried a risk.

Right at the point where they were saying their vows, this little girl (about 4 or 5 I think) walked up to them both and started talking to the bride as she was reciting the vows, she then went and stood between them both and started screaming the brides name to get her attention, then started playing around with the brides dress and waving it around.

The kids parents did NOTHING and the ceremony continued. The bride thought it was hilarious because she loves kids, the groom, my mate, looked like he was about to go on a killing spree. Everyone of the guests were horrified.

Now thats just one instance of course, if I am being realistic I would say it wouldn't happen 99% of the time, if I had a wedding once a week I would say just deal with it. But you only get married once (hopefully) and as neither of us have any babies in our immediate/close family and we are not exceptionally close with our extended family, I think its ok for her to be a bit diva over this.

I am pushing hard for our invites to say 'No children please, dogs welcome'

rotflmfao  Is it wrong that I proper laughed there?

tbh i'd ban animals too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNFoPB9fFQA

Bally's also booked.

Gonna try Priceline for Venetian, so not booking that until after the flights are booked as that has to be paid upfront with no refunds. I can cancel the other two if plans change.

wedding ceremony booked!

Damaged the phone bill slightly when i decided to call them and ask a few questions.

I have added a "first look" service, which basically means Adam will arrive before me so that the first time he sees me all dolled up is as i walk down the aisle.

I did LOL when the lady on the phone explained that the groom will be "kept safe" until i arrive, apparently grooms like to pace a lot and they have a special room for them.  In my mind I saw a little broom cupboard with a couple of treadmills. The American chick didn't find it quite so funny... oh well.

On my wedding invites it said "no crap parents"

So...

Everything is running smoothly, everything is either booked or we know what we are going to do and what supplier we are using. except the invites but I'm looking into that. The budgeting is coming on grand too we are currently £500 under budget and have 1/3 of what we need (including a Vegas bankroll) saved!

Anyway, Adam has come up with a poker challenge for us. 1. to give us something to do when we can't afford to go out. 2. It will keep me focused and stop me blowing all my money on Stars. 3. we may actually be successful and make some money to put towards the wedding. and 4. coz we like a bit of healthy competition.

The challenge

It's a simple one, first to $1000 or the most profit by November. I have a small head start mainly because of my working hours and the tournaments i will be playing mean that I can only really play at weekends.

Starting Bankrolls

Adam - $50
Julie - $140

The games

Adam - 25c 90man sngs
Julie - $1.40 90man knockouts


the following bankroll rules apply, must have over 100 buyins for the next level up to move up and if you go under 75 buyins you must move down (unless you can't ldo)

max 6 tables at any one time no less than 3.

and obv we have a prop bet for this unfortunately the nature of which cannot be discussed on a 'family' forum lets just say it's wedding night related.

on Sky Poker yes?

Marvellous, good luck both

Get liquidity for MMTSNGs and I'm straight over there.

Joobs is trying to spin up as much as possible though. On Sky obv.

reminder pls

Wedding day is 21-11-11

when do you go home?

Some details of that challenge are slightly wrong.

I have $25 and I can reload once. Joobs can't. If she goes busto then no more online pokerz until after Vegas.

Also need 75bi for the above level to take a shot or two. Any games 45 - 180man valid. 

Arrive back in the uk on 1st december and the wedding reception is on the 4th.  why? you planning to burgle our house or somrthing? ;)

ok thanks

Interesting  ;)

Bump to keep on first page.

That and Joobs did her first ever update this weekend...

Well all these plans just went out the window as my agency informed me today that BT won't be extending any agency contracts past March 31. Lovely.

Sigh :(

3 weeks to look and find summet else mate!!

been looking for the last couple of months...

 we have to make it happen now!  I'll find a way even if I have to pimp him out to raise the funds ;)

You can find something mate - gl!

How is the poker challenge going?

Not played much as have had one day off since last post pre-updates and have Julie's mum visiting this weekend. I'm slightly up, Joobs is slightly down.

Just spent the weekend with my mum, she came up to see the dress and generally spend some time together ( only get to see each other a few times a year) she has come up with an interesting proposition and I have until Saturday to let her know our response.

She knows we are struggling to raise funds and really does mean well but I'm not sure I can take her up on the offer.

Basically she has said that if we have the wedding in the UK then go to Vegas afterwards she will give us the £2k she was planning to spend on her trip out there. This is a very generous offer and not to be sniffed at... BUT will we regret not having a Vegas wedding? and then having to worry about all the stuff we were avoiding by having a wedding abroad i.e. who we cut from the day ceremony and the whole bad parent / child thing?  And how far would £2k go when we have to expand the day do from 25 guests to 40 then having to add in the ceremony, photographer and flowers etc?

thought I'd see what everyone else thinks before I let her know on Saturday.

whatever you do Joobs make sure it what you and Adam want, don't worry about anyone else.  it's your day, and it's once in a lifetime.

^^^Very much this^^^

I know, but a parental cash injection could mean the difference between being Miss Holness or Mrs Sharples  at the moment.  got a few days to decide yet.

As you guys seem a bit quirky why not have a unique double barreled sirname?

Mrs Sharp-ness sounds cool.

Or Mrs Hol-es.

Fyp

As money is tight, and as the offer is important I would forget all the "you've only got one shot, its your day" stuff and accept gladly, and put it to use for a UK wedding within that budget and do Vegas after

Not sure £2k will do all of photographer, car, venue for recpetion etc but you can work all that out before you make a final decision

Vegas would be great, but circumstances have changed, right?

We've decided to do Vegas.

It's mine and Julie's dream wedding so we're going to do it.

Don't ask me how, but we will.

The £2,000 just doesn't save us anything either way. What we're saving by having the wedding in the UK all goes on the extra costs of having said wedding in the UK. The budget would just go up by about £1,500.

What's that you say?

Vdara?

3 nights including a Sunday?

£158 including taxes?

Sold!

(Pity I have to add $60 for resort fees, but who cares?)

Getting that deal helped as it has drastically reduced the budget for the main wedding nights. I'd promised Joobs a 5* hotel for those 3 nights (Sun 20, Mon 21 and Tue 22 Nov) and was expecting to pay about $400 + resort fees so to get that for about $250 will do me.

Especially as I still haven't found another job...although I do have interviews next week and hopefully will get one of those.

Good luck for the interviews. On a roll.

glgl

very much this

Gl adam.

How's your poker grinds going?

Ever considered a staking site for like 50/1 hold em? Might be a good way to earn some cash for the trip at 0 risk while you're not working.

Gl with the interviews.

Poker grinds not going so well. Working all the hours under the sun to try and get as much money in before end of contract.

Staking sites won't take me. No history because all I ever did was flit between games.

There are defo one or two sites who would be willing to take you on if you did a teamviewer/voice session with a coach and they were happy with your play. If it is something that interests you, pm me and I'll try and get you a trial set up.

My Challenge update, it's taken me a while to get used to the 90 man knockouts, they play very similar to my beloved 45man sngs, but there are slight differences, it was starting to get me down that I wasn't doing as well as I had before, but i'm begining to make progress.

Starting bankroll: $140
Tourneys played: 34 KO's + 7 $1.20 45mans
Cashed in: 6 KO's + 1 45er
Bounties taken: 38

Current Bankroll: $170.84

$'s till target: $829.16  that's another 481 tournaments at my current win rate lol

i can do something on stars and/or tilt if your intrested

I do keep meaning to reply to this but yet it's hard to explain.

I've been officially staked (and by that I mean long-term) twice. Once by badbeat for cash and once on here for sngs when the blonde cardroom was open. Both times it hasn't ended well. I've been up at the end but it just hasn't worked. Mainly because I always seem to struggle to get the volume in although the sng one was because I was ill.

Playing the 25c tourneys has made me realise that I could never be a sng grinder. It does my absolute nuts in. So I'm not really playing at the moment although I do get bored sometimes and fire up a few 2NL FR tables on tilt for my "poker fix".

On top of that Joobs doesn't like the thought of me getting staked FT cos she thinks I'll never look for a proper job. So I'm prob not gonna go down that route yet but thanks for the offers of help guys. I might have a look at it if things don't get better in the next 2 months...and hopefully then I'll have a decent set of HH to show as well.

Oh, and emergency wisdom tooth extractions suck donkey balls.

sigh this is so true for me

i prefer to spend 8 hours pokering rather then look for a job



good luck with the job hunt

Our last batch of Clubcard points are due in the next 2 weeks which means we will then have enough airmiles to book our flights and upgrades YAY!!!

Me being me I don't deal well with having to wait doubt you're suprised by that lol

So... I decided to call the nice people at tesco beg plead and flirt a little to try and get them to release the points early. 20mins and 3 calls later we have our points converted to airmile and just have to wait 48hrs for them to clear.

Just checked now and they are there ready to book. Only problem is that I have a sleepy Adam with tooth ache to try and wake up - trust me this isn't going to go well!

seems that isn't such a hard task when you mention that there is now £2500 in his bank account lol

Flights booked.

Hotels booked.

Spending money...not so booked. Ah well.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Getting there and having a place to kip is half the battle sorted.  The spending money will be easier to focus on now that the rest isn't hanging over yer head. 

Tell me about it.

Travel Insurance - done. Flights - done. Hotels - done. Wedding Dress - done. Suit - done. UK Venue - booked but need to pay for. Same with UK entertainment. Next on the list prob - buy the rings.

Haribo Starmix Jellyrings FTW

pokerz update, not getting a chance to play at all during the week, far too much going on a work at the moment. so here's the progress after this weekends pokerage.

Starting bankroll: $140
Tourneys played: 49 KO's + 7 $1.20 45mans
Cashed in: 8 KO's + 1 45er
Bounties taken: 50

Current Bankroll: $183.96

$'s till target: $816.04

Just got a great birthday present.

A job.

Explain later as on my phone atm.

That's BRILLIANT news!!!  Delighted for ya!!!

 ;mexicanwave; ;applause; ;applause; ;applause; ;mexicanwave;

Bink!

Well done!

Full steam ahead for Vegas then...

awesome, nice going :)

Brilliant Adam, well deserved.

I must not add a word into Adam's post

I must not add a word into Adam's post

I must not add a word into Adam's post

I must not add a word into Adam's post

I must not add a word into Adam's post

Congrats Sharples ;)

well it is his birthday.....

 rotflmfao  Never in doubt

congrats

gratz

To further explain...

I've basically been offered my old job back. The management at BT have decided that the office can't run without us lowly agency guys, so have brought back the whole team on another 2-3 month contract.

Start Tuesday...

Just found our ceremony details on the chapel's website...  it makes everything seem a lot more real (pooping pants already)


http://plan.littlechapel.com/Guests/Default.aspx?PlanID=839260 (http://plan.littlechapel.com/Guests/Default.aspx?PlanID=839260)

spent this afternoon looking at youtube videos of vegas rollercoasters to decide which ones I want to go on (def not the x scream at the stratosphere)

I found this video which made me lol

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQzQYFYfy8

http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/76785/

This is awesome. Helllo Vegas!!

180 odd days to go, almost everything is planned, although there is still 1 minor (so may say major) part of the ceremony I haven't sorted out... And at this rate it isn't going to get sorted.

The music I walk down the Aisle to... all I know is it definitely isn't going to be "here's comes the bride all fat and wide" and I'm not a fan of panpipes or harps which is all the chapel is offering unless I take my own CD.

Adam has already said no to this

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cEZSVyNDy8

so I'm after some more sensible suggestions..... anyone?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMfrLFirGWc.

I will give you what i was going to have

Here, there and everywhere, The Beatles (either with or without vocals) - but id go with - lyrics are incred

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ImZTwYwCug



Sorry, it had to be done

another suggested Beatles song.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_XG_YlTPPQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reIDepQzVJY

norrr - i'm saving that for if i ever find another mug to marry me :)

the steel drum version they used for Phoebe's wedding on Friends was really nice

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAM_LX440T0

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqJVR6zz3lk

obv

not 100% sold on the music def better then here comes the bride....

but i now want joey to be our minister

think you're getting the walking down the aisle music mixed up with the first dance music!!!

;frustrated; ;frustrated; ;frustrated;

lol - i just came back to post this

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb9GVPf5Nbc

this but with andrewt singing it

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDHLxEgBLow

like this?

exactly like that

If you wish to hire me to sing at the wedding my rates are very reasonable.

actually we could use your services


at the end of the night when it's time for evryone to leave

OK...this is a blog and yet I never post in it. Useful, that. Joobs has been bugging me to post in here for ages, but I've always never got round to it.

Sleep is under-rated ;)



Anyway, back to life.

Last time I posted properly in here was my birthday and I'd just got my job back. A job that I no longer have. Yeah, things have changed a lot up here in Chester. We've had to invest in noise-cancelling headphones for the arrival of Laxie to UK borders actually got most of the planning done, scarily.

Dress, check.
Suit, check.
Vegas Venue, check.
Flights, check.
Hotels, check. Ish. We still haven't decided where to spend the last 2 days.
UK Venue, check.
UK Entertainment, check.
Travel Insurance, check.
Cattery, pretty much check. I'm leaving that one up to Joobs.
Arrangements to get to London before/after flights, check. Well, they will be when they release the train tickets, but I have that day marked on the calendar.
London hotel the night before. Not done yet, but am keeping my eye out for decent deals.

I'm probably missing a few things there, oh yeah.

RINGS. (of the wedding variety, you bunch of pervs.)

Bought. They've arrived as well so now all I have to do is make sure they fit (I have a weird ring size cos I have a really slim finger but massive knuckle, and to add to that I want a wedding ring that doesn't slip up and down my finger lol!) and then they can be put aside for the wedding. They should have cost over £400 but Joobs and I managed to get them for about £380 and also got something thrown in for her engagement ring, think its some sort of replating. I'm sure she'll chime in and explain in more detail.

I never really explained the flights properly...or the hotels, or my working status...fuck, I'm gonna be here all night. Here goes...

Flights:

We're flying with BA direct from London Heathrow to Las Vegas. We're then flying back from Los Angeles to London Heathrow.

Er, what?

To cut a long boring story short, we unanimously (and I mean I decided and Joobs agreed after I explained) decided that after a lovely 10hr flight back from the West Coast of America in a metallic tube with recycled farts for air we want to chill, have a shower, and freshen up before the 2 and a half hr train journey back to Chester. To do this, we need to gain access to the Arrivals Lounge. That's easy, we are flying Club World (business class) so sorted.

Or at least we were until I noticed that the Arrivals Lounge closes at 2pm in Heathrow. It's more of a breakfast lounge, and the Vegas flight lands at about half 2. So we decided to fly back from LA as that plane lands at about 11am. Sorted. Now all we have to do is get to LA from Vegas, and that equals...ROAD TRIP.

The flights cost about £2400, I can't remember how much exactly cos I fail. As Joobs is pretty nervous, I also shelled out £160 to reserve 2 seats, 64A and 64B. On this plane: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/British_Airways/British_Airways_Boeing_747-400_B.php Yep, that's 2 seats in the private 20 seater deck upstairs. It's also accepted that 64A is one of, if not the best seat in that class of travel on that plane.

I let Joobs have that one.

Hotels:

Start off at Bally's. Decided as all I need for a hotel is somewhere to do the 4 S's lol, I didn't want to shell out for a hotel AND resort fees. So that left me with a choice of CET (Harrah's etc) or...CET. Awesome. Bally's it is then, decent location, decent prices and hopefully a decent upgrade for $20. Originally I was gonna just choose 2 hotels and kill a week at each, but Joobs wanted a 5 star hotel for the wedding. I said ok as long as we could go off strip for a bit as well as I'm into "old Vegas" and the stuff that's not just the Strip. That and I was watching the budget!So we compromised. 3 nights in a 5 star hotel then 5 nights in the Gold Coast. Leaves 2 nights afterwards for wherever we decide to go. Then I place a cheeky bid of £45 plus tax for a 5 star hotel on the Strip on Priceline and get the Vdara. For less than the cost of a Holiday Inn per night.

Get. The. Fuck. In.

Job:

I don't work for BT any more. Thank god for that.

I was happily plodding along in my office when a recruitment agency phoned and asked me if I was interested in a Legal Secretary role. Does a bear defecate in the woods? I've been looking to get into Legal work for years. Law is one of my first loves, whether it be the Courts, the Police, Conveyancing, anything. The one thing that has been stopping me get into it though is that...I don't have any experience. Typical. Legal Secretary roles are like Travel roles, an absolute nightmare to get into.

Anyway, the agency say to me that their client are looking for an immediate start. OK, not an issue, despite me having a job already. I'd told Hays when I returned that of something better came up, consider this my notice and Hays agreed. So I was working under notice pretty much from the start, but the speed here was ridiculous. I sent my CV to the agency to send to the client on Monday at 3.25pm. At 5.15pm that evening, the agency asked me to go for an interview the next day. I did, that interview was at 1.30pm Tuesday.

I started at 9am Wednesday morning on a temp-to-perm contract.

A temp-to-perm contract is basically what I would say an extended probation, but more beneficial to the employer. They don't have to give notice, all they have to do is tell the agency that they are terminating the assignment. They don't have to spend the man hours looking for the employee as that's what they pay the agency for etc.

So I now work as a Legal Secretary in Conveyancing for Redrow Homes at their HQ in Ewloe, Deeside.

It pays a bit less now, as I work for the agency still rather than Redrow and they only pay £7ph whereas I was on £7.94ph at BT, but if I get the job full-time (and I really hope I do) then it's a rise as I believe the role is £16,000 a year. So yeah, I've been working my ass off there for 2 and a half weeks now and I'm loving it. It's the first job I've had in a LONG time that I actually want to get out of bed for, and that I feel proud of doing which is more important to me than money, despite needing to find about £6k between now and November.

Got 5 months and 25 days to do it though...

Congrats on the new job!!!  Will keep fingers crossed for ya that they give ya the full perma gig. 

And don't worry about sound barriers.  I've gone a bit quiet,  HONEST!

We're still arguing about the music

I suggested this... one of my favourite songs

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xf-Lesrkuc


Adam pulled a face like he was just fed the cat's earwax and suggested this..

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2wcqRWbdHs

yep still throttling him now!!

We had this.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCom4PuAHI

At least he didn't suggest this: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d040ZmuUV5k

My friend's missus went nuts when we suggested it  :dontask:

ok this is taking the piss now! we still can't decide on a song for me to walk down the aisle to! looks like i will be stuck with here comes the bride all fat and wide ( which is probably going to be true if i don't stop eating crap)

but i have started planing one of the more important details of any wedding


the hen night!!

i've booked a long weekend off work so it's going to be the last weekend in October, which gives me nearly 3 weeks to recover before the wedding (and i imagine i'm gonna need it)

only other details i'm sure of is that it's going to involve lots of booze and probably karaoke and maybe strippers :)

and i'm looking at either Bristol or Cardiff as suitable locations to host such an event
 

i can do both....bristol/cardiff or stripper

Don't care where...ya know I'm there!!!  x

Joobs has decided on a nice little village near Killarney...... ;-)

rotflmfao  Yeah...good luck with that.  Let me know how ye get on.

We've designed our invites, so they should be ready to go out in a couple of weeks.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

I have finally decided what i'm walking down the aisle to, i'm going to keep it a secret but all i will say is that it's by these guys.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fM3ylFs3hs

Slight hitch in plans.

Well, I say slight, it might be a big hitch fairly soon.

I no longer have a job. Redrow decided that they weren't going to take me on permanently after some absolutely diabolical proceedings, and something which has really knocked my confidence in temporary work and agencies.

What happened? Let's go back to Monday 13th June 2011. As many of you know, I was quite ill through 2009 with a rather nasty stomach complaint. Occasionally I get flares of this and it so happened that I had a flare up that morning. Phone my agency and they say "fine, let us know when you get better". I have the Monday & Tuesday off and am back in work Wednesday morning. Simples.

Or so I thought.

Sunday night (June 19th) I'm walking to the local Chinese for dinner with Joobs when I feel a twinge in my upper right gum. I'd been to the dentist and told I had to have some teeth removed before I started my new job. Appointments were made for the beginning of June but had to be re-arranged as in Conveyancing, Year End is June. So I'd rearranged them for July. Unfortunately, my teeth weren't agreeing with that and had made their displeasure known in work a few times before this. Half an hour later and I'm in agony. A double dose of Ibuprofen and Paracetamol is about as useful as a chocolate teapot but I somehow get about 35 minutes of sleep before I phone my dentist the minute it opens. An appointment is hastily made for 11.15am that day and I then phone the agency and Redrow to explain. They seem fine and ask me to let them know whats happening afterwards.

I have the appointment and the dentist decides as he doesn't know which one of the two teeth is causing the trouble, he's gonna take them both out and a third that was already dead. Awesome. So I have three teeth removed, nearly pass out in the dentist room afterwards and somehow make it home on my own still woozy from the anaesthetic. I phone Redrow, the agency and Joobs before I pass out. They ask me when I'll be back and I say I'm not entirely sure right now as I'm still spitting blood, can I let you know at 4pm? Both are happy. Apparently.

Fast forward to 4pm and I'm still bleeding, heavily. I eventually stop the bleeding at about 4.40pm and phone the agency to tell them that I will be back in work on Tuesday 21st, no matter how bad my teeth are. They simply tell me not to bother.

Fucking awesome, isn't it.

urgh nasty, hope you recover quickly and find something else soon.

Is this just your second absence in how long?

It would have been my 3rd day off in 6 weeks. Bad timing, I know, and on one hand I do understand why Redrow made the decision.

However, the undertone is that when I started the job they were unhappy that I had the dental surgery booked for June, and it was made clear that it would be "a good idea" to reschedule those appointments without actually requesting that I rescheduled, if you get me.

I had also made them very much aware of my stomach issues in the past and the chance that it could re-occur from time to time. Redrow were very much aware of my issues and knew that it would not be an issue over the long run.

Problem is Adam, nowadays it's an employers market. Loads of people out of work and employers have very little tolerance of time off whether it's genuine or not.

I hope this doesn't put your wedding plans on ice. best of luck looking for a new job

Wedding plans will still go ahead, pretty much everything is paid for.

Just gonna be skint when we go out there! Cheers mate :)

and we may have to abandon the uk do afterwards :(

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=54131.msg1394757#msg1394757

thought it was about time for an update.

We decided to cancel the UK party hoping to get some of our money back. nope we've signed a contract so the hotel were adamant they would keep the £640 we've already paid for doing naff all.  So with a bit of negotiating we have turned the reception into a 3 course family dinner, would rather have had the money back but it's better than nothing.

cancelling that means we save elsewhere too, Adam's suit hire has just dropped by 25%, and I made the invites myself this week for under £10, that beats paying out £100.

we are now at the point where we have paid for everything (or have the cash to) and anything we save from now is spending money. I'm really proud of us for getting this far! There have been times where I've been tearing my hair out with stress not sure how we were going to make it happen.

Small rant: I must admit I am a little disappointed with my father he hasn't offered to pay for a thing (obv i shouldn't expect it but I am his only child and he has more than enough disposable income to afford to) I have asked him a few times for a loan to take the pressure off but he's laughed it off, also said he won't give me any money in case i gamble it away. At the moment I'm annoyed as he is still expecting to "give" me away.... er...... NO i paid for this myself I'll walk myself down the aisle thank you very much!

OK rant over... other than that we are ready to go and set for an amazing time in Vegas!!

Oh yeah i want my wedding breakfast here: http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/#lobby (http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/#lobby)

Meself and Ger can walk ya down the aisle Chicka...no worries there.

The Cheese Cake Factory is lush.

Glad it is all coming together for you, chill and remember it is a wedding, no need to stress. xx

P S Charge ya pa his meal expense.

You would stop him from walking you down the aisle, because he hasn't paid for anything?

No it's the fact that he has refused to help at all, not even a loan. Although he did offer to pay for me and Adam to see Penn and Teller while we are out there... then made my mum pay for one of the tickets.  

But when my stepbrother got married he paid for their £2000 honeymoon.   only child <<<<<<<<<<<< wife's children.  

Can open - worms everywhere

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xcYBfp-Td0U/TakJihWGwqI/AAAAAAAAAGg/_O5UWKEGzBc/s1600/can-of-worms.jpg)

Joobsie,
Maybe with traveling over to the wedding it is pulling on his purse strings. He possibly feels quite awful if he can't help in anyway but obviously wants to be there on the day. Maybe he was in a better position when your step brother wed.

At the end of the day you two will be married and that's what it's all about.

Now stop fretting and enjoy it. xx

Nah he's just tight. He's inherited a house since then.

Anyway i'm over it now, no point getting stressed out over it.

2 months to go! (and a few days) 79 days til the wedding which means 74 til we fly!

Pretty sporadic updates right now but that's mainly because most things are done, all that's left is mainly saving up the spending money. [   ] This is going well. I can't get overtime at work right now which means I'm on a part time wage.

September sees us get the wedding rings sorted, Joobs is due to go up to Morecambe at the end of the month for her wedding dress fitting...and we need to start looking at places for the cat whilst we're away.

Apart from that, all the travel to/from London is sorted (tikay will be happy, trains there and back) along with the hotels. Am starting to keep my eye on exchange rates to get $ now.

Starting to feel the excitement, although Joobs is mainly feeling sick about the flight!

sent my engagment ring off today to be re-plated and cleaned up ready for November.

I've only been with out it a few hours and my hand feels weird, got 2 weeks before i get it back!

funny coz i didn't realise how much I fiddled with it till it's not there anymore lol

Am I posting the pic of our comedy attempt at hair or are you doing it?

I'll let you do it lol

Apologies for the poor quality. 

Warning - Do not drink and do hair kids.  It won't end well....


(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/Laxie/IMAG0523.jpg)


Luckily, despite my drunken attempts to have her looking like something out of Rocky Horror Picture Show - Adam still loves her...


(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/Laxie/IMAG0547.jpg)

it could've been worse....

(http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-ash1/v334/77/78/732861042/n732861042_1826055_4269.jpg?dl=1)

tbh it looks like i was killing him there.... i could well have been ;)

Nah - You'd just been naughty and were kissing up.  Menu castles.  Sigh.  We can't take ya anywhere....

(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/Laxie/IMAG0545.jpg)

Earlier in the day you were considering the kill, but ya chickened out when you realised he was armed...with a bowling ball.


(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/Laxie/IMAG0538.jpg)

i wouldn't say armed!! looks like he was gently caressing it imo

I was a bit concerned by his obvious love for the ball.  If he'd whispered to it, you were in trouble.

Just looking at deals on ebookers and can get a direct flight and 7 nights in IP for £720. Seriously considering it.

 Is the imperial palace close to where everyone is staying? How much spends am i likely going to need to play one deepstack a day plus food and drink?

IP is next door to Harrahs where most of the group is going to stay,check out the deal Curlarge has got for the hotel,maybe cheaper to get flight and hotel seperate.
http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=7405.0

weekday Venetian dse's are $340 weekend larger.Plenty of other tournies.

Drinking with Duke=infinity

Las Vegas Reward Seat Sale (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=54995.0)

Would never drink with the duke unless it was all inclusive ;)

Don't worry.  The group's so big I'd say everyone will be looking after themselves. 

OMG!!! not long now, starting to get excited!

I've got my final dress fitting next weekend, not sure if it's the normal thing to do but I'm taking my shoes jewellery with me to try on with the dress I'm also getting my hair done and I've managed to blag a free make up trial, so I'll know exactly what i want to look like on the big day.

I've also fallen in love with a wedding cake.... sorry Adam you don't have a choice in the matter i want one of these:

(http://www.toptiercakes.co.uk/images/photoalbum/7/TT074.jpg)

A croquembouche (giant profiterole tower stuck together with caramel and chocolate) AKA enough sugar to keep me up for a week :D

you do realise a croquembouche is hollow? still amazing though

sadly yes... but that means i can get a REALLY tall one :)

I'm sure it doesn't HAVE to be hollow ;)

Good god.  20 stone here we come. 

I'm sure Dr Sharples will let you go with it then :)

Kill two bird with one stone?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FioCO28SPY0

WOW!!!

if i had one of them there wouldn't be a dress left by the time i walked down the aisle

49 sleeps!!!!!!


made my final trip to Morecambe on Saturday to try on my dress, and thanks to a strict diet it is looking awesome although there was a little back cleavage on but i think that has more to do with how tight she tied the dress than an exessive amount of fat on my back!

2 problems though...

1. my shoes are the wrong height and to save an expensive adjustment i now need 4in heels to wear.  not a huge problem but i may need carrying by the end of the day hopefully i'll be sat at a poker table so won't have to worry.

2. How the hell are you supposed to walk / move about in a wedding dress ffs????  backwards isn't an option and turning isn't easy, as for walking forwards that seems impossible without looking like a rugby player in a dress!!


oh and i don't ever want to own a wedding dress shop! you have to get far too intimate with your customers! the woman almost had her head up my foof while arranging my netting!! could't look her in the eye after that experience lol

37 sleeps to go!!

and one last problem to solve

I have my something old (my nan's eternity ring)
I have lots of somethings new
I have my something blue

but nothing borrowed and not a clue what it could be either...  Any ideas?

  and a sixpence for your shoe ?

sorted!! good old mum and her coin collection :)

Going off topic slightly...kinda, it is Vegas!

http://vimeo.com/30582217

A home video from Las Vegas in 1962, proper old style Vegas history.

Completely forgot you both had this thread, just read through. Preparations sound exciting. I have to give you credit for your timing as well.

I love this video, there is something about it that says "real Vegas" as opposed to what there is today. I want to get a time machine and go and visit Fremont Street before the Fremont Street Experience with the cars and the lights and everything.

*placeholder for 6000th post, fitting it's in this thread. to be edited later today*

A full week later...

I really don't have anything to say yet...

erm...

http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=9855.msg160797#msg160797 (http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=9855.msg160797#msg160797)


19 sleeps till we fly 24 sleeps till the wedding too excited atm!!!

Are u playing or doing live updates?

*insert joke about similarity to previous 5,999 posts*

How many sleeps?!  FFS woman - can't have a countdown if ya don't keep it up to date!

The 6000th post will be my thoughts on this blog and the whole process - obv AFTER the trip.

This time next week I'll be chilling out in the BA lounge waiting for my flight. The anticipation is getting ridiculous now, thankfully I left myself a shitload of housework to do so I don't just sit here clock watching.

Packing is done, apart from laundry. Just gotta tidy the house, buy some basic toiletries and a travel first aid kit, sort out the laptop for the trip and chill :)

Simples!

Sure not in the hotel trying to sleep (and failing miserably) ready to fly tomorrow - whilst "rubbing fiddies on my titties"...

Have a good flight Buddy. See you Thursday

 ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave;










......not excited or anything, obv.   ;D

Have a good un m8 hope all goes to plan

Have a great trip guys and best of luck to you both :)

Even though one of you getting stood up, preferably Adam, would make a great story, I hope it all goes well.

glglglglglglgl

Very best of luck

Hope it goes really well. Good luck to both of you. Cashing in a Venetian deepstack would be very nice.



Oh, and good luck with the wedding as well :)

Have a great time and a wonderful wedding day. Kev and Jools.

Just back home ourselves an hour ago and fighting the jetlag.

All the very best to you both today.  First blonde wedding!  Hope it all goes swimmingly and you have an amazing time xxx

Wedding about to start. Live updates here. Where's Tighty?

http://www.littlechapel.com/guests/Ceremony.aspx?PlanID=839260

watching

so good

who are adam and julie?

Congrats Guys xx

WP  ;applause;

well done! You both looked great but Joobs moreso :)

I'm filling up....

you get a lot of crap on the internet but there are times when you realise how great it is. watching 2 of my mates get married on a live feed from the other side of the world is one of those times, amazing stuff

Claire MacGregor likes this

Nellie does too!

If they are mates of yours, why didn't you go?

Many congrats both. Enjoyed the video. Glad Adam managed to beat jet lag and didn't miss the ceremony :)

and at other times you realise the internet is mainly full of crap

Enjoyed the wedding video guys!

Hannah made me watch it I'm not gonna lie, but glad I did, it was lovely :)

Congratulations!!!!!!

yes great video. you both looked smart as....boring spurs V villa made me watch it gl :)

Booom, half a bite was better than none x

Congrat to you both, you lovely people.

Photo's please.

can i re watch it?

i missed it :(


huge congratz tho

http://www.littlechapel.com/guests/Ceremony.aspx?PlanID=839260

Thanks a lot guys, was awesome :) Full report when we get home, obv.

16 hours to watch...and then I'm uploading the vid to youtube - so always available to watch.

Now just chilling before the pokers tonight...

Driving over?

In McCarran now on way home - via LAX, cheers Joobs wife.

There will be a trip report up at some point but i have managed to upload our wedding dvd onto youtube!!!




YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5EOF44EhI

You both looked gorgeous.

Once again Congrates..xx

A little teaser...

(http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/381249_10150407478812151_581932150_8336918_654065467_n.jpg)

Now that I have sufficiently recovered from jet-lag, I bring to you part 1 of many... (also x-posted on APAT)

Day -1: Tuesday 15th November 2011, aka Running Around Like A Headless Chicken Day!

Before we start, I’d just like to point out that there is no better feeling than the anticipation of the trip of a lifetime, as I’m sure many of us who went to Vegas are aware. However, waking up on the day you’re supposed to be leaving having a million and one things to do…not so much fun! In her infinite wisdom, Joobs had decided that although we were leaving for London on the Tuesday, she was actually going to work on the Monday so she would get everything done before she left.

[   ] This happened.

Needless to say we were still in her work at 7.30pm on the Monday night trying to get everything done. This left Tuesday to sort out the house.  

And pack.

And get the train, complete with 3 suitcases, 1 wedding dress in a box and 1 wedding suit to London, at 2pm.

It got even more fun when Joobs disappeared to have her nails done before she left, which turned out to not be the best idea we’ve ever had! Somehow we managed to finish all the packing, make the house look tidy, get Joobs’ nails done, sort out money for exchanging and leave by 2pm. Because we live 5 minutes away from the train station (under normal circumstances) I was in no uncertain terms told that no, we were not getting a cab to the train station. Needless to say this sure was a good idea! 15 minutes it took to walk to the train station, and Joobs still has the bruises from the wedding dress box hitting her legs!

Once we got to the train station we had enough time to get through the barriers (tickets already sorted out well in advance) and thankfully the train was due to depart from the closest platform. Win number 1. Win number 2 was when we got on the train. I’d booked a table seat for the laptop, and naturally so had half the world and we were supposed to be sharing our table all the way to London. We were the first ones on the train (started at Chester) and so Joobs had commandeered the table for our use. The couple who had booked the other 2 seats glanced at their seats, then Joobs’ maniacal look, then the wedding dress box proudly sat on the table and realised that the dress box wasn’t getting moved.
 
And left. Awesome.

Train journey was a doddle and we arrived into London Euston right on time. Joobs decided she was hungry and I had to go to London Victoria to change some money at a very good exchange rate (I got 1.60 whereas in Chester I was lucky to get 1.55) so I left her at Euston with the luggage and quickly zipped to/from Victoria to change the cash. Sadly, by the time I got back to Euston it was clearly rush hour on the Tube and the journey to Travelodge Heathrow Central was a nightmare. We had to take a train from Euston to Green Park and then Green Park to Hounslow West (well, some crappy place out there anyway). Euston to Green Park wasn’t that bad, just hot. Green Park to Hounslow? That was just horrible. I had trouble breathing at one point, and we were stood on the Tube for the whole 45 minute journey, complete with bags jammed against us. Just to cap things off, there was an old, unkempt looking labourer guy stood against the ventilation window. When we left Green Park, he farted. The whole carriage turned green. I still, to this day, never want to smell anything like that again. It was worse than anything I’ve ever smelt before and I’m struggling to describe it without heaving. Needless to say he carried on doing this all the way until he got off.

At Hounslow West.

FML.

FML.

FOL!

Finally managed to get off the train only to find that there was no lift and we had to lug all the suitcases and luggage up some stairs. Just what you need when you have been travelling for 5hrs! Eventually get them up the stairs and find a bus to the hotel. Bus drops us straight outside the Travelodge and 2 very very exhausted Vegas Vengeance travellers collapse in the hotel, not before grabbing some food and watching England beat Sweden 1-0. Quick shower and then bed, although stupidly excited about what is to come the next day…

Day 1 – Wednesday 16th November 2011 aka **** me, we’re off to Vegas day!

Needless to say, not very much sleep was had on the Tuesday night. Acceptable, I guess, when you’re both as excited as a child at Christmas. Anyway, both of us were up by 7am which meant we had a lot of time to kill before our flight at 3.40pm.

Enter the BA Business Lounge.

I’ve probably told the whole world by now, to treat Joobs before we even headed off, I’d saved up enough money to book us Premium Economy seats. No sitting with the cattle here, thankyouverymuch. I had no intention of sitting in PE though, as I’d also saved/bought 50,000 BA Miles and used said miles to upgrade our seats to Club World. One of the (many) perks of this was access to the BA Galleries Lounges at LHR. So we rolled up to the airport at 8am, quickly through check-in and off to Security.

Who sent us back to check-in. Uh oh…

A little part of me was worried that for some unknown reason, we weren’t gonna be allowed to fly. Game over. However, another little part of me was secretly hoping that we’d scored a cheeky free upgrade to First Class. Sadly, it was neither, all that they needed to do was confirm that we had ESTA’s, which we did, and it was back to Security. Through Security like a breeze, until my belt broke as I was putting it back on. Oops. Make it to the Lounge and settle in with breakfast. We were lucky enough to manage to get some window seats with plugs so out came the laptop. Sat online browsing for most of the morning, occasionally getting up to get more food/drink.

We had a lovely view from the lounge…

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zW2lvKaYMKA/TuiukmOeodI/AAAAAAAAAqc/1L9tIc8e23s/s640/DSC00137.JPG)

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8Rp2b8dLQz8/TuiulazUbgI/AAAAAAAAAqg/h7Ppuz2CbKI/s640/DSC00138.JPG)

Another perk of the lounge was that BA had an Elemis Travel Spa downstairs. All ticket holders were entitled to a free treatment on the day of travel. Well, was Julie turning down a free treatment? Hell no! So we both headed to the Spa to book our treatments and I made the fateful mistake of saying to her “I’ll have whatever you have”. She decides to have a facial. Awesome. Well, I don’t back down and despite Joobs giving me an out, I end up having the facial. Not something I’ll probably have again but it was pretty nice. The best part though was the massage chair. The Spa had the latest new-fangled chair and it gave you a Shiatsu Massage for 15 minutes whilst you had your treatment. OMG, I want one. They were HEAVEN! Never felt so relaxed in my entire life!

After this, time flew and next thing we knew, we were headed to the gate. Terminal 5 is ridiculously huge, so much so that we had to take a train from the main terminal to the gate itself, which was in a separate building. I’d booked seats for the Upper Deck after reading about it online, and we were lucky enough to be the first onboard headed upstairs (and yes, it is a very nice feeling getting on a plane and being directed upstairs ;)) so we were able to get a few pics.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wqf933aYYEQ/Tuiun--zXII/AAAAAAAAAsA/DLXfHemR__A/s512/DSC00141.JPG)

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ALqiYlAsE3s/Tuiuqyl-F1I/AAAAAAAAAq4/UQn67Nf-Ldc/s640/DSC00144.JPG)

Not the best view of Sunset...

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lomfQHcHP0g/TuiurstyFOI/AAAAAAAAAq8/0D52O4893Fw/s640/DSC00145.JPG)

We were lucky in that our flight was being buffeted by tailwinds so we were only in the air for about 9hrs 15mins rather than the expected 10hr plus. Not that much turbulence which helped, especially when they brought the food! Pics are below…

Starter: (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-191s0hDKU10/TuiuscVGUzI/AAAAAAAAArA/0_HQ8hHf5UA/s640/DSC00146.JPG)

Main: (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T32j91n3Btg/TuiuvldLPoI/AAAAAAAAArM/m7CBuWo9_bM/s640/DSC00149.JPG)

Dessert:(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-d49J87BMoB8/TuiuwsRwgTI/AAAAAAAAArQ/8_0n0lSq3bQ/s640/DSC00150.JPG)

{Dessert was that nice, we forgot to take a pic before...oops!}

I tried to sleep on the plane but was just way, way too excited so ended up getting the lappy out and playing Football Manager whilst listening to music for most of the journey. Joobs had the nicer seat and was able to get a bit more sleep, but the best part of the journey was afterwards when the Captain invited us up to the flight deck – and you can see the results!

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uQEkEvoGzek/Tuiu0kz48sI/AAAAAAAAAsE/3oHjNk1x2Oo/s512/DSC00155.JPG)

Landed at McCarran on time but because of the aforementioned trip to the flight deck, we were greeted with a mile long queue for immigration. Thankfully the queue only took about 30 mins to get through and we were soon headed for The Strip! Got to Bally’s without being longhauled (infact, we weren’t longhauled at all during the whole trip) and the first people we see when we walk through Bally’s front door?

RichEO and Jon MW.

Welcome to Vegas.

We get checked in eventually at Bally’s and manage to score a 73rd floor room with a view without greasing anybody’s palms. Pretty nice view as well, you can see for yourselves…

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MUaRk_0T2QI/Tuiu4X0s46I/AAAAAAAAArw/OleTyWRENE0/s640/DSC00158.JPG)

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MUaRk_0T2QI/Tuiu4X0s46I/AAAAAAAAArw/OleTyWRENE0/s640/DSC00158.JPG)

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-fHGpDlXKXfQ/Tuiu1Rsfe_I/AAAAAAAAAro/TUCRLClJD8E/s640/DSC00156.JPG)

Head out for a quick exploration of Vegas and Rich drives us to Venetian. Wander around Venetian taking it all in before hitting Harrah’s to give people some phones and catch up with Shogun and HOLDorFOLD who arrived the day before. Stand around chatting for a bit before feeling really tired and head back to crash.

We made it.

Loving the thread. Great pics.

A week between updates?!  WTF man?!  This just isn't good enough.  Get yer act together and put the whole trip report up or, at this rate, it'll be November 2012 before we've read it all!

Prolly busy making babies.

LOL, this isn't a bog standard trip report you know. A special occasion means a special report. Worth waiting for, IMO. I've already written nearly 1600 words according to Microsoft Word, and that's what you have already had.

Wow this is amazing

When u gonna start having kids and how many

pretty sure conception photos wont  be on this blog :)

Excuses, excuses.  I could do 1600 words in me sleep so just get on with it.  Where's Joobs?  She'll back me up on this.

Day 2 – Thursday 17th November 2011 aka The Organising Day

I can think of worse views to wake up to…

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yFV9oZ_xrzo/Tuiuet_4N6I/AAAAAAAAAqY/NXK0G7Szj64/s640/DSC00159.JPG)

So we wake up, annoyingly, at 5am after having approximately 350 minutes sleep. Still dark, I decide to head out for a quick walk/exploration, and spend half an hour just wandering around Bally’s/Paris taking it all in. Quite possibly the best feeling ever. Joobs decided that for her first breakfast in Vegas, she wanted to go to the culinary masterpiece that was…Denny’s.

I can hear you all saying “WTF?” at your screens right now.

Anyway, we head to Denny’s and have a surprisingly nice breakfast. After this it was time for one of the most important trips of the whole holiday – go to get the Marriage Licence. Jump on the Deuce outside the Flamingo - $7 for a 24hr pass, absolute bargain. Manage to score a front seat on the top deck, which was excellent for the views of the casinos up and down the Strip. Sadly, dumbass here forgot the cameras. One reoccurring theme throughout this trip, we didn’t take enough pictures. Will rectify this on the next visit (November 2012/2013, one of them!) but for now, I’ll just borrow pics everyone else took :)

Arrive downtown and it was a 5 minute walk to the office where you get the licence. I had filled out a pre-application form online and thankfully the queue for this particular desk was empty, so we were in and out in 5 minutes, $60 lighter but holding a marriage licence. Walk back to the Bonneville Transit Center (bus station, for us Brits) and straight back on the Deuce to the Strip.  During all the travelling Joobs had broken a nail and had to get it fixed before the wedding obv so we wandered around the casinos for a bit before she headed down to a spa/salon and got her nail fixed for $10 + tax + tip. The whole lot only cost £30 ffs!

Whilst she was getting this done, I needed to go get a simcard for my phone as I needed an American number to give to the chapel before the wedding, so I hopped on an internet terminal and found out that there was an AT&T store just down Flamingo Rd, which was the road Bally’s was on, coincidentally. Head onto Flamingo Rd and decide to walk to the next bus stop then jump on the bus. Have you ever walked somewhere by bus stops? Basically, you walk to the bus stop, realise you can’t be arsed waiting and keep walking, stopping at bus stops to see if a bus is coming and if not, keep walking. Well we did this. ONE AND A HALF MILES LATER 2 very tired Vegas Virgins realise that everything is a hell of a lot further away and finally arrive. Buy the sim card (- another $60) and decide we are getting a cab back.

Make it back to the hotel and throw down in the hotel room for half an hour before going to the Venetian to see how my horse is doing. He’s running good (what do you expect, it’s Dominic Kay ffs!) and we leave him to it as it’s 3.30pm and we have to go to the Chapel of the Flowers for our official pre-wedding meeting.

Now it’s getting very real.

Arrive at the Chapel on time and I just sit there in a daze really as Joobs organises it all whilst I apparently look very green and sick. Fill out some forms and give them the documents so we can legally get married, before heading back to the Strip. Head to Harrah’s to meet everyone else as they had all arrived on the infamous Virgin flight. Off the top of my head I think I was chatting to Shogun and a couple of others in the Poker Room at Harrah’s whilst Joobs headed out to Carnival Court where all the drunks were. Eventually decided we were hungry and hit the Imperial Palace for the first of many visits to the best restaurant in Las Vegas.

Hash House A Go-Go.

I’d bought a voucher from restaurant.com online which gave us $25 off the bill, caveat was we had to spend $50. Easy when there’s 3 of us. What we didn’t realise is that we would have struggled to eat one meal between the 3 of us! Joobs ordered a salad, a good decision in the end!

(http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/387441_10150525762736043_732861042_11085910_1122164534_n.jpg)

Jon MW dined with us and made the mistake of ordering this:

(http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/377428_10150525762811043_732861042_11085911_2052579970_n.jpg)

And my plate was bigger.

(http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/392360_10150525762646043_732861042_11085909_283033612_n.jpg)

After managing to eat about a quarter of it, we eventually gave up and staggered downstairs in a food coma. Headed back to Harrah’s and left Joobs there as Jon and I headed to McCarran, because I had to meet my mother off her plane (landed at 9pm) and I had no clue where I was going, and MW did so I dragged him with me. Stuck $20 in a Wheel of Fortune slot whilst waiting and won $50, first win of the trip. Mum’s plane lands and we quickly grab her bags and head to Harrah’s. She checks in, and heads to bed after a 17hr trip. (As an aside, thanks to a monumental cock-up by the check-in girl, they ended up charging $1200 to my card! Needless to say that got wiped VERY quickly…)

Pretty knackered by this point, so we head back to Harrah’s and find the last stragglers (read: Laxie) in the Poker Room. She’s hammered and heading off to bed so we decide to do the same thing and head back to Bally’s, pausing to run the odd $20 through a slot machine before heading to bed.

Excuuuuuuuse me?!  It was jet lag ffs!  You can join M Dubya in the corner now.

I hated Hash House a go-go

Really overly rich food, ridiculous portions, surly waiting staff, overpriced


That aside, enjoying these write ups!

Agree about Hash House.  Never again.  Makes Nando's look good ffs!

+1 They also seemed to have cornered the America's supply of fresh Rosemary for their redic garnish on everything!

Day 3 – Friday 18th November 2011 aka “I’M THE STAGGGGGGGGG” day!

Once again we wake up, look at the clock, and groan.

It’s 5.30am. FML!

Just laze about in bed for a couple of hours before deciding to go find breakfast. Denny’s was NOT an option so we decide to go for a breakfast buffet. Phone Jon MW and round the Cowboy up before heading over to try the buffet at Cosmopolitan. Hit the Cosmo only to decide that it is way too expensive there.

Whilst at Cosmo I remember that my Dad landed the day before and he is staying in Cosmo so a quick call to Cosmo reception and we get put through to his room. He answers (which means he actually landed, awesome) and we arrange buffet breakfast for the 5 of us at Planet Hollywood. Sort out times and all the important stuff, and the three of us head over to PHo, albeit getting slightly lost on the way there.

Head over to PHo and Dad has not yet arrived with his fiancée, Maria, so we decide to play a few machines which give us a view of the entrance to the buffet. 45 minutes later…we’re still waiting. I spot him FINALLY and it turned out he’d managed to sneak past us and was downstairs waiting in the buffet. Oops. Head into the buffet and it was the first time any of us (well, except MW but he doesn’t count) had seen a buffet. All I have to say is…HOLY. SHIT. This place had everything, and everything was gorgeous. Nicest breakfast I’d ever had, up to that point anyway. Then I discovered that Americans have Corned Beef Hash for breakfast. *drools*

After completely stuffing our faces to the point of not wanting to move, we eventually dragged our asses out of PHo. Dad and Maria head off to take photos (they are keen amateur photographers) and we headed off to Harrah’s to meet up with the gang. Sit chatting there for a bit whilst some played poker, others played slots…just chilling out really. Tighty appeared for the first time and regaled us of his “fun” with the hooker (see http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=10018.msg163128#msg163128 for the full details!) whilst Ger Jnr won a quick $300 on a slot machine. Joobs disappeared to Laxie’s room as Laxie wanted to practice on her hair before the wedding. It got to about 1pm and both Ger’s headed off to Caesars to check on Paul Mac. MW and I joined them but when we got to Caesars we couldn’t find Paul, although having just checked with Ger, we didn’t find him because he didn’t actually play!

The Smyth’s then headed off to Monte Carlo to make an early start on the combined Stag/21st party, but MW and I decided to head back to Bally’s for cash. That’s actual cash, not poker. Whilst in Vegas I literally had the attention span of a gnat and I had noticed an advert for Circus Circus. Now I was under the impression that Slots-o-Fun had a cheap Craps table and fancied throwing some dice so we headed up there. Biggest mistake of the trip. Forgot to stop off for water so we were drinkless, then we managed to get on the wrong bus! We got on the express instead of the one that stops at every stop, so we had to get off at the Stratosphere. For some really weird reason, my nose started bleeding as well on the bus, a warning I really should have heeded.

Managed to stop the bleeding and we walked from the Strat to Circus Circus. OMG that walk took forever, and it was the hottest day in November I’d ever felt! God knows how MW dealt with it in a black leather jacket ffs. Arrive at Circus Circus 45 minutes later and nearly pass out. We sign up for their Players Club and spend $30 to get $45 in promo chips, before taking them to the Blackjack table. MW goes on an awesome run and eventually cashes out $120 richer. I manage to win a small amount (about $40) and we cash out. Head upstairs and find one of these!

(http://www.arcade-game-sales.com/products/images/arabian-derby-45436-7199-1.jpg)

I’ll let Joobs explain that.

Head over to Slots-o-Fun to find out that they didn’t have their Craps table anymore :( so we play a few slots, where luckbox wins a load again and I do all my winnings. Head out of the casino and just miss a bus so decide to go to Riviera to check it out. Wow, this place just seemed OLD. It was a very tired looking casino and really needs a refurb. Check out their Poker Room and they have the only $3-$6 LIMIT Omaha game I’ve ever seen. Tempted to play but then my stomach starts cramping and rumbling ominously.

Uh-oh.

Decide to head back to Bally’s as I’m pretty tired and feeling slightly sick. Start feeling really nauseous on the bus but manage to get back to Bally’s ok. Make it up to my room and pass out in bed at 4pm, thankfully without being sick. Wake up at 7pm to knocking on the door. It’s MW checking up on me as it’s the stag night. Get out of bed to answer the door and nearly fall over with dizziness. OK, what the hell is wrong with me? MW leaves after taking one look at me and realising I’m not headed anywhere, and I just slump against the back of the door. Sitting down lets me feel better so I crawl over to the bed and get back in.

The air conditioning is on and I’m lying in bed with my clothes on, shivering yet sweating my balls off. Get really nauseous so take some tablets to relieve that and drift in and out of sleep til Joobs rolls back in at 2am. Sure could get to sleep for ages after that and it’s about 4am before I pass out.

Now that’s not all for this day, Joobs is going to make a guest appearance in the report and supply the bit I missed, otherwise known as “The Stag Do that the Stag did not attend…”

Day 4 – Saturday 19th November 2011 aka APAT Day

Manage to get some sleep but still wake up pretty damn early. Sadly still feeling like complete donkey **** so I decide I’m just gonna stay in the room. Joobs heads out for breakfast and in the process of doing so, she meets up with Jon MW and then my mother. They decide to partake of the buffet at Harrah’s before heading over to Caesars to buy in for the APAT tournament before heading up the Stratosphere. To this day, I have no idea how they managed to do this, as my mum is completely and utterly scared of heights and swore blind that she would not be going up there. Well, she did, and here’s the immortal picture to prove it:

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yOL5f5qI6yE/TshBlS_2JYI/AAAAAAAAuCY/UtkD3xRqSCM/s640/IMG_9665.JPG)

2 hours later they left the Strat and headed up to the Chapel as when we went on Thursday, we’d forgotten to take the CD with the actual wedding music on. Oops. The Strat was only a few minutes’ walk (and yes, it was actually a few minutes despite being Vegas!) so they hoofed it up the strip, dropped off the CD and jumped on the Deuce back to Caesars. Unfortunately for Joobs and MW, we were in Level 3 by then and their stacks had dwindled!

In the meantime, I headed over to Caesars and bought myself in before the start. Found myself in seat 1 and was inwardly groaning. Had a few APAT players on my table – notably Tod Wood decked out in all his BCPC gear, Sharon Roberts and Neil Dawson. I knew Neil from the forum but had never met him in person and will finally admit that it took me 2 levels to work out who he was, sorry Neil!

I spent most of the day grinding, no real big hands that I can think of. Our table was broken pretty quickly and I find myself sat to the right of Stuart Oliver, with the Stockton Cock to his left, Don Logan 2 to the Cock’s left and to my right, the chip leader Robert McMillan and David Marr who were both loud Americans. I double up through Marr after calling his raise IP with T-8cc (learning from Toby Lewis obv) and eventually turning a full house, only to see him shove into me with his rivered straight. Easy game.

Joobs eventually joins us and she quickly gets moved to table Laxie. God help us all. Hilarity ensued on what was quickly becoming the non-serious table of the tournament. Even the Americans were looking at them and thinking WTF? Some of the hilarity involved:

• The word “BOOBAGE”
  
• Joobs almost getting a penalty for speaking German. To the only German at the table. After being told it was ok, as long as they were all from the same group!
  
• Classic Joobie-Laxie hands, of which one involved betting blind then dealing the river blind (and still betting blind) only for Laxie to win that one by hitting the river!
  
• Joobs’ mum and step-dad arriving in Vegas and joining us, only for Joobs to get told off as her mum was sat behind her!
  
• Joobie eventually busting to Laxie for a 60k pot at 200-400 with A-K vs K-K. Her reason? “Couldn’t care less, my mother’s arrived!”

During one of the breaks, we had a slight bit of drama when I get a phone call. From England. Well, more to the point, Julie’s father. He had some bad news, his flight had been cancelled due to a technical problem, and now he wasn’t sure if he was going to make the wedding.

********.

I head back to the tables whilst Joobs spends some time with her family before they crash early (they had only just landed and were knackered) which mainly consisted of Dawn (Julie’s mum, not Laxie) being carried around the card room, in some cases literally, being introduced to everyone.  Whilst this is happening, I double through the Stockton Cock in a 70k pot when I raise K-J and flop Q-T-9 against Stu’s A-Q and knock out a short stacked Matt Bailie with 2-2 holding against his K-Q. Table breaks and I lose a few hands being a bit too aggressive and drift down to 50k. I then raise J9ss from the hijack and get one caller on the button in Tod Wood. Flop is J-5-7r and Tod calls my c-bet. We both check the 2s turn and I then back into the flush with the 6s river. I check and Tod bets 8k. I make it 22k and Tod has to call with his set. Nice pot shipped my way and I bag up 84.1k at the end of the day.

My first ever Day 2 at an APAT and what a time to do it! I’m 6/15 but it’s that tight, I’ve only got 9.5k less than the chip leader. Joobs had been railing me through the day and we decided an early night was a plan and headed straight back to Bally’s for sleep, as we had to check out the next morning and head to the Vdara.

What took ya...Great Honeymoon I suppose. x

moreeeeeeeeee

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRg1mtAMeBE

.

It is done.

Now it just has to pass the editor. In the meantime, anyone want to hazard a guess at how long it is in number of words?

 ;nemesis;  You've been married nearly A YEAR now and we're still waiting on the trip report from the wedding.  Ironside - BAN HIM!!!

Don't ban him now. I have been waiting a year to hear about the consummating the marriage. :)

Day 5 - Sunday 20th November 2011 aka Holy Fuck I’m getting married tomorrow! Day

It’s another day in Vegas only this time we wake up to 3 bits of good news.

• Leaving Bally’s!
• I’m feeling a lot better!
• Julie’s dad is on his way!

It was a good thing that I was feeling better as we had to be at Caesars Palace for 1pm to play poker. Needless to say we had a hell of a lot to do. Started off by packing up the room and realising exactly why it is never a good idea to completely unpack one’s suitcase! By the time this was done, it was late enough to make some phone calls which resulted in us walking over to Harrah’s to meet my mother and mother-in-law to be, along with Julie’s step-dad, for the Harrah’s Breakfast Buffet.  The older people in our group loved it but it wasn’t that great (it was good, don’t get me wrong) compared to the Planet Hollywood one. (DISCLAIMER: This may have something to do with me being ill the day before...)  I did manage to sneak in some quick VP whilst waiting and hit a 40AK for the first time ever. And promptly forgot to take a picture of it.

We finish up there and the adults wander off to gamble/take in the sights (all Vegas Virgins lol) whilst we try to locate Jaxie to recover the (thankfully vomit free) wedding dress – who the fuck thought it was a good idea to leave it with those two ffs? Sadly the dress is still REALLY creased so it's back to Bally’s as it’s about 10.30am and we need to check out and head over to Vdara so we decide to worry about it once we're there. So we grab our gear, check out easy and cab it over to Vdara, with Joobs starting to fret! Despite it being 11am we were able to check in and get settled. Joobs didn't like the idea of leaving her dress with anyone but we just didn't have the time to go and wait at a cleaners, so after some negotiating and slight threatening. the dress was left with a very nervous looking concierge before we headed over to Caesars for the most important part of the day. The poker.

Head over there and meet up with everyone before we get started. We decide that as the final table is 10, and officially 9 are paid, to take a chunk from the top couple of positions and give the 10th place man $200 so that everyone who makes the FT gets paid. And we start. I lose a few chips check-raising the Stockton Cock with complete air (6-6 on a J-3-7r board), only for him to shove and me to pass. I gain a lot of them back by exploiting the tightness of the table and simply opening most hands folded to me. Then I get what I think is going to be the perfect moment. I look down UTG and find Dem Aces (Ah Ac). Decide that hopefully my image will get me paid off and make my usual 2.5x raise (4500 at 1k/2k). Folds to MickyP in the BB and he calls. Flop is 7h Ts 2h and Micky leads for about 6k. I make it 20-odd and Micky shoves. I call and Micky has Jh Th, one of the worst hands I want to see. Until the Ace of Spades hits the turn. Now all I need is a black card. Any black card. Win this hand and I think I have a perfect shot of winning the tournament. Just a fecking...

6h.

You have to be kidding me.

Micky has 50k behind on the flop and I’m pretty decimated . Go through the blinds and antes and dribble down to 24k before finding 8-8. Shove and get called by K-10cc of Tod Wood. I win the race and start to believe again! The blinds go up and a couple of rounds later I’m pretty short, but we keep losing the odd player and it’s suddenly bubble time. I have 8xBB and am about to go through the blinds again as we are 5 handed. I look at my first card, an Ace, and shove. Brian Harland reshoves behind with what turns out to be 7-7. He turns a full house and I bubble. I hate bubbling at the best of times, but here? I was in pieces inside. It was the first APAT event I’d actually felt good about myself, the one I’d actually thought I had a chance in, and I bubbled. Stuck around for the start of the FT but just had to get out of there and went to wander around Caesars. I couldn’t even muster up the energy to play slots or make some sports bets.

Eventually got my head sorted and went back to find everyone. Watched Micky take it down (at least he used my chips well) then went back to Vdara to check on the dress (yes it was there and crease free; the guy got a hug and a ridiculously large tip from Joobs) and we headed to find food. I say “headed”, we’d arranged to have a family meal at the Harley Davidson Cafe at Planet Hollywood. Julie’s dad had made it to Vegas finally, but even though he had been here twice before he neglected to notice the giant hotel Planet Hollywood, and instead went to the Planet Hollywood café in Caesars. By the time we got hold of him it was late so he ate there, so we gave him the chapel details and hoped he would make it there. So my Mum, Dad, and my Dad's partner Maria joined us for what turned out to be an awesome meal, especially with the Harley Davidson motorcycles on a carousel over your head!  This was also the meal where Julie discovered what she now calls the best Vegas food ever.

SLIDERS.

(http://dailyfiasco.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IronChefSliders.jpg)

Leave Harley Davidson and walk up to Harrah’s chatting with the families for a bit before they head off to bed and we take a nice, relaxing walk back to Vdara. After all, it’s not like tomorrow’s going to be nice and quiet now, is it?

PH buffet definitely beats Harrah's. I might excuse Julie's dad as PH used to Alladin he might not have known it had changed? and PH cafe in Caesar's been there a long time :)

Is that it? We waited a year for a bad beat story and a load of fkin tiny burgers?

Next one better be good, AMD before September 2013 please. Thanks.

Day 6 – Monday 21st November 2011 aka Wedding Day

Wake up to the realisation that today is the most important day of my life. Oh yeah, and I'm getting married in 4 hours! Had worse views to wake up to:

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/319104_548249129884_1609204475_n.jpg)

And when I glance to the right...

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/319104_548249134874_155844561_n.jpg)

OMG, I'm getting married in 4 hours. And Joobs has to get ready!! Needless to say I was unceremoniously ejected from the suite, holding a suit, a wallet and my shoes. Take a quick walk to my father's room in Cosmopolitan where he has kindly ordered a rather large amount of room service breakfast, of which I managed to eat 2 slices of toast. And a banana. Go me! Surprisingly enough I really wasn't as nervous as I thought I was going to be, chilled out for a bit then started to get ready at 9am (Wedding was at 11am) and was downstairs having my last bet as a single man at 10am.

[   ] I won.

Joobs had a bit more fun getting ready, in her own words:

Laxie and my Mum rock up shortly after Adam leaves, ladened with food, bubbly and spare make-up etc just in case. The make-up artist arrives shortly after at 8am (an hour early) and thank god she did because making my hair curly took AGES!! Thank god I was calm and relaxed because my morning visitors were no help!

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TRqiThBI4FA/UKjJVdX91HI/AAAAAAAAAt0/8_aK65xbBP0/s640/JS%2520Makeup.jpg)

Dawn was shouting at the hotel staff as we had no crockery or glasses in the room, 6 phone calls and a near kidnapping of a maid later they arrive. And my mother...well she was all excited and nervous... a bad combination!! This resulted in her getting physically picked up and moved by Dawn more than once (“Mom, MOVE!!”) as my dearest mother is left with her feet dangling in the air being transported out of the way.  When Mother-in-law to be arrives it gets worse, she heads straight for the sticky buns and Dawn has to rugby tackle her into the bathroom before she goes anywhere near the dress!

Somehow I’m still chilled and we make it with seconds to spare, and even though my dress is laced up completely wrong, I’m happy.  

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4RaW4UFdqIE/UKjJVNhsJiI/AAAAAAAAAtw/RqYn_BKminE/s640/JS%2520Dress.jpg)

It turns out it's hard to breathe wearing a corsetted dress in a limo, but I had peeps there to distract me...

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-NqMcyIAg2n4/UKjLcRcchiI/AAAAAAAAAuc/8vwseAjlMV8/s640/JS%2520Limo%25202.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-b48yAnbucec/UKjJWNUnkFI/AAAAAAAAAt8/uYtogz8BSIA/s640/Pics%2520limo.jpg)

Whilst all this is going on, I get in the cab and get to the Chapel of the Flowers for 10.30am. It's a blur from then on. I remember shaking hands with lots of people, then hiding in the chapel before Joobs got there...then we let everyone else in and the minister started talking. He made the fatal mistake of saying “Thank you everyone for coming over from England!” Needless to say half the room goes “Oi! I'm not from fecking England!” His simple reply? “OK, England and Scotland!” That set off the Welsh, so he tries “Everyone from the United Kingdom!” That just set off Ger. Need I say more?

Thanks guys. That little palaver actually calmed me down a lot and probably got me through the whole thing without chucking my guts up, so thanks. I needed that.

It's 11am and nearly everyone is here. Even the bride is outside! Unfortunately, RichEO and Khadija missed the wedding and had to watch from a side room, oops! Even more unfortunate, Curlarge was taken ill and missed the whole lot. So Joobs makes her entrance and I'm not even going to attempt to describe it...just watch it.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5EOF44EhI

Unsurprisingly, I'm the guy in the black suit getting married, for those of you who are lucky enough to have not met me yet. The laughing and pointing should really be explained... Joobs said she wasn't going to marry me unless I cried...I never cry. Here I didn't full on burst into tears either, but I'll be damned if there wasn't a few tears in my eyes when I first saw her as she entered the chapel.

Afterwards we get dragged around for the official photos (not really dragged, I enjoyed it) which was fun but HOT. It was 25 degrees out throughout the day and 45 minutes in a black suit jacket, waistcoat etc was not fun. A massive thank you to Dawn who “organised” everyone  while this was going on.

We'd decided on lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  My dad is an aspiring amateur photographer so he decided that we would walk from Caesars casino to the Cheesecake Factory whilst he snapped us like Paparazzi, stopping at all the cool places to pose. OMG this was awesome. Random people kept stopping us to take pics! Joobs loved all the attention, me? I just loved her on my arm lol!

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0ycWloH9RhM/UKjLchveKDI/AAAAAAAAAug/CgAoiPpsYoU/s512/Walking.jpg)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Oo212P36VBE/UKjLb9m_CDI/AAAAAAAAAuU/UKsCNwUXc4A/s720/Fountain.jpg)

Get to the Cheesecake Factory. They don't do bookings apparently...well they didn't until they met Joobs and Dawn, who between them managed to get around 30 of us sat and eating dinner!!

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FcTw-zjtHqw/UKjOHEXRp-I/AAAAAAAAAu8/hb5NYOpU_vo/s640/cheesecake.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-DHVzEhG0m5Q/UKjOHG9crCI/AAAAAAAAAvA/tWn90iVE8Ng/s512/Cheesecake%2520Group.jpg)

By this time we're knackered so head back to Vdara for an hours kip before the REAL fun...JAPAT 2011! Stop off at Caesars on the way back and get some interesting pics...

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-otNG1EWIWtk/UKjLb5R0lzI/AAAAAAAAAuY/uVXu55Fd23g/s720/Craps%25201.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bmOS2ExCr2o/UKjLbwVFBEI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/bwbTgrZLf2Y/s512/Craps%25202.jpg)

I was surprisingly on a roll and hit a fire bet – the one and only time I have done so! Hit 5/6 numbers for, well, I'm writing this in October 2012, I can't remember! Eventually make it back to Vdara and chill out for an hour.

And before you dirty pervs get any ideas, that dress had to stay on. It was just chilling.

We head over to the Trop at about 5.15pm for JAPAT. Most of it has already been posted on the APAT forums but for newbies, I'll explain. When Joobs found out that APAT didn't have a tourney planned (ie before Curlarge stepped in), she was already determined to play poker in her dress on her wedding day. Hence, JAPAT (Joobie's APAT). We got in touch with a few cardrooms and eventually came up with a good deal from the Tropicana. Silo Graham from Blonde donated a trophy and 2 medals, and Joobs (with Jon MW's help) sorted out a funny wooden spoon for first man out, and we had our own wedding tournament! Nick Gullo, the cardroom manager, was very helpful before, during and after, and the whole thing ran smoothly (even when joobs changed the structure mid tournament.... more than once). I persuaded a few people to start a 3/6 L08 game which apparently ran til 7am in the morning to generate a bit more rake for the room as a thank you, and Jack Prime of all people won the tournament!

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-wgPdyrUA1sA/UKjPLuiX48I/AAAAAAAAAvY/jFBtONubjpw/s640/Jack%252BJoobs.jpg)

I bust pretty early as my role was simple; mingle, host and make sure everyone was happy (oh, and sneak off for some dice). Joobs had one target: Win. Unfortunately Jon MW made her bubble her own wedding tournament!! Apart from this, it was the perfect way for two crazy, poker obsessed lunatics such as ourselves to spend our wedding day: Playing our favourite game with our friends, family and loved ones, some of whom hated poker but joined in just for us) We wouldn't change it for the world, so thank you those who came, those who wished us well, those who watched, and those who just supported us.

Paul Gildea was the unlucky man to bust first (sorry Paul):
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WeJX9kx0qVA/UKjPMOPqntI/AAAAAAAAAvc/1AGGiYUdneM/s640/PG%25201st%2520out.jpg)

Jon MW came 3rd:
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-BfloXYha7b0/UKjPLRCcGSI/AAAAAAAAAvU/U9Xkosc5Jwk/s640/3rd.jpg)

Andrew Duncan came 2nd:
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-X-gFh33q1cU/UKjPLRdzhrI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/qqaDBTQvD6A/s640/2nd.jpg)

And of course, Jack Prime won:
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-PiKQl5pPODs/UKjPMWI2-iI/AAAAAAAAAvg/oRZXQv4qfxQ/s640/Winners.jpg)

By the time the tournament was over it was midnight and the both of us were knackered, so we made the presentations, said thank you, left the degens to play L08, and went back to the Vdara.

And slept. As man and wife.

He'd been there before after Aladdin became PH.

Doh! then :)

Great reports. Trop card room is no more, shows how quick things change.

Day 7 - Tuesday 22nd November 2011 aka Welcome to my new life Day

It's nice to wake up in the morning, turn to your left and say “Good morning, wife!”

Well, the day after you get married it is. It gets old soon after that!!

We'd decided beforehand that our first full day as a married couple was going to be just us. No friends, no family, nobody. Just us, chilling, wandering around Vegas and generally spending time together. Then, as mentioned above, we'd not got to see Julie's dad beforehand due to his late arrival and my poker time on the Sunday. So we had to arrange to see him for lunch as he was leaving for Canada today.

Also, I'd noticed just before we left that the Tropicana had something I HAD to play. Live cash Razz. $2-$8 spread limit. Ran on a Tuesday night only. Needless to say, Joobs and I love our Stud Poker variations so that went on the list. And as we had Jon MW with us on the trip...he was invited. So, our plans for the day kinda went out of the window.

We started off the day with breakfast in bed – which meant more SLIDERS. Breakfast SLIDERS obviously, but still SLIDERS. Can I just point out that there is no better food? Well apart from the cheesecakes we had brought back from the Cheesecake Factory; Double Choc & White Choc, and Macadamia Caramel... perfect start to married life. Eventually dragged ourselves out of bed and went for a wander through the Bellagio as we hadn't really seen it, just passed through it. Played a few slots and won sweet FA, before it got to lunch and we headed over to Harley Davidson for lunch with my new father-in-law. It was nice to just sit and chill, and get to know Julie's dad, and we stayed there until about 2pm when he had to leave to make his flight.

Literally, all we did that day was wander around casinos, taking it all in. We hadn't really had the chance to do this because of the manic-ness that was our first few days, and we were glad of the respite before the real fun started! We finally got hold of MW and walked down from the Flamingo to Tropicana, and I distinctly remember walking into a very drunk Matthew Ward and James Barber at some point outside the massive M&M store, but nearly a year later I can't be sure what day it was!

Arrive at Tropicana for 6pm and the game starts about 45 minutes later. It ended up being one table all night and I was plodding along for a couple of hours before I kicked it into gear and won a few small hands. Then the biggest hand of the night occurs.

I have [32]A and raise over a completion. A local makes it 3! showing a 2 and Andy (one of the dealers who was off that night) caps showing another A.  One fold, then we both call (pot=$100). I draw a 6 for [32]A6 and both of them draw well. It gets capped and I draw a 4 for [32]A64. I know the action slightly slows here but Andy's board shows a potential 64 and the local shows a draw to the wheel. It then gets capped again on 6th and 7th and the pot is over $400, in a $2-$8 spread limit game!

And my 6432A is good.

Ship it!

I eventually walk out around $500 to the good at 2am when the game breaks. Jon and Joobs also won although Joobs donated a good percentage of her profit in the last hand of the night when she asked for a Stud hand (she prefers Stud, I'm a Razz man) and got sucked out on by the same local in my hand. Oops!

We decide to walk back to Vdara via NYNY and Monte Carlo's trams, where we pass the rollercoaster and Joobs ominously decides “I want to go on that!!” Oh, ffs...

I know. Was a lovely little room but just didnt get any traffic at all.

Day 8 - Wednesday 23rd November 2011 – aka I can't remember final moving day!

The title is pretty apt for this day, as I can't remember half of it! Sadly, it's not because of...oh, hold on, I can now. We woke up halfway through our trip, which meant one thing: Time to check out.

I'd been trying to keep the costs down as, well, 2 weeks in Vegas for a couple is pretty expensive, especially when you are degenerates like we are. We were originally going to stay off strip for some of the time, but (looking back, it was a good decision here) we changed our minds when we got a decent deal at the Flamingo for the week. So I booked us in there and cancelled the Gold Coast. Either way, it was our last time waking up to the view from the Vdara. At least I was now getting up at a decent time and it wasn't 5am.

So we get up, pack and head out of Vdara, no questions asked. Quick cab to the Flamingo and...we can't check in. Well, we can, but they want to charge us an “early check-in fee”. Not a chance, that's gambling money ;) Dump the bags with the Bellman and head out.

For most of the gang, it was their last full day in Vegas and they were starting to show it. We met up with MW and all the crew, and for the life of me I can't bloody remember what exactly happened, so if anyone else can fill in the gaps (doubt it) then chime in! I think a few went to Aria for a tourney but some couldn't get in cos they didn’t have their passport (Michelle), or something like that. Either way, gambling and drinking was the order of the day! We had to leave them in the middle of the day to actually check in and then we had an appointment back at the wedding chapel to choose the photos that they would do for us there and then to take home, as well as pick up the CD with all the photos taken on. They're all on Facebook btw. And a massive thank you to everyone who contributed to those!

Joobs and I ended up meeting up with my Mum afterwards (as it was her last day and Julie's parents didn't leave until the Friday) and we headed Downtown as none of us had made it down there yet. It had gone dark by this point so the Fremont Street Experience was in full swing! I personally thought the Fremont Street Experience was awesome, but some people seems to slate it. Compared to the Strip then yeah, it's not going to look great, but you don't pay for it. Add into that all the live bands and exhibitionists that you get – well worth a visit IMO. We also saw the Zipwire...one day I will go on that, one day.

We looked round a few of the casinos, and at the Fitz my mother needed the loo so Joobs chucked a dollar in a ropey old slot machine while we waited, she won, but the fecker paid out in quarters! Great, we have a bucket of quarters to change up, the casino isn't that nice and we didn't really want to draw attention to ourselves, oh well! We then decided that we should introduce my mother to the delight that is Hash House A Go-Go, and I wanted to see if the branch in the Plaza was as good as the one in the IP and I was unsurprisingly correct. Massive portions of good food at a cheap price. Can't really ask for more. Needless to say we failed completely at eating a full portion and left absolutely stuffed. Wander around a few casinos but don't really play much as my Mum is over budget and I don't want to rub it in that I have cash. Buy the typical touristy things for her to take back to the UK and get the Deuce back. Drop her at Harrah's and head back to the Flamingo. 1 week down in what feels like an hour, 1 week left.

Day 9 - Thursday 24th November 2011 – aka Thanksgiving! Day

Woke up at a decent time once again and we headed down to explore the Flamingo. Spotted the poker room but Julie had expressed an intention to learn Craps so we dug out the Vegas tourist book we had (and still have) and headed to Bills for their free lesson complete with $5 voucher. Julie learnt how to play and we won on the vouchers. Met up with MW and after grabbing some lunch I went to play cash back at Flamingo whilst they went slot hunting. I got bored after a couple of hours and found them on this:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDQrWWW466c
(not an actual video of them, just the machine)

This is where I discover my wife gets quite bad slot machine envy, so everyone else getting the bonus apart from her didn't help!

As we're playing this, my phone rings and it's Julie's mum. We'd arranged to meet up with them and  Jon disappeared for a few hours so we headed out onto the Strip. A quick flick through the book and we decided to head to MGM for the CSI experience, so we walked down and met everyone at MGM. We were lucky enough to see the Lions (sadly no longer there) and spent half an hour just wandering around MGM, including playing the Sigma Derby and a slot machine that had a car for a special prize.

I'm a big fan of CSI so was looking forward to the Experience and it didn't disappoint for what it is. You basically get given a vest and a “crime scene”, and go through the exhibit looking for “clues” to solve the “crime”. There's videos by the stars to interact with you to add to the legitimacy. Solved it very easily and the only gripe I have with it is that it's probably a bit out of date now and kinda needs a revamp.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5wOgr5oPtoo/UK_SkOOvTOI/AAAAAAAAAwA/IX-rCzC192o/s640/CSI.jpg)

After this, Joobs & her mum wanted to go for Thanksgiving dinner but it was too early. The oldies decided to head back to the room so we called MW and he headed down to meet us at MGM. We managed to find this: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysi2dvJXWrI and that kept us amused, with Joobs randomly shouting “AHOY, ME HEARTIES, YOU'VE BEEN F****D IN THE ****” in a weird, supposedly pirate, more like Irish accent at the American blokes playing the game!

I'd heard about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6oLgS70_Zg and decided I wanted to play. So we went to find it – and didn't win the $2.2m. It was fun though and Joobs got some decent MLIFE points from it. Joobs won around $100 before I made her cash out, she was convinced she was set to win the jackpot and still hasn't forgiven me!

By this time, we were getting hungry and had plans for the Flamingo buffet for their Thanksgiving special. Value for money, definitely, especially as Joobs decided she was having one of everything, including Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Key Lime Pie, Chocolate Fountain, Ice Cream and Cookies...you name it, she had it. As did the rest of us. Staff were very attentive and the customer service was second to none. The downside? I forgot the bloody camera again!!

After dinner we went for a wander around, and Joobs & her mum ended up buying a pearl which was shucked from the oyster in front of you after you chose your own oyster. Managed to avoid paying for the hellishly expensive charm/bracelet to put it in and walked away with 2 pearls. We then split up – Dawn & Greg went to Fremont Street for their last night and we just went slot machine hunting before heading to bed early...after all, it was Black Friday the next day!

Great read Ty.

Enjoy TRs.

What was Vegas like on thanksgiving day, is it a lot quiter than normal?

The same as every other day that week really. Restaurants were busier but apart from that, about the same.

Day 10 – Friday 25th November 2011 aka Black Fri-day!

God forbid we go on holiday without doing some shopping, and we realised that America's equivalent of the Boxing Day sales was smack-bang in the middle of our trip, so we jumped on the SDX bus and went to the Outlet Center!

I had an idea of what I was looking for but was disappointed to find out that the only store that didn't seem to have any decent sales on was Diesel...and you can guess where I really wanted to go! Stopped off at the Ed Hardy store and bought a hoodie at 75% off whilst Joobs picked up a couple of nice Christian Audigier tops – total cost was less than $100 with tax. Joobs also found an awesome fudge shop so obviously we buy a kilo, and after a nice lunch we jumped back on the bus and headed back to the Strip.

Stopped off back in the room to drop the bags off and headed out for a wander. Today was a casino day but not really for playing. We had the odd craps/slot/VP session but there was no poker and lots of wandering around casinos. We spent a lot of time in the Bellagio at all the attractions and walking between Aria/Bellagio/Caesars, and just taking it all in, as it was the first day we were truly on our own. Parents had left, MW had left, friends had all left, Rich & Khadija had gone to NYC for Thanksgiving so we just chilled out. Had a quick look around the Planet Hollywood shops and stopped off at Earl of Sandwich for eats before strolling to Harrah's for their 8pm tournament.

The tourney was fun but no luck for either of us. I can't remember much of it so I'm guessing we didn't get anywhere! Left there and hit Casino Royale for cheap craps and fun before going to have a look at the beer pong tables in O'Shea's before heading back to Flamingo for late night slots and late night pizza before an early night as we had a big day planned for the Saturday.

It was about this far into the trip that I realised I could stay in Las Vegas for a lot longer than 2 weeks...

Day 11 – Saturday 26th November 2011 aka Downtown day

Today was the only day during the whole holiday that we actually set the alarm.

Didn't bloody need it...

Woke up stupidly early again thankfully as we had an early start. Quick trip downstairs for breakfast and then back up to the room to prepare as we had booked a slot at the Boneyard! The Boneyard is the informal name for the Neon Museum – an exhibition of some of the old Vegas neon signs from history and hotels that have been blown up/rebranded. We had to be there for 1pm and it was 10am so we decided to do it the fun way. Took the Deuce from outside the Flamingo to downtown.

Now, I must interject here. Earlier on in the trip Dan Owston had one of those mobility scooters and FML, they were fun. Naturally, I decided I wanted one. Joobs jokingly said you can have one if it's cheap...and it was. $120 for 5 days! So I hired one (and Joobs will interject here to say NEVER AGAIN)and it came with me down to the Boneyard. This was a mistake...

Got downtown but we couldn't work out how to get to the Boneyard, so we went to the Golden Nugget for a look around before grabbing a cab outside to the Boneyard. It was bloody warm for the end of November! Alright for some who can hide in the shade when walking around, but for a numpty who is in a scooter he doesn't really need? I was boiling. This kinda ruined the visit here for me as I get really snappy and grouchy when I'm too hot, and poor Joobs was getting the brunt of it. Sorry dear...

Even in my bad mood, it was still fun to go round the old signs, taking lots of pictures and visualising the signs up on their old hotels back in the 60s/70s/80s. We took loads of pictures but out of respect (and the fact that everyone should visit this to get some culture in their trip, you bunch of degens) I'm only going to post 3-4 of my favourites.

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kWOOOq29BlE/TuirSmAS2SI/AAAAAAAAAkU/TFgZgg8-Ndk/s640/DSC00243.JPG)

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0vc_tM-h0_w/TuirbXefioI/AAAAAAAAAk0/FTUp6ZAOGB0/s640/DSC00251.JPG)

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zX-YDAcwp2I/TuireT-7z2I/AAAAAAAAAlA/grHj-wuW1ug/s640/DSC00254.JPG)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m0KAlhrYfc0/TuirhW0e-zI/AAAAAAAAAtA/XDZdILUx96Y/s512/DSC00257.JPG)

This tour took about 90 minutes and by the time we were done, it was 3pm. Joobs couldn't be bothered waiting for a bus so we decided to walk back, which was...interesting. I'd do the walk in the day but never in the night as it wasn't the best area to be in, let's be honest! Nothing happened and we made it back about 15 minutes later, where we decided to start off the Downtown tour by a trip to the El Cortez, which was dead. Quick game of VP in there before we headed back over to Fremont Street where we decided to have dinner.

Here: (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mZjnTUveZcE/TuirkHBJ8XI/AAAAAAAAAlY/t7QO5kjYeZE/s640/DSC00260.JPG)

After a fat-inducing dinner of a double bypass Burger & Fries and a buttermilk milkshake (just cream, butter and sugar) we headed out to Binions for cash. Whilst waiting for seats, we got a pic of the Champions wall:

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_40Rh5Cki3A/TuirqNx3m2I/AAAAAAAAAls/I5NUZBc4b2o/s640/DSC00265.JPG)

We then sat down to what was the craziest game of cash I have ever played. There was only one table of cash and it was 2/4 Limit. Joobs got a seat and I was waiting 20 minutes before I got a seat – my button to her BB. On the 3rd hand, I get 87cc and raise. Joobs defends and we see a 10c 9c Jh flop. Joobs checks, I bet, she calls. Turn 6c. Same again, check-bet-call. River's a blank and she checks. I have to bet my straight flush and she, thankfully, calls. I show my straight flush – ship the $100 high hand!!

The game was plodding along nicely until Elvis Presley took the 1 seat. From then on, it just degenerated into madness, of the good kind. Elvis was good for action and good for morale. He managed to get some of the old timers to crack a smile, whilst Joobs and I were just cracking up laughing. It then ended up being a pure WTF moment as Elvis was railed by some of his friends – or to be more precise Pee-Wee Herman and Sylvester Stallone.  At least I can say I played a hand with Elvis Presley whilst Rocky and Pee-Wee Herman railed him. Then to finish it off Jack Nicholson and Austin Powers put in an appearance!

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I found a pair of Queens in the hole. I raised and Elvis made it 3! I made it 4! and Elvis capped. Flop was Q-6-6. 5 bets went in and we saw an A turn. Again 5 bets went in...WTF? Binions have a rule that when HU in limit, there is no cap after the river. The river was a blank and we keep raising until Elvis says “wanna just go all -in?” Erm...yes please! I show my Queens full and he smiles, shows Ace high, shakes my hand and leaves with his crew.

I just stacked Elvis. *shakes head *

Joobs and I stay for another 45 minutes each until the guy in seat 5 started acting weird. He was drunk, but he kept asking the dealer if he could go to the bathroom! We just ignored it until one time where he didn't, he just folded out of turn and left. We carried on playing the hand...until I glanced backwards and saw him vomiting into a bin. Nice. That was enough for me and I cashed out, as the floor staff didn't want to remove him or cut him off.

We then decided to head out onto Fremont Street where Joobs got this awesome photo of a contortionist:

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_2WnaCt2Peg/TuiruFa3FVI/AAAAAAAAAl4/XB7GtgYo9kE/s640/DSC00268.JPG)

It was getting pretty late after this so we played a few slots before grabbing the Deuce back to the Strip and heading back to the Flamingo to play Joobs' favourite slots and get some sleep.

Day 12 – Sunday 27th November 2011 aka Time to kill some Zombies day!

Originally for this day we'd planned a trip up to Oakland to go to an NFL game (sad Raiders fan here). Sadly, the airfares were slightly ridiculous for a day trip so we gave up on that idea. Joobs had also expressed a serious desire to go shooting.

Which scared the crap out of me.

However, being the nice husband that I am, I agreed and after a light breakfast from the local shops, where Joobs discovered the one American food item she continually raves on about to this day – yes, Bran Muffins – we jumped in a cab and headed down to The Gun Store. $20 in a cab later and we pulled up at a surprisingly low key place from the outside.

Walked in and OMG. Guns. Everywhere. Handguns, Shotguns, Rifles, Sub-machine guns, AK-47s...you name it, they seemed to have it. It took my wife all of 3.5 seconds to decide what package she wanted...

http://www.store.thegunstorelasvegas.com/the-zombie-package

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_TcBxhSjAk8/TuiqR7O8TcI/AAAAAAAAAic/JQbgxSHIosY/s640/DSC00269.JPG)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-K2LjeETww44/TuiqVQSGkuI/AAAAAAAAAio/vhYuEpVAX1c/s640/DSC00272.JPG)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-VzQlz9ZBt7o/TuiqXmXB02I/AAAAAAAAAiw/9bINWgSiGXs/s640/DSC00274.JPG)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-98r-JZ5WAkQ/TuiqbFYnjQI/AAAAAAAAAi8/zvylYt1pzvk/s640/DSC00277.JPG)

I must admit...Joobs is a better shot. By a mile. She seems to be a natural with a gun – so all of you need to be very, very scared. It was one of the highlights of the trip and they were kind enough to let us keep some of the shotgun shells and other bullet casings, which we did manage to get through Customs and are now with us at home. My favourite gun was the Shotgun where Joobs seemed to enjoy the automatic guns most.

When we return I want to shoot the wall...

After we finished we did the obligatory wander around the gift shop as our package meant we got a t-shirt free each. Picked up the t-shirts along with the targets we shot, and the bullets, and jumped in a cab. Next stop on this crazy day? New York, New York...for the ROLLERCOASTER!

Well, Joobs got on the rollercoaster. I'm a wuss and just stayed in the gift shop waiting for her.

After a slightly wobbly newlywed got off the rollercoaster, I had to stop her from getting straight back on the thing! Apparently it is awesome, proper old rickety rollercoaster, I'll take her word for it. we made our way out of NYNY via some slot machines (I'm sensing a slight leak here) and decided we wanted to play some cash. Monte Carlo was the nearest casino so we went to see what was on offer. All they had was $2-$6 spread limit but there was a couple of tables so we sat down. I might have precipitated this because my beloved Raiders were on the TV screens and the Monte Carlo had a promo on where the best high hand in each quarter won $100.

Naturally, my lucky wife managed to squeak a win in the 2nd quarter when she turned quad 2's and got her opponent to fold on a 2-2-5-2 board. She showed the quads but originally the ruling was that she wasn't eligible for the high hand as you had to use both your hole cards. She was holding 2-5.  I successfully argued that she could use both her hole cards – either way the winning 5-card hand was 2-2-2-2-5.

She got the monies :)

Most people racked up and left after the football games finished so we decided to join them and wandered back to the Flamingo for some food before heading to the IP for their much recommended $3/$6 mixed game. This game isn't one you play to win. If you get lucky then you win. Either way, win or lose, it's well worth a go on a Sunday night because it is ridiculously fun. As Joobs said “I just paid $150 for an awesome night”. To be fair I think she made most of her money back from the free cookies they supply to players.

Some of the games were known, eg Triple Draw, Badugi...all the mixed games you get on Stars. However, there were also some weird ones, for example Omaha 3-2-1 (3 flops, 2 turns, 1 river) or Crazy Pineapple Ocean (Crazy Pineapple with an extra community card). I somehow proceeded to have the nut flush on a non paired board in Omaha 3-2-1 and lost because someone else had a nut flush – his AQ943 beat my AQ942 (different suits). Needless to say, it was confusing at times, but an awesome night.

After racking up about $200 down between us when the game broke, we had a quick play around in O'Shea's and Margaritaville before heading back to the room happy, but in my mind I was realising that this was all due to come to an end very soon...

Day 13 – Monday 28th November 2011 aka get your Penn and Teller fix day!

I'd promised Joobs that as I hadn't been up to the Stratosphere yet, and she hadn't been on any of the rides at the tower, we would head up there and I would go up for the very first time (I missed Joobs' previous visit due to illness). A small announcement: I HATE HEIGHTS.

And yet I loved the Stratosphere!

After the obligatory get up/breakfast/slot fun etc we headed up towards the Strat for about 11am and were unsurprised to find out that it was practically deserted. Sadly the location of the casino really doesn't help bring the numbers in and if there was ever a casino that should only be open at certain times, this would be the one. After we'd paid the fee for going up to the top of the Tower, we went in a very fast, very ear-popping lift up 100 floors in about 30 seconds, and walked out to this view:

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2ZzyZBeBQbM/Tuip8HpBA3I/AAAAAAAAAhw/wJRbnXLzAIY/s640/DSC00285.JPG)

After watching a few helicopters get close enough for me to see the pilot's eyes, and a few planes come into land at McCarran over the mountains, Joobs then got on the Bigshot, which was something I was never doing.

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-goeWfisTqjQ/TuipswT1Y5I/AAAAAAAAAhs/04EmF46xM3M/s640/DSC00281.JPG)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Uc1fLW55SRA/Tuip9O1fqTI/AAAAAAAAAtE/LfntwDzr_MA/s512/DSC00286.JPG)

Sadly, she didn't fall out, and after putting her stomach back into its rightful place, we headed back down after I promised Joobs that I would get close to the edge...

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uNpQWzed-Dw/Tuip-y1ILzI/AAAAAAAAAtI/W9e1E9Kp2-U/s512/DSC00289.JPG)

I was very scared here.

After we settled, we went back downstairs and hunted out the Stratosphere card room, but it was dark so we left and headed back towards the Flamingo after getting lunch at none other than Hash House A Go Go. Again. This time Joobs ordered a stuffed half pound  burger and when it arrived a fat American dude across the restaurant laughed at its size, but this didn't put Joobs off when she was determined to finish a meal here... and to be fair she came close, I finally called time when she had a small wedge of burger and a few fries festering on the plate, as she had a bad case of the meat sweats and refused to leave till it was gone ffs, so as a responsible husband I dragged her from the table and paid the bill. All I could hear as we left was “20 more minutes, I only need 20 more minutes..” again I doubt she will ever forgive me for that one.

Whilst having lunch, we decided that we had to head over to the Rio to pick up Penn & Teller tickets, so we went over to get them. We had a few hours to kill before the show and had eaten so we jumped on the shuttle buses back to the Flamingo, but then changed our minds and headed to another casino – think you can work out which from the clue below?

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-UC_fGWeK_F8/TuiqBIVYYOI/AAAAAAAAAiA/H6OVduyQCo4/s640/DSC00291.JPG)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-sa1jsYnMBqM/TuiqCNXHe-I/AAAAAAAAAtM/60ZM_haCGjY/s512/DSC00292.JPG)

Yep, that's the Orleans.

We played enough slots over there to keep getting offered two free nights – and yet we only played for about 45 minutes on penny slots. After we left the Orleans we got the Station Casinos bus to the Gold Coast and played some more slots in there before heading back to the Rio for food.

As it was our 1 week anniversary (and the only anniversary we've celebrated so far), we decided to have dinner at Voodoo Lounge at the Rio. Joobs had a fillet steak medium-rare  whilst I had the chicken dish and OMG, it was heaven. The best dinner we'd eaten all holiday. The chicken just melted in my mouth and as for Joobs...I couldn't get a word out of her until her plate was empty.

Completely stuffed and struggling with a food coma, we took the long walk down to the Penn & Teller theater. We were one of the very few people to clock that Mr Jillette was on stage performing before the show, and we soon settled down in the second row from the front to watch the masters perform.

They were masterful. There were some tricks I’d seen before, but a lot of them I hadn't seen (Joobs being a huge fan knew them all - standard) and they were just perfect. It was the best show I'd been to at that time and I would highly recommend them to anybody. Just to finish it off, Penn & Teller ran a show in the UK where the winner was invited to Vegas to perform with them. We'd watched this every week and loved the duo that ended up winning...and they happened to be there that night!

Unfortunately, Penn was ill and was unable to make the afterwards meet and greet, but Joobs was able to meet Teller and get a picture with him.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tdNVVlSvObs/TuiqDDiqGWI/AAAAAAAAAiI/NKP8eBqf0dE/s640/DSC00293.JPG)

After the end of the show, we stuck around playing some VP in the Rio for a bit after taking a picture of the best named restaurant in Vegas before heading back to the Flamingo for an early, relaxing night, knowing that sadly tomorrow was our last full day in Sin City...

Oh, that restaurant?

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Day 14 – Tuesday 29th November 2011 – aka the last full day

It was with a slightly heavy head that I woke up on the Tuesday, as there was so much I wanted to do and yet didn't have time to do so! I'd heard from RichEO as he was back in Vegas now so we arranged to meet up for dinner later, when he woke up! As we had time to spare, we checked how much cash we had left and decided to head out for some NLHE.

Joobs generally doesn't play NLHE cash so we decided to sit in the .5/1 game at Bills that morning after a quick game of Craps. Never again. This was quite possibly nittier than the LHE game in Monte Carlo, something I didn't think possible, and the patrons were annoying to say the least. We lasted an hour in that game before racking up $100 down and escaping.

We both wanted to play a Venetian midday tournament on the trip but hadn't had the opportunity due to the Venetian DeepStacks running whilst we visited, and today was our only oppportunity to do so, so we jumped in at 12pm. I ran pretty deep but bust eventually losing a flip, and Joobs didn't fare much better. Can highly recommend the Venetian cardroom though. Very professional and they serve Fiji water complimentary – a massive thumbs up from me! As it was about 4.30pm by the time we'd busted, I ran off to check in on Southwest Airlines for our flight to LA the next day and managed to secure a decent position in the boarding line, then checked in for our BA flight back to England but sadly couldn't score 2 seats next to each other on the plane. Still got the private upper deck though.

We headed back to the Flamingo to dump some stuff and get ready for our night out, before we met Rich and Khadija at Bills before heading to Blue Martini at Town Square for dinner. Blue Martini was pretty busy but we managed to get a table and order some food and drinks before just having a lovely evening chilling.

Eventually we left Blue Martini and headed to Mirage for poker. Rich jumped in a NLHE game whilst I decided to play 3/6 LHE as I hadn't brought enough cash for the NLHE game. There were a few cowboys in early for the Rodeo that was beginning on the Friday and one of them jumped into our game, and he was a massive donator. A lot of fun was had and I left about $100 up. The girls went off to play dice and slots, and after about 2 hours, Joobs was getting tired and as we had to pack, we left and went our separate ways.

It was back to the hotel for us and a nice walk back in a balmy Las Vegas was had, taking it all in knowing that we were leaving the next morning.

Day 15/16 – Wednesday 30th November 2011/Thursday 1st December 2011 – aka it's time to go back to England day!

Wake up to our alarm for the first time in days. It's time to go.

We had some time to kill so nipped out for a last blowout before Khadija picked us up. Lost a quick $100 at dice and slots before grabbing the bags and checking out of the Flamingo. Khadija met us at the valet entrance and kindly drove us over to McCarran, where we checked in and had a 90 minute wait, which we got through with some very last minute slot action.

After a couple of hours, we got on the 1.30pm flight to Los Angeles International Airport and despite being B-35/B-36 in the boarding queue, we managed to snag the last two front row seats. Extra leg room, wiiiiiiiiii! Last win of the trip.

The plane was late into LAX due to holding so we had to run with all the bags from our terminal to the international terminal to get the bags on the plane. Managed to do this and got a quick 45 minutes to chill out in the Business Lounge before being called for our flight back to the UK. Unfortunately, despite asking everyone, we were unable to get seats next to each other and so I let Joobs have 64J for the privacy, whilst I was stuck in 63B. I did end up getting the better deal though, as there was an extremely foul gentleman in 64K who did not stop farting! She didn't sleep and actually spent most the flight sat on the floor next to me... one of the benefits of being on the top deck I suppose?

I actually managed to get some sleep on this flight, but not much, and we landed on time at London Heathrow at 10am Thursday morning. After the queue to get back into the country (long, but not McCarran long!) we headed up to the Arrivals lounge for a shower, breakfast and a very nice complimentary spa treatment.

We'd got chatting to the girl that did our spa treatments before we left, and arranged to meet her in the Arrivals spa when we returned. She was there and we had our treatments – this time I might have just had a very, very relaxing massage. After a long chat we headed to the Heathrow Express and got the train into town, then a quick Tube journey to Euston Square where an extremely over tired Joobs saw her backside because she was struggling to wheel her case and her new more bulky with no handle wedding dress box (the old one got destroyed and left behind) over the uneven London pavements! Cue a quickly regretted sarcastic comment from a London commuter when her reply was like something  out of the exorcist!

Got on the train to Chester via Warrington and this time we couldn't get the whole table to ourselves as the train was jam-packed. Got a table though and I settled down with the lappy and internet catchup whilst Joobs tried to get some sleep and failed miserably, as every time the train tilted she awoke with a panic thinking she was still on the plane and there was turbulence!!

Eventually made it back home at about 5pm on the Thursday night and proceeded to try and stay up as late as possible to try and reset our body clocks, before finally passing out at 7pm. We were home. It was over. We were married.

We woke up at 2am on the Friday morning. Great.

Loved following you on this trip. Keep the diary running

I know it was last week, but Happy Anniversary!!!  Figure I can be late with this post seeing as it took you a whole friggin' year to post the trip report.   :-*

I like Bill's but only thing I wouldn't do there is play poker :) Nice restaurant there for decent and cheap steaks.

It's closing in February for a "refit"