PlanetAnya

I hadn’t realised quite how much I’d been dreading getting my hair cut here – but I have. I’ve seen so many women here with scary helmet hair the thought of leaving a hairdressers looking like that terrorised me. The preference seems to be for overly puffy and over hairsprayed middle aged hairstyles – these are particularly prevalent outside major city centres. (Think Hilary Clinton or Condoleeza Rice getting out of a plane – the hair is RIGID.) Urgh.

Anyway – I was reccommended a hairdresser. I went. I had my hair cut. She did exactly what I asked for and even blow dryed it as I’d asked. So that leads me to only one conclusion: they must all go in and ask for middle aged hair with all the bounce of Darth Vader’s helment. Scary.

I tried my first ever slot machine tonight. I had high expectations – all those flashing lights, bells and whistles. I even got someone to show me how to do it. Basically you just push a button and the wheels go round. Sometimes you win and mostly you don’t. “But that can’t be all there is to it?” I kept protesting. Apparently it is.

I lasted 5 minutes. I’m not the gambling sort at the best of times but there’s just nothing to it. And the rows and rows of slots are just seedy – even in a smart hotel you look around and see at all the people shuffling dead eyed from one machine to another, pushng buttons like automata. I just don’t get it.

Still I managed to make the princeley sum of $29 (OK so I did start with a voucher for $25 credit).

I’m back in Las Vegas for a trade show. It is my second trip this year – and the place doesn’t get any less weird. Everything is full on bling. It starts with the slot machines at the gate when you step off the plane. I’m even quite sure I saw “menopause the musical”

Also it seems to be some sort of elephants’ graveyard- I really think it is where old singers go to die. Engelbert Humperdink is here, so are Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis and Celine Dion of course… who knew most of them were still alive?

I’ve already mentioned that the driving test here is far from rigorous and I’m frustrated on a daily basis by the fact that people here seem to feel they have to slow to walking pace to navigate even the gentlest of turns (something to do with most of the cars being made of blancmange methinks). However there are two driving conventions here that are growing on me:

• the ability to turn right at a red light when it is safe to do so. Very enlightened.
• the second is the 4way stop. Now initially I thought this was just a traffic aggravating measure but it actually seems to work. The trick is to remember what order you arrived in and then take turns to go in the same order. It also manages to slow down the traffic without resorting to speed bumps.

Although now I think about it, the real reason for the absense of speed bumps is probably due to the fact that you don’t notice them in a  mobile blancmange…