Aladdins Lamp

Waking time: 7am

I start the day with a quest for coffee, and return with bagels, coffee and sticky buns.Getting coffee is strange since downstairs many people are still on Friday night and sit at card tables with cocktails in their hands.Later, I say, i'll play some machines. It takes us a while to get out and about today, since we are both struck with some kind of food poisioning we can only attribute to yesterday's Mexican/Italian meal. Vegas is without a doubt the most environmentally unfriendly place I have ever stayed, since everything comes in plastic punets and on paper plates. The food we had wasn't awful at the time, it was disappointing though and a bit bland, since we are used to chilli's we make ourselves, and the Indian takeaway over the road. There is nothing in our Mexican that resembles spice, but since it's inoffensive we ate it anyway. We don't complain, since we are convinced since it is Mexican food the people in the restaurant will attribute it to English people not being used to spicy food, and there will be nothing we can say to convince them otherwise. To be honest I am a little relieved when he is also struck down, it reassures me that feeling a little queasy is not just the result of the feeling I have woken up with resembling stagefright.

We head out, buying bus passes, since the memory of our aching feet is so fresh. We are heading downtown. He says he wants to find the Marriage License Bureau. The building is surrounded by people hustling, handing fliers for chapels to couples and running a spiel to them about their place, 'Come with us, we could drive you right over now.' Couples take the leaflets and join the queue which is out the door, and I remember that Vegas is also one of the quickest place in the world to get divorced. It seems a shame there isn't a divorce papers bureau right next door, with a queue twice as long to serve its cautionary tale. They could put a revolving door between them and save alot of time. I watch the couples in the queue, listen to snippets of conversations at the bullet proof hatch.

'the last time we were here it was 2 in the morning and we just got right through'

'Sure, we both turned 21 now.'

Quite a few pregnant women, lots of people who look very young.Something that makes me a little sad about the whole place. I try to keep the boredom at bay by secretly guessing which couples have been together for less than a year, and decide I can spot them a mile away. This is about when he puts his arm around me as if he is thinking the same and doesn't want to lose face.

After the bureau we head to Fremont street to see the old signs we've seen on TV, that have been restored after the hotels where knocked down. It is a nice atmosphere, the place is more laid back and less hustle, blissfully shaded by a canopy. It is early afternoon, and 32 degrees. Tomorrow we leave Vegas. He has a license with our names on in his bag and I am wondering what happens next as we head back in search of stripper attire shops. Wondering what i'm so afraid of, wondering if there'll be a sign.

It is Friday night for real now and we sit drinking beers watching the lights, and cars come to collect waiting brides. I am feeling chilled. The lights wash over me, and this seems like quiet time. One more beer and I could be ready, we could wander over to that chapel, get it over with, come back and have an excuse to get pissed. I wait for suggestions, but they don't come, so we get something to eat and head back to the room, the could have been wedding day slipping away as he lies back on the bed and prays to break wind.

New food tried: Finding it hard to find new foods to try in Vegas, lots of take out places with meals for the masses.Overall not impressed with the food here, no local delicacies except cactus candy, and not that big on vegi meals. The food is disposable, quick, afterall there are machines waiting to be gambled on.
Slot machines: I had a whole punnet of change ready but I think my mistake is I was looking for Scarbrough, and getting excited at the thought of lots of little horse racing games and one arm bandits with pictures of cherries on. Most of the machines don't take cash and you have to use your credit card or buy coupons. There isn't a single ledge in a glass case with a shelf of silver overhanging to roll 10p's in so I give in, since there isn't a single game here I understand.
Falling asleep to: I don't turn on the set, since the whole of Vegas feels like one giant TV