The best thing about being back (apart from a huge workload) is the fact that I got a few days off to go and explore. I made it up to Area 51 in Nevada, the Valley of Fire, the Hoover Dam (Major Boring), Death Valley in California and even made it up to the Grand Canyon in Arizona passing through Williams and Flagstaff – god knows how far I drove but I loved every minute of it. The worst part of the trip, dropping my new Nikon D40 having just arrived at the Grand Canyon – God Damn It! Bad news especially seeing as how I needed the camera the day after I returned to the UK for Glastonbury Festival – solution: Went to Best Buy and brought another one – Whew!

Did a ton of HDR work whilst I was over there, you can check out my photos on my Flickr page. And my Mount Charleston photos on here.

I stayed 2 blocks off the beach at the Copacabana Resedencia Hotel, great place. 3 minutes to the beach. Copacabana leads onto Ipanema (but it’s a long walk!), then onto Leblon. Ipanema beach is much nicer than Copacabana with a ton of police and friendly people. Leblon is the ‘rich’ area of Rio so expect to pay a bit more, same goes for Ipanema.

Tips:

• If you want a taxi, just stand at the edge of the road with your hand out, make sure they are on a meter, believe it or not Rio has the cheapest taxis in Brasil. A taxi from Copacabana to Christo cost me R$22 or about £7. It’s a 20 minute ride.
• If your going to Christo at the weekend leave early, took me 4 hours to queue and get the train up the hill – but you have to go. It’s about R$40 for a ticket.
• A taxi from Christo to Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) should cost about R$25 – 30 max! And takes about 25 minutes. It’s about R$40 to get the cable car – remember to get both!!
• If you really want to see Rio at night, head off to Lapa (Taxi from Copabana is about R$20), open bars, samba, clubs, heaving. It’s very near to the centre of Rio. You know if you’ve gone to far when you wander past the Gas Station and the music changes to ‘Favella Funk’ – best to turn around :)
• If your on the beach getting hassled by the street sellers just say ‘Obrigado, não’ pronounced ‘Brigade, Noum’ and off they go – they can be pretty persistent.

Rio De Janeiro is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, beautiful weather, fantastic beaches surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains, friendly people, great food and a lively night life. Just go, let your hair down and have a great time.

So down for Breakfast (that’s all I’m saying about it), met up with Frank and off down the sun soaked street for a short stroll to my new office for the next few weeks. Met the team – great guys and gals. Everyone is so friendly over here, I mean – I’ve never felt so welcome anywhere I’ve been, it’s a different way of interacting with people lots of eye contact and no real concept of personal space, with patting and hand shaking – a very touchy feeling (in a good way) bunch of people.

Manic day – all 12 hours of it working, back to the hotel for a picture of the most beautiful orange sunset I have ever seen. Shower and then off to a restaurant called ‘Temple’, for some Pinga (Cachaca) in a Caipirinha which is so good it’s unreal especially mixed with Kiwi. The best steak I have eaten in a long while topped with proper sundered toms and dressing, added to a little risotto - great evening, good company, good Brazilian music and just a relaxing thing to do.

12 Hours of fun filled frivolities on the plane (so glad I paid extra for an exit seat), had so much space to myself, lovely service, had about 11 vodkas in a vain attempt to sleep – no chance, just felt like I had a hangover when I landed in Sao Paulo.

Customs: Brasilia this way, Foreigners that way – huge lines, slow customs took me an hour just to get into the airport. Found my ‘guides’ and away we went for the 300km drive to Bauru. Stopped as the ‘Best Petrol Station’ in all of south America on my way for something like a burrito, but was so tired I thought I was going to be sick.

It’s hot, like 27 hot, which is crazy (but this is the start of the Brazilian summer) with 83% humidity, walk outside and you either melt or are soaked in seconds either by profuse perspiration or the crazy rainstorms.

Off to my bed for rest and sleep and up early tomorrow. Come on.

Anyway, flight is supposed to take off at 6:30am, 6:15am come and goes with no boarding information, I can already feel it, I’m going to have a bad day. So at 6:29am they announce gate 11 for boarding, a mad scramble ensues and the plane is full in a matter of minutes – most people were traveling early to catch connecting flights to either Sao Paulo or Cape Town. 4 and half fucking hours I sat in that plan still attached to the terminal. 11am rolls around and we’ve left, no sooner than we are in the air and drinking our vodka’s, and the pilot announces that we are starting our descent – I forget that it is only 45mins to Schipol.

Land at 1pm ish (don’t forget to add the hour for the Netherlands), totally missed my flight to Brazil. Have to find a transfer desk, the ‘computer’ (and if by computer, they mean worthless piece of shit, then I mean computer) booked me another fight for tomorrow, but with all the wrong seats – I did not get up at 4am on Sunday to checkin with great seats to have them taken away from me now. After a lengthly argument, KLM gave me a better seat for tomorrows flight, and like €10 for food, €10 phone credit and a €50 discount for my next flight (yeah, right). 

So about to leave the Airport and I haven’t even grabbed my baggage yet, I don’t hold out much hope for it as I figure they will hold it until tomorrow (I was right) – 2 and a half hours later and I finally have my bag. Went to the Sheraton to book a room (figuring it would be similarly priced to the UK), not a Fucking chance £220 for 1 night, just for the privilege of being able to walk for 5 minutes, tried the Hilton £190 for 1 night and finally the Mariott £150 for 1 night – Jesus H Christ, what is the world coming to – eventually found the Best Western about 10 minutes away (by shuttle), settled there instead for a comfortable €97 a night (god knows what that translates into, £87.94 as it turns out).

So to sum it all up, I’ve had a shit day and it’s taken me well over 12 hours to travel a couple hundred miles. Tomorrow (providing my god damn plane actually takes off) I will spend another 12 hours in the air, followed by another 4 in a car on my way to Bauru.

Moral of the story – next time – direct flights.

So Wednesday has been and passed into oblivion. Spent the day looking at Commercial properties all across Vegas and Henderson – I can’t say to much, but my oh my, they really do things differently over here and it will be an interesting few months upon my return to the UK.

Thursday and it’s time for a kind of day off – I haven’t stopped since we arrived in the desert, so it’s a welcome break. Decided that after my win at the Flamingo, I would try my hand in a bigger tourney at the Venetian – goddam – I love the Venetian, it’s just such a classy place in every sense of the word.

12pm rolls around, 165 people entered and the top 18 places paid. That was the longest 7 hours of poker I have ever played. Straight from the off, it was a tough competition. I was never in the lead for the entire 7 hours and every hand I was practically dead, the river saved me more times than I can remember.

I’ve got KK, all in, against AA – the flop comes 78Q, turn comes 2 and the river K – double up! Now sitting with 9,000 chips. Then a few hours later I’ve got 10 10, I go all in with 5,000, the 10 hits on the river! Then I’ve got A7 vs 67, I walk off knowing that I’m beat, big mistake, 32J54 – haha – straight! The tournament started with 7,500 chips, 7 hours later I’ve scrounged up about 30,000, but the blinds are now 3,000 / 1,500 with 500 Ante, I move all in with AK vs AQ, he hits the Q on the river – ain’t karma a bitch!

Friday (that’s today I think), spent the morning at Green Valley Ranch down in Henderson (awesome place) looking at properties, just ‘oh my god’ I can get a 4 bed house for like £130,000, must. get. greencard.

Entered the Venetian again at 7pm, thought I’d try my luck again. Crazy tournament, just crazy – finished in 52nd out of 130. Long story short – I had 3,200 in chips – the blinds are 600 / 1200 with a $75 Ante, and I was the next big blind which would have left me with 1,925 (not very threatening!), got dealt 88, went all in, 2 players joined the hunt, got dished by a pair of K’s!

Totally knackered, and totally off to Washington on Sunday, so must get this gambling head back into the maniacal work routine. I love LV!

What saved me, a pair of Kings, so the flop comes K A 2 and I’m all like – great Trip K’s, then in comes the 9, then an Ace, I look at the board and all I can see are the four spades, the asian bloke I’m playing heads-up is laughing and he thinks he got the Flush (which he has), I get up wander off, nope, I got the full house – adios Asian dude, hello the money!

So being the clever so and so I am, and thinking that the next tourney I entered would also get me to the final table – entered the Caesars Palace ‘Bounty’ Tournament – basically for every player you knock out you get $50. Finished in 12th place – aaargh, no final table, must be more careful, but when your being blinded out and you have 1125 in chips left (the largest on our table was about 10,000), what can you do.

Anyway, been a great day of meeting and event and I’ve done all sorts. To top it off, the pussy cat dolls were playing at Pure in Caesars Palace for Mariah Carey’s party or some such rubbish like that, great stuff!

Got into vegas at about 1pm ish, cab to the Paris – god, it’s like we have never left, nothing has changed, the relentless machine keeps its wheels turning, constantly sucking money from it’s unsuspecting victims. Grabbed a SOTB with some blueberry Stolli, some Wheel of Misery and of course $40 on my Diamond Spinner – which I lost.

Later on, Andy and I entered the Poker tournament at the Flamingo, I made the final table and ended up 2 and half hours later leaving the tournament in a respectable 5th – 2 places off the money – damn!

Got about 4 hours sleep and then welcome to Thursday, crazy town! Grabbed some breakfast (nearly didn’t keep that down) and tried to relax for the day, spent most of it in bed nursing a sore head, could not face the heat today!! Anyway, longer story even shorter than the last, ended up in ‘The Bank’ which is a nightclub in the Bellagio (it’s a vegas club, oh yes), WOW! Amazing place, marbled floors, awesome lighting, everyone in smart casual, some big players in their – I dread to think how many people I bumped into last night, but let’s just say that when I arose from my pit this morning, my phone was chokker with txt’s and I even managed to grab some pics of whatever the hell I was up to last night, or the night before!!

Everything is backwards here, from fear and loathing:

Raoul Duke: [referring to the knife Acosta is holding] Jesus Christ, where’d you get that thing?
Dr. Gonzo: Room Service sent it up, I needed something to cut the limes.
Raoul Duke: Limes? What limes?
Dr. Gonzo: They didnt have any, they don’t grow in the desert.

I’ll be back in the UK on Sunday morning although if i’m honest i’d rather stay Stateside. The dreary trudge of wet old England does not befit me well at all. Viva Las Vegas!

Met up with Andy and the pool and had a ‘Turkey’ club sandwich and yes, as usual they brought me out an entire turkey covered with two tiny bits of bread – man oh man, eating a sarny by the pool in the desert – not the most comfortable experience. Entered the Paris poker tourney yesterday and made it into the last 14, out again just off the money!

I played poker with Andy 3 times since I’ve been here and every time stayed in longer, but these little tourney’s are crap shoots – who gives a shit going all in with nothing – it’s only like $70 or something – I doubt Andy is playing anything but Gold at the WSOP today! – Bastard – Just had a phone call from Andy- ‘What’s the number for Virgin Atlantic, we’re off home’ – WHAT? Oh, your only joking, right, funny – from the sounds of it Andy is in good shape over at the Rio.

No gambling today – absolutely none and I feel great – shopping tomorrow if I get time and fancy getting myself scorched!

Yesterday was another relax day, getting prepared for the big event today!