I'm awake not long after 3am as usual, on the lucky 14th floor of the Stratosphere (remember, the number 13 does not exist here), although I'm grateful right now to be here at all. Took me three hours before I could check in, thanks to Travelworm (they don't deserve a hyperlink) kindly faxing through a list of customers that had cancelled their bookings, and my name was on the list. Apparently they had the same problem yesterday. So I had to wait around for a new list to get faxed through, leaving me wandering the casino wheeling my suitcase from tv screen to tv screen. Not that big a deal really, as all I really wanted to do before crashing out was watch the football, but I would have liked to do it without having to sit on my suitcase in a sportsbook. No point checking my bags with the bell desk - apparently they were sending some folk to another hotel yesterday because of the Travelworm cock up.
Had a pretty good flight really. No problems with flashing the silver diamond club card to get priority check-in (not that there was much of a line anyway) and I got the lounge pass without asking, as well as being pointed towards to priority security door, which was great because there was a huge line to be scanned. Also discovered that if you wait for an escort from the lounge to the gate (in the past we've always gone wandering for duty free, usually disappointed - £17 for Jack Daniels... what's the point when I can get one for $12 over here?) then you get to board the plane first too. I got one of the legroom seats at the front of the cabin too, and they fed me Macaroni Cheese, which is surprisngly edible for plane food. Very little that can go wrong with it, really.
I got a chatty cabby who wanted to know everything. Of course the subject of why I was in town came up, so I had to tell him I was going to be on TV. Rude not to. I then proceeded to jinx myself. This was one of those perfect moments where I say something like, "you know if I win the million, I'll buy you a Mercedes" or something, pushing my karma up and creating a nice little story for when I do actually win. But I only thought about it later. Crapola.
Now waiting for the breakfast buffet to open, then will work out a plan for my poker assualt this week!
