Author Archives: Antikrish

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About Antikrish

For answers to all the questions you didn't know you had! www.antikrish.com

Trip to the States October 2011 – Video Summary

Here’s a video summary of our trip to the USA! For quick viewing 🙂

 

Sundance 1 – Beautiful river up in Sundance, Utah.

 

Sundance 2 – Peaceful rock pool in Sundance, Utah.

 

 

Sundance 3 – The Mountains before entry to Sundance, Utah.

 

Bridal Veil Falls – The incredibly beautiful waterfall in Utah.

 

McDonalds – Shaking hands with the Pope.
Where I was when I found out Colonel Gaddafi had been shot dead!

 

Vegas Skyline – Daytime.

 

Palazzo Hotel – Reception and main entrance.

 

Palazzo Hotel – Our Room.

 

Margaritaville.

 

Las Vegas Strip – 1.

 

Las Vegas Strip – 2.

 

Palazzo Hotel – Outside.

 

The Venetian Hotel.

 

Palazzo Hotel Casino – Kev’s Big Win!

 

Palazzo Hotel Casino – Lorraine’s Big Win!

 

Manhattan Beach – Sitting with Rainy, knackered.

 

Manhattan Beach – Pier complete with Silent Hill style fog.

 

Me in a hot tub, Manhattan Beach.

 

Rainy in the hot tub, Manhattan Beach.

 

Lorraine on Rodeo Drive.

 

Lorraine and the Hollywood Sign.

 

Burger King’s Texan Whopper.

Palazzo Casino – Antikrish versus the Machines – 20/10/2011

I promised my Dad 7 years ago that I’d go to Las Vegas and try my luck in the casino’s. SHOW ME THE MONEY!

I remember making a conscious decision to re-evaluated my betting reserve and eventually decided to spend no more than $200 (I originally budgeted for about $600).  As I explained in an earlier post, I didn’t feel ‘lucky’; so I reduced my betting budget accordingly and avoided the card and roulette tables completely.  I reasoned that I’d come back one day in the future and see how I felt then!  Not bad logic for a guy who had drunk an offensive amount of tequila eh?

My favourite slot machine was the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ themed slots, I won about $400-$500 dollars on 4 machines (they are usually grouped in 4’s).  I was pretty wasted from drinking the Margarita’s and not having eaten too much (wasn’t a huge fan of the buffet we went to); however, playing slot machines is pretty instinctive even when I’m inebriated due to the amount of time I spent in Selsey’s seaside arcades. So on I went.

I had a generous win of just over $300 dollars on the ‘Wheel of Fortune machine’ (see video below), the Old Man was definitely with me that night; it’s a shame I didn’t have a 5 at the end of the 3 and 4 (on the reels) as that would have won the house prize; approximately $350,000 dollars.

Lorraine had stopped gambling by that point (after a good flutter on the ‘Sex and the City’ machines) as I think she was watching her cash with view to more shopping and was a bit puzzled by how the machines worked.  So I gave her $20 of my winnings and went onto the ‘Monopoly’ themed machines for her; winning her $98.10 which paid for the pukka ‘Guess’ handbag she had seen at the outlet mall only earlier upon our arrival to Las Vegas.

My last run of luck was winning a couple of hundred dollars on the ‘Star Wars’ machine; I would love to have one in my house, it had some fantastic features and bonuses, plus video and sounds from the films. Artoo Deetoo was my bitch.

So I came away well ‘up’ on the night in terms of my winnings; I had also fulfilled my promise to dear Daddy who had seen me right with my luck.

Thank you Daddy!

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VIDEO 1 – The BIG win!

VIDEO 2 – Lorraine’s Win

VIDEO 3 – Star Wars win 1

VIDEO 4 – Star Wars win 2

End of a journey – homeward bound 25th of October, 2011

So that was our lot.  Amy drove us home via Henderson (Nevada), and we stayed in a Premier Travel Inn Lodge type of hotel on the Saturday night before we headed back home on Sunday.  Amy and Lorraine would not stop giving me crap if I didn’t mention how I dropped a huge jar of salsa onto the hotel reception floor, before throwing a bit of a strop when I thought I was the centre of attention (RAGE!).

Driving back on the Saturday night was a real slog, especially for Amy; we had briefly stopped in the middle of the desert so that Amy could wake up a bit with some fresh air.

The sky was absolutely stunning out in the desert; the total lack of unatural light meant for the best view of the stars that I’d seen since I visited the Breacon Beacon’s in Wales as a kid;  It was beautiful looking up there and seeing thousands of starts, I felt very humble and quite insignificant!

On Sunday we got home at a reasonable time and did our washing, packing and chilled out together which was really nice.  Lorraine and I were very thankful to have been able to visit and go on such a trip.  My final gallery is a few obscure pics!

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Hollywood – Saturday, 22nd of October, 2011

So we had about an hour to hit Hollywood, and frankly that was all that I needed as I wasn’t that impressed to be honest!

I enjoyed journeying up to get a cheesy photo opportunity with the Hollywood sign and finding a really cool t-shirt shop and getting a Lynyrd Skynrd shirt; but for the most part Hollywood was…..empty?

It’s difficult to explain as there’s so much going on there, but little substance?  Lots of movie posters struted their stuff around the busy streets, yet I never really saw anything that made me think ‘Wow, I’d like to come back here’.  Perhaps I am not doing Hollywood justice, but that’s just my thoughts.

Hollywood is definitely best kept on the big screen, for me at least!

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Rodeo Drive – Saturday, October the 22nd, 2011

Our trip to Rodeo Drive was fun, if only to see Lorraine’s face as she sauntered around pretending to be Julia Roberts in the film ‘Pretty Woman’; this was largely lost on me because I’ve never seen the film!

It was an interesting place, you could eat your dinner off the sidewalk because the area was so incredibly clean and almost devoid of people; probably because of the thinly veiled classism that confronted us when we walked into Tiffany’s.  Deja vu!  Just like being back in NYC!

They quickly changed their tune when they realised that Lorraine meant business and bought a few trinkets before dancing out of the store.  An obligatory shot of Rainy in front of Tiffany’s and hey presto, a happy lady!

Lorraine also popped into ‘Jimmy Choo’ to try on a $600 pair of shoes, I wonder if the same Indian kids make Jimmy Choo’s as Primark shoes?  Answers on a postcard folks?

It was certainly an experience for Rainy, she posed outside the Regent Beverley Wilshire Hotel before dashing to the waiting car so that we could zip off to Hollywood!  How glam?

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Gaming stuff in and around Los Angeles

Had to post a quick thread regarding some console gaming-related bits and pieces I saw in Los Angeles.

Specifically:

  • Seeing the Konami building and then experiencing a Silent Hill style fog the next day
  • The Battlefield 3 posted that smothered a huge building as we past it on the freeway
  • The Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 themed bus that was on the same highway

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Konami

 

 

Bubba Gump Shrimp – Santa Monica California 22/10/2011

There is a Bubba Gump Shrimp restauant on the Santa Monica Pier; I wanted to go there because my friend Jane and I had a bit of a running joke about Forrest Gump, and Lorraine and I were too busy shopping in New York to visit the restaurant there!

I had planned on eating fish and shrimp when in California anyway; so it was fun to be a little adventurous and go for the Lobster claws and shrimp bucket with fries.  The shrimp was coated in chilli and it had a kick, amazing!  Really enjoyed the lobster meat too!

Momma says I’m special!

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Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica Pier – Saturday, 22nd of October, 2011

Our morning went to plan, we got up, jumped on the rickety complimentary hotel bikes and pedalled down to Manhattan Beach.

It was the most surreal expierience because Manhattan Beach was completely shrouded in a fog mist for most of the morning; it was like a scene of our ‘Silent Hill’ which was even more funny because we passed the Konami offices (publishers of the Silent Hill games!).  Sadly an irony that was lost on Lorraine and Amy!

The bikes were hilarious, it reminded me of a bike ride that I took with Mum and Dad in Spain that resulted in Dad slamming into a wall because he was too busy trying to look out for Mum who got scared by Spanish traffic.  There were no hand brakes on the Californian bikes, you had to back pedal to apply the brakes on the bike which was odd; especially as a lot of the journey down to the beach was downhill!

Manhattan beach was very pleasant and chilled out.  People were out running, cycling, walking dogs and playing volleyball.  It actually reminded me a little of Normandy beach in that people were making the most of their morning and the amount of activity would put English beachgoers to shame!  The fog didn’t lift so I didn’t really get a good look at the Pacific Ocean, but no matter, it was a nice chill out before we headed back to the hotel for another quick stint in the jacuzzi before checking out.  The Belamar was great value for money, highly recommended.

Leaving the hotel we headed for the Santa Monica Pier which kinda reminded me a little of the film Falling Down (the climatical scene on the pier); there were a few times that I remembered the Michael Douglas movie, especially the tailback, so the fact that we ended up on a pier like in the film was a little surreal.

Santa Monica Pier is a fun tourist trap with a few fairground rides and some fun shops (if a little over-prices, especially in comparison to Las Vegas!).  I saw some surfers and people swimming even though the fog still hadn’t lifted fully by lunchtime.

The highlight for me was standing by the Route 66 ‘End of the line’ sign, it’s always been a dream to travel down Route 66 (We did a bit on our way to LA!).

Anyway, my stomach was rumbling, so we decided to visit the Bubba Gump Shrink shack restaurant!

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Las Vegas to Los Angeles – Friday 21st of October, 2011

Friday morning I woke up without a hangover, a miracle given how much I’d tequila I’d drunk the night before!  We didn’t have enough time to frequent the stunning swimming pools, yet another thing I shall do when I return on a future trip!

We left the hotel a little later than our planned departure time and went Downtown Las Vegas to get some souvenirs and last minute shopping bargains; this meant that we arrived into the Los Angeles area around rush hour, I felt physically sick at seeing a 12 mile tailback for people coming out of LA, presumably to escape the city for the weekend!

We arrived at the Belamar Hotel in Manhattan beach and I enjoyed fish and chips (California Style) before heading down to the hotel jacuzzi and pool.  The Jacuzzi spa was heaven after the 5-6 hour journey, again Amy had done us proud and gotten us there in one piece.

The concierge at the hotel had confirmed that we had complimentary bikes and we went to bed exhausted, but with a plan to get up and cycle to Manhattan beach which was a mile or so down the road from the hotel.

The Belamar was great value for money and resonated the chilled out vibe that California is well known for.

A token shot of Los Angeles at night; shit isn’t it?