Leaving Las Vegas

Sunday 27th December

It’s a tiring city. It wants you to do things its way, by which it means stay up very late, eat and drink and gamble huge amounts, take in shows and feel like you are 24 again. This is surprising since so many visitors here are much older than this. Or perhaps that explains it.

I have really enjoyed the spectacle, but sometimes it feels like satellite TV: you feel there is something even more exciting and memorable going on somewhere else.

Vegas is huge, but it wants you to believe that everything is see-able and do-able within a short space of time, if you only have the energy and money.

The Grand Canyon is a different kind of spectacle. The problem can be that you take it at Vegas-speed, without just sitting and spending time with it. The more you look and the less you do, the more it gives back.

I enjoyed Vegas but it has not been the relaxed and chilled time I thought it might be. I feel like I have eaten, drunk and gambled too much, stayed up too late and taken in shows, when I definitely have not. I categorically do not feel 24 again.

The last meal before leaving: it had to be the sugar-free lemon meringue pie. Take that as a metaphor if you want.