Viva Las Vegas Hello folks, here we are in madcap, bonkers, wildly over the top Las Vegas. We flew the first leg of our trip (Manchester to Chicago) with BMI in Business/1st Class, I am very impressed. For the people (much like ourselves until yesterday) who have never been able to enter the rarified strata of 1st Class, it goes like this.... 1st - 18 fully reclining (as in into a bed) seats in acres of space Economy - 348 seats in just enough space to accomodate 200 seats comfortably 1st - Waitress service with pre-flight champagne Economy - A complimentary mint served by hassled stewardess 1st - A 3 course lunch, chosen from a full a la carte menu, served on real plates with real knives and forks. I went for Loch Fyne smoked salmon, rack of lamb with rosemary gravy and a cheeseboard, accompanied by a 1998 Haut Medoc and a glas of 20 year old Port, very nice indeed. Economy - A 3 course meal that fits into a plastic tray and tastes much the same, served with a plastic cup of Chateau de Cheap Vin de Rouge which is rather oddly chilled. 1st - Afternoon tea, a election of fresh sandwiches (oh dear, smoked salmon again!) plus small cakes with fresh strawberries and clotted cream, on a proper plate, tea served in a real china cup. Economy - something nasty in clingfilm plus luke warm tea in a paper cup. It was nice, I mean really nice. I'd fly this way all the time if I could afford it. Our changeover at Chicago was a little fraught, with only an hour in between landing and taking off we had to clear customs (remembering not to tick the boxes marked "are you an international terorist / nazi / communist / follower of Cthulu"), then oddly we had to retrieve our own luggage and take it to the next check in, that wasn't what I'd call good service, then clear security again where the polite but totally enormous security bloke made me remove my watch, belt, trainers and all pocket contents, we ended up running through the airport with me carrying half my clothes and trying not to let my trousers fall down. We're here though, and we're very happy to be away from work for a couple of weeks. We have hired an SUV (in Britain this woulf be a 4WD, here it is something approaching the size of a school bus) and will be setting off touring Arizona on Wednesday. We had a typically large American breakfast this morning, an eat all you can buffet for 13 dollars, we bought our holiday cash at 1.90 dollars to the pound so our spending power feels good, the breakfast was fantastic. Mrs YS is at this moment sat in front of one of the millions of slot machines inside the cavernous MGM Casino, I lost 15 dollars this morning and that's probably my gambling over with for holiday. I've been out walking along The Strip for a couple of hours to shed some of the thousands of calories of breakfast I have consumed, fending off the ticket touts pushing cards for tours, shows and prostitutes, it's a bit more lively than Ilkley.