I'm still in Edinburgh and it's still bloody cold, so in an effort to warm myself up here's the goss on our time in vegas.

We flew into Vegas on Friday sept 12th after a fantastic time with the girl in Peoria. Jimmy had sorted our accommodation (yes he more than redeemed himself with this booking) and we had our nciest rooms of the trip staying at one of the marquee hotels on the strip- The MGM Grand. The hotels themselves are massive and we spent most of friday night just walking 'the strip' in awe of hotels such as New York New York, the Bellagio, Paris, The Mirage, Treasure Island and the list goes on. Each hotel is more themed and more glitz and glamour than the next...it really is a fantasy town.

We spent Saturday booking a few shows and seeing a little more of the hotel. they've got clubs, restaraunts, shopping, theme park rides, giant pools and in our case a Lion exhibit, in the hotels so you can well and truly never leave your own place. We saw a Cirque Du solei show that night which was insanely amazing and then we hit the tables. I lost $50 on blackjack faster than you can say amateur gambler, but the other boys were all up by that stage. The boys had seen david copperfield thata arvo as well said his reputation was defintely deserved.

We pretty much just spent the night gambling or watching other people gamble in my case, but the ciggie smoke gets insane and you just have to head back to the room after a while to purely get fresh air! Our smoking laws are an absolute godsent!

Sunday was my big weakness....shopping. I'd always set out to buy up big in a land where billabong shirts are 1/4 the price of home, but spending $800 of gear was a little more than i anticipated. The outlet malls were amazing. located about 20mins out of the strip, they've got all the top brands and i think my gear would be worth about $2000-$3000 in comparison so I was cheering! It was just a matter of how i was getting it all home that was the problem! After a long day shopping we hung by our gigantic pool, had a spa with some promo girls and then got a free limo ride to a place they call a 'gentlemans club'. I had no idea what this place was but apparently it's a must in vegas so we had to tick it off the list.

Monday was another fanatsic day with greg, Jimmy and I going sky diving! no idea what brought that idea on, but i thought vegas would have to be one of the coolest places to do it...and it was! My god, never before have I experienced such fear being beaten into me. Not only were we 3 miles up, i was the first one out and had the enviable job of opening the door before being pushed out! The feeling was totally sureal and i'd definitely recommend it. I got it on dvd as well, so anytime you feel like seeing a man before he thinks he is going to do, pop around and feel free to watch it! jimmy's video was priceless...you witness a man getting a nose bleed at 125mph and at 2miles above the air!!!!!! classic!!!!! Those gogles come in handy!

We checked out a few more of the glitzy hotels that night e.g. the bellagio and the Venetian and went to possibly the cheesiest magic show ever. named magician of the year, Steve Wyrick was no doubt good, but man he sucked ass when it came to acting or telling stories...he was like a walking day time sopa opera...cringe worthy. He did make Jimmy's $100 disappear though which was cool, clearly it;s the simple things that impress.

So all in all vegas was truly incredible. With giant replicas of the statue of Liberty and the Empire state building, to gold hotels, Giant pyramids and some of the best entertainment going round. The gambling itself was fun too, i won $30 of my $50 back on roulette and the other boys came back to reality and i think ended up in the red by the time we flew out on tuesday. I would recommend it to anyone but the constant smoke haze in the casinos, plus the obvious poverty and seedyness behind the glitzy facade is a turn off. 4 days was plenty.

From there, greg and I spent more than 24hrs flying to Seattle, Frankfurt and the on the Edinburgh to stay where I am at the moment. I think we actually flew over Scotland to get to bloody fraknfurt!!!! I promise my next one will be about what the hell i've been doing for the past 3 weeks :) catchya soon guys!