Do these people not have homes or beds to go to?

31st June 2009

Thanks to the jet lag I only got about 4 hours sleep last night and so at 5am I was out of bed staring out of my window at the view of Las Vegas and the mountains beyond. I wasn’t just awake, I was so wired, I felt I was ready to conquer the world. If Mount Everest was across the street I would have climbed it without any trouble. This is in direct contrast to the usual me. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I break into a light sweat just thinking about exercise.

So I decided to see if there was any action downstairs in the casino. Even at 6am there was no shortage of people sat glaring almost zombie like at the slot machines as they gambled away their children’s inheritance.

Later in the day I went out for a look around the strip. Las Vegas gets very hot in the summer and it is easy to forget that if you spend a long time in a nice air conditioned building. When you step outside, it is like being attacked by a hair dryer on full blast.

I walked into the casino at the MGM Grand which is absolutely huge. I walked past probably the strangest sight I have ever seen in a casino. Sat in front of a slot machine was a very old man in a medical wheelchair. He was in his pyjamas and had a saline drip hanging from a hook going into his hand and clear tubes going into his nose and throat.

Never before have I seen such dedication from a man who looked like he had escaped from the operating theatre at the nearest hospital. Somewhere there was a surgeon running around the streets of Las Vegas looking for that man.

In the evening, our boss, Mike, took the whole team out to dinner in a great restaurant at The Wynn. One thing I like about America is that they do really great steaks and this place was no exception.

After a great meal – thanks Mike, we all went our separate ways as some stayed for a drink at the bar, some moved on to other places and Andreas wandered off to the poker room at the Wynn to try his luck on the cash tables. Tomorrow I’ll find out if he is broke or a millionaire.