But worth it.

Saturday’s first annual Mother Daughter Pre-Crimbo Away Day was great.  We shopped til we dropped, almost literally, treated ourselves to a gorgeous lunch at a French restaurant in Covent Garden, did a bit of star spotting (Hugh Dennis from Mock the Week and Charlie Nicholas from Sky Sports) and got a LOT of ideas for the Santa lists.  I also purchased a gorgeous wee Christopher Kane black, mesh, mirror embellished dress, as mentioned in a previous blog and as seen here, which I can’t wait to wear.

Watch out Londoners, we’re gonna show you how it’s done!

I want my blonde back but risk shrivelling up completely if I have any more showers.  On the upside, at least I know my hair is in good condition.  Apparently, colour only takes this well to good hair.  Blessing in (plum coloured) disguise?

The wedding planner himself looked slightly stunned when he collected us at the hotel and there were so many of us all done up in our posh frocks or kilts.  We even brought a piper.

After an hour’s drive we made it to the Valley of Fire just in time for sunset and it wasn’t just ‘like’ a film set it IS a film set.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Total Recall, National Geographic and so many others that I’ve forgotten have filmed there so when Matt found a boulder to stand on and started up the pipes most of us were nursing huge lumps in our throats and the the bride hadn’t even arrived yet.

What followed was one of the most emotional services I have ever witnessed.  The bride was stunning, the groom scrubbed up very well and there wasn’t a dry eye in the valley.

Lots of amazing photos were then taken before we rushed off to the Bali Hai golf resort for a delicious 4 course meal, speeches and the couple’s first dance.  Unfortunately, we were a little late getting things going so the rest of us had to wait until we got back to the Venetian Hotel before we could get dancing but once we started there was no stopping us.  Not even the club closing.

After coercing everyone in the club into a huge Strip the Willow, led by Matt again on his pipes, just before closing time we just couldn’t go home so decided to take over the halls of the Venetian with an impromptu ceilidh.  The Gay Gordons, St Bernard’s Waltz, Dashing White Sergeants and another Strip the Willow were all attempted with varying degrees of success, as well as a massive singalong where we discovered one of the onlookers was born in Dunfermline and had lived in Scotland until he was 13.  Talk about making someone’s night, the guy nearly pulled a muscle trying to sing louder than the pipes.

At about 5am, security caught up with us and asked us to move on.  No idea why but we dutifully packed up, cut our losses and hit another bar.

Aside from all the wedding business, I haven’t even started on the ‘Peppermill dinner, Drag Queen bingo, Tiki bar cocktails, Lavo club dancing, Vegas kitsch’ Hen do or the night I spent hanging out with tattooed bikers listening to rock cover bands, Vegas is Vegas.  It’s big, brash, obscene, bright, over-indulgent, tragic, fabulous, vulgar and breath-taking.  It’s Disneyland for adults.  At every corner there’s someone else trying to get money or sex from you and it does get old very quickly.  I’ve been twice, ticked all my boxes and never need to go again.

I asked another filmmaker to document a performance recently as I couldn’t do it myself.  They’ve had experience of filming dance shows and have been paid by other companies to do exactly that so I really didn’t think it’s be a problem…  It was.  I’m now sitting scrolling through the footage and I want to cry.  Two cameras were used, one static just recording everything on stage, and another one, hand-held, to capture finer details and follow the dancers more closely.  Neither of them are any good.  The hand-held is likely to induce motion sickness and, even though I choreographed most of the dances, are so close up that it’s difficult to see anything that’s happening so I decided to watch the static footage instead, hoping that if everything is ok I’ll just give the dancers a copy of that on it’s own.  It would be fine if the filmmaker hadn’t decided to stand in front of it at one point.

Next time I’m definitely doing the filming myself.

Newarthill’s most talented export has just launched his first TopShop collaboration and I want it all (apart from the flourescent yellow frock but I’ll have it in black please!) .  Slim fitting, mesh layers, studs, mirrors, cutaway details… it couldn’t be more ‘me’ if it tried.

Mon favorit

Hmph.

Well now that we’re back into autumn officially the fruitless attempts at wearing bright colours and sandals can end and we can start wearing more weather-appropriate clothes again guilt free.  So here’s my winter wardrobe wishlist…

All worn over my usual skinny jeans, leggings, black leather jacket combo with a wooly hat and a printed scarf.  Almost makeswinter worth waiting for!

Get your tickets now.

A lovely wee song from a lovely wee band.