My festive blog.......

After visiting the Grand Canyon, which is frankly too big and was definitely not formed by a river or any of that nonsense they claim (it's another one of those places the aliens helped us create like Ankor Wat and the Pyramids), we were onwards to Las Vegas a place I was far too giddy to experience. On arrival at our hotel I made a firm statement of my intentions and got on the alcomahol immediately, utilised the hot tub and made myself look beautiful for the adventure ahead. Eric the tour leader had sorted out a Limo for the evening which was silly good, we firmly stocked said limo with enough alcohol to get a herd of elephants pretty merry, this also meant the underagers on the tour could have a shandy or two (keep reading for the awesome consequences....)

After one stop in the Limosine we were all quite inebriated, drinking at a far too excitable pace, it was here that we went a man down, accidentally leaving Dave behind, Vegas had taken him! (not properly, he's still alive) The next stop took in the famous Vegas sign and to truly honour it me and a few of the other boys felt it was appropriate to get naked in front of it (I did not initiate such things, but they happened all the same, luckily we were not arrested) after cruising along the strip we were then dropped at the Bilagio to watch the fountains, here was the location two of the youths lost the sick game, I am actually quite jealous they can say "I welcomed Christmas 2011 in front of the Bilagio fountain show whilst vomitting into the bushes"

From that point the night descended into more drunken activites leading me to have to play the game from the hangover, the old 'check your pockets for clues' I found some cards advertising some very beautiful prostitutes, some anonymous matches and a casino cash out slip for 80 cents from Ceasers Palace.......who knows!

We celebrated christmas with some Secret Santa action around a tree we had purchased and everything, although weird due to the lack of family, it was really nice, but what truly made my morning was learning that a certain 17 year old passenger had not remembered leaving the limo, being taken home, or vomitting spectacularly all over herself and her bed (I have seen the photo evidence, it's amazing) her kind younger sister cleaning her up, only for her to wake up in the morning naked having urinated in her bed, then rolling over and going back to sleep. Needless to say they avoided their room when housekeeping did the rounds, some people just can't handle the Vegas!

By 10am I was back in the hot tub beer in hand and the rest of the day was spent in a similar vain, drinking on the streets legally is a brilliant idea and it made the visit to see the lions in the MGM, the roof top rollercoaster and the general wandering through the strip much more enjoyable!

As I was in Vegas I felt duty bound to see a show, and see a show I did! I feel if I were to create a show it would be exactly this one, it had one man, one female singer (the spitting image of shakira) and 8 strippers in it with a mixture of singing, dancing, stand up, impersonations and crowd humiliation.....truly a thing of beauty.

So with 6 hours 43 minutes of sleep, 28 hours of drinking, a worrying amount of units of alcohol consumed and a jolly good time had I can proudly say I survived Vegas round one. Although my green card marriage to a stripper did not come to fruition I left feeling satisfied with my attempt at Vegas knowing that a round two would most definitely have to happen!

Vegas was the last major stop of the tour and with a day in San Diego, a night of carving up the dance floor with some serious shapes being thrown, a worrying afternoon in LA where crazies were more common than stars on the walk of fame and not nearly enough time to stare at the californian girls, I was solo once more and on a plane back to New York.

In New York I was greeted by the family, not wanting to get too emotional in my blog, but after 8 months apart it was bloody nice to see their faces, I was also pleased to see they were all severely hungover thanks to Alice (my brothers other half) persuading them to stay out with the line "we've had one, Luke wouldn't go home after one". Probably a very foolish thing to feel proud about, but Alice, I appreciated that more than you will ever know!

After rendezvousing with the Spencer's they took me to our accomodation for the new year, a penthouse apartment in the middle of Manhattan, a big step up from my usual housing, sweaty mixed dorm rooms where snoring is more common than plug sockets. The next few days were all about family time, I loved it. I even revelled in the stressful situations only families can have. We saw a show on Broadway, walked through Central Park and took a boat around the harbour taking in the Statue of Liberty and all the other touristy jazz that has to be done when in the concrete jungle. I even got to the top of the Empire State building which I failed to do on my first visit to NYC as the visibility was too bad.

Alice, a seasoned veteran of drinking establishments in the city (she has visited over two times!) took us to a bar with the promise of 'Harry Potter Shots' now me being the huge geek I am, I was very excited about such things and I was nervous I had overhyped this promising event in my head before we had even got there. I couldn't have been more wrong, the jaw dropping scenes that followed our order were astounding, there was the hat, glasses and scarf adorned, a wand, a big speech about how the Le'Stranges could "suck his balls", fire and sparkly powder and everything!

Now this frankly unbelievable scene set our evening rolling, whenever I seem to get drunk with my parents it always seems to happen early doors and quicker than is sensible (a certain Mexican themed night before i left where three bottles of tequila were consumed before 9 o'clock springs to mind but that's another story) and sure enough the Harry potter shots at 7 o'clock followed by the indiana jones shot, lord of the rings shot, some kind of dr pepper shot and countless others, the parentals wobbled off home as Ben, Alice and I continued the evening and met up with some of Alices friends.

The antics of the night before meant new years eve was a day of fragile heads with much television watched and festering taking place, but more importantly a home cooked roast dinner with home cooked roast potatoes also happened. Now people who have travelled with me know this is probably in my top 5 things I miss from home, as I have mentioned these godly spuds pretty consistently for 8 months and I am ecstatic to announce they did not disappoint! They were heavenly and set up an awesome evening, albeit without too much alcohol inhaled, culminating in bringing in the new year with the family, watching the fireworks in Central Park. I can definitely think of worse ways to bring it in!

On new years day the parents flew home and left Ben, Alice and I with a few more days in the city, just enough time to bring in the new year with a truly silly night out, again with tequila shots happening earlier than they should be, dancing on some relatively high bars and the general shenanigans that can only be experienced with one of my favourite drinking partners, Benjamin Spencer.

All that was left was to get on a tube for another emotional goodbye similar to the one at heathrow airport all those months ago. It was awesome to see you all, thank you for making the trip out to see little old me. Much love.

My travels were now to take me onwards to Boston, to find Pavan, one of the hero's you may remember from earlier blogs. A boy who made the Thai islands and my Bangkok experience what they were.

Stay tuned for the mischief and shenanigans we get up to, trust me they are quite sizeable, I feel I have wittered enough for this installment however and will save such things for next time.

Hope everyone are well, enjoyed the read and had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Luke. X