Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas!

There was a time in my life when I went to Las Vegas a lot. For any occasion that needed a serious party, Vegas was a relatively short / cheap flight away, and provided plenty of debauchery. So my friends and I spent many a long weekend dressed up as our Woo Girl and Douche Dude alter-egos, drinking copiously, wearing sunglasses indoors, dancing at the club until all hours... just generally being awful human beings, but having so much fun. Luckily for my liver, that phase didn't last long, and for the past several years I thought the next time I'd be in Vegas would be 40 years from now, when I'm a crotchety old biddy looking to play penny slots in a climate warm and dry enough to ease my aching joints.

But then Robbie Williams announced a residency at the Wynn. Just six nights in March.

I bought my ticket at the earliest moment my presale code would allow, booked a flight a few minutes
later. The shows sold out, so more were added in June and July, which also mostly sold out. I normally wouldn't do more than one show per tour, but after the experience on Friday, I'm now considering going back for one of those as well.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After flying home from London and taking a day to adjust to my old time zone, I got back on a plane and arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon. That gave me over 24 hours to fill until the show, and given my lack of interest in all my previous Sin City activities, I didn't know what to do with myself. I stayed at the Encore, putting the theatre that provided the whole point of my visit less than 5 minutes walk away, without even going outdoors. So it's not like I needed to do a lot of exploring to find my way around. I (no exaggeration) went to bed at 10pm Thursday night, and filled my free time Friday before the gig shopping, and enjoying the slot machines at the Wynn. No big wins, but I did get 2 hours of entertainment and left the casino with $3 more than I brought in... which is a good deal, considering the Fashion Show mall got plenty of my money, as did the gift shop selling exorbitantly priced Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas merchandise.

After gambling successfully and exchanging much cash for goods, as I was walking back through to the Encore, I thought I walked past someone familar... was that Rob's mother-in-law (Instagram star) Gwen? Nah, couldn't be. But it was, which I confirmed at the concert when she came out the VIP door to find her seat not far from me with Ayda Field (her daughter and fabulous woman, who happens to be married to Mr Williams). And their daughter. And Robbie's mom. I am a total Williams family dork, I think they're all fun and entertaining on social media, but I'd never bug them for photos like some others did. I don't remember where I read this line the other day: In the future, everyone will want to be anonymous for 15 minutes. So yeah. I'd rather enjoy the public postings and give them some of that of anonymity when they walk past me. But I'm just Gen X like that, I guess.

As for the show itself... Awesome. No words to describe how good he always is live. It was my 6th time at the Robbie Williams experience, and the Encore Theater was 1/10th the size of the smallest previous venue. The official website says the Encore's capacity is 1,845; the other arenas ranged from 18,000 to over 50,000 seats. Given that Rob could easily fill those giant stadiums with his showmanship, I was almost afraid it would be too small for such a big personality -- the opposite of the way some bands can't grow their performance to fill larger spaces -- but it was perfect. It was just as much Robbie without going over the top. I still got totally into it and put my hands in the air when instructed to -- as did all the people around me.

Rob mentioned online that 70% of the tickets were sold to people coming from the US, and the set list seemed to assume people didn't really know the music, because of that. He only played a few of the big hits -- which everyone did know -- mixed in with lots of covers and standards from the swing albums. If I had my way, the show would have included more of the originals, but the song selection didn't make me enjoy it any less. It was a great time, and I'm still buzzing two days later.

At the end of the gig, Robbie said he might do "a pointless tour of the US," not promoting anything, not even sure if an audience would turn up in any given city. It has been a topic he's brought up a few times lately, half joking, but I really hope he gives it a try. I've taken many long haul flights to see him in massive venues, and will happily continue to do so; he's the best excuse for a trip out of town that I have, and the shows are always incredible. But that being said, spending just two hours in the air to go to a small theatre gig is pretty damn good. So if the Robbie Williams Pointless Tour of North America doesn't get announced in the next couple of months, I just might be back in the desert again this summer, taking this rare opportunity once more before it's gone.

A Tourist in Edinburgh

Finished my latest trip to Edinburgh today. In my few days there, I did the usual stuff: rugby, shopping in the usual stores, eating food from the usual restaurants. 

The only new place I went was to Edinburgh Gin, for their Gin Connoisseur tour, which I highly recommend. For £25, and the foresight to book months in advance (they're always full), I got a history of gin, details on what goes into their particular formula, a close-up view of distillation, a tasting of 6 different gins, and a small bottle to take home. What a deal!

But what was really new was the way I was visiting Edinburgh. It was my first time in almost 6 years staying there like a tourist, instead of like I live there -- spending leisure time, staying in a hotel, eating out. Rather than shopping to fill a kitchen and make my own food, being domestic, and working 8 hours a day. But I still felt like I lived there. It will always be some kind of home to me, and it's going to be difficult to adjust to not spending 1/4 of my life being there. 

Recently there was a British Isles dialect quiz going around, and since I pick up words and pronunciation everywhere I go, I took it just for fun. The result was that clearly I'm not from here, but my dialect was similar to people from the areas highlighted in the map... a map with red blobs not in Edinburgh where I spend all my time, but in the areas where my ex-fiancé has lived, and where his family comes from. It was a pretty big reminder that my experiences here since 2013 have been inextricably linked to him, and so the place has been as well.

But my connection to Scotland started long before I met him. My interest in the country started when I was a tiny child, called out as a true McCorkindale by my grandmother's visiting relatives. My relationship with Edinburgh was born a decade ago on my first visit. I've been supporting Scotland rugby since the 90's, going to Highland Games since the 2000s, followed Aberdeen FC for 7 years... and the list goes on. 

So I will continue to love all things Scottish, and miss Edinburgh when I am away from it. I will continue to include it in travels as much as I can, and probably still feel like I'm coming home when I see the Forth bridges from my airplane window. Maybe I will still end up living there one day. 

But for now, I'm working on separating Scotland from the Scotsman, and getting back to knowing Edinburgh on my own terms. I just might need a few more visits...

Forty Hours in Lisbon

I left Lisbon this morning, after spending less than two days there. My original idea back in around 2016 was to spend 5 or 6 days touring across Portugal, but then I wasn't able to take the time off when I had planned to go. So that got postponed to the next year, and then the next, until I finally settled for just a quick detour to Lisbon on my way to Edinburgh.

Of course, with so little time to spend, I arrived right in the middle of bad weather. Well, bad for Lisbon. When I landed, it was 16 degrees Celsius, cloudy off and on, raining now and then, with a gusty wind. The locals were all bundled up as if a blizzard was on its way, telling me I'd missed the normal (hot, sunny) weather by a day. Given that I've lived my whole life in places where clouds, rain, and wind are the standard, my general attitude was shrug, at least it's warm.

The weather wasn't the only less than welcoming moment I had Tuesday night. Fresh off the plane, I approached the woman at passport control in the airport with a smile and a 'hello.' She didn't respond or even look at me, just scanned and stamped my passport without saying a word... to me... she was busy chatting on the phone the whole time. Then later, when I got to the hotel, there were two guys working the front desk; one helped me, while the other checked in an older Englishman who'd arrived before me. During this process, the Brit said something that I didn't hear, but which I gathered was something inappropriate about me, because his desk clerk glanced at me and chuckled in that awkward you're terrible but I have to be nice to the customer sort of way, and my desk clerk gave the Brit the side eye. After Mr Creepy had gone off to his room, the guy checking me in gave me my key and said, "You'll be staying away from the gentleman, in room 405." I joined him and his colleague in a little relieved laugh, and wished I'd heard the questionable comment that started it all.

I can't say it enough these days: I am so fed up with straight middle-aged (and older) white dudes, and all their bullshit. Over. It.

Anyway. Back in Lisbon. After an entire day of travel, I did nothing but sleep Tuesday night, and set out to see everything I could on Wednesday. It didn't quite turn out to be as much as I'd hoped, but I think it was enough to catch the spirit of the place.

Most of the things I found interesting in my guidebook were close to each other, in an area pretty much straight down the main road from my hotel. For my money, the weather was perfect for a wander -- sunny, few clouds, warm but not hot -- so I walked the 25 minutes or so to my first destination, the Museum of Design and Fashion. Which was closed for renovations.

No matter, I kept walking past it, through the very picturesque Arco da Rua Agusta and down along the water in the vast open space of the Praço do Comércio. When I'd soaked up enough of that, I took a walk over to the impressive Ingreja de Santo Antonio da Sé. I love a Cathedral, and stopped to photograph a couple others in my wanderings, but the Sé was by far the most impressive. It was originally built in 1150,  so it very much looks of its time, but has been restored and improved over the years. Despite the belief of many that I'll burst into flames upon crossing the threshold of Jesus' house, I checked out the inside and came out unscathed. With photos, even!

After my foray into the realm of the holy, I decided it was time to head back into the shopping area for wine and lunch (in that order). Right as I was considering how perfect the weather was for all my walking, a cloud broke open and bucketed down for about 10 minutes, then went back to sunshine as quickly as the rain started. The local solution seemed to be to find an awning and wait it out, but I just put up my umbrella and kept moving, not sure where I would end up. As it turned out, right as the rain stopped, I found myself at the Elevador de Santa Justa, which I marvelled at but didn't visit, and then a circus-themed sardine shop, which I marched straight into.

By the time I finished the uphill hike back to the hotel, I'd walked over 5 miles already, and the rain was coming more than going, so I wasn't too keen on doing any more sightseeing. My only further excursion was to get something to eat later in the evening, then early to bed for my morning flight.

My general impression of Lisbon is that it's exactly the right time to visit for people like me: who like visiting cities that make it easy for you, but hate the flash and price gouging of places where tourists are their primary cash flow. Portugal is still an up and comer in the tourism game, which means that businesses have made adaptations like adding English translations to menus or selling a few souvenir trinkets. But they haven't gotten to the point of making every run down store front into a tourist attraction or hassling you on the street to buy something you don't really want for twice what it's worth. Lisbon's very inexpensive to visit, relative to other Western European cities, with plenty of amenities and gorgeous scenery to take in. In short, go. Go now, before it gets ruined.

And if you don't dig cities, I was told by a local that the beaches outside Lisbon can't be beat. Just don't go there in summer, he told me, unless you love a crowd.

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A post shared by Sarah Anderson (@wheresgirl2) on Mar 6, 2019 at 7:03am PST