Compare and Contrast

Yesterday hubby & I took a trip to the Cotswolds. Hubby was playing rugby in Chipping Norton so we decided to go there early and spend a couple of hours perusing the town. Now, the last time hubby played rugby there I had a wander round the town and thought it was a dreadfully boring place. What a good job I went back as I have now been able to totally trhink my opinion - I LIKE Chipping Norton, a lot. What's not to like about a town that has just enough high street shops (Boots for all those pharmaceutical and beauty essentials) and WHSmith (for all your books and stationery needs), coupled with a lovely delicatessen, a bookshop-cum-cafe, several other cafes (including one that served a pretty good all-day breakfast, which I sampled in the interests of research), two butchers, several restaurants and more than enough pubs. I could live there.
Having dropped hubby at the rugby club, I continued my tour of the Cotswolds alone. I decided to stop off in Woodstock on the way home - what a pretty little town it is.And slap-bang next to Blenheim Palace. I had a little wander round the shops and then, due to an achey back caused by the weight of the gigantor baby I am incubating, I was forced, yes literally forced, to take shelter in a tearoom where I was able to indulge in what every lady (pregnant or not) should indulge in on a cold and windy January afternoon:

A new book, a hot chocolate with lashings of cream, and a cake. Bliss.

So, compare and contrast these pretty Cotswold scenes with 'This Time Last Year' when we were in Las Vegas. Oh my, could there be two totally and utterly different places? Vegas is just the weirdest place ever in the world, ever. I enjoyed our time there, but Vegas is definitely a night time place - during the day without the glitzy lights it's a bit like a ghost town. But step inside any of the casinos and you need never know what time of night or day it is, let alone what month, season or year. Those places are just darn weird. Hubby & I aren't in to gambling so we stuck to the machines that would let us play with 10c or 25c rather than rubbing shoulders with the highrollers at the blackjack tables. I did fancy having a go at roulette, but having never done it before, I felt a bit intimidated and decided to stick to the one-arm bandits. We spent three nights in Vegas, at the MGM Grand - one of the fanciest hotels of our entire trip. What a treat that was. Unfortunately, I think it set the standard from then on as it was difficult to come back to earth and 'enjoy' the $50 dives we then had to inhabit.

And, finally, on a completely different note. Hubby & I are sending much love and recovery wishes to our friends GRachel & GGordon who have both got their money's worth out of the local NHS this week.