AlsyBlog

Goodbye to the Frontier

We're in Vegas for a vacation. Regular readers will know that we love the place and try to get here once a year for a vacation. For many of our stays, we've chosen the Atrium Suites at the New Frontier for our base, and even though it was tatty and worn we'd grown to love it.

Unfortunately the Frontier was recently sold and then closed for good in mid July. By all reports this classic casino had a really lacklustre last few days with slots being shipped out early and a poor final night party.

When Rich and I booked our trip to Vegas this time we opted to stay at the Excalibur. The prices were good and the Frontier wasn't offering any advanced bookings (now we know why).

We really wanted to go down and check out what had happened to the place we called our Vegas home for our last half dozen vacations and the site that greeted us was truly sad indeed.

The big marquee out front that used to sport the 'Cold Beer Dirty Girls' tagline is now stripped of all its lettering, and the hotel itself is being cleared. Whilst we were there, we saw a load of workmen dumping the contents of the rooms out of the windows on to a big heap below.

It made me feel very sad.

Goodbye old friend. We'll miss you!

Anthony Wilson R.I.P.

For anyone who is a fan of the fantastic Manchester music scene that revolved around Factory Records and the Hacienda, today is a very sad day. We lost the genius that is Anthony Wilson - the great man behind awesome bands such Happy Mondays and New Order. He was a brilliant vibrant character and more recently an expert social commentator. He had been battling cancer since the beginning of the year and lost his fight earlier today. We'll miss him lots.

Wouldn't want to be in Alonso's shoes...

...after holding up Lewis Hamilton at the end of qualifying and causing Lewis to miss out on his final lap. Everything about Ron Dennis's behaviour; the throwing of the headphones, marching Alonso's trainer down the pitlane in a Vulcan Death Grip, the grim-faced refusal to comment to anyone before he'd spoken to the drivers behind closed doors, indicates to me that Fernando Alonso is in for one mother of a bollocking from RD.

Lewis Hamilton deserves an Oscar for his performance as a team player in that press conference. Every bit of his body language - the fidgeting, the fixed smile - indicated that what he wanted to do was smack the bloke next to him very hard, and Alonso's guilty face spoke volumes.

Fernando Alonso, you're really in for it this time!