Chris Kent
Chris
was at Trinity from 1962 to 1968, and she writes: -
Hello Blighty
The time has just flown by since we moved to Las Vegas; I can hardly
believe I have been here for almost three years. Little did I
know, when we passed through the immigration desk in LA that the next
eight weeks were going to be the most hectic and anxious that I had
probably ever experienced.
We
emigrated in May 2001, and I had ten days in which to buy a house before
returning to England to finish serving my notice at work.
Fortunately the process of buying a house in Nevada was a breeze
compared to the UK. Essentially once you make a deal, the seller
has 30 days to get out. No ifs, ands or buts. I spent the first
three days running around looking at potential homes, chose one and put
in an offer - the next seven days were spent organizing finance.
No one warned us that European credit references were worthless in the
States, despite the fact that they were from Experian and Equifax, which
are the prominent Credit Reference Agencies here too. Inevitably,
we were stung - a 7.7% mortgage rate versus the going rate at the time
of 6.1%.
Anyway,
job done, I left Graham in Las Vegas and headed back to Northampton for
what can only be described as death by a thousand cuts! I had
already left my husband behind, next I had to kiss goodbye to my career,
and then all the furniture was shipped for its eight-week journey.
Finally my four cats were taken away for two days in travelling cages to
prepare them for their long flight from LHR to LAX. They looked at
me with such confused little faces as if wondering what on earth they
had done to deserve to be put in jail!
So there I was finally - homeless, jobless and with my few remaining
possessions in two small cases and feeling really sorry for myself.
The hardest task was left, saying goodbye to all my wonderful friends
and my family. I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I got on the
plane, using my final Air Miles to travel in the comfort of British
Airways Club Class.
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Now it's almost Spring 2004 and I'm sitting out on the patio in the sunshine with that entire trauma behind me. Las Vegas living is so different, and not just because of driving on the wrong side of the road.
The most obvious difference is the climate. We seem to have just three months of 'winter' - which means it is cold at night and you sometimes need to put the heating on. Even so, there are very few days when the sun doesn't shine and the sky isn't blue. This last winter the daytime temperature has been between 60-70 (oh yes, we use Fahrenheit, feet & inches, pints & gallons, pounds & ounces: just like the old days!). The hummingbirds stayed around all winter long, buzzing round the feeders we have hung around the garden.
Spring is my favourite time of the year, which means any time now. The blossom is just starting to come out and by early March our neighbourhood will be a riot of colour. The desert springs to life in March, it looks (almost) green and there are some really exotic looking flowers scattered around. The desert tortoises start to wake up and amble around too.
Unless you love to bake your very bones, don't ever come here in July or August. It's usually 100 degrees by 10 a.m. - one day last summer it hit 128, the only other place that hot was Death Valley.
We are lucky to be just six miles from Red Rock Canyon, 25 miles from Lake Mead and 45 minutes from Mount Charleston. These are our three recreational retreats.
Red Rock Canyon is a conservation area that used to be way out in the desert. Now the developers are building all the way up to its borders. It's still a wonderful place to waste time. Rocks to climb, hiking trails, total peace and quiet - I just love going out into the desert.
Lake Mead is where we spend most of our summer weekends. There are literally dozens of little coves where we can moor our boat and just chill. We usually take an ice chest full of picnic food and plenty of cold beer! We have seen more wildlife from out on the lake than anywhere else. At about 1a.m. the coyotes start howling to each other across the canyons - it really is outrageous.
Mount Charleston is also a good venue in the summer because it is usually about 10-20 degrees cooler up there and a totally different ecology. Unbelievably, people ski here 10 months of the year. Real estate is expensive on Mount Charleston, and many of the well -to -do have their second homes here.
Lake Mead
So what about the Las Vegas that you see on TV? The only time
we venture there is when we have visitors. The centre of LV is
essentially a holiday resort and it has the third busiest airport in the
US. You can usually see a line of planes stretching back into the
East, day and night, waiting to land. There are two quite distinct
parts of the city - 'Downtown' and 'the Strip'. Downtown is where
it all began, although nowadays (and despite a couple of face lifts) it
is the seedy end of town. All the new fancy hotels/casinos are on
the Strip. Here you can see Paris, Venice, New York, Rome and
Cairo. Tropical forests, volcanoes, dolphins, white tigers,
medieval jousts, pirate ships - this IS Disneyland for adults. The
size and scale of it all is simply staggering and it is all really well
done.
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| Lake Mead |
The trick to surviving as a resident is to stay away from the gambling. Everyone here can tell you a story about people who have lost everything, but it's hard to escape the slots, you see them everywhere - bars, restaurants, even in the supermarkets. That could be the reason why the population seems to be so transient. For example, there are 12 houses on the cul-de-sac where we live - within 15 months of moving here, eight had changed hands at least once.
On the whole our move to the USA has proved beneficial. The cost of living is lower so we have a better lifestyle and of course it's hard to beat this climate. We live in a truly 24/7 society where anything is available, anytime. There is always something going on, great entertainment often available for free admission.
What do I miss? Good bread, pork sausages, 'real' chocolate, Indian food, the garden birds. Most of all I miss my friends and family of course - thank heaven for the net!
Toodle pip
Chris