So we had to leave Las Vegas in a bit of a hurry this morning as I had taken the hotel's casino to the cleaners. I thought it best to hot-foot it out of there before I had to do a drugs test or perhaps they would have wanted to check me for wires or check my records in case it was an inside job.

Anyway turning back the clock slightly; after showering and not shaving my chest, we went off for a pizza and then went to see Mystere - which was the latest offering from Cirque de Soleil. It was very good. It included the standard offering of ridiculously strong people doing things that us poor mortals wouldn't try at home. How does some-one pull themselves up a pole when their body is at a right angle to the pole? We had trapeze artists, a modern day clown who was excellent and drummers. A good night.

We have now driven across Death Valley to Mammoth Lakes. It took us around six hours and there was not much to write home about which is an issue for a diary writer! We did see, by the roadside, armed police arresting a guy. He was sat on the floor with his hands behind his head. At least two officers had guns trained on the guy. It was a scary scene and shows what sort of pressure the police have to deal with.

Once at Mammoth Lakes, and checked in, we hired 2 2-man kayaks at Lady Mary lake. Isabel was with me and is really rather good which made my life easy. Jo had Ella the live-wire with her. From our kayak we could hear Ella shouting directions up front and berating Jo when she fell out of sync. We left the lake just as a group of American camp kids turned up. Sam if your kids are like these then you have my sympathy! Afterwards Ella and I trotted around another lake (Horsebend) and Jo walked it.

Given you've made it this far, I'm happy to provide a little more information about the 'big sting' as we should call it. Having circled the BlackJack and roulette tables for about thirty minutes, I decided it was time to strike. It was BlackJack first and somehow I managed to recover from a poor start. After recovering my initial investment plus a bit I wanted to give roulette a chance. At the annual Christmas party I am fantastic at this game by frankly chucking in everything in terms of chips in one go. I'll gloss over the fact that we don't play for real money but anyhow I used the same tactics in Las Vegas. I used my winnings from BlackJack to swamp the roulette table (only a third of it actually) and unbelievably won a few times. I lost a little after that and decided to call it a day at 1am. I then raced around to the cashier before the authorities called me in for questioning

Top tip - quit when you're ahead! $100 ahead to be precise but a win's a win!!