The online diary of Caroline Westbrook and her forthcoming marriage on September 6 1998 to Leslie Bunder.Thursday January 1
Leslie dropped me home about 2 am after New Year's Eve party to celebrate the UK cinema release of Starship Troopers.Supposed to be on a custom-built spaceship on Clapham Common, but on arrival realise interplanetary craft is little more thana couple of portacabins taped together.
Bit of a scrum, in other words, but kind of fun with it. And very nice not to be able to see Big Ben at once. Incapable of gettingout of bed before 11.30 am as a result.
Have realised that 1998 is wedding year, and still have absolutely everything to sort out!
Luckily we're off to NY in a couple of weeks to make arrangements, before stopping off for a few days in Las Vegas. We hadoriginally thought about having the wedding there, but it simply wasn't practical. For one thing, most of Leslie's family are in theNew York area, and secondly Vegas is such a trek! This will be easier all round. Well, OK, it won't be easier for those peoplecoming from LA . . .
Friday January 2
Back to work! Nobody else in the whole world is at work today, but I have to go in as I'm off in a couple of weeks and haveso much to do. I'm Reviews Editor of Empire, Britain's biggest-selling movie magazine, so it's deadlines all the way. I have tocomplete an issue before I can step on a plane!
Saturday January 3/Sunday January 4
Our last quiet weekend for a while! Horrible weather - neither of us feels remotely inclined to go out in it. Instead, spend sometime at our flat - I'm moving into it full time after we get back from the States.
Monday January 5
The rest of the world goes back to work. Kick off the year in film by bagging a ticket to a preview of the new Tarantino movie,Jackie Brown. Pretty good as it happens. Quentin showed up to give a Q&A session with the audience afterwards - don'tknow what I was expecting - probably him to walk out shrouded in some kind of golden glow or something, but actually helooked kind of normal. He is certainly a man who likes to talk.
Tuesday January 6
Just over a week to go before we fly off to New York and Las Vegas.
Wednesday January 7 - Monday January 12
Hugely busy trying to get everything done prior to trip. Nothing new to report on the wedding front.
Tuesday January 13
My mother has been in touch with Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan! Leslie came across their Web Site, whichproclaimed them the best synagogue in the world. He has pointed out that anyone who says that must have something going forthem. I'm inclined to agree.
Wednesday January 14
An amazing feat of organisation - managed to do about a week's worth of work that needed doing (how? How?), managed toget to the new Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski (top film, nobody is in the least bit surprised), and got home and didpacking all by midnight. Clearly enough hours in the day. We are seeing the caterer at Lincoln Square on Friday morning.
Thursday January 15
Finally! Off to NY - first time for ooh, at least two months. First disappointment came when we found the individual TVscreens had been removed from the otherwise super technological United Airlines craft, an inconvenience no amount of legroom can make up for. Still the flight was smooth, the food was edible (atleast for me, I went vegetarian - Leslie, his mom andmy parents went for kosher and said it was pretty bad), and the service moved with all the pace of a snail on vacation.
Myself, Leslie, my parents and his mother are all in NY till Tuesday, then Leslie and I are off to Vegas for a couple of dayschilling out. But no gambling. Honest.
Arrived at the Quality Inn on 46th Street between 5th and 6th around 7 pm, after waiting an hour for a Tel Aviv van whichnever arrived. Leslie booked it by phone from London and called them on arrival to confirm it was going to pick us up. Itbegan life as a blue van, mutated into a red one and finally ceased to exist altogether. So we took a couple of waiting Taxis toget us there.
The hotel, in comparison to the fur-infested, brown-ceilinged squalor of the Hotel Pennsylvania, where we were holed up onour last trip, is thankfully fine - nothing special, but clean, comfortable, equipped with hot showers and The Weather Channel -just what you need after a lengthy day organising wedding type things!
We are seeing Mr. Kay the caterer at 10 am tomorrow morning. My game plan is that the Synagogue/ballroom will beabsolutely perfect, we can book it then and there and spend the next four days living it up in NY. In reality, however . . .
Friday January 16
We can spend the next four days living it up in NY! Lincoln Square turned out to be just what we were looking for -lovely-sized ballroom, Synagogue in the round (so I can make a big flashy entrance at the top of the stairs as opposed to downthe aisle), and a caterer who promises two choices of entrée! This is just perfect. We have provisionally booked it, but we willhead over there again on Sunday when a wedding is taking place, and see the rooms done up, as opposed to with chairs andcurtains all over the shop. Met Rabbi Cohen as well, who will probably be officiating. A very successful day in all.
And the total cost for the wedding for the shul, hall and catering around $10,000. All we need to sort out next is thephotographer, band and flowers which we plan to do when we go out again at the end of April. Oh, the jet-set life of gettingmarried!
Saturday January 17
No wedding preparations that can be done today, so instead went and asset-stripped Bloomingdales. The entire Isaac Mizrahiwinter collection (or so it seems) is now a part of my wardrobe. Went out with my mother's cousins Martin and ZephyrCooper in the evening for some French kosher.
Sunday January 18
It's official - Lincoln Square is absolutely perfect. The wedding we witnessed was a no expense spared job, complete withfour-piece orchestra and fairy lights adorning the trees outside.
In the evening met Leslie's family and had a great time at a very nice Italian restaurant. Since August, Leslie has been in regulartouch with his cousin Fran Levine and this was a nice chance to meet all the family in one place. Leslie's mom hadn't seen Franfor 20 years and it was great for everyone to touch base and be happy to be in touch again. And how did they get in touch,Fran came across Leslie via the Web site!
Tuesday January 20
Off to Las Vegas! Flew in to Denver, which took about four hours, to catch the plane to Vegas. Leslie and I soon realised ittakes almost the same amount of time to fly from NY to Las Vegas as it does to fly from London to NY. Our folks will besomewhere in the air by now also. Arrived at Denver with about 20 minutes to spare for the connection, but the luggage madeit and so did we!
Checked into the Monte Carlo hotel, which is as beautiful as it was last time.
The room is huge, with a brilliant view of the strip and a bathroom you could hold a dinner party in. Went straight to the newhotel - New York New York, which we've been hugely anticipating. Unfortunately, although it looks mightily impressive fromthe outside, inside it a huge disappointment - looks absolutely nothing like the marvellous city from which we've just arrived.
Rather like NY would look if it were the size of Venice and didn't have drivers honking their horns every few seconds. TheMonte Carlo is miles better. And we're not going to gamble. Honest.
Wednesday January 21
OK, maybe just a spot of slot-playing. Watch out everybody, the high rollers are in town. Lead me to those 25 cent games . . .(half an hour later) Nope, that wasn't too beneficial.
Leslie withdrew $240 from the casino ATM, my folks, brothers, Leslie and his mom gave me some gambling money and Ididn't win for them, drat! Those Armani bargains we spied on our 12 hour shopping flit round the Strip are still beyond reach.
Leslie has gotten bored with the slots and vanished off to play blackjack with his remaining $100. It's 1 am and Leslie has justwon $750 by being a better blackjack player than anybody else. But that's it. He has won back the money we lost last time,and now we don't need to gamble any more. Went to sleep feeling very wealthy.
Thursday January 22
Got up late, couldn't help noticing just how fantastically rich Leslie was looking. Anyway, arranged to meet by the phones, wentto the phones, didn't find Leslie.
Found him - surprise! - at a blackjack table turning his $750 into six and a half thousand!! At least that's what it was after fivehours of playing!
The hotel staff, hugely impressed by the kind of stakes he was playing (average $163 bet per game) couldn't quite bringthemselves to upgrade us to a suite but have agreed to pick up the tab for our hotel room and have thrown in a free $100dinner at one of their nicest restaurants (one where the menu is still in English, thankfully).
Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we skipped off to the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, where you get to look at oldStar Trek costumes and have your photo taken with Klingons before going on a ride.
Well, it starts out like a ride but then they make out you've been kidnapped by Klingons and transported to the 24th Century,upon which time you get to ride in an out-of- control lift and pay a visit to a replica Milennium Falcon (oh no that's Star Wars.Well, something like that anyway).
Then you go on the ride itself, which is one of those virtual reality jobbies that makes it feel as though you're hurtling throughdeep space. All the staff walk around in Trek uniforms looking terribly serious, just to add that extra pinch of authenticity.
We failed to realise how far the Strip was on our way back (everything is so distant in Vegas) and walked about two miles insearch of cash and sustenance.
Happily, Taco Bell was able to supply the latter, while the former came courtesy of the Stardust Hotel, something whichpleased me immensely as I was able to recreate the Vegas gambling scene from the movie Swingers (followed closely by keyscenes from Showgirls) both of which were filmed there.
After a brief stop-off at the mall to pick up some Sees candies (yum!), it was back to the hotel where I was ready for a bit of alie-down but Leslie said he was just going to spend another 15 minutes on the tables. About an hour later, he returned to theroom clutching eight thousand dollars worth of chips. Well, there's a thing. Rounded off proceedings with a dinner ofNorwegian salmon which was actually the size of Norway. No, really.
Friday January 23
No more gambling today. We mean it. OK, OK, you twisted my arm . . . or rather, that of Leslie, who decided to go for onefinal fling. I realised early on that most of his winnings happened in my absence, as the eight thousand dollars was dwindling tosix while I was peeping over his shoulders, so I disappeared back to the slots with some more money Leslie gave me and didn'twin it all back! Drat again!
Which meant I missed seeing him put on the $2000 bet that would send us home with $10000. $2000 is the maximum you canbet on the tables Leslie was playing. Leslie was dealt a 14 hand, the dealer had a king and so with a mixture of good luck andskill, Leslie decided to take another card and it was a seven which got him 21! The dealer could not beat that. As it turns out,the dealer had to take another card as there was some other people on the table and he got a king, so good thing Leslie didwhat he did.
Shaking with excitment, Leslie thanked everyone on the table and casino floor and with chips in hand, cashed them for realcash!
And so we set off for home, with a fat $10000 envelope stuffed in Leslie's shirt pocket. Honestly, there was no way on earthyou could tell what was in the envelope.
The hotel, having run out of freebies to dish out to us, packed us off with a couple of sweatshirts and said if we won asignificant amount again they'd send someone round to do the ironing for us (not really, but I wouldn't put it past them).
Anyway, with fantastic memories of Vegas it made the eleven hours worth of flying time (change at Los Angeles airport), a littlemore bearable, at least for the first few hours. The rest of it I spent trying to sleep across the centre aisle seats, no easy taskwhen a seat arm is digging itself up your nose for the duration.
And yes, the food and service from United was just as bad on the way back as it was going out. I think next time it's going tobe Virgin Atlantic.
Saturday January 24
Home, just a tad on the tired side. Oh my God, what day is it?
Sunday January 25
Oh yes that's right, it's Sunday, isn't it? Moved the rest of my stuff into the flat. Tonight is my last official night at home, I amofficially a guest as of tomorrow morning.
Monday January 26
My first night in the flat! Staying in hotels on your own doesn't actually prepare you for being in a flat on your own, so it wasone weird experience. I daresay I'll get used to it.
Tuesday January 27 - Friday January 30
Love being in the flat. Am now, officially, very used to being there.
Housewarming next Saturday night.
Saturday January 31 - Sunday February 1
Leslie and I purchased enough food to feed a small battallion for next Saturday, even though we are only catering for about 25people. We're getting Marcus's - ace kosher Chinese - in Temple Fortune to do the bulk of the food.
Sweet and sour all round!!
