Nominated: Poet of the Year Competition in 2007 for a second time by poetry.com in the
United States of America ... it is
surprising to some but not to others than I automatically jumped on the bus
and went directly to Thomas Cook Travel Agency and asked for a booklet
on travel from London to Las Vegas USA around the 12th of July up to
the 24th July 07 ... the agent told me that I would have to book
early, in fact, even now to ensure my place on the flight. But then
the best deal is Virgin Atlantic ... sounds good if you are going there
without any intention of attending the Poetry Competition. And I''ve had
that before ... such is the way of life for this writer ...
However, I''ve had a chance to look up the prices with dates and
hotels and it is very expensive mid season .. if I wanted to go now
another travel agent told me that I could buy a return airline ticket
for as little as £550 excluding hotel accommodation. Since the Poetry.com
People have set up accommodation in Las Vegas at a cost ... well high cost,
I guess for their event ...
Ah! I pointed out to the agent ... I cannot book now as I have a
previous engagement in a few weeks and I am deep in preparation
for that ... somewhat over committed! She then continued her
line of enquiry and decided I had an accent ... naturally, I placed it, as ...
Ulster, as her comment was directed through a foreign speaker of English. Well
I replied, hesitantly, I dont have an accent other than British ... you do ... it seemed
as if I had never left the classroom and we were back in dialogue with
EFL and EAP yet again! This pleased the agent enormously and she
replied she was from South America and was Spanish and I had a long
conversation as to how much she missed home and wished she could
return straightaway as she had been working in the UK for at least 5 years!
What about Las Vegas ... back to Thomas Cook .. they gave me the
booklet .. something to browse through late afternoon on Tuesday!
Excellent reading .. keep on reading the hard stuff!