HOPEFULLY by the time you read this I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic on the first of my three stag dos.

I'm heading to Vegas with three good friends for a few days of grog and gambling. It should be fun. One of our number has already had to dodge the surgeon's knife before travelling!

Fingers crossed I'll be reporting back in a fortnight's time with a few good stories, preferably none involving a judge and bail money or Mike Tyson and a tiger.

But I'm surprised at how quickly it has come around. It seems not that long ago I was booking the trip.

Now we're here about to set off. This trip is the starting pistol for the countdown to the big day, the event that says 'right you're on your stag so you must be getting married'.

It's only about six months off now and I worked out that we have some kind of do or event every three or four weeks until the wedding. That means that it will be upon us before we know it.

I can't understand why it is all flying by so quickly. I remember reading some time ago about a study that argued that the reason that time seems to go by so quickly as you get older is because you stop having new experiences. As you settle into a daily routine and more settled life, the first time experiences are few and far between.

But how can that be? I'm pretty sure that at no point in my life have I previously gone shopping for bridesmaids dresses, looked at half a million pictures of flowers or agreed to splash half my salary on a day on the pop. With all these firsts my engagement is bringing me surely the days can't be flying by as quickly as they are.

But they are and there is little I can do about it. My attempts to build a machine to slow the passage of time merely resulted in our washing machine not working and me receiving a couple of electric shocks. So I guess I just have to try and savour the moments, carpe diem and all that.

There should be plenty to savour, and unsavoury I imagine, in Las Vegas. We've got a packed itinerary involving guns, gambling, high quality steel cables and canyons. Seeing as I wouldn't trust one of our number with a safety pin, let alone an AK47, there should be plenty to talk about upon our return.

My mum and fiancée are suitably nervy about me heading to Sin City. I am perfectly capable of getting into trouble here at home, let alone in the town that gave us CSI. But I'm sure that this will prove to be a memorable episode in my journey to the altar.