Match Day, Interview, Party with Robbie, and Destruction By Fire.

April 12th - Match Day

After drinking and dancing until very late, I knew getting up on Saturday would be a struggle, and when my cell phone alarm rang at 8:30 AM, I came face to face with reality. Either it was wake up and get a full english or doze off for a bit, get some rest and eat a bit later. We were told the previous night that a reporter from the Sunderland Echo wanted to talk with girl and I Saturday before the match, and that he'd be coming to our hotel to talk with us at 11:30 AM. So I turned off the phone, rolled over and slept for a bit longer. After waking up and showering, I headed to the store for some quick provisions while girl got ready. We ate a concoction of biscuits and Reese's Pieces that we invented (very peanut buttery and crunchy) and had some tea, and made our way downstairs with a few minutes to spare.

Gary and Oddie were waiting for us, and we got the details of our tickets, upper West Corner in second deck but you can see everything. Gary also said he hadn't heard from the reporter, but we'd give it a few until we needed to leave. At noon, we wandered out to the car as the reporter was a no show. But knowing deadlines, I had a feeling that we'd hear something. One of their photographers had gotten a few pictures during our reception, so we knew they were looking into our story. As Gary pulled out of the parking area, his cell phone rang and sure enough, it was the reporter. A few comments from Gary, and soon I was chatting with the guy. He asked me about the Timbers Army, why I'd drag my wife half way across the world for a football match, and how passionate are our fans. I gave him some great details about us, and then the question I fully expected him to ask - how does your wife feel about it? I said, she's a football fan so she doesn't mind at all, and said you can talk with her to verify. Girl chatted with him for a few moments, and then the phone was passed to Gary. Since they knew we were leaving on Tuesday, they would try to get the story in the Echo on Monday. A photographer would meet us at the match for some additional photos, and we should be good. So then we were off to the Stadium of Light.

It only took about 25 minutes to get there, and the Stadium is still a breath taking site. Built on some old coal mines in the area, you can see the structure for miles around. We arrived about 2 1/2 hours before game time, so we found a little food and wandered outside the stadium. The wind was a bit brisk, keeping the temperatures down and us in jackets, but the sun was trying to peak out a bit. We soon visited the stadium shop, and I purchased a few things for back home. We then watched as Gary went to the ticket office to collect his tickets for their upcoming match versus Newcastle, their fiercest rival the following week. He was happy to be one of 3,000 fans to get to travel up north for this match. We then went to the Supporters Bar inside the stadium to have a pint while waiting for the photographer. At 2 PM, the photographer showed up but said we couldn't take any shots in the stadium so we'd have to go back outside. So we bundled up and headed to the front gate to brave the elements. And soon enough, we were showing our scarves, wearing red and white, smiling while freezing our asses off for the pictures. Hey, they turned out well.

We then headed inside to our seats, placed a couple of bets on the final score, and settled in for the match. Sunderland did have the run of early play, but soon Man City was getting some shots on goal near halftime. The Black Cats were running circles about, getting good shots, but couldn't finish anything and the match went to the half scoreless. The second half started with more Cats fury, but no goals until a weak penalty call gave Man City a penalty kick and soon enough the first goal. The Cats tied it soon afterwards, but about 80 minutes in, one of the Man City strikers got loose and was running full speed at the keeper. He chipped it just outside his reach, and suddenly it was 2 to 1. A final frenzied rally by the Cats couldn't get the equalizer and the game ended with a Cats loss. While they were still above the relegation line, this result did mean the team needed to get some points in their next matches to secure their place. We headed home, sad for the loss, but buzzing a bit at the noise and atmosphere of the game. As we pulled into Seaham, we knew that our party bus was arriving at 7 Pm to take us to the night's event.

After dressing for the night, dinner downstairs and me redressing after a flying fork/spaghetti sauce stain on the shirt incident, we met our bus for one of the neighborhood centers for the concert. Admittedly, I was a bit stressed not only cause I wanted the night to go well for girl, but I'm not used to being the center of attention for this long. The spotlight is OK now and then, but after a few days of being the center of things, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. But I was determined to not let my hangup spoil the night. The bus arrived with Paul, Jackie, Gary and Oddie waiting, and it was pre-arranged to pick us up at 11:45 PM. The bar at the center closed at 11 Pm so we could get last drinks and have them done by the time our taxi would arrive. Unlike here in the states, you don't hail taxis on the street or call them right when you need them, but you rather pre-arrange return trips ahead of time or you wait at the club in a queue for taxis which could take a while.

The place was about half full when we arrived, and we moved up towards the front at a table for six. Paul, Gary and I headed for drinks, and soon this getting drink theme would dominate the night. The first act was going on stage about 8, the main act going on about 9:15 ish with a couple of raffles in between. Not a bad plan at all, and as I wandered about, I saw many familiar faces of townfolk that smiled and shook my hand. The friendly treatment was exactly what I needed to get me on track, and the alcohol soon took over from there.

The first entertainment was an Elvis impersonator from the area, who spoke in a British accent until he sang. The costume was good, and the falsetto notes of Elvis were impressive, but he didn't move at all on stage, and most of the songs he sung were the obscure songs that most casual fans wouldn't recall. But the pints and vodka were flowing so I was getting a good buzz. About 9:20 or so, a banner showing the main entertainment was unveiled and the main surprise was confirmed. But honestly, Girl is pretty smart and knew what was going on before then.

For the uninitiated, Robbie Williams is the biggest pop star that the U.S. has never heard of. He has many albums, performs all over Europe and is known all over the world except in the US where here he's the guy that makes weird videos. But he's a very good singer, and one of girl's favorites. The town was having a charity night with a Robbie impersonator to come to town, and when they found out one of Robbie's big fans was coming to visit, they arranged it to be on the Saturday we were there. And this guy was even approved by the star himself.

And I must say, he had an energy and a voice that woke everyone up, and the dance floor wasn't empty for the rest of the night. The floor did get a little scarce as folks got more drinks, but otherwise it was dancing. And since most of his music was very energetic and danceable, sitting wasn't an option. I had lost track of the number of drinks I'd had, starting with a gift of champagne, pints of beer, and vodka drinks. But then again, everyone in our group wasn't feeling much pain. The night was amazing as Girl got serenaded a few times, she sang to every one of his songs, and we just had an amazing night. 11:45 pm arrived and we finished our drinks. While riding home, Gary invited us back to his place for a night cap.

Paul, Oddie, Jackie, Gary, girl and I arrived about midnight and cracked open a few beers and chatted more about the night. One topic that did come up during our talks was an event that was supposed to happen at the reception the previous night but didn't. They had set up a dart board with a kit of one of the Timbers' bitter rivals, and we were supposed to throw darts at it. But we had forgotten to do this during the night, so the kit was rescued and we tried to figure out what to do with it. Beer makes any decision seem normal, so when the idea of burning it came up, nobody thought this was a bad idea.

Soon, we were outside with a lighter, scissors, lighter fluid, and a sense of destruction. The jersey was cut into a couple of chunks, soaked in fluid, and then lit. Surprisingly, it actually burned a lot faster than expected and soon enough the flaming kit was lying on Gary's patio still burning. Unfortunately, Gary's garden hose was also near there and the kit had landed on top of the hose. And it has started to melt around the hose. So at that point, it was time to put the fire out...and so....

I'm not sure why peeing on it sounded like such a good idea, or that I was the one that started this plan by dropping my pants, but soon enough, the fire was getting put out slowly and surely. Some water and more help later, the damage was somewhat cleaned up, we finished a few more pints, and then it was time to wander home. Iain was waiting up for us at the Harbour View, so we chatted for a bit with him about the night's events, and we walked upstairs for sleep. The next day was a drive to York for some sight seeing, and Gary was going to be there at 10 AM to head there. Well, maybe I won't still be drunk by the time he gets there, but I did have some nice memories of the night and the song Millennium stuck in my head as I lied down to sleep. My liver still hates me...

Next Time - How Many More Stairs are there? And Do Vikings Always Smell this bad?

Castles, Plopper, Crazy Busses, Reception...Oh My!!!

April 11th - Durham, Reception in Seaham

We woke up to the sun spilling into our room, and viewed the North Sea in all its splendor. And I got excited at my first chance at getting a full English. Ok, I'll admit the full English breakfast isn't for everyone and the first few times of having it tested my stomach a lot. The concept of beans for breakfast stumped me, but was told that putting it on toast was a good idea. Girl is full of amazing ideas. We got up early enough to eat, knowing that Gary and Oddie would be coming to the hotel around 10 AM to take us to Durham for the day.

Durham is the county seat there, and is about 10 to 15 thousand folks if I recall. It is about 15 miles from Seaham, and has a rather famous castle and cathedral there. We decided to head there for the day to see the sights, and then be back in time for the secret party that night. Plus, Oddie had interest in seeing the castle, so we thought it would be a good day trip. We walked over to Gary's house and got to see changes within Seaham since I'd been there last. The old Scout Club had been torn down and moved across the street as a new bus station was built there. A new mall and ASDA was built just south of the Scout Club, so there's plenty of shopping about, but the main downtown high street was still there and full of shops.

As we were driving to Durham, Gary told us numerous times to catch the 4 PM bus to Seaham so we'd be back in time for the night's festivities. He told us of the tours and where the castle generally was, but again, be on that 4 PM bus. He dropped us off near the town center, and soon we were on our way wandering about town. Our first stop was a large open market, much like Portland's Saturday market, full of various small shops. It was amazing to see meat shops next to jewelry tents, and a hat shop was next to that, as it was a large collection of random stuff under one room. We finally ran into a games and toy store, and that's where I found Plopper. Well, actually girl said, "Hey look, Simpsons Toys!!" and I looked over to see Plopper and do a happy dance.

Ok, I love the Simpsons and the movie was one of my many highlights from last year. And one of the characters was a pig that Homer named Plopper (after being called Spiderpig). I had purchased all of the Simpsons movie characters here in the States, but the Plopper and Homer was either too expensive here or they kept running out. And suddenly in Durham, it's staring me in the face for 12 pounds. It took less than 10 seconds for me to grab it and run to pay for it, and even the cashier found it ironic that she gets her toys from the States, and now one of them was going back there in my luggage.

We wandered off to the cathedral, and it was one of the most amazing churches I'd ever seen. Built in Norman times, it stood over 300 feet tall at some points, and had some of the most incredible detail on various columns and arches. It was built on the highest hill in town, next to the castle where the former governor of Durham lived. You could have sat about 10,000 people in here and still had plenty of room for service, but it was amazing how quiet it was. I lit a prayer candle for my mom, and we saw various alters and smaller gathering rooms. We missed the last morning tour for the castle, so we wandered into town for lunch to then come back for the castle tour in the afternoon before we needed to be back in Seaham.

And what a tour it was. The castle is now part of the University of Durham, and so students actually live in the castle while studying there. One of their students gave us the tour, as we wandered to meeting rooms, small art galleries, a small church in the castle, and our final stop of a chapel underground with only natural lighting from above. It was amazing to see pieces of history that were older than I could imagine, and it was worth the trip and then some. As we wandered back to town, we made a few stops and then headed to the bus terminal to head back to Seaham.

I don't recall buses coming into Seaham when I last visited, but I was amazed that this area had such a detailed bus system. I gathered a few snacks, and we watched with amusement people interact with the pay toilet. You pay 20 pence to use a full sized toilet, but apparently some people didn't get the concept. One gal held the door open for over 10 minutes for some reason, I think she wasn't sure it was clean, but after each use, you could hear water spraying about. Another man wanted to use the toilet but was shocked it cost money. "Why pay 20 pence, I could just piss on the wall over here for free?" Yup, everyone waiting for the bus heard that over and over again.

Our bus finally arrived a few moments late, and we were off as Seaham was the last stop on the trip. It was interesting to see sights of the country side, going past a few small towns (Houghton Le Spring and Murton) and seeing the neighborhoods. Everything in the country side looks the same, as all houses are the same color and near the same design. We were casually driving along for about a half an hour but then suddenly the bus moved a bit faster. Unknown to us, the driver was scheduled to switch at Seaham with his relief driver, and he was a bit late. So it became hanging on to your seat and whipping around corners. I'm not entirely sure why we didn't hit anything cause it seemed like something out of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride for a bit. As we finally pulled into the station, the driver apologized for the rough ride, and we were just happy to be on firm ground.

Because of the issues with the power shower, they had to replace our shower in our room so we were told before we left to check in and see where we could shower. The shower in our room was completely new, but it was still drying, so we were told to go to room 3 to get ready for the night. And as we walked it, we found our surprise. Lying on the bed was a white wedding dress for girl and a suit for me. We were asked to dress in these and be downstairs at 7:45 for our chariot to pick us up. Gary had asked for measurements before we left, and needless to say we hoped that the stuff could fit knowing our diets and lack of exercise lately, but everything did. But now the question was are we getting married again or is this a party or something? My suit was in Sunderland colors, with various SAFC crests on the cuffs and vest, and it was very nice with an English tie. And girl's dress was very nice and flowy as well.

We ate downstairs after showering, and then got ready in our wedding attire and made it downstairs right about on time. The Harbour View bar actually had a band playing, and one of the guys asked what we were doing. Our answer, "Not sure, just dressing up for a party here in town that is being thrown for us." At just before 8, a gentleman arrived and said I'm to take you to the party. And we walk out to the street with a nice Bentley sedan waiting for us. Ok, the driver was actually the mayor's driver and we are in his car being driven around Seaham to our party. We saw the outlet mall again, and an area that one of the major movie studios is building a large set at for filming, and then soon enough, we parked in front of the new Scout Club. A couple of guys were waiting with umbrellas, and soon we were whisked to a door and then entered to...

Cheers, popping fireworks, and thunderous applause. About 80 folks were there, as I saw various Timbers shirts, scarves, and Gary dresses like Timber Jim. At the head table, it was Oddie, Jackie (Gary's wife), the mayor, the town council, Maureen (a friend of SAFC that the TA had collected funds to help due to her cancer) and her daughter, Elaine from Shaw Trust, Iain and Maureen from the Harbour View, with two seats for us. Gary then explained the theme for the night to have a reception for girl and I, and to raise funds for charity. Maureen then spoke and thanked the TA for our generous donation taken in 2007 as she struggled with expenses while battling cancer, but she not only was feeling better but asked for our donation to go to other causes. So the Shaw Trust, a developmental school in the area to help mentally challenged folks, received our donation, and Elaine thanked us and the entire TA for our help. We also got some gifts from the town, and various cards and a notebook from the townsfolk with kind wishes. We were also made full members of the Scout Club, so we can visit there anytime and drink. I was overwhelmed at this outpouring of love and support for us, and girl finally got to see what it was like for us during our last trip to Seaham: good times, great friends, helping charity, and showing the love for each other bonded by football. And hey, meeting girl at a football match, it all made sense. Yes, I was smiling and near crying most of the night, but with tears of joy.

There were a couple of raffles, the first was delayed as I messed up the number machine. Apparently, I like to break stuff, but I felt better as the number machine was being temper mental most of the night. The beer relay was next, and even with me being penalized for spilling beer, my team won. I was given Paul on my team, and I let him pick the rest of the team versus Big Eddie, a guy we faced the last time in beer relay and we lost back in 2006, although our friend Nerd gained some respect in beating Eddie later in the night.

There was a second raffle for prizes, and so I bought 5 pounds worth of tickets, not sure what might happen. Most of the prizes were alcohol related, including some wine and other fine spirits. Well, when the first number popped up and it was ours, so a bottle of Grand Mariner was coming home with us. But then as if we were channeling Timber Howie, our numbers kept coming up. One of my favorite moments was after winning for the fourth or fifth time, I was pondering our next prize when Maureen chimed up, "You can pick the planter and give it to me." I looked and girl, and we both nodded in agreement. She was shocked when when we gave her this nice planter, but we also knew that she would take great care of it and we couldn't get in it our luggage. We also traded some bottles of booze for other stuff as we tried to keep our prizes minimal knowing how little space we had in our bags for Rome.

The baby beer bottle contest was next, as I sat out the fun there, and then it was time to dance to Aqualung, our first song from our wedding. We danced the night away to various tunes, drank a lot, and I gave Oddie a TA scarf for being such a friend of us and football. There are pictures of the fun at our website plus I had added some pics in my Seaham slide show. At about midnight, we decided to head back to our hotel, which meant another pint before bed as Iain had been waiting up for us.

It's still overwhelming to think about how a simple tour can lead to meeting folks that become part of your life in a significant way. The folks in Seaham are some of the best people I've ever met, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone there for all of your love and support of me and my wife and the TA as a whole. I had a feeling Gary would top the 2006 tour, and boy was I right. Oh, and tomorrow is match day and another gathering with a special guest. I think my liver is now ready to boycott the trip, too bad it doesn't have a say in the matter.

Next Time - Match Day, Interview, Party with Robbie, and Destruction By Fire.

Adventures in Terminal 5 and Customs, and Pies in Newcastle

April 10th - London to Newcastle to Seaham

I don't recall when I was awoken from my attempted plane sleep. It could have been the blasts of cold air coming down on me from the console, it could have been the person in front of me that moved in their seat every 10 seconds, it could have been the flight attendants passing out food and pillows, or the announcement that everyone that wasn't a UK citizen needed to fill out an immigration form, but I was awake although very groggy and tired of sitting. I knew that things weren't right when in trying to complete my immigration form, I copied some of the information from girl's card. Ok, I copied almost everything, which wasn't that smart. I probably should have paid more attention to what I was doing, but after the adventure of leaving the country, I was too busy just being happy about making our flights.

I had visited the folks in Seaham before, back in 2006. The fans from Sunderland AFC came over to Portland in 2005 as part of an American tour, and they traveled about 400 or so fans. Portland was the last stop on the trip, and needless to say, we made quite an impression with them about our crazy passion, fervor for the game, and ability to drink. One of their super fans, Gary, invited us to visit on tour in 2006, and so 33 of us made the journey across the pond. For me, the trip was my first trip overseas but represented something more than that. My mom had died from cancer back in September 2005, and one thing she made me promise to do was to go on the trip because I was waffling about it. She said it would be one of those things you'll never forget, and she was right. The fans were amazing, and we had a very fun and crazy 6 day tour of Sunderland and Seaham. Our friends from Sunderland came back in 2007 to Portland, and at that point, I'd mentioned possibly coming over in 2008 as part of our honeymoon.

Many TA folks had talked about going, but after a few weeks, it turned out it was just me and girl. After trading plenty of emails and posts on our board, I had a feeling that there were many crazy plans at work, and turns out I was more right than I knew. Gary had been working on lots of events for us during our 5 days in Seaham, even arranging for us to stay in the same hotel that we stayed at in 2006 in the downtown area.

We touched down in London at about 9:30 AM local time in Terminal 3, and we headed off to immigration. Needless to say, my bad penmanship and scribbles didn't cause any issues as we informed them of our trek up north. Once we collected our bags, it was off to find some food. We found a nice eatery in the airport, and we had a tasty breakfast and strong English coffee. I may have been groggy in the AM, but after drinking this stuff, I was wired. Plus, we both ate the tomato included with the breakfast. Ok, I tried to eat it and made it through a small wedge. I negotiated a trade for mushrooms to get rid of my tomato. Our flight up north wasn't scheduled until 3:30 PM, so we had some time to sit about and wait. But knowing we had to check in for our flight 2 hours early, we didn't want to wait too long. So about noon, we wandered to catch the Underground to Terminal 5.

I'd heard stories about the Underground from girl during her stays in London, and our bathroom downstairs is done up like an Underground station, from the Tube map on the wall to the the camera in the upper left corner to a Underground station sign painted on the wall with the colors of the tube stops servicing it. We were able to travel to Terminal 5 for free, and so we headed off to catch the tube.

To say it's underground is an understatement. We took a few escalators to get to the station which was very far down in the ground and extremely quiet. You also heard a lot of announcements about minding the gap, which basically meant watch your step getting on and off the train because there is a slight gap between the train and the platform. A couple of brisk gusts of wind blew through the station, and then suddenly the train was there. Girl had said the trains were rather quiet, and it was another understatement. No conversations, no yelling, no noise, it was people sitting quietly with their luggage waiting for the station. If you take any form of public transportation in the States, it's as loud as a sporting event with random conversations, cell phone calls, and general mischief. Not here.

We pulled into our station, and took the escalators to Terminal 5. Terminal 5 is the world's largest terminal, apparently over 100 football pitches big. And yes, it's that big and somewhat barren. There's lots of space to just walk around in, although they did fill some areas with random modern art. I liked the flying books, but the orange telling me that it loved me was just plain creepy. Prior to our trip, Terminal 5 had opened the previous week to big press but lousy reviews. For the first few days, you couldn't check baggage at Terminal 5 because of technical problems, and then the following two days, luggage could be checked in but more than likely would end up somewhere than your destination city. Apparently the terminal was a complete mess for those days before we got there, but surprisingly, we saw a quiet large area with lots of people to help.

We checked into our Newcastle flight 2 1/2 hours early, but apparently you couldn't check bags until 2 hours ahead, so our wait was extended. Once our bags were able to join us, we ventured through Security. And I must say the Brits do security very well. We checked into a desk that took a photo of us, then we went through traditional security with x-rays. I spoke with a security officer who saw my Portland Timbers shirt and asked if it was a football team. When I said yes, he exclaimed he'd played in Rochester way back. When I said the Rhinos, he said, no the Lancers. Yes, NASL days. He remembered the Timbers from that time frame, and so we chatted for a few while girl was checking in.

Once we got through security, we headed to a large seating area and waited. Flights aren't assigned gates until about an hour before their departure, so everyone waits in a large area with lots of chairs and looks at various large TV screens. As gates are assigned, people get up and head to their gates, so you see folks constantly standing up. It's fun for people watching, but I admit it was distracting to sit and wait and stare at some big TV screen. And ok, I hadn't showered since Tuesday so I wasn't feeling all that fresh. We grabbed some sandwiches, sat around for what seemed like hours and hours, and then saw our gate assigned so we could move to another waiting area.

British Airways fed us again on the trip up North, which I think was my fourth or fifth meal, but considering I didn't know what time zone I was in, being hungry overruled the time of the day. We were supposed to meet Gary at our gate and then wait for his friend Oddie from Norway who was coming in to the same airport right after us. As we touched down, I felt a sense of relief that I didn't have to be in a plane for a few days. Gary met us, wearing his TA scarf, and told us we were heading directly to Seaham because Oddie's flight was delayed. In his car, he had two meat pies waiting for us. Being members of Row N in the TA, we hate clowns and love pies, so seeing pie waiting for us was very special. I ate mine rather quickly as apparently the sandwich didn't fill me up. The traffic wasn't too bad, and soon enough we were in Seaham at the Harbour View hotel.

We had stayed there in 2006, and nothing had really changed since the last time I was there. A pub and restaurant on the first floor, then stairs to the rooms above in the most narrow staircase I'd seen, the Harbour View is just very quaint and comfortable. We were put in room 7 overlooking the North Sea and the Seaham Cross, and when we walked upstairs, our door was decorated with pictures from our wedding. And of course, English beer in the room. Gary had some surgery a few days prior to our visit, and I could tell he was feeling it a bit, but being the gracious host, he let us get settled and showered and we wandered downstairs for a few pints. Well that was the plan, but there was some change in plan a bit.

For those of you that have never experienced power showers, they are quite common in England for areas where the water pressure isn't very good. The first time I'd seen them, it was weird taking a shower that made so much noise but they worked fairly well. I had a bit of difficulty remembering how they worked, but got it to work finally and I was cleaned up. Girl was going to shower after me and meet us downstairs, but the shower was having some issues as we couldn't get it to work. I went downstairs to get some help, and soon enough Iain was at our door.

Iain is the Harbour View owner, a right good Scot and a great guy who was one of our hosts back in 2006. He was happy to see me, and I explained the power shower issue, and he went right to work. After some tests and things, it was determined the shower might need to be replaced, so girl shuffled to another room to shower and then meet up with us. I don't know if I broke the fuse or just overloaded the circuits, but I felt bad at delaying her. She joined us a bit later, and we sat down to have a few pints with Gary and Paul. Paul lives in Seaham, and was part of both trips across the pond. He's an amazing guy as well, and one of the best drinkers I've ever met. Gary left us for a bit as Oddie's plane had arrived and he took the train from the airport to Seaham. Finally about 10 pm, we had all of our travelers, and Iain had joined our table wearing a special Portland Timbers kit we had signed for him for a few drinks. Gary told us a few times that we wouldn't forget the next few days. I had a feeling he was probably right, but for now, I was just happy to be there with my wife. We settled in about 12 AM and were going to head to Durham the next day for sight seeing until that evening, when our special surprise party was happening. As I faded off to sleep, I was just relieved to be there and tried to prepare myself for the next few days' adventures.

Next Time - Castles, Plopper, Crazy Busses, Reception...Oh My!!!