The Timbers season came to an end on Saturday night on the road versus Carolina, and like many of the matches this year, the team played well in stretches but gave up a late goal and took the loss. We won't be making the playoffs this year, actually as of Sunday's matches, we are last on the First Division table by a whole three points. While there was a lot of parity this year in the USL, the Timbers simply were too inconsistent for their own good. They'd look amazing one night in a match, then come out completely clueless the next night. I realize that it's tough to keep mentally focused for a long season, heck, I have trouble remembering where the grocery list is, but being mentally tough is what separates the professionals from the amateurs. And no, it's not that I can't remember what's on the list, its actually where I put the damn thing.
The offseason for Timbers fans can be a bit tough, especially since our message board becomes a harbor for crazy rumors, thoughts about strategy, the things the front office should do, and so on. Some of the ideas make sense, others are wildly crazy, but the offseason isn't boring around the Timbers message board. Some people actually fill their offseason with distractions, like watching footy from other parts of the world or watching a different sport (GASP!!). I spend my offseason watching West Ham in the English Premier League and our own hometown Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA.
I've always been a basketball fan, and so following the hometown team is an easy choice, especially after moving here in 1989 and there was a championship run that very year. This town gets nuts for their team, and I got a full on taste of what Rip City is like around here. There are signs everywhere, the games are talked about all over the news and about town, and the town cheers each win and tries to shake off each loss. The town loves its team, and there is a sense that the community is really part of the team. It's something really special, and I'm glad to see that it's coming back a bit. We certainly have a solid team base, with the rookie of the year from 2006 - 2007 (Brandon Roy), the first overall pick from the 2007 -2008 draft (Greg Oden), and a solid nucleus of players, including one of the better players from Europe coming over this year (Rudy Fernandez) to join the club. I bought an 11 game pack to watch games, and so girl and I will be going to games throughout the season. When we aren't at the game, the television is usually on the games. We are a true Trail Blazer house, and I'm glad I married such a sports fan.
West Ham is my choice to follow in English Soccer, mostly for my allegiance to a former Timber and prominent member of the Portland soccer community, Clive Charles. He played for the Hammers, as well as one of the Timbers' former coaches, Bobby Howe. Plus, one of my favorite memories of my honeymoon is watching a full stadium in Upton Park as the Hammers met Newcastle, and it was the loudest, most intense footy experience I've had. Girl supports them because of her teaching experience in Basildon, UK, and using the kids' love of football to bond with them, and the Hammers were the local team to support. I do have a lot of fondness for Sunderland, another EPL team, mostly because of the fans there. I took a trip over there in 2006 with 32 other members of the Timbers Army, and was treated to one of the most amazing experiences while there, plus another return trip in 2008 as part of my honeymoon, where they took care of myself and girl for 5 wonderful days. I respect the Black Cats a lot, and they're great folk, but the Hammers was a slightly more intense footy experience. Plus, we got to stay a night on the West Ham grounds as guests of our friends here as a wedding present.
I think the offseason is a great time to also get caught up on other pursuits, like reading or doing odd jobs around the home. While I love my Timbers a great deal, it does tend to fill our social calendar with matches, gatherings and such, and so every once in a while, it's nice to take a bit of a break. However, we still see many members as I'm playing outdoor soccer on a TA team, and girl and I bowl with some TA as part of Underdog Bowling Portland. Besides, the rains will come soon and keep most of the folks inside for the remainder of the year, which is too bad because I like the rains and the fall around here. It's actually some of the best weather here in Portland, when the mornings are crisp and the afternoons are still a bit warm and sunny. I will miss the sun when the winter comes around and the work day pretty much covers getting up and coming home in the dark, but it's a small price to pay for the coolness that is here. And besides, I already have my 2009 Timbers tickets, so bring on next year already!
For more information about the Timbers and offseason stuff, visit www.soccercityusa.com or www.talktimbers.com to learn more.
Showing posts with label West Ham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Ham. Show all posts
Monday, September 22, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Next Time - Shopping English Style, and The Most Obnoxious Store I've Ever Been In
April 28th - Chafford Hundred/Lakeside Mall
It's roughly two days remaining in London, and we have a lot of things we'd like to do yet, but it's now deciding what will fit within our remaining time. We got up reasonably early, ate a bit, and then discussed ideas for the daytime. I had wanted to do a little shopping for some clothes, and since we found out there was a very large Tesco near a shopping place girl was familiar with, we decided to make Monday shopping day at the mall. We would then wander into town for Tuesday to pick up any last minute items, and then pack for our flight home.
Going out to Chafford Hundred required another train trip out east, which I wasn't opposed to at all. Traveling by train is a lot easier over here, because the trains are bigger and they run all the time. As much as they have roads and infrastructure here, England also paid a lot of attention to building alternate transport, such as buses, water boats, and trains. We left in the mid afternoon to take the train out east to Chafford Hundred to visit their very large mall, and then make a side trip to Tesco for some things. The train took hardly anytime at all, and since the trips ran approximately 20 minutes apart, there was always a train coming or going.
We wandered over the pedestrian bridge to Lakeside Mall and once inside, it's a pretty typical mall. Outside of the different shops, you probably wouldn't notice any difference to any American shopping place. We decided to check out the Lillywhite's outlet, which had become a home away from home for the TA during our trip up to Seaham, then check on any clothes stuff for girl and myself that would be fashionable and stuff we don't have here in the US. The Lillywhite's was very similar to Seaham, things stuffed where ever you could find space, and random things thrown about. I found a nice England kit for cheap, but not much else that said buy me. We found a Boots book store, where girl bought a few Harry Potter editions she didn't have, and a light snack, and then we headed off for clothes.
Debenhams reminds me a lot of a Meier and Frank or Nordstrom's here at home, as we wandered through the front entrance. We wandered to an area with jackets and slacks, and nothing struck us as buys. I looked about and found a sale rack, which had a couple of buys that might work, but so far the shopping had been disappointing until we looked over and found the dress shirts. Then, girl went to work. One of her goals was to get me a pink shirt and ties that matched, and sure enough, she found two shirts and ties to match. Plus, there were a couple of other nice colors as well (I'm currently wearing the purpleberry shirt as I write this), and we found ties for all of them. And at only 88 pounds, it wasn't a terrible deal either. We did look about for some things girl might like, but nothing struck her fancy.
Downstairs, they had a West Ham store similar to the stadium, so of course, I had to peek in. I found a couple of nice things, including a nice tie rack, and so I bought a bit more. We finally wandered to Sports World on the other side of the mall to see about kits and such, but they didn't have a whole lot of things unless you were a Chelsea fan. Since we weren't, it was time to wander out of the mall and find Tesco.
It wasn't quite the walking adventure of Canary Wharf, but it took us a bit to find the pathway from the mall to Tesco, but once we got ourselves oriented, we walked past the manmade lake to the Tesco across the way. And this was a super huge location, about as large as Wincos here in town. Tesco is basically like a Fred Meyer, but they have cheaper things and vodka to die for, as part of my traveling part from our 2006 trip would remember. We decided to walk as many of the aisles as we could, and find what we could keeping in mind we didn't want to haul too much stuff to the train.
Wandered through some of the games and toy section, my resolve to keep the buying down didn't last when I found a version of the remote controlled dalek that Pete had from yesterday's dinner. Of course it was coming home with me, along with a sonic screwdriver. Then, we searched some of the clothes but found nothing, and then it was wandering the food. And boy, do they have a lot of it. Tesco's vegetarian selections are very good and tasty, but we found dessert stuff and some breakfast things, plus some things to leave in the flat for future use since we'd used a lot of the tea and condiments left there. We filled about 6 grocery bags of random stuff, including a bit of alcohol and an elderflower cordial fizzy drink that was amazingly refreshing. Just add some of the liquid to water, and it makes a light, refreshing drink. Some other cool desserts were also packed for the ride home, and now it meant hauling this stuff to the train station. It didn't take too long to walk over there, but by the time we made it there, we were exhausted from hauling. With about 15 minutes before our train was to arrive, we got some drinks and watched the sun set into the nighttime. The colors were amazingly clear and crisp, and so I was happily taking some photos while we waited. The train arrived, and within 35 minutes, we were back at the Fenchurch Station and walking back to our flat.
It was eating time, so we snacked and ate and drank, and settled in for another bad night of TV and relaxing. And I must say I liked the shirts I bought very much, and it was touching to see girl go through so much trouble to see me dressed nice. And hey, I got a dalek for my trouble as well, so not a bad day all the way around....
April 29th - Knightsbridge, Tottenham Court Road, Girl's Birthday
It's girl's birthday, and she's in one of her favorite places in the world. However, it's also our last day in London, so there wasn't much time for celebration at least in the morning. We got up, cleaned a bit about the flat, and then headed off to inner London to see the sights. Our plan was to not stay out too late, so we could come back, eat dinner, pack up our stuff, and then clean the flat in time for checkout in the morning. We wanted to avoid a cleaning fee, so it was imperative to clean the place very well. And with trash day on Wednesday, we could get a lot of stuff disposed of quite easily.
We wandered into Tower Hill Station to catch the Tube to South Kensington, then up to Knightsbridge, as girl wanted to show me the world of Harrod's. Not really sure what I'm getting myself into, I said sure let's go. I knew this was a rather posh store, but that was about it until we got off the train, went up the stairs and wandered inside. And it was then I saw what was truly one of the most remarkable but disturbing things I've seen. We wandered into the men's section to find suits for about 1500 pounds, or shirts for 300 pounds. We then veered into the jewelry section, where the cheapest thing we found was about 1200 pounds, and then to the perfume area, where any brand of stuff you could think of had a display. As we wandered from section to section, it was like watching the old show Life Styles of the Rich and Famous but up a few notches. Nobody was buying anything except in the gift shop and food courts, where you could actually afford things. We then visited one of two tapestry rooms, next to the grand piano area. While I love the whole concept of capitalism and free market, opulence and waste is something I despise, so this whole store was a bit of a struggle for me. But at least we saw a 30000 pound chandelier with a sold sign on it. I suppose if I could afford something like this, it might be a nice touch, but it's the frugal part of me that finds a lot of what was there a waste.
After the sensory overload there, we then made our way north toward the Virgin Megastore, which girl spent a lot of time in getting music sheet books, posters and some of her rare albums and CDs. We wandered through Oxford Circus near many of the theatres in town, and some rather nice looking restaurants. Once we found Tottenham Court Road, we looked about to find the store and found what looked like a rather large record store but had the name Zavvi's on the front. It was after wandering in that girl realized that this was actually the Virgin Megastore, just renamed and completely stripped down. We decided to shop anyway because she wanted some specific albums and posters, so we were off. I found a couple of rare CDs, and she completed her Robbie Williams collection with two CDs she didn't have, plus some old vinyl. We paid for our purchase, and then decided to head back to the flat.
A couple of train stops, and we were back at Tower Hill. The Tube was extremely packed this afternoon, with tourists and commuters, but it was similar to taking the MAX to a Trail Blazer game. We stopped by Waitrose for some final household items, and then it was cooking and drinking time. I ate the last of the Quavers I had, and drank some cider while we ate random foods. We had also found a special dessert at Waitrose that came in glass dishes, which closely resembled the gelatto dish that I accidentally destroyed here that she got from Rome. So she ate a lot of dessert rather enjoyably, and we got to packing and cleaning. I was pleased that I was getting all of my stuff into a home in my luggage, even being able to offer girl some space in my second bag. And they both felt a bit lighter, but boy, we have a lot of stuff packed in here. Once the packing was about done, it was cleaning and vacuuming everything. This involved doing dishes, deep cleaning the shower, vacuuming the rug, and cleaning up the sink and stove. We wanted to get as much done as we could not to keep Arthur up with noise, so we focused on louder activities to get them out of the way.
Packing and cleaning kept us busy for a while, but knowing we had an intercontinental flight in the morning, we wanted to stay up as much as possible knowing that at 4 AM we needed to be up and moving to make sandwiches for the trip, eat breakfast, and do any last minute things needed before we needed to catch the Tube to Heathrow. Our flight was at 10:30 AM, but we wanted to be there early to check in, get through security, and not be completely rushed.
Finally around 2 AM, we found some NBA action on one of the BBC stations which became our fall asleep program. I suppose even we couldn't find enough dirty TV to watch, but as I dozed off that night, I couldn't believe that within 24 hours, we would be back home and our oddessy was done.
Next Time - Flight Home and Travel Epilogue
It's roughly two days remaining in London, and we have a lot of things we'd like to do yet, but it's now deciding what will fit within our remaining time. We got up reasonably early, ate a bit, and then discussed ideas for the daytime. I had wanted to do a little shopping for some clothes, and since we found out there was a very large Tesco near a shopping place girl was familiar with, we decided to make Monday shopping day at the mall. We would then wander into town for Tuesday to pick up any last minute items, and then pack for our flight home.
Going out to Chafford Hundred required another train trip out east, which I wasn't opposed to at all. Traveling by train is a lot easier over here, because the trains are bigger and they run all the time. As much as they have roads and infrastructure here, England also paid a lot of attention to building alternate transport, such as buses, water boats, and trains. We left in the mid afternoon to take the train out east to Chafford Hundred to visit their very large mall, and then make a side trip to Tesco for some things. The train took hardly anytime at all, and since the trips ran approximately 20 minutes apart, there was always a train coming or going.
We wandered over the pedestrian bridge to Lakeside Mall and once inside, it's a pretty typical mall. Outside of the different shops, you probably wouldn't notice any difference to any American shopping place. We decided to check out the Lillywhite's outlet, which had become a home away from home for the TA during our trip up to Seaham, then check on any clothes stuff for girl and myself that would be fashionable and stuff we don't have here in the US. The Lillywhite's was very similar to Seaham, things stuffed where ever you could find space, and random things thrown about. I found a nice England kit for cheap, but not much else that said buy me. We found a Boots book store, where girl bought a few Harry Potter editions she didn't have, and a light snack, and then we headed off for clothes.
Debenhams reminds me a lot of a Meier and Frank or Nordstrom's here at home, as we wandered through the front entrance. We wandered to an area with jackets and slacks, and nothing struck us as buys. I looked about and found a sale rack, which had a couple of buys that might work, but so far the shopping had been disappointing until we looked over and found the dress shirts. Then, girl went to work. One of her goals was to get me a pink shirt and ties that matched, and sure enough, she found two shirts and ties to match. Plus, there were a couple of other nice colors as well (I'm currently wearing the purpleberry shirt as I write this), and we found ties for all of them. And at only 88 pounds, it wasn't a terrible deal either. We did look about for some things girl might like, but nothing struck her fancy.
Downstairs, they had a West Ham store similar to the stadium, so of course, I had to peek in. I found a couple of nice things, including a nice tie rack, and so I bought a bit more. We finally wandered to Sports World on the other side of the mall to see about kits and such, but they didn't have a whole lot of things unless you were a Chelsea fan. Since we weren't, it was time to wander out of the mall and find Tesco.
It wasn't quite the walking adventure of Canary Wharf, but it took us a bit to find the pathway from the mall to Tesco, but once we got ourselves oriented, we walked past the manmade lake to the Tesco across the way. And this was a super huge location, about as large as Wincos here in town. Tesco is basically like a Fred Meyer, but they have cheaper things and vodka to die for, as part of my traveling part from our 2006 trip would remember. We decided to walk as many of the aisles as we could, and find what we could keeping in mind we didn't want to haul too much stuff to the train.
Wandered through some of the games and toy section, my resolve to keep the buying down didn't last when I found a version of the remote controlled dalek that Pete had from yesterday's dinner. Of course it was coming home with me, along with a sonic screwdriver. Then, we searched some of the clothes but found nothing, and then it was wandering the food. And boy, do they have a lot of it. Tesco's vegetarian selections are very good and tasty, but we found dessert stuff and some breakfast things, plus some things to leave in the flat for future use since we'd used a lot of the tea and condiments left there. We filled about 6 grocery bags of random stuff, including a bit of alcohol and an elderflower cordial fizzy drink that was amazingly refreshing. Just add some of the liquid to water, and it makes a light, refreshing drink. Some other cool desserts were also packed for the ride home, and now it meant hauling this stuff to the train station. It didn't take too long to walk over there, but by the time we made it there, we were exhausted from hauling. With about 15 minutes before our train was to arrive, we got some drinks and watched the sun set into the nighttime. The colors were amazingly clear and crisp, and so I was happily taking some photos while we waited. The train arrived, and within 35 minutes, we were back at the Fenchurch Station and walking back to our flat.
It was eating time, so we snacked and ate and drank, and settled in for another bad night of TV and relaxing. And I must say I liked the shirts I bought very much, and it was touching to see girl go through so much trouble to see me dressed nice. And hey, I got a dalek for my trouble as well, so not a bad day all the way around....
April 29th - Knightsbridge, Tottenham Court Road, Girl's Birthday
It's girl's birthday, and she's in one of her favorite places in the world. However, it's also our last day in London, so there wasn't much time for celebration at least in the morning. We got up, cleaned a bit about the flat, and then headed off to inner London to see the sights. Our plan was to not stay out too late, so we could come back, eat dinner, pack up our stuff, and then clean the flat in time for checkout in the morning. We wanted to avoid a cleaning fee, so it was imperative to clean the place very well. And with trash day on Wednesday, we could get a lot of stuff disposed of quite easily.
We wandered into Tower Hill Station to catch the Tube to South Kensington, then up to Knightsbridge, as girl wanted to show me the world of Harrod's. Not really sure what I'm getting myself into, I said sure let's go. I knew this was a rather posh store, but that was about it until we got off the train, went up the stairs and wandered inside. And it was then I saw what was truly one of the most remarkable but disturbing things I've seen. We wandered into the men's section to find suits for about 1500 pounds, or shirts for 300 pounds. We then veered into the jewelry section, where the cheapest thing we found was about 1200 pounds, and then to the perfume area, where any brand of stuff you could think of had a display. As we wandered from section to section, it was like watching the old show Life Styles of the Rich and Famous but up a few notches. Nobody was buying anything except in the gift shop and food courts, where you could actually afford things. We then visited one of two tapestry rooms, next to the grand piano area. While I love the whole concept of capitalism and free market, opulence and waste is something I despise, so this whole store was a bit of a struggle for me. But at least we saw a 30000 pound chandelier with a sold sign on it. I suppose if I could afford something like this, it might be a nice touch, but it's the frugal part of me that finds a lot of what was there a waste.
After the sensory overload there, we then made our way north toward the Virgin Megastore, which girl spent a lot of time in getting music sheet books, posters and some of her rare albums and CDs. We wandered through Oxford Circus near many of the theatres in town, and some rather nice looking restaurants. Once we found Tottenham Court Road, we looked about to find the store and found what looked like a rather large record store but had the name Zavvi's on the front. It was after wandering in that girl realized that this was actually the Virgin Megastore, just renamed and completely stripped down. We decided to shop anyway because she wanted some specific albums and posters, so we were off. I found a couple of rare CDs, and she completed her Robbie Williams collection with two CDs she didn't have, plus some old vinyl. We paid for our purchase, and then decided to head back to the flat.
A couple of train stops, and we were back at Tower Hill. The Tube was extremely packed this afternoon, with tourists and commuters, but it was similar to taking the MAX to a Trail Blazer game. We stopped by Waitrose for some final household items, and then it was cooking and drinking time. I ate the last of the Quavers I had, and drank some cider while we ate random foods. We had also found a special dessert at Waitrose that came in glass dishes, which closely resembled the gelatto dish that I accidentally destroyed here that she got from Rome. So she ate a lot of dessert rather enjoyably, and we got to packing and cleaning. I was pleased that I was getting all of my stuff into a home in my luggage, even being able to offer girl some space in my second bag. And they both felt a bit lighter, but boy, we have a lot of stuff packed in here. Once the packing was about done, it was cleaning and vacuuming everything. This involved doing dishes, deep cleaning the shower, vacuuming the rug, and cleaning up the sink and stove. We wanted to get as much done as we could not to keep Arthur up with noise, so we focused on louder activities to get them out of the way.
Packing and cleaning kept us busy for a while, but knowing we had an intercontinental flight in the morning, we wanted to stay up as much as possible knowing that at 4 AM we needed to be up and moving to make sandwiches for the trip, eat breakfast, and do any last minute things needed before we needed to catch the Tube to Heathrow. Our flight was at 10:30 AM, but we wanted to be there early to check in, get through security, and not be completely rushed.
Finally around 2 AM, we found some NBA action on one of the BBC stations which became our fall asleep program. I suppose even we couldn't find enough dirty TV to watch, but as I dozed off that night, I couldn't believe that within 24 hours, we would be back home and our oddessy was done.
Next Time - Flight Home and Travel Epilogue
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Upton Park Experience, and Dinner in Basildon
April 26th - Match Day in West Ham
We again lied in after being up a little late watching TV but allowing time for recovery as well. We had probably pushed things a bit more than expected, so girl was feeling a bit exhausted. But today was a big day, as we were going to see West Ham take on Newcastle. In following the Hammers for years, they tend to be a bit unpredictable in terms of play and injuries. You never know who might be injured at any given time and it's hard to predict which team will show up to play, as they tend to win games they probably shouldn't and lose games they should be killing in. In some respects, it's like following our own local team, the Timbers.
We were told up north that people in London don't dress for match day or chat as much as they do. I wasn't sure if it was just playing down other fans or what, but the crowd on the tube was very large. It was a 3 Pm kickoff, so we left our flat just after noon to head out east. We saw a few Newcastle fans boarding trains as well, and once we got on the tube, I finally felt like it was match day. There were dozens of folks in various kits and polos with the Hammers' colors, and when we reached the Upton Park station, it was a near mass exodus. We wandered up the platform stairs, and were soon on Green Street walking towards the park.
The atmosphere was decidedly festive, with balloons in claret and blue adoring every storefront in the area. There were also food carts and vendors peddling various footy gear around the area, and as we walked along, we saw Upton Park on our left, and it was a very glorious sight. The front facade of the stadium is like a castle, and it towers over two large parking areas. We were amazed at how similar this was to PGE Park, as a stadium essentially surrounded by shops and homes. Our plan of attack for the afternoon was to retrieve our tickets, visit the pro shop, check in to our hotel, watch the match, and then partake in the evening activities. Our tickets hadn't arrived by the time we left the states, so we left our address in London with girl's mom to express mail the tickets if they had arrived. Since they hadn't, we took our acknowledgement email to the ticket window to get it taken care of.
And we were soon treated to one difference about West Ham. The tickets are actually scanned into one of their fan club ID cards, so we were given two fan cards to get into the game. I had already received mine, but girl wasn't so lucky. Since this took no time at all, we wandered into the pro shop to see what we could by. And that turned out to be a bad idea for my wallet, as we found kits, scarves, stickers, coasters, and polo shirts to wear. They were also offering free personalization of the kits that day, so both girl and I left our kits to have names added for pick up after the match. We then wandered off to the main desk to figure out the hotel thing.
Upton Park offers the chance to stay there as a real hotel, including after match night. However, you can't check into your rooms on match day until 8 Pm because of the time it takes to set them up. We checked in with the desk to find out that we had a reservation but that it hadn't been paid for yet. This was a wedding gift from our amazing friends of the Rose City Irons, so I was a little confused as to what was going on, but figured it would take a phone call or text to our friend Wookie to clear up. We were able to leave our bags there for check in later, and were told to be back here at 6:30 for our stadium tour, then check in was at 8 and dinner was later on that night. So we left our bags, and wandered around the park for a bit. I was trying to find a Homer Simpson West Ham scarf like my friend Jamie has, but we didn't find one. We wandered up to our seats, grabbed a quick lunch, and then headed to our seats in the Bobby Moore end at the top row. This arrangement allowed us to stand if we wanted to...
The stadium was full of color and noise almost 20 minutes before kickoff and it got louder as the Newcastle fans filed in. It was amazing to see the back and forth chanting, and when the Hammers fans broke into I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles right before the match, it sent goosebumps down my arms and spine. I have only had a few sports moments that hit me like this, including a couple of Broncos Super Bowl wins and some great Trail Blazer and Timber wins, but I was truly overwhelmed by the moment and the game hadn't even started yet.
The game itself was a back and forth affair, as the Hammers put in two quick goals only to concede a couple to Newcastle before the first half was over. The second half was a lot of pushing men forward, but no real close shots or defensive breakdowns. While the Hammers were safe from relegation, Newcastle was still fighting to stay clear. The noise ebbed and flowed but it was constant singing and chanting for 90 minutes, with scarves flying about and clapping abound. While both teams played very well, neither deserved to lose so it was sort of fitting that they shared a point in a 2 - all draw. I had been texting my friend S3K back in the States, who was watching Sunderland play so we were kept apprised of things elsewhere while here. The game had ended with me taking a few pictures, and then wandering out to the street level. We found our way back to the sport shop to pick up our kits, and then had about an hour to sit about for the tour.
One of the things we'd been asked to do was to film the tour, so we had packed a video camera to document the event. I went back to the hotel desk to retrieve it, and sure enough, it was done in a matter of moments despite there being dozens of bags in storage. Needless to say, having a green backpack with Timbers stuff on it makes it easy to find. We started our tour on time, and wandered through the locker rooms, the luxury boxes, and on the pitch itself. It's a truly nice park, and something to behold up close. And we were soaking it in as much as we could. The tour took about an hour, and soon we were back in the lobby next to a pub. It was only about 7:30 pm so we ordered a drink before check in. Wookie had texted me back about the hotel, and I told him that while we had reservations, they didn't have any record of anything being paid yet. He texted back to say he'd take care of it, and so we checked into our room at 8 and wandered up to our room.
The hotel was actually turning stadium boxes into hotel rooms, so our stadium box was owned by a construction firm during the day. The sliding glass doors were locked, so you could only look out on the pitch, you couldn't go outside into the stadium. We got ourselves dressed up (I was a bit casual the first time but got myself dressed nicely), and headed to one of the main restaurants for a sit down dinner. And it was very elegant, and in courses. We had a salad, choice of chicken, fish or vegetable pasta, and some dessert to die for, sticky toffee. West Ham also had labeled wines available for purchase, so we split a bottle of wine. It was an extremely filling meal, and it was nice to truly have a nice sit down experience during our trip. It did amaze me that some folks weren't dressed up for dinner, as we were one of the few couples or parties that dressed nice for dinner.
After this, we could have headed to the pub for more drinks, but we decided to retire to our rooms and sleep in a bit. It was cool to look out the window and see a football pitch. I can imagine this is what heaven looks like.
April 27th - Upton Park, Basildon
We woke up about 8:30 AM, and I felt refreshed, although girl was feeling a bit under the weather. Today was the day we were heading to one of her former student's house for dinner, so I showered and headed to get some breakfast while she slept in a bit. We had to check out by 11 AM, so I hurried about to get down and eat. It took a few minutes to find the breakfast eatery, but after some wandering, I found it and sat down to a great English buffet breakfast. There was plenty to eat, and I was able to get a bit of toast for girl before I left. I saw a few familiar faces from our tour last night, but I hurried through breakfast and then wandered down to see how girl was doing. She was feeling a bit better, and having some toast helped a bit. But we also needed to get checked out, head back to our flat, then train out to Basildon for dinner.
As we checked out, we were told the bill was sorted already, so we were good to go. I like that Wookie guy, and soon we were on the tube back to our flat. After dropping our stuff off and relaxing a bit, we were soon on the train out to Basildon. There was a bit of a train detour so we were taking a route to the south, and then bussing into Basildon, but we made it there by 2 Pm and were met by Phillippa and Mandy, her mum. Phillippa was a student of girl's a few years ago when she taught their class at the local school. She was the sixth teacher they had that year, and bonded with them over footy and the town. It was hard for her to leave this group, but then again, if that hadn't have happened, we may never have met. Phillippa and Mandy picked us up at the train station, and soon we were at their house in time for some relaxation and a Sunday roast.
Pete, Mandy's husband was there, and so was Phillippa's brother and Bessie, their dog. Bessie is quite a nice dog, but really is one of the most excitable animals I've ever met. She was excited to see new people, and because of this she didn't mind terribly much at all. This included following girl and I around every time we wandered about the flat. We talked a bit with Mandy and Pete about our trip, the town in general, things going on in the area, and generally just sat down and relaxed. Plus, I had never participated in the Sunday roast thing, so it was nice to be a part of sitting about and eating massive quantities. And we ate, and ate, and had dessert. It was fun to see the interaction amongst the family, as Mandy and Pete were very good parents and Phillipa was a very bright, engaging young girl. I could tell that she missed girl a lot, as probably did many of her former students. We found out that one in particular had been skipping classes and generally had been in trouble, which was sad to hear because he was one of girl's project kids and she had really worked hard on him to take studies seriously. We watched a bit of television, and then Pete pulled out a remote controlled dalek and chased Bessie around the house with it. Ahh, being in the land of Doctor Who, I loved the fact of having a remote controlled toy like that.
The night got away from us, as we were watching an episode of deadliest catch, and then Pete and Phillippa were to drop us off at the train station. They ended up taking us into Upminster, which was about a half an hour down the way, but it saved us a bit of time and jumping about stations. Phillippa was given one of the Cider Girl's official scarves upon leaving, and while it was great to see her, I know girl was sad the visit was so short. She mentioned to me on the train that Phillippa might come for a visit sometime soon, which I didn't have a problem with. It would be nice to show her a part of the world that most people there don't get to see. I could also tell that the former student's issues were bothering girl a bit as well, as it was sad to think that he felt education wasn't important.
But the area we were in is a bit poor and most of the people here don't have a steady trade, and many of the women sell themselves to make money. Many of girl's former students didn't know their dads, or saw very little of their moms either, so she became a surrogate mother to them helping them with day to day things. It was great to see this part of her past, as Basildon seems like a nice little town, but very different from places I'd been to. We ended up getting home, and decided to watch a little telly and drink a bit. So far, Arthur has kept his TV very soft, so apparently we are being very good guests and not bugging him too terribly. And at this point, we still have over two full days in London until we return to the states. The trip has been amazing, and we are now in the home stretch.
Next Time - Shopping English Style, and The Most Obnoxious Store I've Ever Been In
We again lied in after being up a little late watching TV but allowing time for recovery as well. We had probably pushed things a bit more than expected, so girl was feeling a bit exhausted. But today was a big day, as we were going to see West Ham take on Newcastle. In following the Hammers for years, they tend to be a bit unpredictable in terms of play and injuries. You never know who might be injured at any given time and it's hard to predict which team will show up to play, as they tend to win games they probably shouldn't and lose games they should be killing in. In some respects, it's like following our own local team, the Timbers.
We were told up north that people in London don't dress for match day or chat as much as they do. I wasn't sure if it was just playing down other fans or what, but the crowd on the tube was very large. It was a 3 Pm kickoff, so we left our flat just after noon to head out east. We saw a few Newcastle fans boarding trains as well, and once we got on the tube, I finally felt like it was match day. There were dozens of folks in various kits and polos with the Hammers' colors, and when we reached the Upton Park station, it was a near mass exodus. We wandered up the platform stairs, and were soon on Green Street walking towards the park.
The atmosphere was decidedly festive, with balloons in claret and blue adoring every storefront in the area. There were also food carts and vendors peddling various footy gear around the area, and as we walked along, we saw Upton Park on our left, and it was a very glorious sight. The front facade of the stadium is like a castle, and it towers over two large parking areas. We were amazed at how similar this was to PGE Park, as a stadium essentially surrounded by shops and homes. Our plan of attack for the afternoon was to retrieve our tickets, visit the pro shop, check in to our hotel, watch the match, and then partake in the evening activities. Our tickets hadn't arrived by the time we left the states, so we left our address in London with girl's mom to express mail the tickets if they had arrived. Since they hadn't, we took our acknowledgement email to the ticket window to get it taken care of.
And we were soon treated to one difference about West Ham. The tickets are actually scanned into one of their fan club ID cards, so we were given two fan cards to get into the game. I had already received mine, but girl wasn't so lucky. Since this took no time at all, we wandered into the pro shop to see what we could by. And that turned out to be a bad idea for my wallet, as we found kits, scarves, stickers, coasters, and polo shirts to wear. They were also offering free personalization of the kits that day, so both girl and I left our kits to have names added for pick up after the match. We then wandered off to the main desk to figure out the hotel thing.
Upton Park offers the chance to stay there as a real hotel, including after match night. However, you can't check into your rooms on match day until 8 Pm because of the time it takes to set them up. We checked in with the desk to find out that we had a reservation but that it hadn't been paid for yet. This was a wedding gift from our amazing friends of the Rose City Irons, so I was a little confused as to what was going on, but figured it would take a phone call or text to our friend Wookie to clear up. We were able to leave our bags there for check in later, and were told to be back here at 6:30 for our stadium tour, then check in was at 8 and dinner was later on that night. So we left our bags, and wandered around the park for a bit. I was trying to find a Homer Simpson West Ham scarf like my friend Jamie has, but we didn't find one. We wandered up to our seats, grabbed a quick lunch, and then headed to our seats in the Bobby Moore end at the top row. This arrangement allowed us to stand if we wanted to...
The stadium was full of color and noise almost 20 minutes before kickoff and it got louder as the Newcastle fans filed in. It was amazing to see the back and forth chanting, and when the Hammers fans broke into I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles right before the match, it sent goosebumps down my arms and spine. I have only had a few sports moments that hit me like this, including a couple of Broncos Super Bowl wins and some great Trail Blazer and Timber wins, but I was truly overwhelmed by the moment and the game hadn't even started yet.
The game itself was a back and forth affair, as the Hammers put in two quick goals only to concede a couple to Newcastle before the first half was over. The second half was a lot of pushing men forward, but no real close shots or defensive breakdowns. While the Hammers were safe from relegation, Newcastle was still fighting to stay clear. The noise ebbed and flowed but it was constant singing and chanting for 90 minutes, with scarves flying about and clapping abound. While both teams played very well, neither deserved to lose so it was sort of fitting that they shared a point in a 2 - all draw. I had been texting my friend S3K back in the States, who was watching Sunderland play so we were kept apprised of things elsewhere while here. The game had ended with me taking a few pictures, and then wandering out to the street level. We found our way back to the sport shop to pick up our kits, and then had about an hour to sit about for the tour.
One of the things we'd been asked to do was to film the tour, so we had packed a video camera to document the event. I went back to the hotel desk to retrieve it, and sure enough, it was done in a matter of moments despite there being dozens of bags in storage. Needless to say, having a green backpack with Timbers stuff on it makes it easy to find. We started our tour on time, and wandered through the locker rooms, the luxury boxes, and on the pitch itself. It's a truly nice park, and something to behold up close. And we were soaking it in as much as we could. The tour took about an hour, and soon we were back in the lobby next to a pub. It was only about 7:30 pm so we ordered a drink before check in. Wookie had texted me back about the hotel, and I told him that while we had reservations, they didn't have any record of anything being paid yet. He texted back to say he'd take care of it, and so we checked into our room at 8 and wandered up to our room.
The hotel was actually turning stadium boxes into hotel rooms, so our stadium box was owned by a construction firm during the day. The sliding glass doors were locked, so you could only look out on the pitch, you couldn't go outside into the stadium. We got ourselves dressed up (I was a bit casual the first time but got myself dressed nicely), and headed to one of the main restaurants for a sit down dinner. And it was very elegant, and in courses. We had a salad, choice of chicken, fish or vegetable pasta, and some dessert to die for, sticky toffee. West Ham also had labeled wines available for purchase, so we split a bottle of wine. It was an extremely filling meal, and it was nice to truly have a nice sit down experience during our trip. It did amaze me that some folks weren't dressed up for dinner, as we were one of the few couples or parties that dressed nice for dinner.
After this, we could have headed to the pub for more drinks, but we decided to retire to our rooms and sleep in a bit. It was cool to look out the window and see a football pitch. I can imagine this is what heaven looks like.
April 27th - Upton Park, Basildon
We woke up about 8:30 AM, and I felt refreshed, although girl was feeling a bit under the weather. Today was the day we were heading to one of her former student's house for dinner, so I showered and headed to get some breakfast while she slept in a bit. We had to check out by 11 AM, so I hurried about to get down and eat. It took a few minutes to find the breakfast eatery, but after some wandering, I found it and sat down to a great English buffet breakfast. There was plenty to eat, and I was able to get a bit of toast for girl before I left. I saw a few familiar faces from our tour last night, but I hurried through breakfast and then wandered down to see how girl was doing. She was feeling a bit better, and having some toast helped a bit. But we also needed to get checked out, head back to our flat, then train out to Basildon for dinner.
As we checked out, we were told the bill was sorted already, so we were good to go. I like that Wookie guy, and soon we were on the tube back to our flat. After dropping our stuff off and relaxing a bit, we were soon on the train out to Basildon. There was a bit of a train detour so we were taking a route to the south, and then bussing into Basildon, but we made it there by 2 Pm and were met by Phillippa and Mandy, her mum. Phillippa was a student of girl's a few years ago when she taught their class at the local school. She was the sixth teacher they had that year, and bonded with them over footy and the town. It was hard for her to leave this group, but then again, if that hadn't have happened, we may never have met. Phillippa and Mandy picked us up at the train station, and soon we were at their house in time for some relaxation and a Sunday roast.
Pete, Mandy's husband was there, and so was Phillippa's brother and Bessie, their dog. Bessie is quite a nice dog, but really is one of the most excitable animals I've ever met. She was excited to see new people, and because of this she didn't mind terribly much at all. This included following girl and I around every time we wandered about the flat. We talked a bit with Mandy and Pete about our trip, the town in general, things going on in the area, and generally just sat down and relaxed. Plus, I had never participated in the Sunday roast thing, so it was nice to be a part of sitting about and eating massive quantities. And we ate, and ate, and had dessert. It was fun to see the interaction amongst the family, as Mandy and Pete were very good parents and Phillipa was a very bright, engaging young girl. I could tell that she missed girl a lot, as probably did many of her former students. We found out that one in particular had been skipping classes and generally had been in trouble, which was sad to hear because he was one of girl's project kids and she had really worked hard on him to take studies seriously. We watched a bit of television, and then Pete pulled out a remote controlled dalek and chased Bessie around the house with it. Ahh, being in the land of Doctor Who, I loved the fact of having a remote controlled toy like that.
The night got away from us, as we were watching an episode of deadliest catch, and then Pete and Phillippa were to drop us off at the train station. They ended up taking us into Upminster, which was about a half an hour down the way, but it saved us a bit of time and jumping about stations. Phillippa was given one of the Cider Girl's official scarves upon leaving, and while it was great to see her, I know girl was sad the visit was so short. She mentioned to me on the train that Phillippa might come for a visit sometime soon, which I didn't have a problem with. It would be nice to show her a part of the world that most people there don't get to see. I could also tell that the former student's issues were bothering girl a bit as well, as it was sad to think that he felt education wasn't important.
But the area we were in is a bit poor and most of the people here don't have a steady trade, and many of the women sell themselves to make money. Many of girl's former students didn't know their dads, or saw very little of their moms either, so she became a surrogate mother to them helping them with day to day things. It was great to see this part of her past, as Basildon seems like a nice little town, but very different from places I'd been to. We ended up getting home, and decided to watch a little telly and drink a bit. So far, Arthur has kept his TV very soft, so apparently we are being very good guests and not bugging him too terribly. And at this point, we still have over two full days in London until we return to the states. The trip has been amazing, and we are now in the home stretch.
Next Time - Shopping English Style, and The Most Obnoxious Store I've Ever Been In
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