Sitting on the plane back to London, have a pack of Moose Munch next to me looking out of the window at the mountains below (while typing this - multitasking like a boss!). So the US was amazing! Met so many new faces and reunited with old ones as well- I will be back again later in the year, and WILL drag you guys to London v.soon!
Day 1 - Thursday
So I left my place around 7am Thursday 9th to Heathrow (on the Cockfosters line!) straight to Heathrow! Wasn’t sure which Terminal I was supposed to fly from, they are so far apart and I was kinda running late! Luckily I was saved!! Thanks Jenny and Tara!! Made a Home Alone style run for the gate and just got the plane in time (I knew there was time for that uber breakfast I had earlier). The plane trip was kinda dry until I landed in Boston, MA. Security took sooo long and passport control don’t really appreciate jokes… apparently! First thing I did was grab a Wendy’s… I don’t usually eat much fast food, so it was all about ticking things off the list! It’s a place that has really good burgers, so I grabbed a half pounder; so good! My chest hurt afterwards, always a good sign! Got on the next plane a couple hours later to complete the journey in Portland, OR!
Arrived 3-4 hours later, 17 hours in total! Kristina was waiting at the terminal for me, hadn’t seen her for 3 years 5 months (Vegas in Sep 2008!). We went to a beef noodle place, the portions are huge! (pretty much every place we went- UK portion sizes are behind, but for the same price It’s pretty kool to get 2 meals out of it). Afterwards, we went back to her place and I gave her some goodies from the UK (Galaxy chocolate, Turkish delights, crumpets and a t-shirt). Decided to make a trip to Big Al’s (A bowling/arcade place where Saturday’s tournament took place). Had my 5th try on Pump Pro 2, it’s a shame we don’t have these machines playable in London anymore. Had a bit of a practise, and met a couple of guys: Quinn and Levi. Was supposed to meet Aleta and Cesar from Vegas (haven’t met Cesar before, but I’ve known Aleta since Jan 2006 at NAT ’05… so long ago!). They didn’t get there until after midnight so we just missed them which sucked, but we hung out loadsss afterwards. Around midnight, we went back to Kristina’s and had a good catch up then caught up on some well needed sleep!
Day 2 - Friday
It was pretty rainy today, not like it mattered much! We decided to head to Multomah Falls. Portland is an interesting city in that you have the benefits and luxuries of the city and nightlife. Then a few miles away, you can hike, walk through forests and see hugeeee waterfalls. Even further away, you can ski on Mount Hood or Mount Bachelor. Weather-wise, it’s a pretty similar climate to the UK. So I was reppin’ the shorts too! On the way, we stopped at Taco Bell. I never had it before so always willing to try anything! Was really tasty and so cheap! They have 49cent tacos (just over 30p!).
On the way to the falls, you could see many waterfalls pour down the side of the mountain/hillside. When we arrived there, we decided not to hike all the way to the top because it was really wet and cold, but we took some amazing pictures! I picked up a couple of things from the gift shop then we drove back into the town. We had a bit of a lazy day today. Kristina was almost offended before I said I had never watched Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or Stargate before. We decided to give Star Wars a go… I think it’s the only film I watched where I knew all the characters before it had even started. Plus I’ve seen Space balls before (which made absolutely no sense at the time). I fell asleep during Star Trek (the new movie) afterwards… can’t win em’ all!
Day 3 – Saturday (Tournament Day and Drinking Night! – Nerd Paragraph, be prepared!)
Had a good 4 hours sleep, so was feeling surprisingly good (nothing that 3 double energy Rockstars couldn’t fix anyway). Arrived at Big Al’s around 11am, the place was pretty empty so had some good practise time. Met Jeremy there (Met him for the first time in Vegas 2008 for another PRO tournament) he now works at Big Al’s which is pretty kool and organised the tournament at Big Al’s. Not only that, he was masterminding the drinking plans later, awesome! Played a few games and slowly met new people as they arrived into the place. Aleta and Cesar showed up while I was playing, been wayyyy too long! We worked out it’s been between 2-3 years every time we see each other! Although now I’ve found out she has never visited Europe, crazy! London plans will be made!!
For me the event was 80% social to 20% tournament, so it was cool talking to pretty much everyone there. Met the arcade manager too; had a chat with him about the place… they look after their machines really well. Constantly cleaning them on the daily and making sure they are perfect. They even got another cabinet from another Big Al’s location. That’s something most of the UK is notorious for not doing, which is the main reason why people don’t play much anymore. Had a couple of warm up credits, managed to get Wi-Ex-Doc-Va NM down, Bemera CZ, Victory, Canon-D NM and some new ones like Hardkore of the north and Go! NM.
The tournament was Iron Man style, 15 rounds ranging from bar to no bar, mods, gauntlet, CZ, HDB and NM; testing almost every skill. Even round where the music is turned off completely, and rounds where you guess the number of non-superbs. In Vegas 2008 I came 5th place, so I was really aiming for anywhere in the top 4 this time. Had a few good rounds… FC Summer CZ, Turkey march HDB and Virtual Emotion NM (all around 101-102% with bonuses). Didn’t even realise (realize ;) I was ahead until Kevin told me in the later rounds. Crazy!
Kyle and Foy arrived towards the end of the tournament which was nice. They have been working on getting Re-Rave shipped pretty intensely, so it was pretty decent that they managed to make the tournament, even if it was a short while. Since Norway 2006, Kyle and I have had a 6 year on-going war with tackle shots (trading back-hander’s to the balls). He took a 5-2 win over the trip, either my accuracy was a bit off or my target was smaller to hit haha. He and Foy did a comical Nightmoves routine before the prizes were handed out… The top 3 were: Me, Chris S and Kevin K. I took away a cool trophy and $100 worth of tickets (which I forgot to cash in, but Kristina will be my Big Al’s ticket cashing in proxy!).
After the tournament, we took group photos and went to Spaghetti Factory! I took the ‘slaughter house on a plate’. The food was really good and so were the cocktails. I was ordering pretty much the same as Jeremy, playing it safe, like a boss! After the Spaghetti Factory we went to Oscar’s (I think it was called). The doorman was kinda harsh on my ID… some sort of Passport only rule, which I didn’t have on me. Cesar didn’t have his ID either, so we just went to Big Al’s (as they had a bar) and started drinking there. Jeremy bought some old man’s ale, a pitcher of the demonic liquid… tasted somebody had took a dump into a blender, liquefied it then served it with a smile. Aleta pulled through for the team! She did a good pint of it after adding some Splendour and sugar, crazy! I went back and got a couple pints and jaegers… all gravy!
After the drinks, Jeremy slipped away for a bowling sesh. I decided to flex my skills as well. Turns out my bowling skills were all in my head, school boy error! So I got absolutely creamed, but I was prepared to make up for it with Pool, Drinking or a combination of both!
We then headed outside into the car park, and finally managed to convince Aleta to let me drive her car (sorry Danny!). I took it around the car park and had a pretty good time haha (after Aleta had to show me how to work an automatic – manual ftw!). Needless to say I wasn’t allowed to drive it again :\
We decided to head to Walmart to break my Walmart cherry. We have ASDA back home which is a UK version of Walmart, but on the inside its way different. We picked up a bunch of beer then headed back to Jeremy’s place. Kristina went back home at this point because we was really tired and couldn’t drink anyway. At this point it was: Me, Jeremy, Chris (Sacco), Aleta, Cesar, Jeremy’s sister Nicole and her friend Jamie. I met Nicole briefly in Vegas 2008. Jamie reminded me almost exactly like a friend I have back home (Jo Butters)… so it was really easy to get on with everyone.
It turns out that our version of Ring of Fire in the UK is called King’s Cup in the US, no explanation needed! After a few drinking games, Jeremy made some French Toast and Sausages. Never had French Toast before, apparently its fried egg and bread and he shoved some syrup on top too… Screw the closing arteries… it was amazing! Things were winding down and it was around 5-7am (no idea which!)… Jeremy was falling asleep (does this count as drinking you under the table – pushing for points haha). Passed out of two pushed together sofas, so comfy!
Day 4 – Sunday
The hangover wasn’t bad at all, got up around 11ish and noticed that Jeremy had 2 dogs. So boomed out there and had a quick play around! After waking Jeremy up, we decided to meet Kristina at a breakfast place in Portland. I took a well needed breakfast and tea combo. They wrapped the leftovers in foil shaped like animal which was pretty kool. We then decided to go to Jamie’s house to use her hot tub. Best idea ever! Seriously need to get one of these! Met her parents briefly afterwards, her Dad was from Germany so we had a good chat about German cities and climbing.
After this, Jeremy did a tactical, so Me, Kristina, Aleta and Cesar went to Multomah somewhere (it was like a lookout point with a castle). Saw the whole of Portland from way up high… Took some nice photos until it got pretty cold and decided to head out. We saw IKEA within the view, so decided to go for the meatballs! Aleta had never been IKEA before, crazy! Played some Re-Rave for the 2nd time, managed a 9 haha…slowly getting better! We stayed here for around 2 hours, until Kristina decided to head home so she would be ready for work the next day. I rode with Aleta’s microwave on the backseat while we headed towards Jeremy’s place. He was just finishing his tactical sleep, so I do blame this for his victory in the drinking bout!
We grabbed Jeremy, Nicole and Jamie and headed to a pool bar. They were being gay over my Driving Licence again, so we just headed to a bar down the road and it was all gravy there. We started out with some Fireball shots and Coors combos while playing some pool. There was band playing too and people seem friendlier than in London bars. I found myself in 3 different rounds with Jeremy, Aleta and Jamie (that my excuse and I’m sticking to it ;)… Had a good laugh there, then decided to take some food on the way home. As soon as I sat down, things went downhill, which usually happens! Got back to Jeremy’s and I tried to do a tactical (rare moment!). He said “Is this the point where I drank you under the table?”… managed to muster the energy t barrel roll out of the sofa-pit and trade it with my head on the kitchen table, classy! Can’t remember much afterwards, but remember Aleta helping me take my contacts out haha
Day 5 – Monday
Woke up amazingly early… felt a bit crap missing out on the rest of the night, I guess the tactical was needed! We (Me, Jeremy, Aleta and Cesar) decided to go to Kim’s to get some Teriyaki. I took the chicken and beef… my kinda breakfast! We hung around there while waiting for Kristina to finish a bit earlier from work at 3. We were due to meet Kyle at 24-hour fitness around 4pm for swimming and hot tub! When Kyle and I are involved, there is always competition! We had some good races up and down the pool doing different strokes. Butterfly and freestyle was pretty close, got my ass handed to me at under water swimming and breast stroke, but I’ll take that on the chin! Need to learn how to tumble at the end to get a good kick off, went for the cheeky grab and kick every time. We went in the hot tub for a bit, and then had a mini gym competition while the ladies were finishing off getting changed!
For some reason it was decided that it would be a good idea to visit a coffee place to make me like coffee. While it was probably awesome coffee and I can appreciate the various styles and flavours, it didn’t mask the fact that it tasted like hate (on par with Jeremy’s old man ale). Jessica, the girl working there, gave me a free caramel coffee because she thought that would be way better. Turns out that it was way worse :\ We went next door afterwards to Jamba Juice, never been there before, but I’ve heard it from somewhere. They serve really good smoothies… I went with a passion fruit deal from Kyle’s recommendation, was so nice! Every ones drinks were pretty good!
More food places to come next! We then rolled into Five Guys Burger and Fries place. Guy behind the counter was awesome, snapped a pic with him. It was decided for me that I should get the double bacon cheese combo with everything (apart from mustard, pickle and tomato of course!). The burger was probably one of the nicest I’ve had! And it didn’t give me chest pain like Wendy’s did haha. We went to a frozen yoghurt place after and took some samples just to try it! The stomach wouldn’t take anymore!
After the food was (almost) done, we headed to Kyle’s place to see where the magic happens! The place was really nice! You’d never get a place like that around London, just because the property prices are so expensive… that’s the only thing I dislike about London really (that and the amount of people). Had some games on his PIU PRO cab, reppin’ the barless JBoy style! Afterwards we went inside and played some Hearts until Valentine’s Day at midnight. Took some pics then said bye to Kyle, Aleta and Cesar. Sad times!! Headed back to Kristina’s and had a chat about various things and the trip. I passed out on the sofa as the trip finally caught up with me!
Day 6 – Tuesday
Kristina took me to the airport around 11ish. Had another Jamba Juice, Aloha Pineapple! And grabbed a Baconator from Wendy’s… just because Bacon/Kent mentioned it! (and he knows his bacon!). I also took a ¾ pounder for Declan (my housemate) as he insisted a 13 hour flight and a full day at work won’t ruin the burger goodness (Just give him the shits maybe!). Went in a couple of shops then it was time to say by to Kristina… sad times again! The seat next to me was empty so I guess I was forever alone on Valentine’s Day lol… Looked through the pictures I took on the trip a few times and didn’t really sleep at all for the 9 hour flight. Had a chat with the flight attendant fair bit, turns out he did modelling in Japan lol… the same place that was on my t-shirt.
Got off the plane in Amsterdam and wung some free Wi-Fi… was supposed to be 3 Euro for 15mins pfffft! Some random woman asked to use my laptop, what the! Anyway, took the last plane to London Heathrow, only took 40 minutes! Then the Cockfosters tube to King’s Cross… boomed the luggage in my locker, then back in time for lunch xD
Thanks for hosting me Kristina and Jeremy… Also thanks for everyone for putting up with me. Your welcome to the UK anytime, just let me know! (Finished this last paragraph at work ;)
