Jamie Morris: The Official Site

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2007

I was a little nervous about riding all the way to Long Beach today because my Vespa started having battery problems this week and sometimes won't startup unless I constantly keep it on a Battery Tender. But our five(soon to be six)-person Vespa club had planned to make the trip down for the Queen Mary Champagne Sunday Brunch so I decided to drive down and pray that it would start when I was ready to come home. The brunch was huge and very, very good. It's a little over-priced at $37.50 per person plus tax and tip, but it was worth it for me because I had never been on the Queen Mary before. After we ate, we took a walk around the ship and visited some of the giftshops and then went back to the Vespas. Luckily it started up. The round-trip ride for me was almost 100 miles... the longest I've ridden so far.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007

During my twelve-day trip to the UK, there are five days with soccer matches scheduled. My hope was to go to a match on each of those five days, but when I found out how difficult it was to try to get tickets I started to get a bit discouraged. But after paying some yearly membership fees to the teams, registering for ticket lotteries, signing up for corporate hospitality packages, calling team offices, and waking up at 2am multiple nights to buy tickets, I somehow managed to get tickets to five different matches in five different stadiums:

11/17	Wales v Ireland	Euro	Millennium Stadium	Cardiff
11/21	England v Croatia	Euro	Wembley Stadium	London
11/24	Arsenal v Wigan	EPL	Emirates Stadium	London
11/25	West Ham v Tottenham	EPL	Upton Park	London
11/27	Man United v Sporting	CL	Old Trafford	Manchester

So, I'm very excited about that. Now I'm starting to work on concerts and theatre. I got a ticket to see Amy Winehouse at the Hammersmith Apollo on 11/24. I'd also like to go see Bonde do Role at Scala on 11/22 and Patrick Stewart in Macbeth on 11/23 at the Gielgud Theatre. I also need to figure out what do from the 18th to the 21st. Right now I'm leaning towards going to Barcelona for three days. Three weeks left to get this sorted out...

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2007

The Kings finally won a game. Actually they won their last two home games, and three of their last four games. I guess someone must have told them that we're paying to see them play. A week ago they didn't even look like they could win a game, but tonight they beat Nashville 6-0 and last Tuesday they beat Minnesota in a penalty shootout. The next game is Thursday night against Dallas. Hopefully they can keep it up.

What else have I done in the past week...? I went to a screening of Things We Lost In The Fire on Friday. It was OK. On Saturday, I went to Disneyland and California Adventure with Mary. On Saturday, the heatwave started and I went for a bike ride at the beach. I could see the fires in Malibu from here in Santa Monica. The air is starting to get smokey and heavy over the past couple of days. Last night it was lightly snowing ash as I was riding home from the Kings game.

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2007

Finally! A show on the westside! And a good one too! I think I can count the number of notable concerts on the westside in the eight years I've been here on one hand, but tonight Rilo Kiley played the final show of their tour here at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I got there early because I hadn't bought an advance ticket and I'm glad I did because it sold out. But that meant I had to stand for the two opening acts, Grand Ole Party and The Bird and The Bee, who weren't bad, but my legs were getting tired by the time the headliners came out. When Rilo Kiley went on, it felt to me that they were playing all their good songs in the beginning of the set because they were playing all my favs, so I was wondering how it was going to end. But then I realized that they have a lot of great songs and they kept it going for about 90 minutes. I was too tired to stay for the encore, but it was definitely a great show.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2007

Last night I went to the Home Depot Center and watched the Galaxy get their 5th consecutive win, keeping their playoff hopes alive. They beat Toronto FC by a score of 2-1 with goals from Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. Mr. Beckham was in attendance but he didn't play. After the game, he celebrated with the team and gave the fans a wave. I'm hoping he doesn't play at least for the next couple of weeks so that he's healthy for the England match I'm going to see in November.

The Kings weren't so spectacular this weekend and I'm about to demand a refund for my over $2000 season ticket. They lost their 5th straight game tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. They played a little better than on Friday night, but still not good.

Also this weekend, I stopped by the Discover Poland Festival on the 3rd Street Promenade and had some tasty Polish food including a dish called zraz and pierogis (dumplings stuffed with potato & cheese, mushrooms & saurkraut, meat, and blueberries).

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2007

The Boston Bruins finally came to town tonight to play the Kings. I think the last time I attended a Bruins game was over 20 years ago at the old Boston Garden. The only thing I remember about that day was meeting an injured Gord Kluzak and getting some souvenirs. The Kings were horrible. They somehow managed to score six goals, but they gave up eight and got their fourth consecutive loss. We got a big surprise when we walked out of Staples Center... RAIN!

I had ridden my Vespa to Dave's folks' house and we took Dave's car to the game. When we got back to the house, the roads were quite wet and it was misting. I was a little nervous about the 15 mile ride home on the wet, oily streets but I decided to brave it even though I had never ridden in the rain before. Luckily, Dave's dad let me borrow a raincoat because it didn't stay misting for long. Riding in the mist was nice... I could see fine and the light mist hitting my face felt nice. The wind blew the water off my faceshield so I could see fine. Until I got about halfway home and it started POURING. The rain started hitting my face really hard. If felt like needles poking me in the face. Visibility got worse. I couldn't even see the lines in the road and my faceshield started fogging up. I did make it home and I was drenched from my thighs down to my feet. Luckily the raincoat kept most of me dry. I need to remember to keep one in my scoot at all times. And probably some pants too.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2007

In addition to the England vs. Croatia Euro 2008 Qualifier at Wembley on November 21st, I've also managed to get a ticket to two more matches while I'll be in England. I'll be going to the UEFA Champions League match between Manchester United and Sporting at Old Trafford on the 27th, and also an English Premier League match between West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur at Upton Park on the 25th.

I'm also going to try for a ticket to another Euro Qualifier on November 17th, maybe in Spain or Scotland. And also another EPL match in England on the 24th between Arsenal and Wigan.

I've only been to one match in England before - Liverpool vs. Manchester United @ Anfield in 2003, so this will be a good opportunity to see some other teams and stadiums. It's really a pain to get tickets though.

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2007

Tonight was the first home game of the Los Angeles Kings season. Actually, it was the second home game - the first was played in London. The game started out well. The Kings took the lead and were up 3-1 over the St. Louis Blues when the third period started. But things took a very drastic turn. In the third period, the Kings gave up four unanswered goals and lost the game 3-5. The good news is that the Kings look better than last year and it appears that they might have a pretty good goalie - Jonathan Bernier - a nineteen year old acquired from the Lewiston MAINEiacs who play at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston, Maine where I played youth hockey for many years.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2007

Back in July, Dave and I applied for a lottery for the (slim) chance of getting a ticket to see the English national football team play at the new Wembley Stadium in London this November. Dave was already planning a trip to England in November and I was looking to take a trip somewhere around Thanksgiving. On Friday, we were notified that our ballot was successful and we would have the chance to buy one ticket each at 2:00am on Tuesday morning, but still nothing was guaranteed. We got up at 2am, hopped online, and were able to get tickets in the upper levels of Wembley for the match we wanted to see: England vs. Croatia on November 21st. It's a very important qualification match for Euro 2008, the European football championship that comes around every four years.

So it looks like I'm going to plan another vacation around a sporting event. Today I got my plane ticket on Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow. I'll be there November 16 - November 28th. I'm hoping to catch a couple of English Premier League matches on the weekend of Nov 24/25 if I can get tickets. Also, I'm thinking about going to the Manchester United vs Sporting Lisbon Champions League match in Manchester on Nov 27th. And then there's the Led Zeppelin concert on Nov 26th which I applied to get tickets for but probably won't get.

Since I've been to England before and I don't have any definite plans there until the 21st, I might try to visit another country during the first few days of my vacation... possibly Spain.

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