NFL in London San Diego Chargers v New Orleans Saints

Had a great day out at the NFL Game in London at Wembley Stadium, despite the heavy rain early in the day. We set off quite early and also attended the NFL tailgate party outside the stadium. The party had some really good New Orleans Jazz and some various NFL themed items.

The game itself was very hard fought as was expected due to the fact that whichever team lost was effectively out of contention this year.

It was my first visit to the new Wembley and we sat at one end behind the in zone, my only real criticism was the quality of the PA system, which was pretty poor, this made it hard to hear the refereeing calls etc.

The atmosphere however was fantastic!!

A good day all round with New Orleans coming out close winners 37 - 32.

Looking forward to next year!!

US Presidential Survey

Come and take my survey, just a bit of fun:-)

Bottom of the page.

Kinda Worrying!!

I was a little concerned at how quiet things on the investigation of the January BA Boeing 777 crash seemed, so I looked up the report after hearing the recent few mishaps with BA planes.

It would appear the crash was caused by ice in the fuel according to the report, which is kind of a worry.

Also some reports can be found here and here in regards to recent BA 777 matters and emergency landings.

NBA in the UK

Popped up to London's O2 Arena to see an NBA pre-season game between, the New Jersey Nets and the Miami Heat. A very good crowd watched a pretty tame game that came to life in the fourth quarter, leading to a narrow win for the Nets 94-92 after a number of turnovers from Miami.

The atmosphere was a little lukewarm as the audience were fans of basketball rather that either of the teams. Both fairly ordinary by NBA standard, kind of a Bolton v Villa type of thing, two good teams but not world beaters.

Dom Joly however was not impressed

A highlight of the evening was a wheelchair basketball match between members of the GB Paralympic wheelchair basketball tea which was played at high speed and with no little skill.

The O2 has come a long way from being the former dome white elephant, however concessions as it seems everywhere these days were horribly expensive.

May I suggest that you frequent the Starbucks inside the main entrance to the right as they are charging their normal high street prices and not £7 for a hot dog as in some places within the venue.

There also appears to be a massive shortage of toilets, this leads to 1970's third division football ground style long queues outside the few facilities that are available.

As long as you take steps on the food and drink situation a good night out can be had at the O2.

Our new lodger :-)

New inmate :-)

Saugatuck and Lake Michigan

Civilised Drive Through!

Uncommon Grounds Indeed.

A Souvenir :-)





Oval Beach


The Keetwatin Martime Museum
The Suite

Main Street
The River

Deer in the Garden

Whilst we were on the last trip we took a trip up to Saugatuck, a lovely area on Lake Michigan.

We stayed at a very nice place called Bella Vita Spa and Suites, which is just off the pretty main street.

There are lovely beaches and the river is very pretty, particularly Oval Beach.

We found a brilliant little coffee shop called Uncommon Grounds, excellent coffee(roasted on site) really nice food, books and free wi-fi. What more would you need!!

There is another small town nearby called Douglas where we had an excellent dinner at The Everyday People Cafe

Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum

The Art Deco Showroom


A picture from the stairs showing an excellent view of the car and the original showroom floor.

Original Clay Model From The Thirties!


Displays of other vehicles that used to be built in the area, such as Studebaker
The preserved building sign outside the showroom in Auburn



As part of our road trip we visited the fantastic Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum in Auburn IL

http://www.acdmuseum.org/

The museum has a fantastic display of all three marques (and other cars), and is sited at the old factory and showroom. The showroom is particularly interesting, it has been restored to it's former art deco glory. The entrance fee is very low and the whole thing is maintained by enthusiasts.

The original offices of E.L.Cord and the design offices have been restored.

There is an excellent Gordon Buehrig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Buehrig exhibit and also his clay models and drawings are on display along with those of the various designers of the three marques.

An excellent museum, well worth a visit!

Whilst we were there we watched the Ben Stiller film "Tropic Thunder" which was really funny.
Strange thing was there were only four people in the cinema including us, during the show the weather was so bad there was a power cut. The reason it was so quiet was that the cinema had only been open for a few days. We stayed at an any excellent Hampton Inn (also brand new) and ate at a Buffalo Wild Wings (very frendly, good food, again brand new) All three were next to each other on a new development just outsise Auburn.