Le Mickey Mouse

I spent this last week at EuroDisney, or Disneyland Paris, as all their logo'd merchandise said. I was actually there for work, for a sales conference for our entire European sales team. We have our annual conference in Anaheim, near another Disney, so maybe we got a good deal or something. The timing was pretty good as most kids are back at school from holidays.

I have to admit that this was not exactly a place on my list of sites in Europe to visit. As I expected, it was pretty much a little slice of America plopped down in France. I was so disoriented the entire week because it was so much like Disney World, including the decor of the hotel, with the primary differences being the crap weather and the people speaking French. I usually try to speak a bit of French, or any other language, when I travel, but I felt like I was in America all week.

Thursday night we went into the Park for dinner and drinks, and they had the Thunder Mountain ride open for us to use. Again, it was just like the one I have ridden in Anaheim. That was good thing I guess, since it is a fun ride.

The worst part, by far, was the fact that every evening when I returned to my room in the New York Hotel, I had to walk over a gigantic Yankees logo. Ugh!!!

An American Red Sox fan in London

It is tough to be a Boston Red Sox fan in London. Especially in September, when the season is drawing to a close and the playoffs are fast approaching.

The first and most obvious problem - baseball is an American sport. Duh, you say. Of course. But if I was a soccer fan or an American football fan or even a hockey fan (okay, hockey is not so popular here, but it is in Europe, along with a growing appreciation for basketball), it would be easier to cope. Football (the real version) is popular all over the world, and I happen to live very close to Arsenal - close enough so they would clamp my car on match days if I had one. Even if I was an American football fan, I could have the discussion about, oh American football is not the same, blah blah blah, or I could watch rugby, which doesn't seem that far off to me.

No, here we have cricket, and people say, oh well, cricket is just like baseball. Wrong! Right now the whole of England is mad for cricket, because of something called The Ashes. This is a year to year rivalry played all summer between Australia and England, to win a small urn filled with ashes from a cricket bat some women burned and presented to one of the teams back in the late 1800s, when the two countries started this tradition. All summer cricket has been all the rage, because for once in a great while England has the chance to bring home the Ashes. For the last several days, England and Australia have been playing a test match at the Oval, a big stadium in the south of the city. Every morning on the radio someone is talking about it. John Major wrote a silly little poem about it that I have heard three times this week, and Mick Jagger was on the radio with him the other day as well, calling in from Minneapolis of all places.

Today I tried to actually watch the cricket on televison to see if I can get into it. I tried, I really did. I even went to wikipedia to read the rules of cricket to see if I could understand it. But it turned out that it was just good napping fodder. There are all these guys out there, with quaint outfits, bowling and hitting the ball with the funny bat for what seems like forever. And when there wasn't a rain delay (several) - which Brits seem to think is a good sign for some reason - they are taking breaks for lunch and for tea. I thought baseball games were long. I tried to get some context to the whole thing by reading a comparison between baseball and cricket, but all it made me do was yearn for more baseball.

Next problem - watching actual games. I subscribed to a channel called NASN - North American Sports Network - so I could see a few games. Of course, they have to cater to all sports, so they don't often show baseball games, let alone Red Sox ones. They seem to show a lot of NASCAR and Canadian football for some reason. But, every once in a while they will show a game, which leads me to the other problem....

Time difference. Last night there was a game broadcast live - the MFY (not my TLA, but it fits) vs Boston, from Yankee Stadium. And because of the time difference - it started at midnight! Funny enough, there is a local Red Sox fan club here of sorts, and I really wanted to go to the sports bar where they were and see the game, but I just couldn't stay awake. I wound up going to sleep then getting back up at 12:30 to watch it, only to find that NASN's signal was all screwed up. I called them and the guy told me that I was basically out of luck - no one else had reported any problems and that he would report it but no promises. How dare they! Luckily the signal came back eventually.

So I stayed up until 4 am to watch my sox play like total crap. 4 errors I think they had, and the Yankees won 8 to 3. Pathetic.

Thank goodness for the Internet. I just 'watched' half the game on mlb.com gameday and I am happy to report they creamed the evil empire 9-2, and Curt Schilling pitched 8 innings.

I also have to mention the other really annoying part of being a Red Sox fan here. Whenever I see people wearing baseball hats in public in London, 99% of the time they are yankees hats. What really galls me is that I don't think the people wearing them even have a clue about baseball, they are just wearing them to be hip. I have seen all different colors, including one in Burberry plaid. Even one of the July 21 bombers was wearing a new york warm up jacket. Didn't you guys get the memo? They remind me of all the people in the US who wear Michigan hats and jackets, not because they went to college there, but for some reason they think it's cool. Idiots.

I imagine as the playoffs and/or the world series (hopefully :) start up, I am going to be even more irked at the lack of baseball coverage here. Either that or I am going to have bags under my eyes every day through the end of October.

English Chopper

Yesterday afternoon I went to meet a couple of colleagues for drinks at the Tower Thistle, a hotel near the Tower of London. I wasn't in the mood to be crowded into the overheated tube, so I got there at least a half hour early.

When I walked into the building, there was a coffee lounge place with a big window, and I saw an older guy in there that looked really familar. I thought, nah, that can't be right, it must just be another old guy with a white handlebar mustache and a wife beater t-shirt on.

Sure enough, I sat down in the same area and the other folks and camera crew started showing up, as well as the guy's two sons that were in the show. American Chopper must be shooting an English Chopper episode right now in London.

Ironically, one of the guys I was with had only seen the show the past couple of nights on British tv. Unfortunately I spent a new years day with CF watching an American Chopper marathon, so I felt like those guys were family.

I was too embarassed to go over to them and say anything, and I didn't have my camera with me anyway to record the event. So you'll just have to take my word for it.

That Black Brew in Dublin

Tuesday evening I visited the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, as part of a business trip. I have to admit it wasn't quite what I expected. I pictured a quaint, red-brick building with some big vats and a friendly Irish tourguide to take us through and explain how they make the beer.

Instead it was kind of a beer disneyland, 7 stories with elaborate interactive exhibits and a self-guided tour designed to get you up to the top to have a pint overlooking Dublin. Kind of overdone in my opinion, though some of the exhibits were quite interesting, and the two pints of Guinness I had were probably the best ever. I did succumb to the commercial pressure and bought myself a cool t-shirt.