Oakland show….

Kami and i walked over to the venue around 6pm thinking we could get something to eat at the venue before the show, however there was nothing around at all! and the venue wasn't opening the doors till 7pm. We hung outside for a while and i had a couple of friends i was meeting up with.

I called my friend Dave to see where he was, he was in the line to et in the venue. As we were talking i spotted another friend “Bear” he runs the Echoes mailing list and i hadn't seen him since Live 8 in 2005. Had a quick chat with him and his wife and said we would catch up in San Jose, hopefully we will.

I arranged to meet Dave inside when we got in and then got a call from my friend “Big Al”  hadn't seen him either since the Dark side shows out in CA and he had brought his sister along to see the show but they still didn't have tickets so were on the hunt around the venue for tickets for the show.

At 7pm Kami and i headed into the show, we saw Marky Lennon who had a couple of guests with him and he introduced us to them they were a great couple from Hawaii and little did we know just how great they were!!

We wandered around the venue and went up to see Dave for 5 minutes before taking our seats for the show. As luck would have it we were actually sat next to Marky's friends!!

Greg and Shelly                                Greg, Kami and Shelly                       Greg, Shelly and Kami

   

We became instant friends with Greg and Sherlly, they hadn't seen the show before and were big fans of Venice as they knew all the Lennon brothers and were as i said guests of theirs. They also knew how to party! we had such a good time with them seeing the show, it made all the difference from normally Kami and i sitting by ourselves.

Roger was on great form as was Dave, his solo during Comfy was incredible, certainly one of the top 5 I've seen so far on the tour. Roger added a couple of little nuances the last few shows, when he does Goodbye Cruel Word, he started holding his hand and doing a little wave every so often. During the end of Waiting for the Worms when he is shouting through the megaphone he has started to do a Wanking (masturbating) motion with his microphone!! I've googled the lyrics to see at what point he is doing it and what relevance it has but cant find anything!! he's done it at at least the last 4 shows. Watch Roger  when the hotel room comes down at the beginning of Nobody Home, he is sat in the chair in the dark and as the lights come on he looks out to the audience each time as if he’s only just noticed they are there and looks at them in shock and surprise. There's a few other little things he’s changed up the last few shows but they escape me at the moment, when they come back I'll add them into another post.

Sherlly having fun

I had a couple of people recognise me from my blog who i didn't know, “Duke” came up to say hi at the end of the show, he was a huge Who fan and good friends with Marc Stark whom id met up with in Florida, was great to meet you Duke and hope you enjoyed the show!

Myself and Duke                            Greg, Shelly, Me and Kami after the show.    Kami and Shelly

   

We exchanged cell phone numbers with Greg and Shelly as we had all had such a good time and spoke about meeting up in San Jose and going out for dinner one night. After the show we headed out to The Yard House for a couple of beers before everyone made their ways back to their hotels and we got back to Costa Mesa around 12:30am.

Los Angeles day 3

So had a good lie in this morning, today was one of the first days for a while that i really had nothing to get up for! had no where to go, no where to be, no one to see so i made the best of it. laid in bed till around 11 ish, showered  chilled out, messed about online and Kami and I headed out to the same Mexican restaurant i went to yesterday as i enjoyed it that much.We had the nachos, and the sizzling steak fajitas, they were awesome but we both ate way too much!

View from the restaurant                   Sizzling fajitas                                Kamis tequila “shot”

   

I LOVE Mexican food, i jus wish it was as popular in the UK as it was here in CA! id be fat as hell if it was though!

By the time we’d finished lunch it was 3pm, i was sooooo full and just need to walk it off so we walked across to the beach and walked for 45 minutes. unfortunately we had missed the warmest part of the day and it was a little chilly walking down by the ocean, the cold really doesn't bother  me that much at all though and i still took my shoes and socks off and walked in the waters edge.

   

Just shows that Big Mother is always watching!

 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was 4pm and it was an hours drive to the venue, we freshened up and headed out to the pre show meet up. Again we were all meeting up at the Yard House and Eric, Tony, Maria, Matt and a few other all came along and we had a great time hanging out for an hour or so before the show.

Oakland and Costa Mesa…….

So we were flying out of Oakland at 9am so had to be up and ready to catch the shuttle at 7:30 this morning. Maria, Kami, Matt and i all came up to Oakland in one set of clothes and all flew back to Lon Beach in the same ones. It was only like a 20 hour trip so we didn't need all our luggage etc so  only the essentials were packed, you know, cell phone, iPods, cameras and of course laptops!

We caught the hotel shuttle and one of the stewardesses from our flight caught it with us. We’d met her yesterday on the flight in and found out she was going to the show too. We got to our hotel and also found her to be at the same hotel as us.

Mari and Matt waiting for the shuttle     Long Beach airport                           Long Beach Airport

  

The stewardess on the plane came over to see how we had enjoyed the show and also offered us all a free Bloody Mary, i passed but Kami, Matt and Maria took her up on her offer. We arrived back at Long Beach around 11am, Matt and Maria took the shuttle bus to the hotel over in Costa Mesa while Kami and i waited at the airport as my good friends Gail and Joe were flying in from Phoenix in half and hour.

Gail and Joe arriving in Long Beach

   

We all headed to the car which id parked up for 24 hours yesterday and then drove the half hour over to the hotel in Costa Mesa, was funny that just as we arrived Matt and Maria were just getting out of the shuttle bus they had taken, they had left a  good hour before us though! We checked in, unpacked and arranged for us all to meet in the lobby in a couple of hours time.

Hotel lobby                                                Lilly's in the lobby                                     View from the hotel room

    

I managed to fall asleep listening to the pros and Cons and Kami managed to get a couple of hours sleep too. Kami, Gail and i met in the lobby at 3:30 and drove over to Newport beach to watch the sunset and grab a cocktail before going out for dinner.

We had about 45 minutes before the sunset  and took a walk down the pier, there were a lot more clouds in the sky than there had been the last couple of nights so the sunset wasn't going to be as good but we decided to watch it from the end of the pier. Kami was hungry and bought a corn dog, something else i don't think I've ever tried and it was nice, real nice!

Gail in winter jacket         Newport pier                                              Clouds before sunset

   

Took a few pictures along the pier and tried a few “artsy” pics but they didn't turn out!

Kami and Gail vetting pictures            Newport beach                                   Sunset clouds

We took a walk along the beach after sunset,Gail and Kami went to take some more pics under the pier which I'll have to get off Gail as a couple of them are really cool.

     

I went for a wander round and then met up on the beach. The idea was to get a cocktail before dinner however we spotted a donut store instead and settled for a donut each! We made our way back to the car via a few side streets along the beach looking at the houses all lit up for Christmas.

  

So on the drive back to the Westin in Costa Mesa we went a different way and happened to come across what was a Christian church type place all done up with lights, I've never seen anything like it in my life! and its probably best i let the pictures and video do the “talking”

   

Cristian Christmas lights

We got back to the hotel around 6, all met up in the lobby at half past and headed over to Claim Jumper for dinner, Maria wasn't feeling too good so stayed in the room and relaxed for the night so it was just myself, Kami, Gil, Joe and Matt. We originally wanted to go to the nice Italian place called Maggianos however it was fully booked and nothing was available till after 9. Id never been to a Claim Jumper which i believe is a chain but we had a great night with some nice drinks and some good food.

     

Lots more pictures on the link below:

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Hotel key cards…..

I seem to have collected a some this last few weeks! More blog entries later on today, just been having fun and not much time for typing.