Oops I Did It Again!

Yeh, yeh, yeh...I know, I know. First I tell you how sorry I am that I disappeared from interweb existance and that it will never happen again...then straight away I vanish again without a trace. *slaps wrist* Bad Joanne, Bad!

*sigh* Millions of connection problems, 27 dvd's of backed up work, one (almost) major computer catastrophy and a newly re-formatted hard drive later, and here I am. Back once again for your blog reading pleasure. Or whatever.

So the Playoffs then. Yeh, well, it feels a bit pointless doing a whole big write-up (a la last year - post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5, post 6) on something that now feels so long ago, so I'll keep it short...er...ish.

It was about a month ago, I guess, but the off-season always seems to get longer and longer every year. Thank Crunchie for NASN! *stops self from going into an uncontrolled rant of joy that her beloved Oilers have just reached the Western Conference finals for the first time in 14 years* .... *dances* .... *ahem* .... yeh, anyhoo...

So...Nottingham. We went, we saw, we partied our respective asses off. Unfortunately, our team forgot how to play hockey and went out in the semis.



But seeing as we're from Belfast, we managed to find 101 other things to cheer for...here's just a few (hover mouse over photos for captions):

1. The Ref.



Ok, not the ref from our game. The ref from the final - Moray Hanson. Queue us all raising our right hand (clicky for vid) every time he did (clicky for vid) and of course the infamous 'Hands up for Hanson' chant (clicky for vid). Yeh, he loves us. And despite a shaky start when the other teams fans haddn't a clue wot we were doin', by the end of the game half the arena was joining in.

2. The Steelers

Yes, us. Belfast Giants fans supporting the Steelers. (clicky for vid) Who'da thought, eh? Well, it was like this - out of all the other teams who were there, their fans were the most fun this year. They were right beside us in the arena so it was great craic when they suddenly started chanting 'Giants' as we were chanting 'Steelers'. A sight to behold that will probably never ever ever happen again. But I'm glad it did.

3. The Rat



...on the door stewards head. It's kinda hard to make out in the pic, but holy crap that was a bad toupee!

4. Wally

Graeme 'John-boy / Wally' Walton plodding down the arena steps behind me pointing at my ass and telling his mom to look...which worried me slightly until I remembered I was wearing his gamer jersey tied round my waist. *phew* He looked chuffed to bits I was wearing it tho...which was nice. =)

5. Grafitti I tells ya!



Finding a lovely crayon drawing by Panthers player Paul Moran in the middle of Market Square. Awww bless!

6. Making fun of the Panthers cars...again!



7. Lu's Burger

Yes, we can cheer for food too. One of the best Hard Rock Cafes (for food and service) I've been in, is the one in Nottingham. We go there every year cause England has some funny licencing laws that require you to be over the age of 18 to even order food in a bar, and poor miss Shiny Sarah has spent the last few years being turned away at the door for being too ickle. The HRC, being primarily a restaurant, doesn't have this constraint.

So, if you remember last years playoff post, you'll no doubt be able to recall how strange Lu is. Well this years Lu-ism, is "Don't eat your food - Play with it!" (clicky for vid)



8. The Barenaked Ladies

I just like them, so I cheer. Altogether now... *sings* If I had a million dollars.... (clicky for vid)



9. Barstucks

Breakfast coffee.



Lu wasnt there the morning we arrived, but out of respect we steered clear of any velvet seating arrangements.

10. Balloons.



We wondered if this was how BMIbaby were planning on getting us home.

11. Half Built Hotel.

We stayed in the Jurys Inn hotel this year, which by the way was fantastic. No problems with checkin (unlike the hotel last year), no problems with the rooms being ready (unlike the hotel last year), and massive rooms (unlike the hotel last year). The Jurys is Nottinghams newest big hotel, and as such isnt quite finished...the second half is still completely under construction. So aparently my aunt & uncle's room didnt quite have a window yet, and the running gag was that you didnt use the hotel lift to get to it, you just hopped on one of the cranes outside.



...Well...it was funny while everyone was drunk!

12. Lobby Antics

For some reason our taxi to take us to the airport was a little (an hour) late. The reason being becase the hotel receptionist was a little dense (and possibly hung over) that morning, and repeatedly asked us when we'd like that taxi ordered. Every time we said "Umm, now please" she would wait 10mins then ask us again! The time sitting in the lobby was not waisted however...Bill put it to good use by blattering poor Fish repeatedly over the head with a magazine.



13. Flying Buses



...well, it was an Airbus in mid air. I'm easily amused.

14. Eye Eye Bill



Billinda never letting me get more than the top half of his face in a photo. Damn him!

15. My Swede

My little pet Swede 'Raxy' who as well as wearing his fetching new collar with pride all weekend, manage to freak Lu out completely by proposing marriage to her outside the Bunkers Inn. She's only met him twice!



16. The Toilet Singer

Ok, so I thankfully didnt see this one first hand, but there was a dude in the mens restrooms in a fantastic gothic stylee bar called The Pit & The Pendulum, handing out paper towels and dancing around ragga-singing about how "hygiene is top banana". Quote of the weekend had to go to Raj's dad, Nigel, who walked up to Matt deadpan and said "Here's a pound, go and see the toilet singer" lol...still makes me giggle!

17. Alcohol

Ahh the Berry Juice effect:



If you aren't quite aware of what this is, I shall refer you to last years post, but lets just say it heals a lot of wounds!



The was lots of cheering for this...or should I say because of it! I'll end this completely belated post with a vid of everyone in The Bunkers Inn singing their drunken rendition of 'I Am The Music Man'.



(**The videos located on youtube.com are best viewed at the smallest size**)