Las Vegas Golden Knights v Carolina Hurricanes @ PNC Arena

For Christmas we bought the boys tickets to their beloved Golden Knights, playing in Raleigh - it's as close as we can get.  And because it was Christmas, we went all out and bought seats in the 2nd row behind the Golden Knights bench.

Straight after school we left for Raleigh.  We are going to stay the night up here - and they get the next day off school - not a bad deal.  Once we had checked in it was out the door again and we headed to The Goat, a newly opened bar and grill for dinner.

PNC Arena is not much further down the road and when we got to our seats the boys were blown away.  Unfortunately, even covered head to toe in their Vegas gear, the boys couldn't get an acknowledgement from any of the players.  Regardless we settled in.  Screamed KNIGHT during the national anthem, in response to the loud RED! the Hurricane fans shouted.  And enjoyed the closeness of the action.  Actually the seats aren't that great for watching the game, with a lot of obstructions in front of us.  There were quite a lot of Vegas fans there, more than I expected, but the overwhelming support came for the high-flying Hurricanes.  A good match up that the Canes scored first and then kept a good control of the game.  At 3-1 with 10 minutes left the Canes were cruising, but 2 goals within 5 minutes by Howden and Hague sent the game into overtime.  It only took 4 more minutes for the Canes to kill it, and within seconds the Vegas bench cleared and were gone before we could show our appreciation.

This is our first NHL game and we had a blast, especially the Vegas-born boys.  Though I'm still not sure of all the rules (even after half a dozen Checkers games).  We might have to make this a seasonal event and give the Golden Knights some support on the road.  We didn't get the result we wanted but a fun family Knight was had by all.

L&B in the Good Seats - Vegas Golden Knights v Carolina Hurricanes

Carolina Hurricanes 4: N. Niederreiter (25), V. Trocheck (26), S. Aho (49, 64) defeated Las Vegas Golden Knights 3: N. Patrick (39), B. Howden (54), N. Hague (58)

Crowd: 15,228

T Shirt Retirement

A recent cleaning out saw the loss of a few old favorite t-shirts.  Some were so torn, thin, ripped and misshapen, that they could no longer live in the closet.  It's a little frightening how emotional it is to lose these T shirts, but there have been a lot of good memories attached.

I have had this t-shirt since I was 18 (1991).  It came with the Mixed Up CD when I purchased it.  It has travelled Europe & the US with me.  I actually wore it when I saw The Cure in Charlotte in 2016.  Alas it had so many holes it was hard to get in and out of.

I'm pretty sure this shirt came with the 7" single in Australia.  I've had it since 1992 - when everything was about Nirvana - I couldn't get enough.  Another shirt that was definitely value for money, even though I have no idea what I paid for it.  In the end in looked like a crop top on me.  And nobody needs to see that.

I remember taping "rage" back in the day and then playing it during the day, stopping when something came on I liked, but generally going about the weekend.  The moment I heard Fire In The Head, I dropped everything - then played video back over and over to hear the song again, until I could go and get some Tea Party.  I bought this the first time I saw them at The Metro in Sydney on 26 March 1996.  A jaw dropping show, and a band I still love today.  26 years is another good run for a t-shirt.

This one hurt A LOT!  This is a 23 year favorite.  Combining my 2 loves - music and travel.  From Festival Sudoeste in Portugal in August 1998.  It was never planned we go to this show, but after seeing billboards in Faro & Albufeira, we actually got tickets at a record store in Lagos (not to mention finding where Zambujeira do Mar was, and whether we could get a bus there).  The 4 nights of camping and 3 nights of music were amazing.  The Cure (my first show of theirs) were everything I ever dreamed of.  Everyone we saw we were seeing for the first time and they were all amazing, except Sonic Youth, who to this day were the worst show I've ever seen.  I bought this shirt outside the venue (not an official licensed shirt) and wore it out.  It left the house in tatters and off color.  A ton of great memories in that shirt.  (Actually couldn't bring myself to throw it out - so it's now with all the rags.)

The last misshapen shirt is from Me First & The Gimmes Gimmes show from the Manning Bar on 19 January 2008.  Took Regs & The Barneses for a fun night out while I was home.  A 14 year shirt which leaves behind some very happy memories from a riotous gig.