I have a rude awakening at 04:00 - Jem's body-clock hasn't adjusted yet, so she's wide awake - and when Jem's awake, so is Keith! I spend the next 4 hours trying to get back to sleep, but to no avail - it's not a problem though, as we have to check-out, and be at Craig's house for 11:30, so we get our shit together and head off to Bill's Burgers for some breakfast.

Upon leaving the hotel car park, the assistant serves me a lesson in stupidity - on his part, not my own! I have a wad of parking receipts, which have remained unpaid all week - I was informed earlier on that I could pay these all in one go, when I eventually left. He seems to have an extremely hard-time in understanding this, or indeed anything that remotely resembles the English language!! After ten minutes of complete idiocy - I stayed for 6 nights, and it's $8 a night. Instead of ringing in a receipt for $48 dollars, he proceeds to ring in 6 receipts for $8 each - what a complete pratt! I advise him to read his customer service hand-book, and leave - he was about as useful as a fluffer in a lesbian porno!!

I'm not used to driving with a passenger, and I get told to "mind that car" - I think Jem's having just as much of a hard time getting used to being a passenger, as I had learning to drive over here - she'll get used to it, and I just carry-on doing my own thing - in my own little driving-world! I still have no idea about priorities at non-traffic light junctions - do you give way to the left, or the right?? Or do you just work your way in a clockwise/ anti-clockwise fashion?? I just don't know, but the other drivers here are so patient, and never in a hurry, so they're not bothered if I make a wrong move - no-one's honked their horn at me yet, so I can't be doing too much wrong!

At Bill's Burgers we order, and get a ticket number - 97 - whilst sitting down waiting for our number to be called-out, I hear them shout out number 1!! My God, this guy in his fifties gets-up to grab his tray - if we're number 97, then he must've been there a while!!

I'm really excited about the baseball - one of the things on my "list of things to do before I die" is try and get to one game of each of America's top sports (baseball, football (not "soccer"), basketball and ice hockey). My team is the St Louis Cardinals, but today we're going to Edison Field - home of the Anaheim Angels, the reigning World Series champions. They're playing the Kansas City Royals in a four-game series - baseball is different from most sports, in that when one team plays another, they usually play 3/ 4 games over 3/ 4 days - why, I just don't know!

The stadium is HUGE - and it appears the only reason people come to the baseball is to eat! There's everything here - hot dogs, peanuts (well, monkey-nuts actually!) - Craig thought it rather amusing when I told him that we feed monkey-nuts to our hamsters!! - ice-cream, candyfloss, ribs, corn on the cob, nacho's - and they're not exactly small portions either!

[Just before the game, I remember an old adage - if there's grass on the mound, play ball - how true!]

Everyone stands for the national anthem - sung by some dollie - and we're into the first innings - each team gets to bat once each per innings, and there's 9 innings in total - unless the scores are level, when they go into extra innings (that's when the game could potentially go on forever!). Kansas are first up to bat, and the third pitch is sent for a home run - not a good start by the Angels, with some amateur pitching. By the time the first innings is over, the away team are 2-0 up - I sense this could be a long game! There's no further score until the 6th inning, when Kansas score again. We're about 1hr 45 into the game, and my bum is beginning to ache!

At the 7th inning mini-break, they have what's called the "7th inning stretch" - everyone stands-up! I'm a little perplexed! Then the national anthem dollie appears, and everyone sings 'God Bless America' - this is very strange! They then sing a song about the Angel's team - this is all very weird. Being a regular football goer, I'm used to singing and cheering for my team for a whole 90 minutes. So far, the only time any of the crowd have sung or cheered, is at these pre-arranged intervals. I mean, there's funny organ music played off and on throughout, where ritualistic clapping occurs, but nothing to raise the adrenaline like a rousing chorus of 'The Maidstone Train' or 'The Last Waltz'!!

I'm informed that the 7th inning stretch happens at ALL baseball games, and serves to wake-up anyone who's falling asleep - very good!!

There's no further scores in the game, and it finishes exactly 2hrs 30 minutes after it began - but it was well worth coming, and I enjoyed every minute! I'll do my best to get to another few games before the season ends in late October/ early November - plenty of time! Jem wanted to buy an Angel's shirt, but at $92 (that's about £60) a pop, she decides against it - I don't blame her!

We drive back to our new home for the next 3 weeks - The Marriott Suites - and I'm really impressed by the room. Rather than being your average 'everything's in one room' type place, it's almost like an apartment - separate bedroom and living room - in fact, it's rather large, and at $40 (£26) a night, extremely cheap (the rooms would normally cost $99 a night, but I used the Internet to my advantage to thrash-out a wicked deal). And we've got a balcony that overlooks the swimming pool, and Newport Bay - a stretch of water that runs out to sea - very nice!

We head out to South Coast Plaza - another shopping haven - for some food. The guy on reception recommended an Italian restaurant there. It looks amazing, but the food's not much kop - far too much as well, but reasonably priced, so I can't really complain. We don't stay out too long though, as Jem's bushed, and I've got to iron some things for work in the morning - it's been a long, but enjoyable day.

END OF DAY 9