Day at the cricket

(I'm a little late posting this entry, but despite the recent cricket results, here goes!)
Many, many months ago I spent over an hour frantically hitting refresh on a webpage whilst hitting redial on a phone. When I did eventually get through on the phone, the conversation went something like this....

"G'day cobber, welcome to bloody Ticketek, what do yous wan'?"
"Good day to you too, my good man. I'd like to purchase 8 of your finest tickets for the first day of the first Ashes test at The Gabba, in Brisbane please"
"Strewth! Another bloody Pom! Ya know yous got two chances this year - Buckley's and none"
"Ho ho, we'll soon see about that. I think you'll find that although Our Boys are recovering from injury, your Dad's Army team won't last the series!"

...and so the conversation continued, until finally the ol' credit card was brandished and 8 tickets were promised in return :)

Fast forward a few months to Thurs 23rd November, and here's the view we had:


Not bad :) Wish I could say the same for the result, though :( Through the morning, it looked hopeful for England, and I had a couple of chances to punch the air and gloatingly fire make-believe guns with my fingers at my Aussie companions. But on the field, the Aussies took control and settled in for a long, long afternoon of sustained excellent batting. The boundaries were coming quick and fast. By the end of the day, I was pretty much stuck with my head in my hands, despondantly watching my national team get whipped, whilst Nat and Rod turned to me on every boundary and just grinned. Bastards :)

International huband and wife team

Well, the rest is history. Australia convincingly won the first test, and I'm writing this in the aftermath of the horrific result from the second test - England managed to both declare for 551 in the first innings, and lose the match. A new entry in the record books...

It's a funny old time to be a Pom in Oz - one friend (who shall remain nameless!!!) suggested now would be a good time to adopt an Aussie accent to avoid the jibes and gloating. Not a chance :)