Tag: Cricket

Ashes predictions pt II

Well, the hour is fast approaching. In a little over 3 hours as I write, the first ball will be bowled in Brisbane in the most eagerly anticipated Ashes series since, um, the last one.

As someone who likes to read cricket articles most days on cricinfo.com, I have to say I have been almost suffocated in potential reading material. Every newspaper has had a special pull-out supplement on the Ashes, and the aforementioned website has been creaking under the weight of online articles about Anglo-Australian cricket, from every conceivable angle. Everyone from Tony Blair to Johnny Borrell, lead singer of Razorlight, has been interviewed.

So the first session of the First Test is approaching fast, and I am still desperately trying to wade through the last supplement, as I confess I will feel underprepared for the series without consuming every word written on the subject.

However, I have taken some time out from my busy special-supplement-reading schedule to share some more specific predictions, bear with me and try to show some interest.

(1) Glenn McGrath will not last the 5 Tests

(2) Andrew Strauss will reprise Michael Vaughan’s excellent tour 4 years ago and plunder a lot of runs

(3) Ian Bell will do ok, better than last time. Alastair Cook I am not so sure about, I think he might struggle. KP and Flintoff will score big when it comes off for them, and get out cheaply when it doesn’t

(4) Warnie will take another 40 or so wickets in the series

(5) Hayden and Langer will get the Aussies off to much better starts than they did in England. But I think Flintoff will still have the wood on Gilchrist

(6) Harmison. Aaaaaaaaaggh. If Harmison bowls as he can in 4 out of 5 Tests, England will win the series. Otherwise Australia will take the honours. Which means I think Australia will take the honours.

I realise number (6) there contradicts my series result prediction in my previous post, but to be honest that one was more hopeful than expectant…

Come on the Poms

Ashes predictions

Ok folks, it’s time to lay your cards on the table, put your money where your mouth is, etc etc.

The First Test at Brisbane is only days away, and I have no doubt that you are all agog with anticipation (note to the literati, can one be agog with anticipation?) although perhaps not as intensely as Jones, whose love of cricket is something to behold.

So, how’s it going to pan out? Who will win? Will anyone in fact win, or will each match end in a draw, bewildering any Americans who come across the cricket news while scanning the channels for the Simple Sports results?

For those unfamiliar with cricketing parlance and nomenclature, the Ashes will consist of five Test matches, each of which could result in an Australian win, an English win, or a draw. Theoretically any of them could also be tied, which is different from a draw, but this last result is about as likely an event as Wiseman ordering a soft drink.

So the series could end up 5-0 to either team, or 0-0. It will not finish 7-5, as somebody somewhere has predicted. Neither 5-0 or 0-0 is terribly likely either, although Glenn McGrath, legendary Aussie fast bowler, is fond of predicting 5-0 Australian wins. He did this before the last Ashes in England last year. Unfortunately for him and Australia, he is getting on a bit, and ‘had a fall’ just before the 2nd Test, which England then won, and duly went on to take the series 2-1. So I wouldn’t place too much stock in his predictions.

However, an Australian win is considered likely by most pundits. I’m going to go for 2-2, which would be good enough for England to retain the Ashes. The Aussies have to win the series to get them back.

So, have a punt! Leave a comment with your best guess, by 12:29am on 23 November, and I will transfer it to the main page as soon as I get a chance. Whoever gets the right result might get a nice present from Australia. Nothing big of course, something small enough to fit in my suitcase, like Kylie Minogue. If a few of you get the right result, you’ll just have to share her…

3-1 Eng: Nasty Jen
2-1 Eng: AQ, Friendy
2-2: the Weir

2-1 Aus: Annie-Anne, Stephen
3-1 Aus: Diana, Colin Eye
3-0 Aus: Kenny D
4-1 Aus: Matt

Hinckley and beyond

Spent last weekend in Hinckley, near Leicester. Had an early start on the Thursday morning. Awoke to find the clock displaying 5:56 am. Decided this couldn’t possibly be correct as I was picking up Stuart in town at 5:55 am. Phoned Stuart, who was shivering on a street corner, to explain that my clock was running ridiculously fast, and so must his, if he was waiting for me already. He didn’t buy it.

Had the world’s quickest shower and we hit the road half an hour later than planned, which got us there bang on time. Frankly my colleagues should’ve been more grateful to me for rescuing them from half an hour of idle chat with fellow hearing aid dispensers.

Speaking of early starts on Thursday mornings, the First Ashes Test begins next Thursday morning, at 1am GMT. Myself and Robbo are currently considering how we can turn ourselves into nocturnal creatures for 5 days at a time… a plan doomed to fail methinks but you can be sure we’ll give it a go.

England are midway through their third warm-up game of the tour, and despite one or two setbacks my feeling is they’re looking ok. Unsure whether “ok” will be enough, but the one advantage this England team has over previous touring sides to Australia is that they know they can beat them. And if they can even hang on for a draw in the First Test, they will get some momentum and confidence from that and can build on it. Lack of confidence is not something we non-English usually perceive in English sporting teams – witness the rugby and football teams, for example. Both of these outfits are so confident in their own abilities they regularly cross the line into arrogance, which winds up everyone else in the UK, and leads to much hilarity when they fail. The cricket team is a strange beast, in that it can draw on a fair bit of support from Scotland, unusual in the extreme for an English sports team. Their players’ apparent humility makes them more endearing to us ‘outsiders’. The humility, I think, stems from a realistic recognition of their limitations. The lack of ridiculous salaries, as would be paid to their footballing counterparts, must also help them rein in their egos, I imagine.

In the run-up to the Ashes, long and much-hyped (in cricket circles) though it has been, there has been no trumpeting by anyone in the England camp, or, crucially, in the media, of how and why they will beat the Aussies. Most informed pundits recognise that the task they face is a huge one, and are accordingly circumspect about England’s chances in the series. Contrast that with the England football team’s statements prior to (and during) the World Cup this year, which served only to add sting to their humiliating exit.

But back to Hinckley. It was a decent enough conference, although I became quite skilled at the golf game on my mobile phone by the end of the third day. On the first evening, our hosts had sponsored a whisky-tasting experience as part of the meal they provided. Matt sampled rather too much of the first example, and was subsequently somewhat unable to objectively assess the quality of the remaining three. But he had a go. Whisky-tasting wasn’t much use to me, as I was driving us back to our hotel. Which was in Coventry, as the hotel we’d booked into in Hinckley had messed up our booking. My Coventry hotel room had a bed which was clearly designed with the American girth in mind. Quite simply the biggest bed I have ever seen. I am fairly confident that all 3 of us could have slept in it without needing to know there was anyone else in the bed. However, we didn’t test out the theory.

1am, Saturday. England 35/3 against a state side in the final warm-up game. So much for looking ok. Come on boys…

Batman and cricket

Wiseman has been looking at my monthly website stats, and has pointed out that his page is the most popular of the character pages. I would reply that this is because I haven’t put anyone interesting on there yet, but it seems a little harsh.

Had an extensive cinematographic experience this week. That is, I watched two DVDs – following up Batman Begins on Monday night with Blue (as in Trois Couleurs: Bleu) on Tuesday. I was expecting to enjoy the latter more, ambitiously fancying myself as one of the cognoscenti in these matters, and occasionally in the past having found arthouse cinema (what little I’ve seen of it) extremely enjoyable/moving/disturbing (Talk to Her, for example).

What actually happened was I found Batman Begins brilliant, and Blue just weird. I began to wonder if the experience was analogous to how a cup of coffee with my usual one sugar tastes somehow less sweet when drunk after munching my way through several pieces of chocolate cake.

Anyway, I have shelved my aspirations to join the cognoscenti for the moment, and can’t wait for the sequel to Batman Begins. There’s something very appealing about films which feature men with limitless money getting to build Bat Caves and cavort around a city in costume beating up baddies. With gadgets. I suspect this may be a bloke thing.

As I write, the England team are aboard a plane bound for Sydney, as the Ashes tour finally gets underway. I am beginning to fret about England’s chances in the series. It strikes me that their bowling unit, which was so devastating in the last series, is creaking at the seams. Steve Harmison, who can destroy the best batsmen in the world when it suits him, has been spraying his deliveries around like water from an unsecured hosepipe with the tap on full. Flintoff, who is as good as any bowler in the world (and better than most) on his day, hasn’t bowled an extended spell since the early summer. He got to bowl a few overs in India during England’s final game in the Champion’s Trophy, but that hardly counts for much, and unless he gets some serious overs in during England’s warmup games, he’s going to go into the First Test pretty rusty. Matthew Hoggard is not expected to prosper as much as he does under home conditions (truer pitches and a different make of cricket ball which will not swing as much). However, it’s worth remembering that some of his best performances in an England shirt have been overseas – in New Zealand, South Africa and India. And as Hoggy himself said only today – “At the end of the day, it’s just a red thing that you wang down the field and hope to land in the right areas.” Brilliant.

My own feeling is that Sajid Mahmood, until now a bit hot and cold, especially as regards accuracy, could be a revelation on fast bouncy Australian pitches. And Monty Panesar will, I think, be very effective. So all is not lost. Not yet, anyway. Plenty of time for more hand-wringing before 23 November, mind…

Time the great stealer

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away. It can also pinch an hour from your life, if you’re not watching. I speak from personal experience.

In Spring every year, the clocks in the UK advance forward by one hour. The balance and equilibrium of the space-time continuum is maintained, however, by the altogether more pleasing effect of the clocks going back by one hour in Autumn. As indeed they will tonight. So far so good.

In March 2005, I lost an hour’s sleep, along with the rest of the UK, at the end of March. A week later I flew to the States for a couple of weeks. The first weekend after I arrived in the US, I discovered to my horror that their clocks went forward that weekend, i.e. two weeks after the UK. Accordingly I lost yet another hour’s sleep that weekend. Disaster. Back in the UK in the Autumn, I gained one of these hours back, but that still left me an hour down on where I should be. The USA, to my knowledge, turn their clocks back the same weekend as us, so a quick Autumnal flight there and back over a weekend won’t solve anything. It truly is distressing. I have lost an hour of my life and will probably never get it back. I am convinced this is why I seem to gain consciousness (cf waking up) an hour later than everyone else in the mornings… it’s a major discontinuity in my life, I’m out of sync, my life’s very fabric is stretched and distorted as a result.

But life goes on. Albeit an hour ahead of where it should be. Wiseman and I are developing our Brian Lara Cricket 2005 PS2 skills slowly but surely. The first Test between Bangladesh (me) and Australia (Wiseman) was all over within a day, but the Second Test lasted well into the third day (granted, we lost a day to rain), and the Third Test is now underway. It’s 2-0 to Bangladesh in the series, should you be interested. Ah, there’s nothing like the rhythms of Test cricket.

Only 25 days ‘til the Ashes…

Adventures in the mountains

The Trossachs were shrouded in thick black cloud and reeked of menace this morning as I headed up the M9. (Bear with me, I’m warming up for my Australian travel writing). Was on my way to see a customer who lives just outside Callander, in a truly remote location high up in the hills. Realistically, it’s not truly remote, as it is really only a few miles from Callander, but it feels genuinely remote. After leaving the A84, I drove for a couple of miles on single track roads/farm track, and through somebody else’s farmyard, before reaching his house. Halfway up I encountered a flock of sheep guarding the upper reaches, one of which remained quite stubbornly in the middle of the track. Things could’ve got tricky here, but I mentioned that I knew Doug Smith well, and was immediately accorded the VIP treatment. Doug is a friend of mine with well-established links among the sheep community. I’d better say no more.

I made better time on the road up to Callander than I’d expected, and was considering a visit to a local coffee shop. In fact I have to confess I not only considered it but attempted to act upon it (I can hear the tuts of disapproval from all you Standard Life employees with your strong work ethic) by making a sortie into Doune. Given Doune’s location and size and everything you would really expect it to have at least one legendary coffee shop, but alas the only thing I could find was a stand on the street advertising a deli (I mean, come on, a DELI in Doune?) which professed to sell tea and coffee. Unfortunately I couldn’t locate the actual deli, just the stand advertising its presence. So I beat a hasty retreat from Doune, shook the dust off my feet as I left, etc etc. A cup of tea to perk me up would’ve been just the ticket, as sleep has been a little elusive of late. Last night this could be put down to the fact that my neighbours in the flat above me appeared to be trying to drill through my ceiling. Disturbed by the racket, I wandered out of my bedroom into my hallway at some late hour of the night, half expecting to find said neighbours parachuting down through a gaping hole above. However, they never materialised, which is a mercy, as I was in no state to receive visitors, and I managed to crawl back into bed and get some sleep.

So, the timer on my desktop informs me that it’s just over 42 days until the Ashes. Gosh it’s exciting. I do hope you’ve been keeping up to date with all the hype. More here. The other timer on my desktop is counting down the days to my holiday…

Anyway, time to seek some more of that elusive sleep.

Alternative ending for those with a passing interest in cricket:

Michael Vaughan has been making noises in the press recently about perhaps being fit to play in the 4th and 5th Tests at Melbourne and Sydney. These are, as it happens, the ones I’m going to. While it would be great to see Vaughan back in action, I would wonder at the wisdom of reintroducing him to what will hopefully be a settled team at what may be a crucial juncture in the series. Unless Australia have won the first three Tests (or indeed, England have) then the series and the Ashes will still be up for grabs come Melbourne. In addition, Vaughan, prior to his injury, has been out of nick with the bat for quite some time. His principal contribution (and it was a weighty one) to the Ashes win last year was as captain, apart from one solitary century at Old Trafford (which was laced with a fair bit of good fortune). I can’t see them bringing him back as captain for the last two Tests, unless Freddie has made a right meal of it and lost the first three disastrously.

Of more significance, in my mind, would be the return to the team of Simon Jones. I watched some of the Ashes 2005 DVD the other day, and was reminded of just how often he chipped in with crucial wickets. I would dearly love to watch him steaming in at the MCG and SCG in a few months’ time, but sadly I think those matches will come too soon for his recovery from injury. Pity.

From the Aussie point of view, it will be interesting to see how Michael Hussey performs – he’s been getting rave reviews, but then so did Michael Clarke in his initial Tests before hitting something of a slump in form. Hussey, by all accounts, is the real deal, and sounds like he might cause England a few headaches this winter.

Anyway, time to seek some more of that elusive sleep.

Ovalgate

During England’s second innings of the 4th Test at the Oval, on 20 August, the following happened…

• The umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove confer and decide to change the ball that Pakistan are bowling with. England are awarded 5 penalty runs and the two batsmen at the crease get to choose a replacement ball. The only infringement of the Laws which could lead to all this happening is if the ball has been tampered with.

• Some brief history. Pakistan have been accused of, and sometimes found guilty of, ball-tampering in the past. Therefore they are rather sensitive to the issue. In addition, they have issues with Darrell Hair, who is a ‘no-nonsense’ Australian umpire. This is because he has called some of their bowlers for ‘chucking’ (illegal bowling) before. They have previously asked the ICC (the governing body) if they would mind not appointing Mr Hair to officiate in games involving themselves. The ICC refused, and in fact appointed him for four consecutive series involving Pakistan in one year.

• After the tea interval, the Pakistan team do not re-appear on the field. The umpires decide (within the Laws) that Pakistan have forfeited the game by refusing to play. After the umpires and the England batsmen have gone off the field, Pakistan’s captain Inzamam-ul-Haq leads his team back on to the field, but no-one else is there, so they troop off again.

• Play is abandoned, and eventually England are declared winners of the match due to Pakistan’s forfeiture. This is the first time in 129 years of Test matches that a game has been forfeited. Pakistan had been in a strong position in the match at the time it was abandoned.

• Pakistan are somewhat narked at Hair (and Doctrove) alluding that they’re cheats and various Pakistani cricketing dignitaries make noises about resigning, the subcontinental teams (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) making a break from the ICC etc etc.

• The story makes the front page of two American newspapers, including the New York Times. This is possibly the most unlikely event of them all.

• Hair makes an ill-advised emailed approach to the ICC, offering to resign for a one-off payment of $500,000. The ICC describe it as ‘silly’ and make the emails public.

• On 28 September, Inzamam faces charges of ball-tampering (without a specific individual in the team being identified as culpable, the captain takes the rap) and bringing the game into disrepute (for keeping his team off the field). He is acquitted of ball-tampering but found guilty of the second (lesser) charge and banned for 4 One Day International matches.

• Pakistan are content with this verdict and decide not to appeal. However, they may press charges against Darrell Hair for bringing the game into disrepute himself…

• Darrell Hair is removed from his umpiring duties for the next major ICC tournament, the Champions Trophy, which starts next month in India. India had requested that he not officiate. For Hair the future is unclear. But he is bullish and upbeat, unusual behaviour for an Australian, as he has been throughout. He does not appear to suffer from low self-esteem.

• Excellent article on the current situation here

As I mentioned in another post, I think the judgement of the match referee yesterday was correct. I can’t see how ball-tampering could have taken place, but I do think Inzy was correctly punished for keeping his team off the field and causing the abandonment of the game. Such behaviour belongs in the playground, surely. No matter that Pakistan were aggrieved at the perceived injustice, it’s not like teams haven’t felt aggrieved at umpires’ decisions before, often with justification. Anarchy would reign if teams could on a whim decide not to take the field, and a lot of people pay a lot of money to see them play.

And that’s my view… hardly earth-shattering but there it is 🙂

Forum, singleness and graffiti, pt I

Whoa, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything. Consequently I have a lot to write about, although whether any of it is of any consequence is another matter. I’m sure you’ll let me know if it’s not…

So Forum came and went in a bit of a blur 2 weeks ago. It was a truly mad week. Arrived Sunday to find that some of the PA gear (including the mixing desk) had been nicked from the tent the night before. Set up as best we could given lack of mixing desk, power and staging (the latter 2 because of ancient by-law governing grounds where Forum’s held prohibiting any work to be done on Sundays…), drove into Wrexham Sunday night and collected hire gear to replace stolen stuff. Monday evening students arrive, first session goes off ok, Nathan & Lou Fellingham and Jos (their guitarist) arrive and demonstrate much grace before I get their in-ear mixes approximately right. After hours session goes off ok… crawl into bed.. get up early.. spend next 3 days trying to work out why sound in tent is terrible, crawling into bed late and getting up early. Empire Biscuit stash runs out Tuesday, and have to make subsequent sorties into local village shop to get chocolate for sustenance. By Friday morning sound is still terrible but recordings of the open mic night on Thursday prove to be semi-decent and so I leave with some sound engineering pride intact. But not much. Crawl into work Monday morning more exhausted than when I left… yep I’ll probably be back next year. Mugs like me don’t grow on trees y’know…

Those of you with your finger on the cricketing pulse will have noted that Inzamam-ul-Haq spent yesterday and today defending his honour (and, if you believe the rhetoric) that of the entire Pakistan nation in front of an ICC hearing in London. He was charged with ball-tampering (a murky, evil practice in the eyes of cricket’s administrators), and bringing the game into disrepute by refusing to bring his team on to the field after umpire Darrell Hair had penalised Pakistan for the same murky practice during the 4th Test at the Oval. Inzy was found guilty of the latter and innocent of the former. I happen to agree with this judgement – clearly, even as a former cricket captain of Bellevue, I have not been allowed to see the match ball in question, but the fact that none of Sky’s myriad cameras at the ground picked up on any malpractice by the Pakistani bowlers or fielders, and given that Hair would have been able to inspect the ball (as umpires always do at the fall of a wicket) a short time before he decided to change it and award 5 penalty runs to England, yet appeared not to have a problem with it at that point, make it unlikely in my view that the ball’s worn condition was due to tampering. For those of you without your fingers on the cricketing pulse and yet still reading, bowlers have been known to raise the seam of a cricket ball, or scratch it with bottle tops and the like, in order to make it deviate more in the air and off the pitch, and thus make it more likely to get the batsman out. This is ball-tampering. Now, whether a cricket match (particularly a Test match) is exciting or not depends heavily on the balance between bat and ball – e.g. if the bowlers are rendered ineffectual by a flat pitch then the batsmen will score mountains of runs, it will probably be fairly boring, and the game will most probably end in a draw. In order to actually win a Test match, a side has to bowl the opposition out twice – i.e. take 20 wickets. Personally I find cricket matches more enjoyable when the bowlers are marginally on top – by my reckoning this was the case for most of the Ashes series in 2005. Whether that was due to helpful conditions, great bowling, or lack of application from the batsmen is not clear. But it matters little. It was a great series, some say the best Test series ever. So my point is, why not let the bowlers modify the condition of the ball a little? There is a strong argument that says that all of the recent innovations in cricket have been to the advantage of the batsman. I am on the bowlers’ side in this one.

Still on cricket, sort of. Read a great article this week in the Telegraph. And another one in the Guardian, just to even things up politically. The last cricket side to visit Australia on tour was South Africa, earlier this year. The South Africans copped a fair bit of racial abuse from some of the Aussie supporters. In light of this, and in advance of the forthcoming Ashes series, Cricket Australia have been forced to consider whether the words “Pom” and “Pommies” could be deemed racist.. they have decided not. However, our genteel Australian counterparts “must avoid linking the P-word with anything “hurtful… racist, offensive or humiliating”. So “filthy Poms” will be considered unacceptable, but “whinging Poms”, and the outstanding phrase “dry as a Pommy’s bath-towel” presumably won’t…

Oh dear. I’ve only written about Forum so far before getting heavily distracted by cricket…. Part Two to follow!

Oh sweet Autumn

..with your dark surprise, and your short days all smudged with gold..

It’s September. It’s turned a little colder, I even had the heating on the other night, and the nights are fair drawin’ in. Autumn must be at least on its way, if not here already. And that’s bound to be good news 🙂

Possibly the only bad thing about Autumn, in fact, is that it marks the end of the cricket season, although that sometimes comes as a relief after a run of bad scores and being dropped to the 3rd XI for the last couple of games, to “strengthen their batting”. Not this year, however. I managed to post all of my bad scores in the 2nds this year. Apart from one duck earlier in the season. Anyway. While the cricket season here draws to a close, in Australia it is just starting, and eyes are beginning to turn towards the Ashes series which starts in November. At least, mine are. 23 November is when it all kicks off, in Brisbane. Mark R has already hinted at being willing to host all-night Ashes-watching parties (Mrs R, are you reading this?)… 18 December is when I fly out Oz-wards, although I won’t have to wait that long to get my passport out, as I discovered today I’m going to a German hearing aid conference in October. Not sure exactly where yet.

The times they are a-changing, at least in the Broughton area. Tesco, which is so close to my flat that I could probably hit the deli counter with a well-directed organic potato (given the prior removal of the roof), has been undergoing a radical facelift. Not least has been the arrival of Costa, that purveyor of over-priced coffee. Which in itself doesn’t affect me too much, as I’ve stopped drinking coffee, but it’s somehow sad to see the demise of the Tesco café. And it might lure the slightly pretentious coffee-drinkers (like myself, before I gave it up) away from Sandro’s top joint Caffelatte at the top of Logie Green Road – also a Costa outlet. Which would be a bad thing, as he makes fine pizzas, and I badly don’t want him to go out of business. Altruistic to the end, me.

More change on the parking front as well. I am about to become a resident of N1 Zone, which means that our beloved Council now get to take £80 a year off me for the privilege of parking on a street that I’ve been parking on for free for 3 years. It all starts on Monday, and I received my parking permit through the post yesterday. Unfortunately the Council (May They Live Forever) sent me a permit for Zone S1, which entitles me to park in various streets in the Grange/Marchmont area. Which is rather flattering, but singularly unhelpful. Hopefully they will get the right one out to me soon, although as I am away (and will have the car with me) all next week, it’s not a disaster.

My sister Alison arrived up from London last weekend, and has been staying with the folks since then. This has worked well for all of us, shall we say, as the levels of care and attention in the parental home have shot skywards, and I have managed to get more sleep 🙂 My parents will insist on holding wild parties until the early hours, and still expect the porridge to be on the table at 7.30am. There’s just no stopping them.

Next week marks the start of Forum, a UCCF conference in Oswestry, Shropshire. I am going to be involved on the sound engineering side of things all week, and am looking forward to it very much, perhaps partly because it will be my first full week off work since August last year. Perhaps also because a week away from my flat will be good, as it appears that my rodent visitor, having finally attacked the pile of tasty poison like Anne Brown tearing into a stash of chocolate biscuits, is now decomposing slowly underneath my floorboards. At least, that’s what it smells like. The last time such an odour pervaded my kitchen I thought the carcass must be under the floorboards, having undertaken an extensive search of the kitchen and its environs. 10 days later I discovered the body right in front of my washing machine. I am convinced to this day that someone planted it there to make it look like I didn’t use my washing machine much.

Anyhow, Forum should be fun. Nathan and Lou Fellingham (of Phatfish fame) will be playing at the late night slot on Monday night, so it will be great to meet them. Slightly nervous about doing sound for them… Actually I’ve met Lou, kind of, at Alyn and AJ’s wedding in Toronto in January last year. I daresay she’ll be bursting to find out what I’ve been up to in the intervening period. Perhaps I should give her the address of this blog.

Speaking of celebrities, I scored a famous win over Slid in the first game of my ongoing series of Celebrity Spotting. Celebrity Spotting is a subject worthy of its own blog entry, but I haven’t had the time to do it justice yet. Suffice to say that eyeballing Sean Connery on Lothian Road was enough to wrap up Game One, and Game Two is now in progress. No score yet. Other contestants, should they be interested in joining, and subject to ratification by the Committee, are welcome to throw their hat into the ring.

Having given it some consideration, I think the deli counter might be just out of range (I don’t have a very good throwing arm) but I am confident I could take out one of the checkout operators. Not for a date, obviously….

Operations, pancakes, and cricket

Operations first. My mum went into hospital today in preparation for getting her ankle messed around with tomorrow, yet again. She’ll be in until Friday probably, at which point she will return home and start waving her sceptre about and issuing decrees. Until then, she has left dad in my care, which is possibly a little foolish, but I am family and so she has to trust me.

So this week I am staying with dad. We had some discussions at the beginning of the week about our likely diet. Beer and sausages were proposed, and I have to say the old man’s face lit up, but sadly mum has stocked the fridge with proper food, and we’ll just have to make the best of it. How we’ll get through the week on my cooking is anyone’s guess, my dad has a drugs supply that would land him in serious trouble in Singapore, but whether any of them will be strong enough to counteract the effects of my culinary expertise remains to be seen. Those of you given to prayer might like to send some up for us both. Those of you who aren’t, now might be a good time to start 😉

I got a phonecall from a nice lady at the Yorkshire Building Society today, explaining that my fixed rate mortgage was about to expire and that my payments would shoot through the roof. I have to say I was more concerned at the time with trying to keep the jam on my pancake (this sounds like it could be a euphemism but it was completely literal this afternoon) as it was threatening to slide off. However, mortgage payments are a necessary evil (for homeowners at least) that one has to give one’s attention to from time to time, and so I tried to carry out an adult conversation about discounted rates and fixed rates and the like, while pretending not to eat a sticky pancake. It was quite a long conversation so I think I managed to get through 3 pancakes. Regrettably I managed to land a fair amount of the jam on my tie, which lent me a certain gravitas during my subsequent appointment with a client.

Bellevue finally took to the cricket field again last night, and managed to defeat our old friends D Mains for the third time this summer. We won by 5 wickets, despite my clumsy efforts behind the stumps. More here. Holy Cross also managed to win on Saturday – we beat Dunfermline by 6 wickets, which was immensely pleasing. I chipped in with 26 not out at the end.

Right, better get off to bed. Mum has left a list of commandments which must be obeyed in the mornings, and the morning isn’t my best time of day, so I’d better get some sleep. Don’t think too hard about jam and pancake euphemisms, although any printable suggestions will be received with interest…