Good morning. There is something about waking up to Sir Geoffery's non-dulcet Yorkshire tones. I text off the fact that India are 191-1 with Sehwag already with his century to an early working bird. I can remember being stunned in Adelaide in 2006 when we heard that Monty was not in the team.
I'm not stunned now with this oft repeated omission despite it being an even more obvious error, as you know it's a regular item on the England pre-Test agenda, not that it's any of my pre-Test business. Item no.7: What bollocks shall we use this time to explain leaving out Monty? I'm just glad that Churchill used and kept his head and his Monty.
'Yesterday in Parliament' gets me out of bed as the clock radio is not DAB and I have to swap Dravid and Marks for Botham & Co. I've let the worker know that V is out to Swann even though she is probably knee deep in a pre-what ever it is meeting. It's a damp and dreary day. No sign of the Indian Summer that we had yesterday outside of Parliament.
I took advantage of the sunshine to Teak oil the garden furniture and Creosote-substitute the side gate. I'm glad there's a whole English winter between the application and when I next eat my burgers off the table, as some of the chemicals that seem to constitute what I thought was not a substitute teak oil seem nastier than those in the creosote substitute.
The bottle (pictured) warns you not to lose your rag as you may lose your life as it is likely to spontaneously combust. Perhaps I overreacted. It's not as if it's going to burst into flames or anything like that. The Lovely Lizzie told me that she could hear the foghorns in the night. I apologised just in case she wasn't just confirming the prevailing weather conditions.
By the time I'd removed the sleepy dust from my eyes and visited the bathroom the dog had been up on the bed and using the Sony Cube FM/AM/LW radio for balance finished off my cup of tea not to mention the toast and marmalade that the LLL had kindly brought up putting the mockers on Tendulkar who was out for 13.
Yes I had washed my hands. I studied Chemical Engineering for a year. One of the first lessons you were taught was that a Chemical Engineer always washes his/her hands before he/she goes to the toilet. The second lesson was to define a Civil Engineer as a Chemical Engineer with his/her brains kicked out. I disagreed with this as I had always held Isambard, Kingdom and Brunel in the highest of regards.
I turn on the radio to listen to TMS after I hear no criticism of Trott's Underbelly and seemingly underhand actions from the Sky lot after his dropping of a catch in the slips off Swann. Prakash Wakankar voiced the obvious. Item No.8: It's not Cricket. I expect they'll put it into a context later.
Look out Trotty as Aggers got a little bit of stick after having complained in a 'slightly sardonic and inoffensive' tweet about a second night of fireworks. 'It's a jungle out there'. Perhaps I'll retweet an apology on your behalf to the members of our 5th and Colt XIs to whom I'd sent Diwali greetings, though I ought to consult my legal representatives first in the present climate.
I've kept the worker updated on scores and wickets. 313-4 with no wickets yet from the new ball. Only one bit of feedback so far regarding with whom to tour for the next Ashes. One fellow fix sec asked for any thoughts. All I could say was Item No.9: We are still dithering. Have a long look at the Brochures and on-line information from the Tour operators. You may want to organise flights, Tickets etc. yourself, Go Tailor made with flexibility, or go with the Tour Operators.
All of these have options within their programmes, and they do vary both with prices and with what is included. Consider stopovers. The lovely Lizzie and the early bird worker went to Hong Kong on the way over; Lizzie et moi went to Singapore on the way back. To stand by the graves of sailors from HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse together with the visit to Changi Prison were particularly poignant times reminding us of the sacrifices that were made.
It was very well organised through 'The Sporting Traveller', the closest we could find to 'Grandstand' of Ashes 2006 who included a fantastic combination of interesting days out, Tour dinners and the feeling that you were amongst it all. As I said last time Howzat Travel's deal to New Zealand seemed pretty stunning and competitive. Gullivers are well established and experienced.
My son would have rather gone with The Barmy Army who do all the Tours, but it wasn't for me being now more white than grey. The Grandstand group (who I don't think do the Tour Ashes any more) were less 'grey' in 2006 than The Sporting Traveller's party in 2010 who used Bob Taylor as a host with the most, though in fairness everybody was four years older. @sportstours were added to the list by 'All Out Cricket' magazine.
All hotels were good. Plenty of things to do. We stayed in Sydney for 4 nights ( No cricket) after the Brisbane and Adelaide back to back Tests) and that was a great decision even without DRS. If we do go again it will be Adelaide, Time off in Sydney, Perth, then back for Christmas. No offence Brisbane but to be tempted back I'd need to see your Gold Coast again and more of Moreton Island as we need a return match for the game of beach cricket we lost.
I'll fire off a few more tweetie pies in the hope that I'll get a few suggestions from the great and the good out there. Lets hope by the time Sir Geoffery wakes me up tomorrow England will be in the runs but not of the Trotts variety, please.
Not voting today I'm afraid. Like Mr Cameron I enjoyed 'The Wire' but I'm not looking for another layer to deflect the buck sticking to him.
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