After a brief Christmas break, it's time to post again. The trouble is, of course, that as usual, I have achieved nothing over the holiday except to increase my mass. All my good intentions of daily dawn outings with a camera went straight out of the window as I immersed myself in the thunder down under, watching our brave boys (the ones with bats, pads and cricket whites - not the ones with desert camo's, guns and too few helicopters) triumph mightily against an Australian team that never really showed up. Glad tidings of comfort and deep joy, as my cricketing text partner, Trevor, festively put it.
It was a nice thing, as the aussies have life far too good, in my humble opinion. And here's why.
1) Australia is big. As opposed to England, which is small, and apparently only surpassed in population density by South Korea and Bangladesh. Oz is a land of apparently limitless space on which to practice important, life affirming stuff like hook shots and cover drives.
2) Lots of interesting wildlife, much of it enticingly dangerous. They have the lethal brown snake. We have the slow worm. They have the deadly salt water croc. We have the stickleback. Australian cricket fans can birdwatch as they watch cricket, because they have delightful cockatoos. We have grimey pigeons.
3) They have the weather. We have the rain. (Which admittedly we have used to our advantage in the occasional test match).
4) They have Bondi beach, with its skimpily clad, super-healthy aussie blondes. We have Brighton pier and its murmuration of starlings. The shot was taken almost exactly a year ago, at the tail end of 2009. And at the moment it's the best I can come up with for this New Year.
I blame the cricket. But it doesn't matter, because thanks to the likes of Straussy, Cooky, Trotty, Swanney and, er, Andersony, we've still got the ashes. And so, my aussie chums, you can stick your fascinating natural history and perfect lifestyle- along with your kookaburra balls- where the sun don't shine. Gloat over.
Until after the 5th test match, obviously.
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