The end of an aura

It’s a peculiar pleasure to be a pom in Sydney while England is beating Australia in the Ashes. Sporting banter is one of the mainstays of conversation at MPOW, and it has generated quite a lot of email chatter with various friends too. I confess that I rubbed it in a bit yesterday, skipping around the library workroom and singing Jerusalem as I went about my business, but fans of English cricket have to take their pleasure where they can find it.

It wasn’t a classic series in terms of quality, but it was exciting and competitive. Both captains emerged with credit, and I think Andrew Strauss summed up the series nicely when he said "When we were bad we were very bad and when we were good we managed to be good enough."

Obviously the time difference meant that coverage here started at 8pm each night and went on until about 3.30am, which was a drag. At least it was on free-to-air, unlike in the UK, which is a scandal.

Dozens of late nights haven’t done my sleep patterns any good, or my alcohol intake for that matter. With splendid timing, M&I have both committed ourselves to having an entirely booze-free month, effective from yesterday until her graduation party on 26th September. I’ll be enjoying my beer that night, I can tell you now.