I'm still not sure that I want to talk about Tuesday's desperate result. I've spent all of today just trying to not think about it. I've found a great bookshop not far from the hotel and stocked up on books for the next part of the trip. I've got a history of ancient Greece & Rome, a history of the Russian Front during WWII, Alan Alda's autobiography, ditto Lenny Bruce and a book of John Ronson's collected newspaper columns. So that should keep me going for a week or two. I think one of the things I like most about travelling is that it allows me time to read without any feeling that I should be doing something else. At home reading seems like a waste of my time - on the road it's a way of using spare time in planes, airports and hotel rooms when there's nothing else to do. I finished Atlas Shrugged during the Adelaide Test and perhaps it's better that I remember it for that than what actually happened.
Anyone reading this who has played cricket will have experienced the game that they lost not because the opposition are better (it's never bad to be beaten by a better side, as long as you give of your best) but because you handed it to them on a platter. That type of loss is the hardest to bear as you have in fact beaten yourself. And that is what England did yesterday. Schoolboys would be given a right royal rollocking for the type of headless chicken style batting that happened in the morning session. Club cricketers would hang their heads in shame. It was ludicrous. The worst culprits in my mind were Pietersen for trying to sweep Warne out of the rough, Flintoff & Jones for flashing a wide deliveries from Lee (so wide in Jones's case he could hardly reach it). Bell's run out was substantially his own fault - instead of watching the ball he should have been watching his partner Collingwood. It was a tight run but they would have got in safely had they both gone at the same time. After losing 4 wickets in the morning session England were always going to be up against it. Collingwood batted well and got good support from the tail. Had Anderson not got out to the last ball before tea, another 2-3 overs at least would have been lost for the changeover between innings plus probably a few more as well. That could have made all the difference in the end.
So that's it. The Ashes aren't coming home. In fact I predict a 5-0 result to Australia. At least it's sunny and hot.