SXSW 2007

This is my travel blog. It started as a way for people to keep up with my trip to Australia to watch the 2006/7 Ashes series, and continued with my trip to SXSW 2007 in Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas in March '07.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Today was a all round improvement from the First Test in just about every sense. For starters play started at the more sensible hour of 11am allowing a generous lie-in, as we are only 5 minutes from the ground. The weather was much more amenable as well, starting with bright blue skies for the morning and afternoon sessions, without the heat of Brisbane, giving way to overcast conditions later in the day. Our seats were in the front row at the scoreboard end and gave a reasonable view, although we did have to put up with a row of young Aussies behind us who seemed to consider that any over that didn't disappear for at least 10 runs was boring.
England also continued with their improved batting form from Brisbane (2nd innings!) and despite early wicket losses of Strauss and Cook, worked really hard deserved the final score at the close of 266-3. Collingwood batted superbly and I hope he gets his 100 tomorrow. Pietersen was his usual self and got away with a few loose shots, but came in at the exactly right time with the bowlers tired in the last session. The Australian bowlers are looking a bit ragged for once, especially McGrath who didn't take the new ball towards the close and made some very old man-ish errors in the field - even to the extent of doing a "mummy" impression while trying to catch a Pietersen miscued skier. With Ponting taking some time off (hopefully with his bad back) and McGrath's heel giving him gyp the Old Man tag might be catching up with Australia. If only England had picked Monty as well as Giles they would be in a much stronger position. I just hope Giles will be able to exploit the spin later in the match as it's turning for Warne considerably already.
I have been taking my various books with me to the ground both today and at Brisbane, and have got through 3 already, and have today started Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It was a bit heavy going to start with but now I'm well into it and it's proving to be a good read. Ayn Rand has been a darling of the right for a long time & I have never got round to reading anything by her before so having so much time to spare to read is great. I hope to go to a bookshop nearby before leaving Adelaide to stock up.

1 Comments:

At 12:07 PM, December 01, 2006, Blogger marksmyth said...

At last something to cheer about. Your old man observations are giving us hope, let's hope we can exploit them.
Faz and I went to see the Buzzcocks in Bristol for his 50th(nearly)and you would not believe what Pete Shelley looks like now. He looks like a Royston Vasey butcher. Steve Diggle still spits a lot, but not at the audience anymore, just at his foot pedals.
Keep us posted...enjoying it!
Anymore electrical storms?

 

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