ENGLAND RETAIN THE ASHES

WEDNESDAY 29th DECEMBER

  At last I have witnessed an England Ashes victory in Australia.  Just around midday England retained the Ashes!  The crowd was predominantly comprised of England supporters with the Barmy Army in full cry.

The Barmy Army had taken particular delight in taunting Mitchell Johnson with their latest song/dance routine:
                                   He bowls it to the left (hands above head and sway to the left)
                                   He bowls it to the right (hands above head and sway to the right)
                                   Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Johnson
                                   His bowling is a load of sh*te
This was repeated several times after the game was over, and when the England team did a lap of honour.

  We had got to the ground fairly early and paid tribute to Sir Donald Bradman - how the Aussies could have done with him now.

Then we queued at Gate 4 where the entry was still $31 - some like Mark (including the commentator on ABC Radio) considered it an Aussie rip off, but there again others had pre-purchased their tickets like Len and Patrick for $45 and it wouldn't have been fair to them if entry was free on the day. 

I managed to capture the England team's celebrations after the capture of the last wicket (Hilfenhaus), and the scoreboard showing England 2-1 up in the series.

After Johnson's wicket fell within a few overs the authorities relented and opened the gates letting all the remaining spectators in for free.  Too late for us but I did not begrudge paying to ensure I saw all of the final rites!  After it was all over and we had listened to all the speeches and presentations, we headed off towards the South Bank.  We eventually picked the Deck restaurant as Len was keen to try some fish.  They

offered a two course menu with a glass of wine for $29.50.  The smoked salmon starter was nice but not a lot of it.  Sadly the spahgetti with seafood was off so I joined the others in the Dory (fish) was likewise tasty but fairly miniscule served with a few leaves of lettuce.  (Mark had a lamb shank which was also lilliputian in size).  I don't think anybody left the restaurant feeling anything like remotely full!  We then parted company with Len and Patrick and I arranged to meet them at the Sydney Test next week.

  We returned by train to Mitcham and were picked up by Rhonda (Maureen's friend) as well as Maureen.  Maureen, under considerable pressure from her children and relatives, had gone out and purchased a 32" LG LCD television and a new DVD player. Mark with some help from me, replaced the old TV and DVD player and Mark tuned the whole system in. We then moved the old equipment up to Maureen's bedroom bringing the much smaller old TV down.  Rhonda had also passed her old mobile on to Maureen having acquired an iPhone, and Mark was able set everything up on it except the e-maling of photos which probably needs action by Virgin.

  In the meantime we were able to watch highlights of England's victory in HD (high definition), a very satisfactory way of viewing the event!  After Alan had unsuccessfully tried to book a flight on the computer to Sydney, and I had discovered that my access on the dongle to broadband had expired (I had a voucher number to renew it but the site wanted my phone number and I had no idea what it was.  I phoned Virgin but their office had closed at 5.00pm), we set of for the Mitcham Hotel.  After a couple of drinks Mark kindly offered to buy us all dinner.  I'm pleased to say that the portions were considerably larger than at the Deck!