It's the first day of the world cup and I wake up excited about going to the first game of the tournament.

It's 8am (pretty early for a guy like me) and I feel like the dehydration sickness has left me far behind and I'm good as new. I skip to the door of my hotel room (which is essentially a shed with a bed in it (perhaps my Mum's backpacking days aren't as far behind her as I thought) and swing the door wide to be greeted by a fine, sprinkling mist. My heart sinks as I look to the overcast skies and see a blanket of cloud covering everything from horizon to horizon. By the time I make it to the rest of the family's deluxe apartment (wait, what! how come I'm the only one sleeping in an outhouse?) the rain has ended and my hopes for a good day rise. This weather reminds me a bit of Scotland and that memory drives me to layer up.

Four layers later, two of them jumpers, I enter the deluxe apartment I begin to wonder why Mase was allowed to sleep in here (is she the favourite child?) and find Mum still asleep. This is not a good sign as she is usually up with the birds at 5am (in the morning!) Murray is the only one awake and he quietly offers me a cup of tea.

Too slowly for my liking the rest of the family start to stir awake and breakfasts gathered. After second breakfast the chat finally turns to who's going to the cricket.

When I bought the tickets, over a year ago, Mase wasn't even coming to New Zealand on this trip so I only bought three tickets for Me, Mum and Stepdad Murray. But even when she eventually announced that she would like to come along it was no big deal as she is another one of those cricket haters so she would just find her own entertainment while the rest of us enjoyed a day at the park. But now, on the day, she mentions that she might like to come along after all.

(sigh)

Que a game of World Cup Opening Match Ticket Roulette to see who misses out on going to the big game.

There aren't many thing I know for certain in life but I knew that I wasn't missing out on this game and I took my ticket and left the rest of them to fight it out while I waited in the car.

I dont know what happened but Murray ended up drawing the short straw and not only missed out on an historic event but was also reduced to being chauffeur for the rest of us. A role he took silently but stoically.

I couldn't get tickets for the grandstands for this match as they were already sold out when I tried to get them in the pre-sale so we were on the grassy hill so it's important to get to the ground early to get a good spot and claim it before the ground gets packed.

We arrived at the Hagley Park about 10:30 (which is an hour after gates open and 30 min after we agreed we'd be there last night!) and the ground is packed.

(sigh)

Find a rare vacant place to sit, which turns out to be pretty good actually, and wait for the game to start. The rain starts and stops about a million times in the next 30 min but the game ends up starting almost on time.

New Zealand bat first and set a challenging total of 331 the highlight of which is Brendon McCullum's 65 off 68 balls at the top of the innings. I talk Mase through the basics of the amazing game and explain issues as they rise to make her first game of cricket ever a more interesting experience and I think she starts to gain an understanding of why cricket is so loved by so many people.

When Mum and Mase wander off to go to look at the "shops" around the 40 over mark and don't return until the Sri Lankan innings has started after lunch I wonder if they grew bored after all and went into town for the rest of the day. But they eventually return with coffee for themselves, a hot chocolate for me, and a souvenir t-shirt for Mase! Mum explains how she would have bought me one too but used the last of her cash on buying one for Mase (thoughts of Mase being the favourite child bubble forth again.)

I let Mase figure out what's going on during Sri Lanka's innings on her own. She manages to decipher the action adequately and even seems to be getting into it. I take pride in converting another hater of cricket into someone who has a better understand of the complexities and subtleties of the amazing game.

Sri Lanka look on pace to take this game down to the end but a collapse from 120/1 to 129/4 saw them stumble and eventually fall almost 100 runs behind New Zealand.

When the game is over I phone Murray and tell him to come collect us like a good chauffeur should and, surprisingly, he does so with minimal grumbling.

After dinner, which Murray the chauffeur/cook has already prepared for us, we do the cricket quiz that's in the back of the Womans Day magazine (I win it) and laugh a lot a Mase who mistakes a Hedgehog for a pig (no, I don't understand how either!) before I'm banished to the outhouse to sleep with the peasants again.

While getting ready to climb into bed I catch my reflection in the mirror and realize that, despite being overcast all day and on the point of freezing at all times, I have been quite badly sunburnt on my face. Fears of the dehydration sickness return and I drink enough water that will guarantee multiple trips to the toilet block (of which my "cabin" is the furthest away from) all night.

(sigh)

Before i turn in for the night I quickly check the other opening day match going on in Melbourne between Australia and England and find England at 92/6 chasing Australia's 342.

I go to sleep happy.

All in all it's been a pretty great day.

p.s. There were two streakers that ran into the field during the game (both men). I haven't seen a streaker at the cricket for over ten years then two come along at once. Who says that New Zealand is behind the times


"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)