10/3/15

Dear Diary,

I have a noon flight to Hobart today to get me there in plenty of time for the big game tomorrow between Scotland and Sri Lanka. I’m awake and up in plenty of time to get to the airport and I packed my bag last night so I have some free time before I can take a slow saunter into town to get the skybus to the airport. So I decide to check out what the score was in the England V. Bangladesh game from last night.

Oh, oh England ... oh dear!!! that's a bit of a disaster for you isn’t it?

Bangladesh have beaten England by 15 runs in what was effectively a playoff for fourth place and a quarterfinal berth. It’s quite shocking to see it there in big headlines all over the internet but can anyone honestly call it an upset? England have been playing abysmally this world cup. The only time they looked in any control of their own game was against Scotland (they may play awfully against everyone else but they always raise their game against us!!!). Meanwhile Bangladesh have quietly been gaining ground and (although I haven't really been paying attention to them during this world cup) looked to be growing in confidence and, in the game against Scotland at least, looked in control of the game and elegant while doing it. Despite this growing stature of Bangladesh cricket England will find this extremely embarrassing and heads are almost certain to roll. Probably not Captain Morgan’s though, he may be short on form and not found a run all tournament the odds were against him coming into the tourney. Taking over the captaincy on the eve of the world cup can’t have been easy and with no time to mold the team to his steely outlook standards were inconsistent and lackluster. He should stay and be kept for the next world cup, it’s the rest of the team that needs to go to allow Morgan to form a team around him.

I try now to gloat about England's embarrassing exit from the World Cup but it is hard not to laugh especially as the format of the competition was changed after the 2007 tournament to avoid any “Top” teams from going out early. It certainly seems like there is some poetic justice in there.

The best thing about this result is that, even though Scotland will finish on less points than England, Scotland will have lasted longer in the competition by virtue of playing their last game the day after England play their last game ... any straw I suppose !!!

By the time I stop laughing about this result I am running late for my plane to Hobart. a panicked walk to the skybus and a worried concern about getting stuck in traffic later and I make it to the airport with enough time to help an old lady across the road.

There's no screaming children on this flight so it’s an improvement on the last one but on arrival in Hobart a dog steals my apple.

Everyone knows you can't bring fruit into Australia. You just can't. Haven’t been allowed to for decades. But I didn’t know that you can't take fruit from state to state. So as I’m walking into the airport I pass a sniffer dog (a nice waggy tailed spaniel) and gladly allow him to have a little sniff of my bag as I walk past. And then he's following me, still sniffing my bag and wagging his tail. And then he’s in front of me, still wagging his tail. Then he’s sitting down in front of me, not wagging his tail and not letting me passed. Then there's a tap on the shoulder and an official looking lady says “Looks like you’re the chosen one.” and insists I step this way over to the search area. A rummage through my suitcase turns up my traveling food bag. I tell her there's pasta in there and cuppa soups, crisps, chocolate (quite a lot of chocolate actually), tea bags and my one concession to healthy eating ... an apple.

“Oh, oh no sir. you can't bring an apple interstate.”

“What? But it’s an Australian apple. It; not like it’s a crappy bug infested one from New Zealand or anything. Since when has this been a rule?”

“For decades sir. everyone knows that.”

I search my mind for previous examples of when I have attempted to be healthy while air traveling in Australia and come up blank. This rule could have been in place since time began and I would never have known about it before. I give up the apple, secretly wishing that I’d eaten it on the plane, and curse the waggy tailed spaniel for costing me my lunch. If he hadn't been so cute, and if I couldn't really care less about apples, I wouldn't have given him a little pat as I walked past him again, slightly quicker this time.

Having my Apple confiscated and my lunch taken away from me meant that I just had to get a Chinese take-out instead. Took it to my accommodation and ate it on the balcony in beautiful Tasmanian sunshine and admired the view out over the harbour while the sun slowly set behind the mountain behind me.
Tomorrow is the big game : SCOTLAND V. SRI LANKA




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