I mused some time ago that if the cricket was broadcast here, I just might not go back home. I will change my mind and state that we will still come home at some stage, but the virtually unthinkable has happened: we watched the first Ashes test ball by ball live over this long weekend.
Having ramped up the computer’s speed and memory and replacing the video card and sound card, I had made some great strides towards this momentous event some time back. I also had a huge external hard drive to which I transferred nearly everything, allowing the internal hard drive to function as well as possible for streaming.
We subscribed to an English site which broadcasts all sorts of sport over the internet on a pay per view system. To watch this test we had to buy it for $30 U.S. on credit card. It seems steep when you’re used to getting it all for free, but in a country that just has no access to these broadcasts, we thought it was a pretty good price for so many hours of entertainment.
Cass was riveted to the lounge for most of the 4 days play as was I except I dashed to the beach before dawn one day and in the lunch break on another to maximize the time we had to watch it! The dawn dash was just fantastic: I got wave after wave of fairly good quality, the best part being the lack of any other person at all. It was quite blissful out there and very "UnTaiwanese" I suppose as it was so calm and peaceful. Anyway, back to the cricket. Shaun and Lewy dropped in to watch a session or two as did Wal and Tina. Carl subscribed as well and he and Hiroko and the boys enjoyed it immensely. It was just what we needed after a very long semester with only one other very short break. We did manage to get out of the house at some stages (!) and enjoyed some great meals and fantastic autumn weather. It’s usually starting to get a little cool by now, yet Cassy is lamenting the fact that she can’t break out her winter wardrobe just yet, as the temperatures are just perfect during the day, with a hint of a chilly breeze when the sun goes down the only indication that winter is approaching. I’m sure we’ll just start getting used to the cool when we hop on the plane to come back to a scorching Aussie summer: not that we’re complaining!
We both had a wonderful long weekend for Thanksgiving, it was so relaxing. Our friends from Hobart, Shaun and Katie, whose wedding we attended 2 Christmases ago, had their first baby yesterday. They are doing well, but Shaun looks just a little shell shocked: he’d been sitting on our lounge watching the cricket on Thursday, blissfully unaware of events about to unfold and was a father the next morning after a whirlwind labour and mad taxi dash to the hospital. It makes us tired just thinking about it!! Photos: The “Rocket” just after dawn, a crowd at the rocket the next day, and the girls relaxing.