Good news, bad news

I think the bad news is kinda obvious. England lost the Ashes. I'm still going to the last 2 tests-the cricket was good, even if the result went against us.

The good news is for my non-sport fan reader. There's no cricket till boxing day, so this will be the last sport dominated post for a week.

There is a lot of sport in this one tho!

I gave the WACA a rest on Sunday and went to the 'park' (small piece of grass on corner of 2 streets), where the big screen and gazebo type things were. Jolly nice it was too. I left when England were going well to have a very nice dinner with family Withers. We said our farewells, but I think I may return to Perth-I have a vague notion of travelling from Drawin(ish) south across the North of Western Autralia and back down to Perth. At some point. In the future.

Having paid my $30 entrance to the WACA, I finally saw the point of the Barmy army yesterday (Day 5). Early on they were singing 'Living on a prayer' (before Fred gave us some hope, albeit briefly); I think the English outnumbered the Aussies on the day we LOST the Ashes; the Barmy Army made the most noise; they were there long after most of the crowd had gone and the Aussie team had finished their aimless wandering round the ground (I think it was meant to be a lap of honour, but most of them were on their own). If there was a supporters Ashes, then it would be no contest.

After the cricket I wandered back across town and spent the rest of the day in the Western Australia art gallery; it was pretty good, if lacking a mass of big names and had a very exhibition on William Blake's Book of Job engravings.

This morning I flew to Melbourne: I hadn't given any thought to who else might be doing the very same thing. As I pottered over to the gate, I stood right behind Mark Pougatch (in a hialrious white jacket). No sooner had I clocked him, than I discovered that there is someone who leaves getting onto a plane even later than I do. His name is Shane Warne and he currently has taken 699 more test wickets than me (I hope to close the gap at the MCG). He looked pretty good-he certainly hadn't been Freddied. There were a number of blokes in Cricket Australia tops in business class, but I didn't recognise any of them as players-so Simon Katich was probably there.

I am pleased to report that the BBC only pay for Poug to fly economuy and that Warney carries his own bags (and he has plenty of gear). Felt sorry for the poor sod as all the cameras were thrust in his face as he went through the standard tedious ritual of leaving the airport.

My hostel, which is so much nicer than the hole in Perth that's left me with about 100 mossie bites, is 30 mins from the MCG. That's the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the unlikely event that anyone is still reading and doesn't know. Having dumped my bags, it 4.15 in a new city. What to do? Go and look at the sports stadia of course.

I headed straight out and was very excited. I cannot put into words just how cool the MCG looks from the outside. Peering through the gates, it looks to me as if a good view is guarenteed-for me and the other 99,999 spectators. Melbourne Park (home of the Autralian Open tennis) is just across the rail lines from the MCG. Anyone who remmebers my itinerary may recall that I'm watching a little tenis there next month. Melbourne is city that is centred on two international sporting meccas. Finally a place that has its priorities right. It's like I was the architect. Apparently it's got museums, places to eat and buy stuff as well. Who cares!

If I'm honest, I'm liking it more than Perth already.

Back to the MCG. The G, as it fondly called is much more than just cricket. It hosted this year's Commonwealth games (Scat and Rich will remember that well); is the spritual home of Aussie rules (the Wembley, if we must sully such a place with lesser sports); AND it hosted the 1956 Olympic games. Many of you will know of my obsessive lunacy when it comes to visiting the cities and stadia that have hosted the Summer Games. Today ticked another off the list. As I have already updated you with the number of countries I have visiteid (after Kenya, it's now 41 according to the Stanford method), I thought that the Games deserved the same courtesy. So here we go.

1896 Athens, Greece: Visited the city and watched the 2004 marathon in the 1896 stadium. Nice.
1900 Paris, France. Got the city, shamefully no stadium visit yet
1904 St. Louis, Missouri, United States Least likely one that I will ever visit. If I need it to complete the set I may make the pilgirmage.
1908 London, United Kingdom. Done it.
1912 Stockholm, Sweden City Yes. Er, Stadium. John-did we go? Had it been demloished? (It was a boozy weekend, where I wowed the Swedes with my salsa dancing. Nuff said).
1920 Antwerp, Belgium Got em both
1924 Paris, France As above
1928 Amsterdam, Netherlands Must find the stadium next I go.
1932 Los Angeles, California, United States As Amsterdam
1936 Berlin, Germany And again
1948 London, United Kingdom Wembley, don't you know.
1952 Helsinki, Finland City, yes; stadium, yes; Olympic Museum, yes; unnecessarily high tower; yeeees.
1956 Melbourne, Australia / Stockholm, Sweden (Equestrian events) Double whammy.
1960 Rome, Italy Not done the stadium
1964 Tokyo, Japan Finally a reason to visit Japan
1968 Mexico City, Mexico In transit through the airport.
1972 Munich, West Germany Stadium to do.
1976 Montréal, Quebec, Canada Not been
1980 Moscow, Soviet Union Stayed in the Olympic village!
1984 Los Angeles, California, United States Need to do stadium
1988 Seoul, South Korea Most recent gap in my Olympic CV
1992 Barcelona, Spain Yes and yes
1996 Atlanta, Georgia, United States Stadium wasn't built when I was there
2000 Sydney, Australia Stadium wasn't built when I was last there. Will rectify that gap very soon.
2004 Athens, Greece Just a bit
25 staging, got some work to do on the stadia, but just 4 cities to go. BTW has anyone looked into Beijing tickets yet?

Apologies for being a trainspotter there.

On the way back from excitedly looking at empty sporting venues, I stopped off at a very nice open air concert by a folk group called the sweet cheeks. They's on myspace apparently.

Here's why not to buy a Ford


I have just received news that I may have a very, very special guest joining me in the New Year. Until I know more, that's all I'm saying.