Cool city but crap cricket

We're leaving Melbourne tomorrow evening so I thought I'd post an entry on my extra spare day, created by an abysmal performance by the England cricket team. 

Flinders Street station

Melbourne is a quality city, and we've had a really good time partying here.  I went out the first four nights we were here, including a night in St Kilda, a visit to the cinema to see Borat (funny as..) and a few games of bowling at the Crown Casino Complex, and many a drink sunk in PJ O'Briens, the obligatory Irish pub.  We spent Xmas Eve there too, which was different from the annual meet at the Moon on the Hill!  Speaking of which, how was it boys?

Christmas day was a bit strange away from home, and I didn't even have a roast dinner.  Apparently these convicts don't do it right anyway, and have roasted pumpkin and garlic instead of carrots!  Even so, a roast would have been nice....  Me and Ad stooped to such a low level that we bought some microwave McCains Turkey Dinners but couldn't actually bring ourselves to heating them up in the hostel kitchen - it would have been embarrasing!  To make things worse, I was feeling ill again, so I stayed in on Xmas day!

Me & Jimmy outside the MCG

Unfortunately I haven't been able to go out since due to my bad stomach, and I'm on some medication prescribed to me by a private doctor.  Fingers crossed I'll be ok for NYE!  Even so, I went to each day of the cricket (all 3 of them) and had a good laugh with the Barmy Army.  I even started some of the chants that you may have heard if you were watching Sky!  We also saw Johnny Borrell (main singer of Razorlight) at the cricket, and Brett Lee in town with his wife.  There were a few more songs on the first day, which made for good fun, with variety.  Our fans are the best in the world, the Aussies are the worst.  Even when it was obvious we were going to be 4-0 down they didn't sing - we sung all day and were still in the ground chanting an hour after play had ended!  "We are the army, the barmy army.  We are mental, and we are mad.....".

Me in the MCG

Oh yeah, I also got to see the Ashes urn at Melbourne museum.  I was walking up to it, and some Kiwi girl asked me directions to the museum.  I ended up going to the museum with her, then spent the afternoon wandering around Brunswick Street (Melbourne's equivalent of Camden) and having a drink with her.  A very random day!  Oh yeah, the urn is tiny and you can't even take pics of it as it'd probably fall apart!

As I said, we leave for Sydney tomorrow night, where we are staying with Alex and Lisa (who we met in NZ) for a few days, as they have a house.  Simon is also coming down, so it should be good.  I'm looking forward to catching up with those guys, and spending NYE with them in Sydney!  We're then probably going to most of the last test and the 20twenty game, and do some touristy stuff.  Then I think, provided I am feeling better, I am going to get an early flight to Bangkok as I'll end up spending too much money in Sydney! 

Melbourne at night

The Square