Cricket and U2.

So you get home from work on a Monday evening and there is your wife with an overnight case ready. "Quick have a shower we're going to see U2!" We had discussed it earlier in the day. Decided it was not feasible but being the little terrier that she is, Tina found her way around all the little stumbling blocks. So 4 hours after putting the school bag down and $540 dollars poorer there we were outside the Telstra Stadium with Chris and Richard.





A vast amount of money but it's OK that was for all of us. We didn't mind the money but were paranoid about having our camera confiscated hence the tiny photos courtesy of Tina's mobile.


We were well back and the size of the photo makes us look even further back but the bar and the toilets were very near so we were happy. What of the concert itself? Well our last outing to a concert venue was Portsmouth Pyramids and the Magic numbers but this was a whole new ball game. For me personally it was my first "BIG" Concert so I was just mesmorised all evening.
I waited in anticipation for the cry of "Good evening Sydney" from Bono and he did not disappoint. It was just then a matter of crossing your fingers that he did not spend the evening lecturing us about poverty or playing stuff we'd never heard of. No worries! All the hits were laid on for us and when we did get the poverty push it was done in a dramatic way. House lights down. "Light up your mobile phones" requested Bono. Then as we oohed and aahed at the sight of 30,000 little screens making the stadium flicker he put up the number to text to give our support. The band played on and on and on 4 encores and a couple of train rides later it was 1:30am and we were back in Hornsby. Self congratulatory for our "Seize the moment" mentality but unsurprisingly knackered.



OK now here's the confession bit. Sometimes your body says that's enough and when I woke at 5:30am after 4 hours sleep I was forced into the decision that I felt like crap (I told you the bar was close) and was physically incapable of getting my butt out of bed and making the two hour drive back to school. Now had I then huddled in Hornsby for a few hours that may have been OK but as we sat over breakfast a further thought crossed our mind. Aren't England playing in Sydney today? Should we? No we mustn't! but we did. So as the England team huddled on the pitch I huddled in the corner at the SCG (Home of Australian cricket) checking the whereabouts of every single TV Camera, with my hat and sunglasses permanently on.



Tina meanwhile ran around harassing players. "Over here Ashley."



Andrew Flintoff looked far more relaxed than I did.




Jess and Alex were at school while all this was going on. Well some of the Chappell family had to be. I think they would have been far happier there though. They hated Aussie Rules Football because it took 3 1/2 hours so 5 hours of cricket would have driven them insane. I tried my best to relax but I'm not too good at deceit and as much as I tried to remind myself that the physical exertion needed to watch cricket was not as much as standing in front of 30 demanding Australian youths the whole scenario felt a bit weird.


Tina finally egged me on to shuffle to the boundary fence for a quick shot but I was rapidly back under cover after this.



Even the advertising hoardings were full of foreboding.



So at 3 o' clock we made our way home. I never knew watching cricket could be so exhausting. Did this count as "taking a sickie?" . Maybe / maybe not but if it did then doing it to watch cricket meant that we could cross off an experience of two Australian pastimes in one day because from what I've seen and heard irrational absences are considered the norm.