Back in Sydney and staying at Bronte Beach and already the joys of Fiji seem light years away. I know when I get home I will wander around like a tit in a trance for a few days coming to terms with being back in the UK and not on the other side of the world. Travel is a weird thing.
Not done much the last day or two just wandering around, sat on the beach and read.
However, yesterday I had lunch with a lovely Aussie lady who I had got to know through the cricket forums and comments on the Daily Telegraph website back in 2014 when the Kevin Pietersen saga, with all its back stabbing and cowardly behaviour (from the ECB I hasten to add not KP) and stories from team mates who were so scared they would lose their places they lined up to put the boot in, was taking up a lot of editorial space.
I will not go into the details of that again except to say that my support of English cricket wobbled badly during this time as I realised what a bunch of incompetent shits was running the game, and it has yet to fully recover. In my darkest moments I have found myself supporting the Aussies and willing them to trounce the Pommy bastards. Yes really....
One of the commentators on the thread was opiniated, trenchant and fun and I agreed with every word she said. Of course, knowing there is somebody out there who thinks the same as you is a great feeling and after exchanging views, tweets etc over a few years, we finally met for lunch yesterday at Bronte Beach. Well, felt like we had known each other for years and had a fun time demolishing and traducing the reputation of the ECB (not that it has any reputation left in my view) and discussing cricket at great length, such a great feeling to talk with a fellow enthusiast, and scoffing food we then went for a walk around the beach.
At this stage, for some reason unknown to me, my troublesome left knee seized up on me and I found I could barely move. I have been having problems with this knee for some time now but worked on the premise that if I ignored it, all would be well. As my sister has just had a knee replacement operation while I am away and recognises some of my symptons, methinks I had better visit my Gp on my return. Oddly enough I was not troubled by this in Fiji, but then I barely moved all week except to swim in pool and/or sea and no exertions attempted.
Anyway made it back and then the heavens opened and down came the rain, lightning and thunder and water running down the street. I sat looking out the window watching all this, it was warm and then down the middle of the road came two guys, both wearing nothing but their bathers and clutching surf boards.
I do love Australia.
