tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:25:27 +0000An ongoing living memorial to an ill-fated trip to Australia 2006-7http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/noreply@blogger.com (Andrew)Blogger133125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-8164348380684480551Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:52:00 +00002011-04-13T22:53:59.607+01:00There are a number of things I like about the USA. The relentless optimism, the excellent customer service, the efficient and decisive organisation. The outstanding breakfast menus. And this last one is where I felt a little let down on my most recent trip across the pond, to Chicago last week. It seemed that all of Chicago was intent on having eggs, preferrably scrambled, for breakfast, and http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/04/chicago-april.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-2878330984332460535Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:08:00 +00002011-02-17T23:08:03.575ZOn my final night in France, Tahar took me to what he described as the best Indian restaurant in Chambéry, which turned out to be a Pakistani Halal outfit, but who's going to quibble over such small details (apart from Indians and Pakistanis, obviously). There were a total of four of us in the restaurant. Me, Tahar, a solitary French diner, and the proprietor. "You like cricket?" I asked him, tohttp://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/02/curry-and-corn-on-cob.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-7139376369940663553Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:18:00 +00002011-02-17T22:29:54.722Z Hannibal wuz ere Yet another sunny day in Chambéry. The air was crisp and cold as I walked into town and found a café. I have learned some important skills on this trip to France. The French for "what is the password for your wi-fi?" for example, and the word for doughnut. Both have come in very useful. Yesterday was the third full day I have spent in this town in the last 2 weeks, but the http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/02/chambery-wednesday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-496462713026624494Sun, 06 Feb 2011 23:16:00 +00002011-02-06T23:16:56.745ZBack again.. the opportunity having arisen to come back for a few days to spend time with DC, and my employer having been kind enough to permit it. Back in the same hotel. It's a different room, but they're all identical, so it feels rather familiar. This time, though, there is no Wiseman to bicker with about who uses which coat hooks, I get the double bed, and there is no-one snoring up in the http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/02/chambery-bis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-4815866067516123590Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:45:00 +00002011-02-04T11:23:04.684Z I have it on good authority from my reporter in Chambéry that DC is making a good recovery.  This is evidenced by his increasing irritation with the lack of food coming his way. having to make do instead with water and some stuff coming down a tube stuck unceremoniously in his nose.  There is unlikely to be a more resounding demonstration of DC's possession of his faculties than hearing him http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/02/return-to-form.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-1038384395741719707Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:17:00 +00002011-01-27T21:17:25.842ZLynne, Mark and I went back on the slopes for a few hours yesterday afternoon.  Mandy joined us as we went out this morning, and headed up to Val Thorens.  After a couple of runs up there we headed over to the Orelle valley, and made our way up two slow chairlifts to the top of the Pointe du Bouchet. The lift station there is at 3230m, and is the highest accessible point in the 3 Valleys.  The http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/01/les-menuires-thursday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-4400208940623060791Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:02:00 +00002011-01-26T10:02:53.890Z"Let's have a look at the map, Mark." Wiseman pulled the map out of his pocket, unfolded it and spread it out on the table. Two days into a skiing holiday this should have been a piste map, but instead it was a street map of Chambéry. Mark had acquired it earlier in the day, approaching the desk in the Office de Tourisme with no little confidence and a pre-learned French phrase ready to go.  Thehttp://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2011/01/chambery-unexpectedly.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-2878252410576905719Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:44:00 +00002010-12-12T21:46:00.366ZStill a decent amount of snow in Edinburgh's suburbs, with a corresponding lack of car parking available in Balerno, where I go to church, and so I took the bus out this morning. Felt quite virtuous, and texted Wiseman accordingly. In due course, after he'd woken up, he replied and we agreed to meet for lunch in town. "No idea when I'll be there, like, what with this transport for the common http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/12/public-transport-and-tb.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-4760061208902660908Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:47:00 +00002010-12-07T23:47:02.502ZIt's been a surreal week.  The snow in Edinburgh has been deeper than anyone can remember.  The Forth Road Bridge was closed, and avalanche warnings were issued for the Pentland Hills and Arthur's Seat, of all places.  It feels like the only difference between Edinburgh and an Alpine ski resort right now is the lack of big mountains nearby.  And perhaps the fact that ski resorts don't always havehttp://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/12/surreal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-3062841320512876147Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:16:00 +00002010-11-26T16:16:35.714Z It was the 24th, it was freezing, there was a palpable sense of excitement building as midnight approached... it must be the Ashes. Four years ago I sat on Robbo's sofa, full of apprehension, waiting, as it turned out, for Sky to duff up their coverage of the most anticipated toss in recent history (they missed it completely), and then watching Harmy bowl the most anticipated first ball in http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/11/just-like-christmas-eve.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-8881212505783590117Sat, 25 Sep 2010 18:53:00 +00002010-09-25T19:53:21.960+01:00There's a nip in the air now, even in the South of England it would seem, as even there the cricket season has drawn to close.  Nasty Jen and F... have looked a little wistful of late, and are wondering how they are going to get through the winter evenings without the gentle cadences of Aggers' voice describing the floodlit scene at The Rose Bowl, or Lord's, as England complete another successfulhttp://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/09/september-on-wane.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-5766551090346943445Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:31:00 +00002010-09-11T18:31:45.672+01:00It's a Saturday in September, and the cricket season is over.  Saturdays feel a little empty without cricket at this stage, and I didn't fancy taking part in International Burn a Koran Day, so I headed down to Arboretum Road to help put the cricket square to bed for the winter.  A football match was in full swing, however, and so the remedial work is postponed for an hour.  I took the opportunityhttp://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/09/lifes-rich-tapestry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-4435901969162301117Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +00002010-06-29T22:48:51.747+01:00I find myself in London, watching the game with my sister as England take on Germany in the World Cup. "Great tackle.  GREAT tackle", emphasised Mark Lawrenson as Ashley Cole went in studs first on a German ankle. "The referee got that one right," the commentator asserts not long after, as replays showed Rooney throwing himself melodramatically against a German defender. My sister can't http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/06/england-in-shock-world-cup-exit.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-5645252379804254615Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:59:00 +00002010-06-14T22:59:04.078+01:00Summer is definitely here.  I know this because I drove to Aberdeen and perpetrated mass bug genocide with my windscreen.  Several weeks later, my windscreen still remains a memorial to the fallen bugs of Fife, Angus and Aberdeenshire. It appears that the Eyjafjallajökull (yes, I copied and pasted that) volcano has stopped erupting.  Hurrah.  Perhaps they have blocked it up with shredded tyres http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/06/spotify-and-steve-earle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-2157436344338827009Mon, 17 May 2010 21:43:00 +00002010-05-17T22:43:21.466+01:00Well, the England-South Africa Cricketing Coalition won a major international tournament on Sunday, ending "35 years of hurt" (the BBC news website there, perhaps slightly over-egging the sense of national disappointment at not having won an ICC tournament).  I must say it's been a bit of a shock, witnessing England play confident, aggressive limited-overs cricket.  I don't suppose the presence http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/05/first-success-for-coalition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-7872495662242960927Fri, 07 May 2010 20:55:00 +00002010-05-10T07:19:34.443+01:00 It's the day after the election, and if the media accurately reflect the mood of the country then it would seem that we're being consumed by post-election fever.  However, one suspects that for most of the country it's more like post-election indifference, and the media are frothing about the possibilities of coalitions here and minority governments there for their own amusement more than http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/05/day-after-election.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-692888932256509405Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:43:00 +00002010-04-23T22:51:52.281+01:00The cricket season is almost here. Nasty Jen is pumped. A palpable sense of excitement hangs in the air, poised, expectant. Sort of like Morpheus in the Matrix as he hangs, suspended in mid-air, before slamming to the floor and putting his knee through the floorboards, somewhat carelessly. Perhaps they were able to claim on their buildings and contents insurance. Ah, the Matrix. It's been http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/04/cricket-scrabble-and-election.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-8726902241111195696Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:30:00 +00002010-03-03T00:06:35.832ZOnce people reach a certain stage in life, they start sending out a Christmas Letter to all their friends and acquaintances. I'm not entirely sure what causes one to cross this particular threshold, in the case of some whose festive missives I've read, it would appear that having high-performing offspring is the catalyst. Mercifully, the day when I spawn offspring - high performance, high http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/03/no-upcoming-notes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-4307839734614641112Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:38:00 +00002010-02-05T00:44:06.259ZAs previously confessed, I'm a big fan of John Mayer. So when a friend said he'd been on Jonathan Ross' Radio 2 show a few Saturday mornings ago, I fired up the iPlayer with a certain amount of anticipation/apprehension. Meeting your heroes, it's said, can be a disappointing experience. I find that even listening to your heroes on the radio, or seeing them in concert, has a certain amount of http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/02/john-mayer-and-costa-coffee.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-9217897416047741942Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:56:00 +00002010-01-22T22:59:28.062ZHoward Schultz, the Starbucks CEO, was interviewed in the Guardian today. I learnt of how he was inspired to build a chain after his first visit to Italy in 1983. Seriously? How can a visit to the home of beautiful coffee have spawned such a monster? How much better the world would be if he'd restricted himself to building daisy chains.I read of how he's planning to refit 100 UK stores this http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/01/starbucks-and-skiing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-6379591025345428483Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:53:00 +00002010-01-20T19:05:57.164ZAfter a consecutive series of delayed flights over the last week, the least I might have expected was for tonight's flight back to Edinburgh to be shunted back, at least a little. Which would have been useful, as a points malfunction at Stratford had left me scrambling onto an overcrowded bus in order to complete my 'rail' journey to the epicentre of the 2012 Olympics, from where I still had to http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/01/no-delays-when-you-need-them.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-9119054890226592795Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:03:00 +00002010-01-18T12:27:26.930ZAnother flight from Edinburgh airport, another lengthy delay. I find myself sitting beneath the same speaker that I sat beneath eight days ago, the interminable wait on that occasion punctuated with conversation and laughs with 11 friends all en route to Val Thorens. And DC, directing a baleful upwards look towards the speaker, as another cheesy Christmas song interrupted his concentration on http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2010/01/airport-deja-vu.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-5389642890945521861Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:09:00 +00002009-11-05T21:14:39.555ZThis is my 112th post. Listened to the end of the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 this afternoon. Johnny Saunders is interviewing Will Carling at the end of the show. Chris, having recently discovered Twitter, and being very excited by it, interrupts. "So, Will, I was following you on Twitter today, and I see you were out on your bike this afternoon...?"Gosh. I must really get myself onto Twitterhttp://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2009/11/nelson-no-more.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-1481308822404673603Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:56:00 +00002009-09-24T22:56:37.087+01:00Phoned the Oval on Wednesday, to see if they had any tours of the ground running in the next couple of days. The nice lady apologised, and explained they didn't have tours on match days."Oh? There's a game on?"Even better. After a morning's camping and travelling in planes, trains and automobiles (and boats, come to think of it), I took the tube from Bethnal Green to Bank, onto the Northern http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2009/09/camping-and-clapton-pt-ii.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31403225.post-2813334178098182284Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:19:00 +00002009-09-19T20:33:01.706+01:00This morning saw me breakfasting with the Guardian at Urban Angel just off Broughton Street. The note above the tips jar read "Fear change? Leave it here..."The seasons are a-changin'. Summer is drifting away, and in its place autumn, a long-neglected friend, is edging ever closer, extending its misty tendrils in an alluring embrace. At least for me. Others, I know, dread the arrival of the http://www.onlyhereforthecricket.com/2009/09/spare-some-change.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew)3