Instalment 3

We've Made it to England

We spent our last morning in Ireland trekking to Davey Byrnes pub (recommended to us by someone at home) and I wanted to go back to the Gaiety Theatre and get some photos of the Riverdance banners. Then we spent half an hour arguing over which t-shirts to buy and what sizes would fit the intended recipients. Sorry if your shirt doesn't fit; it's Gibbo's fault. I bought a nice pair of earrings called The Triskele, supposed to mean Creativity, Healing and Growth. I hope they work. Actually, Gibbo chose them; is he trying to tell me something?

The flight over only took 40 minutes; coming in over Manchester was beautiful; so green and so many trees. We picked up our luggage and just walked out of the airport; no passport checks or anything. Must be something to do with being EU although I thought there would have been at least some checkpoint to pass through. 

Someone asked me this morning if I was a nurse (because people keep coming and asking me things like "how do I phone home"; "I can't get my phone to work", "how do I log out of this" and "could you help me, my contact lens seems to have folded over in my eye and I can't locate it" - I sent Dr. Spock (Gibbo) off to do that one. I told the guy who asked - "No I'm not a nurse, I'm a Professional Carer, ie I'm a Mother". I asked him why he had asked and he said "people keep coming to you and asking you things".

There's a little bit of intrigue growing in the camp - some jockeying for positions in the Div 2 team and Div 4 team. It's fascinating (better than watching the actual game). I can see the headlines now - "XXX Golden Oldies Camp Splits". One school of thought is that the strongest possible team should be in Div 2 and the rest be left to wallow in Div 4 with the "social" cricketers. The other school of thought is that the two teams should be evenly split on ability, therefore giving XXX the potential to win all six games and upholding the untarnished reputation of the Club. There was a lot of backroom dealing going on last night; it was reminiscent of Julia and Kevin. There was a players meeting held this morning where a decision  was made - women were denied a vote. I wanted to protest at that but was over-ruled. I would have made a great suffragette. Emmeline Gibbons has a nice ring to it. Gibbo has been working the floor, paying bribes and sucking up to the right people. He thought if he played his cards right he could manoeuver himself into a captains role but I think they're keeping those for actual members of the XXX (of which he is not, at least not until he pays $250. Wouldn't that be money well spent?).

So in the end it was decided that Ross, Dennis, Eddie and Brian would be the selectors. They are going to pick one strong team and one weaker team. Gibbo has already paid them so he should be right. One proviso is that, if a player fails in Div 2 he could be dropped to Div 4 with the great unwashed and vice versa - so one could bounce from one team to the other. My opinion was that all the best players should be in the same team and leave the rest to themselves - just like rep netball in Grade 7 at St. C but no-one cared for my view on it. I found it fascinating to listen to some of the reasoning behind it all last night; it's been the second best part of the trip so far (after Riverdance and the Irish music night). We kept coming up with new headlines which became progressively more outrageous. I think the final one was "Blood Spilt in XXX Camp Over Selection Process; Half of Squad Packs up Bat and Ball and Heads Home". Now we're really getting some funny stories. Gentlemen's Game - no way.

There's actually three ex-Qld players in the squad and one of them goes by the name of Dennis Lillie - no kidding, that's his name. The average age of the teams is mid-50's so Gibbo is way under the average, although only the youngest by a year; there's an accountant from the coast who is 44. 

Hello, the teams are about to be read out (we're on the bus to Harrogate). Here we go. Yeess, he's in Team 1; it was worth the extra cost.

I can't wait for the march past at the Opening Ceremony tonight. The last time I participated in a march past was at the athletics carnival when I was 16 and in Grade 12. I was House Captain and I guess I carried the flag, can't really remember now. Not sure if we've brought a flag with us; I hope not.

We haven't seen a cow for a week; yesterday we caught a glimpse of some herefords in a field but they don't really count. Actually, we've hardly seen any animals - there was one cat in Singapore; a couple of dogs in Dublin and not much else - and no flies. I haven't seen a fly since we left home.

I had a great cup of tea this morning; best one so far. Breakfast was held in a beautiful room; we chose a table in a bay window. Photo to follow.

That's it for now; I know these are long emails but it's fun to record the little things.

Love to all

M

PS - We're at the Cedar Court Hotel in Harrogate, waiting to get into our room. The bus leaves here at 3.45pm for Theakstons Brewery and four hours of unlimited beer, wine and soft drink. The fun begins.