Elder Park

We had our second day at the Test Match yesterday. Still cold, but a little sunnier. It wasn't a great day to be honest for the English. The top order batting was abysmal and we only came back into it late in the evening, when the bowlers actually started to take a few Australian wickets at twilight.
By the finish at 9pm it was really cold. If Australia can't produce warm balmy evenings for this experiment, then I suspect only the sub-continent can.
We are in two minds re the Day/Night version of a Test Match. It is a surprisingly different animal and most people do disappear before the end which probably wouldn't happen if it were finishing at 6.30pm. We were seated, as before, in a mixed stand of wildly enthusiastic Aussies and their slightly more restrained founding fathers! We had a good wander round, watching from various positions. Those seats are hard to sit on all day and no possibility of bringing the usual MCC cushions. Peter was resplendent in jacket, shirt and bold and custard tie as before ( not forgetting the trousers!). We had a few strange looks I can tell you, but also a few who stopped and said how wonderful it was to see. All is ultra casual here as you know, so I suspect there was no doubt as to our Nationality even if you didn't' spot the MCC tie. We warmed up back in the bar at our hotel, along with the world and his wife. Andrew Strauss, Jason Gillespie and Damien Fleming in tonight. Craig Overton stood to one side, chatting to who were clearly his parents. We realised that they had been sitting in front of us during the day and had a few heart searching moments, wondering whether we had said the wrong thing at any point? The conclusion was no! They were a lot calmer than I would have been had my son been playing in his first Ashes tour.
Today we have had a quiet day, taking a short cruise down the River Torrens. Its banks have been allowed to remain in a very natural state, bringing the countryside into the city. Adelaide is a very green city, which only adds to its charm. We ended up at the Adelaide Zoo and decided to visit the pair of (hopefully) breeding Pandas that are here. The only pair in the Southern Hemisphere. Rafe is particularly fond of them and so part of this was to take some pictures for him. However, we were soon captivated; they are gorgeous. We were also able to catch up on Australian animals that we were unable to see in the wild, such as the Echidna and Tasmanian Devil. The small city Zoo is beautifully designed and kept and was quiet as the children have not broken up from school. We are now back in the hotel lobby bar enjoying a tray of Earl Grey tea. Old habits die hard! Ian Botham is sitting close by, but not with a tray of tea! A group of five ladies have just ordered their fourth bottle of champagne with apparently no effect. I am in awe, the lightweight that I am!Read more