Ha! Brilliant! There’s another guy called Matt Watson. That’s exactly the same name as mine. He runs a fishing show – not just any old fishing show but The Ultimate Fishing Show with Matt Watson. I’ve now seen a few episodes and it rocks. Matt – if you do look at this site as a result of the email I’ve just sent, I just want to say a big hello, and I’m loving your work! Would you like an Adventure T-Shirt?
Snow cricket, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.
In around 12 hours time, the worlds biggest and highest profile game of cricket begins. The Ashes. Some think it a load off fuss over a tiny wooden pot, others think it the ultimate competition in word sport. At this very moment in time the 22 players who’ll be playing in the opening game will be either in bed or on their way. In 12 hour or so from now thousands of Northern Hemespherians such as myself will be up in the middle of the night, watching the proceedings unfold live from The Gabba – Brisbane’s colossal sports ground.
The last time we (England) played Australia on their turf was around this time in 2006. Myself and a bunch of what are now a die hard bunch England sofa cricket fans (although we do get to the odd game) literally got heavy jet lag from the nights of extended viewing. To add to our sleep deprived confusion, the scenes of live, blisteringly hot summer sun, in juxtaposition to the freezing cold nocturnal returns of England and the half a shandy or three made the whole thing quite surreal.
I’m hoping for a couple of things out of this test – one that I can survive the inverted time frames, sleep dep and jet lag (and learn from experience perhaps) and secondly, that we have a better result (we got clobbered, 5-0).
We are going into in looking quite good though, it’s got to be said. ABC reported yesterday that “Australia arguably now has a weaker side and stronger opponents”. It’s not like them to say that! I’m not going to make anything that looks like a prediction – for genuine fear of putting a hex on the whole thing but if team spirits were a barometer then, like I say – looking quite good. Looking towards the other camp – I’d say it’s in contrast to ours. Low on confidence – as reported by Michael Vaughan in a recent tweets – can’t be a good thing : “Not met one Aussie yet who thinks they are going to win….” and later “Never known a country to be so down on a team… Very strange”.
Well – we shall wait and see. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay awake long enough to find out how the first over goes tonight!
We’d booked a campsite right on the beach front - Mossiscastle Strand. First impressions (after coming from the natural beauty and ‘right up our street’ style campsite that was Poppit Sands) of this site were.. a bit of a culture shock! Nothing exactly ‘wrong’ with the site but we were not over enamoured with it – it seemed to be lacking charisma perhaps – The regimented / allotted space for each of the hundreds of caravans and motor homes had the feel of a fiberglass suburbia. The rules and regulations, the high volume of branded sports goods and English football tops just didn’t sum up the true character of the Emerald Isle for us. Our first plot was right next to a water point – mistake! The drains were backed up and it stank. An infestation of mating flying ant type things wasn’t too pleasant either.
We’d not stocked up the van a huge amount and the shops were a mile or so away.I’d read that the shop was “fully stocked with food”. I wouldn’t quite say ‘fully’ stocked – fully stocked with a few tins, and a chiller with sausages and/or bacon and frozen ready meals and frozen pizza. It would have been nice to have some fresh veg – even I, the perpetual carnivore was craving a bit of salad. I popped into the take away around the back of the shop (pizzas and deep fried fayre) and asked if they could do me a salad box. They looked at me as if I’d just asked for a pianoforte. Flat nose, no salad. There was however,one culinary highlight – fresh croissants available every morning.
We moved to a new spot after the first night though and things started looking up. Our new plot had a much nicer feel to it and was right next to the play park – A simple but safe park – a nice hang out for the hoards of kids including ours.
The showers were 1 Euro for 8 minuites. This irked me. I didn’t clock this fact on any literature or the website. I understand why they do it I guess – to conserve energy and water (and make a bob or two) but we paid fee for the site then found we had to pay extra for the showers. If I could have been bothered, I’m sure there’s some kind of Trading Standards argument. Every cloud has a silver lining though.. The Yorkshire man in me decided that Eirene’s whimsical purchase of a solar shower perhaps wasn’t so silly (as my initial assessment had concluded) after all. I rigged up a shower cubical out of some high windbreaks and brought the shower down from the roof of the van. Perfect! It was so nice! The odd bit was the kids walking past looking at me like I was a freak. (How close to the truth I hear you cry)
The beach was a saving grace – a blue flag beach backed by sand dunes and only less that 100m from our van. Gorgeous sand and fairly quiet on the ‘campsite stretch’. We really enjoyed playing in the sea, sitting around and reading or just watching the world go by. We’d been looking out over the same sea but from the other side of the pond earlier in the week. Sunrise instead of sunset over the sea.
We had some great success at crab fishing one evening at a tidal swamp creek just north of the campsite. We bagged 26. Jay 13 (winner), me 11 and Sophie and Eirene one each. We did the crab race thing – where you wet a runway of ground back to the water and tipped our bucket out and watched them break for the border. Much fun. Realised a few days later that we were getting eaten alive by some bugglies biting our feet and anckles – lashings of Avon Skin So Soft. Avon Skin So Soft? the beauty product that has great anti midge qualities - according to the Royal Marines, who still use this curious lotion.
After Wexford, we trucked up through the Wicklow Mountains to Powerscourt Waterfall – fed by the river Dargle. (I just wanted to use that fabulous word. Dargle Dargle Dargle. ) It’s the highest waterfall in the British Isles. Cracking play park for the kids there – one of the best I’ve seen. Nice ice creams which we sampled and Eirene and I knocked back a couple of very passable espresso’s. Good cup of Joe. Pretty little short circular walk through the surrounding woods – mixture of Oak and Fir mainly was sampled and we were also there on a day when they were filming a TV show called Camelot. The best bit of that was watching the climber de rigging the protection for a recent stunt that we just missed. There were some really impressive pop side trailers as well. It felt quite cool as they let Clover park with the big vans.
We trundled over the Wicklow mountains – the scenic route and dropped into Dublin around tea time and got to Eirene’s dad’s house (Hello sir! hope you’re doing good!) . Lovely to see him. Lovely to be in a real house with a real fridge (fully stocked) and drinks press (fully stocked!) and a cooker. And electric things. And literally all the home comforts. It’s a lovely neighbourhood. Nice bunch of bright kids knocking around. Very safe double cul-de-sac type arrangement with a huge playing field at one end. I dragged the stumps and a couple of cricket bats out of the van and introduced the Irish lads to a game of cricket. We played a short kwick cricket style game (minus five runs instead of out, if your caught, bowled etc.).
Cooked a lovely bit of Irish Rib Joint on the Sunday to set us up for the early start on Monday. Stroke of top luck on the ferry – we had paid for Club Class (you get to sit in a much more chilled out lounge, and it has ‘free’ cheese, biscuits, fruit, salmon on bread, bits and bobs, teas and coffee and wines) but the ferry was really busy – Manchester Utd’s first game of the season and the she was full to bursting with Irish Man U shirts so they opened up the club lounge to all. My name was called over the tannoy. Uh Oh thought I. When I arrived at the desk, they apologised profusely and gave us 5 meal tickets (full British fry up with all the trimmings, thanks very much) and keys to a private suite. The James Joyce Suite it was called – second biggest (after the Presidential suite) on the whole ship. Lovely it was too! We made full use of the sitting room, kettle, bathroom and then had a refreshing kip on the super comfortable beds.
From there on in there was a bit of a chug from Holyhead to home but we’d had such a lovely restful, fulfilling holiday that we didn’t mind it. Such a nice adventure. Super strong family bonding.
Having a little breather for a couple of hours before we carry on with Jaygo’s birthday weekend. We started on Friday night with a game of rounders on the stray that we were invited to. This was really good fun for everyone. Rounders, BBQ, cake and catching up. This photo shows the line up – little to big selection process. We had a few spare kids with us as Jaygo was having a sleep over. J & H and their brood were there also as well as a whole bunch of lovely others.
I was looking forward to the morning of his birthday (yesterday) nearly as much as he was. We’d put the feelers out for an electric guitar and amp. My old friend McParty was selling a Marshall amp, meanwhile a guitar came our way and the serendipity of it all couldn’t have been better. He’s been having guitar lessons at school now for a while and he’s just at that age when he’s really discovering music – he particularly likes ROCK. Here’s a picture of him doing the birthday dance.
We had a lovely day of pottering about, playing guitar! the evening rolled into a rather impromptu BBQ – we’d planned on having a couple of people over and it expanded a little to be somewhere between a gathering and a party. Some old friends that we’ve not caught up with for years. Some splendid attendees and some nice bbq chow which merged into a chilled choons, fire bin and wine type night.
Lots more batting to come in this B’Day weekend – we’re off to Lightwater Valley today and we’re supposed to be going to another BBQ this evening! A BBQ hat-trick no less. A few more photos of the weekend can be found in this flickr set here (which I’ll add to with any photos I take today)
Got back last night after a lovely camping trip to the Lake District. We didn’t see a single Lake though.
Fisherground campsite – lovely spot – part of this set of photos>>
Fisherground Campsite is reputedly (and I can confirm) one of the best campsites in the country for kids to enjoy. It’s got a really good adventure playground complete with zip wire. It’s got a pond with an island and rafts. It’s got a train station with trains that go to the coast or up to the village to the East. It allows fire – a massive plus point in our book – an essential part of camping that so few campsites allow these days. It’s got a 3 acre mowed field for games and sports. It’s got a green team that really do look after the place and its residence – perhaps a bit to Victorian Dad about it at times, but at the end of the day – they do a really good job.
We’ve stayed at Fisherground campsite before – when we were there last time it was rather cold but this time we had the weather on our side. After grouping up on Friday night and imbibing a modest amount of alcohol we got up bright and breezy on Saturday. We made a check list of things to do – Play cricket, look at the trains (perhaps go on one), collect wood (they sell it there, but the Yorkshiremen in us knew best) , eat some nice food, have a few beers and play lots of Boules and Frisby. We did all of the above and added ‘game of rounders’ and ‘fly kite’ to the completed action list. The evening consisted of silly story time from the kids round the fire then we all turned in fairly early after all the days excitement.
Sunday – we got packed up just before the heavens opened. Rainy day activity plan kicked in – Museums. Barrow-in-Furness has The Dock Museum. This was fascinating. A converted dry dock, mainly on the history of (the biggest cul-de-sac in England – ) Bowness. Ships, Trains, Grimness, Engineering, Determination. We all really enjoyed it.
After that, almost by random I discovered that there was another museum on something quite close to our hearts – The Laurel and Hardy Museum in Ulverstone. This consisted of part of an old cinema with anecdotal and historical reference to the comedy duo, as well as memorabilia and a mini cinema showing back to back Laurel and Hardy classics all day long. A very pleasant end to a very pleasant weekend.
I was lucky enough to do a lot of my favourite activities over the past 5 days or so.
Thursday – went to watch the cricket at Headingley with a lovely bunch of people. ‘My’ team (Yorkshire) won one of it’s key matches of the season – they beat arch rivals Lancashire by 17 runs in a confident win. A train ride back to Harrogate, followed by a few drinks in town ensured a healthy hang over the next morning. Luckily, I’d arranged the day off so one of the first ports of call was coffee in town followed by a few missions to stock up for the festival we were headed to for the weekend.
As I’d mentioned in last years post, Lindley Woodstock is technically a private party but had the feel of a small festival – stages, fires, PA’s, people, curry van, bouncy castle etc. Very lovely it was as well. I ran the top stage – the format of top stage act > bottom stage act > top stage act (etc) meant that the music could go on seamlessly (ish) all day and night. The highlight musically for me on that stage was a psychadellic act who’s name I missed – all Gong / Hawkwind ish. really interesting. The highlight for the bottom stage for me would have to be Mick Artistic, who I’ve seen before somewhere but who was on top form at Lindley.
After a lovely Sunday in the sun we headed home to get the kids settled for school night. The next day – Monday – I went and had quite a major haircut followed by lunch at home, followed by the delights of seeing Sophie at her Baby Ballet class. Very cute. Very pink. We let Sophie have a potter about in the KidzPlay at Hammerian House – they had a TV on where I got to see the second half of Portugal thrashing North Korea. The big think of the day was Eirene and I’s 10th wedding anniversary. ‘Tin’ apparently. 10 years ago that day we had our wedding reception / party (and oh boy oh boy, what a party it was!) up at the Harrogate Arms. This was back when the club downstairs was still serviceable, so we took over that with DJ’s, set an acid jazz / funk type band upstairs and I think we had more stuff outside… all very much fun) so with those thoughts in mind we headed back up there with the kids after school for a look. Downstairs is no more, the pub has been knocked about a bit (still nice) and outside has donkeys and birds of pray! what a difference 10 years can make!
At my mate Henry’s house – got the afternoon off work. Watching Argentina v South Korea – currently 2-1 to the Americans. Henry, who’s just decided he’s a vegetarian who’s now allowed to eat fish because Dean Karnazes says it’s OK has just brought me a fish finger sandwich. He’s a big fan of them now after a decade in the fish wilderness. Beer and Rum, we should really be out in the sun.
Shortly (very exciting) we’re off to Headingley (YCCC) to watch Yorkshire take on Lancashire in the T20. Super Sports Thursday.
Apparently, there’s a football world cup starting soon.
Quite like this funny that good did..
do a search for ‘World Cup’ in google and scroll down to the bottom.
I played my first ever game of golf last night on a proper golf course. Well – a 9 hole course if you can class that as proper, a very nice course called Ghyll Golf Club near Skipton – for the sake of this blog, I’m calling it proper. I’ve been playing screen based golf – most recently Tiger Woods on the wii (fantastic – especially via an 8′ projected image) and Disk Golf for years so know the rules of real golf quite intimately, as well as most of the etiquette and lingo, but this was the first time I’d hit it in the real world – woods n all.
The cynic in me has (and probably still does) thought “It’s an expensive walk in a fake countryside”. But having played it now, I can see some of the appeal. Not so much the walking side (I’d much rather be ‘out there’ in some official wilderside / countryness if it was a walk I was after), but the pure joy of it’s sporting aspect. The few times I managed to connect with the ball properly and tonk it ‘miles’ felt – really satisfying. A couple of nice chips onto the green also felt extremely satisfying, along with a near average putt or two made the whole thing, as a sport goes, very feelgood.
It does seem to capture the hearts and minds of millions of people. I’ve now seen first hand the way it hooks you (pardon the pun). “if I went back, I’d be better next time”. You really do play against yourself. Now I’ve got my head round some of the basics, I can start to think about how to improve.
Nagging thoughts are that I’ve always been a bit threatened by the clichés of golf, I don’t think I’d ever want to bracket myself as ‘a golfer’ as to me it seems to conjure up a certain type of person. In my mind he’s a narrow minded sexist who drive a Porsche 928 and enjoys wearing slacks. I’m sure that’s far from the actual real golfer. I know a fair few of them who are very lovely, and far removed from my pre conception. They probably do enjoy wearing slacks though as a rule of thumb.
