Ashes in Brisbane 1st Test

25/11/2010 - 27/11/2010

4.50am I'm up and go to meet Garfield (Tom) and Rob next door and head down to the train station. We arrive at the airport at 6am. Me and Garfield head to the desk after trying to check in on the computers and were greeted with the message 'your flight has been cancelled'....this can't be happening!! we're going to Brisbane to watch the 1st test of the ashes, it's supposed to be a lucky day! Rob is ofcourse flying with Qantas so off he trotts, no flies on this guy, check in a ready to fly at 6.30.
Me and Garfield rock up to the desk to be told it is true and the earliest flight we can get on is the 9am flight which will get us in to Brisbane at 9.25am (because of the time difference) so we agree to that, take our measly $6 apology reward to get a McDonalds breakfast which takes up around 10 minutes of the 3 hours we have to wait!...We decided to sit in the virgin lounge and try and get on the 7am if there are any seats....our luck comes back as we are told we can get on the 7am flight, to then be told we can't! so we decide to try the 8am flight, but again...no chance. so we have half an hour to try and sort me a hostel for when I arrive...no such luck, I ring about 4 different places and they're all full with no room...luck seems to be running out, a cancelled flight and nowhere to stay once I'm there!

WE get our flight at 9, arrive in Brisbane at 9.30, grab a taxi with 3 other english guys going to watch the ashes and head straight tothe gabba...we arrived at 10.15 somehow! but a guy decided to pay the $60 taxi himself, so we obliged and got on our way to our seats. We had missed the first ball but we were there, with Rob and Chris on the beers. We decided we needed a beer and got them in. Sitting in the heat watching the ashes with beers in our hand!....this was the life!!
The stadium was sweet! 40,000 capacity, atmosphere was amazing as we were sat next to the Barmy Army, singing and the other side of us was the Aussie Jarmy Army, all dressed in Pyjamas...they didn't have any songs though apart from...'you are a w**ker!!' or 'sidddddllllleeee, sidddddlllleeee'. Although we will give them credit where its due, the army were singing 'you all live in a convict colony' and we were put in our place with 'you all live in a poor economy' quite witty for the Aussies!!
All out by 4pm, so in the 1st day we also got to watch an hour of us bowling. 5,30 and they called it a day so we headed back to hostels. I still didn't have 1 so went with Rob and Garf to ask if there was anyway I could get somewhere to sleep!....my lucky day in the end....they offered to put me in their tv room with a mattress!! jackpot!!

We headed to the Barmy Army headquarters, an english pub to have dinner and a couple of beers, where they actually serve all the beer in pint glasses!!!this is more like it!! After a few beers we went to a bar where another live band was playing. After a couple we headed back for an early night and decided to live it up the next night.

The next day we headed back to the Gabba the next day to watch us bowl, after a shocking start we managed to get 5 wickets but struggled with Hussey and Haddin. I was sitting next to this aussie woman who couldn't decide if she wanted England to win or Australia. She claimed she was English and moved to Australia 32years ago but had no sign of an english accent. I think she was just trying to be nice as I was surrounded by Australian supporters!! and to be fair they were thrashing us!!!...but the Barmy Army were giving it their all. an early finish at 4pm that day meant we went back to the hostel and meet some of the army at the hostel. some blackpool supporters dressed up in union jack trousers and monty panesar beards were sitting in the bar so we joined them with a few jugs of strongbow! what a crazy bunch!! we met another Town supporter and a scummy Ipswich supporter in that time, whilst 1 of the panesar, Blackpool supporters was trying to tell us Blackpool were the richest club in the premiership and that Charlie Adam was 1 of the best players in the premiership.....course he is mate, course!!



We headed out to the headquarters again for a drink, and then went to Victory again where beer was too cheap! and skittle bombs were a must!!...our groove came out, we had met Ron burgundy too and that's when Rob and I decided Tom looked a lot like Garfield. That entertained us for hours that night! we evenutally decided to head home. Garfield met a friend at the kebab shop, spending about an hour trying to get this Aussie guy to admit that he was his little b*tch and that all Aussies are the English's little b**ches! anyone else would have smashed him but he picked on a little fat guy and wouldn't let go until he admitted it!....he never did!hahah a lot of fun..."you are though aren't you?" "welll just a little bit?"....haha A* for effort!



We tried to get some bikes out for a ride, but Garfield refused to ride them as he had something in his trousers, it was affecting his walking that's for sure...."he's definitely s**t himself!"...so the bikes stayed where they were..We got back. I went into my tv room to find out it was full and I had actually been upgraded to a bed!! Garfield got to the toilet and we got a few hours kip. Up at 9, we went to the Gabba to try and get tickets for the 3rd day, luckily we got 4 tickets together but we just had to sit and watch Hussey and Haddin smash us even more. Until 2pm, however we did get to see Monty Panesar, a highlight there! Then we headed to the airport back to Sydney. An awesome weekend!! The next 2 days we nailed them in the bowling and batting, 517-1. The cookie monster is a hero!.. Hopefully we can get some tickets for the Sydney test in January