We are the champions

I can only quote myself from Saturday night at this point "(grabbing a complete stranger)... aren't you SO glad you're Australian??".

What a fantastic game by the boys, despite the win being soured by a KIWI umpiring decision (useless at sport, useless at overseeing it).

I had a ball on Saturday, the weather was superb (25 degrees, you bewdy), we had the Richmond green to lounge around in whilst waiting for the rain delay (rain in Barbados vs sun in London??), plenty of drinks were flowing and I was surrounded by mongrel Aussies (and even more mongrel Kiwis) to take it all in.

Despite the rain, we were flying the flag high for our country, drinking copious amounts of beer, champagne and well, more beer. We sent one very stuffy English pub into a rage by cheering every boundary scored (and with Gilly at the helm, you can imagine how much noise we were making). With the Aussies setting a respectable run-rate we decided to pull up our stumps and head closer to home, ready to finish the night with gusto.

Quick stop home, a bit more fuel for the system and geared up it was down to me and Corey to carry the side (after 8 hours, many of our associates were out for the count). When we entered Belushi's we found that Sri Lanka had made a surprisingly good start. We got a few more beers under our belt and watched some more wickets fall (yes, we did like that!).

Leah joined us just in time..

Bar wench: "That guy in the cape down there wanted to buy you shots" (places 2 glasses in front of us)
Me: "Jager??" (looking at Leah with a very worried look)
Leah: "Nah mate, no way"
5 minutes passes
Guy with cape: "I buy you ladies shots, and you don't take them. That's pretty rude. I co-own this place, what can I do to make you happy?"
Me: "Sambucca?"
Flag: "Black or white?"
Me: "Black!"
Flag man, downed the jagers, poured us 2 sambuccas and walked away.
Me and Leah: "We've gotta come here more often!"

More beers and more shots later, Australian have won (amid some confusion) and streamers are going everywhere, people are randomly hugging us, then the bar bursts into the Aussie anthem (tears!) followed by any stereotypical antipodean song you can think of (Cold Chisel, Men At Work, Powderfinger..). Amongst all this madness Corey starts getting annoyed he's not getting served and blames it on his (lack of) height. In one foul swoop he's pushing me down to the ground and jumping on my shoulders.... 'What the hey!' I think, and shoot upwards, suddenly making us the combined height of about 9ft tall. Flag man comes over and says 'Isn't the female supposed to sit on the males shoulders?' and promptly serves me up another sambucca. Brilliant.

The rest of the night is pretty much a blur. I remember Redback, tattoos, Brandon Flowers lookalike getting away (DAMN YOU COREY!!), BP, roulettes, taxis, coldness and 1664's. In no particular order.

************

In other news, Leigh and I booked part of our summer jaunt on Sunday (wooooo!!!!).

July 11-13 Lisbon
July 13-17 Lagos
July 17-19 Madrid
July 19-24 Valencia & Beniccasim
July 24-26 Barcelona
July 26-28 Girls off to Venice. Me, undecided.

I am super hyped about this trip. I've spent a lot of time here and only done weekends away, I deserve a month off.. and in the sun!!

I am looking at Oktoberfest/Berlin and Vegas before the end of the year and we're already talking about Egypt, Russia and New York as possibilities further down the line. Why can't we just travel forever??!

"The exits are at the front..... and the rear..... of the craft"

Well... Kylie's been and gone. I can't believe it!! After a year and a half from the date I was originally to see her I finally got my chance at Wembley Arena both Monday and Tuesday night. The setlist was the same for both nights but there were differences in both shows (particularly given that that the Tuesday night was her last in London)

Monday
Bevs in hand Dyl, Az and I trotted up to our seats... we were right at the back of the block, but directly opposite the stage - perfect for seeing back and under stage activity (Including nudity between changes!).

Highlights:
- KM forgot the words during 'I Believe In You'. "Sorry! I'm too busy reading your signs!"
- At one point she (unfortunately) said "I know a lot of you have travelled a long way.. are there any Australians here tonight?". Azza and I decided this would be the perfect time and place to disgrace ourselves (and our country). We screamed our guts out... and got looked at by everyone within a 50m radius. Twats.
- Her storytelling.
"I sang with Bono in Sydney.. we asked him what kind of mic do you want? He said 'A plain one'. Later that night he came out on stage and he had a sparkly one.. one of our people told him 'It's a Kylie show. There are no plain ones!'. Around here if you sit still long enough you'll be bedazzled. Like my drink bottle... *picks it up to drink.. notices the sparkly L has fallen off* ohhh (kids voice) it's broken. KY - IE'".

Tuesday
Another day, another rush home from the office to get glammed up. This time Carol accompanied me as did our feather boas. We were seated close to the crowd but further from the stage, still, we had a pretty good view and we prepared the people around us to get up and get dancing (noone sits down for Kylie!!). The guy next to me had been to the Earls Court performance last year so was very excited to be seeing her again... he was equally excited that I was Australian (although disappointed to hear I hadn't travelled over especially to see her - I should've blagged).

Because it was her last performance in London I was hoping for a Robbie special appearance, instead we got Danni for Kids ("Next time we need diamonte encrusted hairbrushes.. it feels more natural!"), which was still pretty surprising.

Just before saying goodnight to the audience Kylie pulled a kid out of the audience. 'Christian' wanted to sing Can't Get You Out Of My Head.. and did, acoustically, to 12,000 enthusiastic fans whilst Kylie danced around him. It was the most spectacular thing I've seen in a while!

Both nights

Favourite moments include

- the Vogue rap
- "Did anybody here disco in the 80's??? Big hair, shoulder pads, earrings?! You should know this then! .... THE ONLY WAY IS UP!"
- KM dressed in 80's garb (complete with Debbie Harryesque blonde spiky wig) doing the shuffle dance (imitated many times since)
- Kinky locomotion with jazz voice
- Someone handing KM a homemade t-shirt parodying her tour shirts (she reads it aloud in EXTREME Australian accent) "Charlene says Relax. OK?!"
- Light Years as the second to last song!

Overall I had a blast - I knew I would! And it made us feel a bit closer to home, even if Kylie does have that annoying International accent now. The only negative is that Matt didn't get his arse over for it...