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??!