Day 20 of Romance Holiday
July 19, 2012

Not a very ‘Romantic’ day today. Males went to cricket together. That was by choice. Ladies went shopping (again). Sorry Bryan & Sharon – I don’t think Lara has any money left. I hope you weren’t expecting a present of any sort from her! Besides commenting on how much they spent, I can’t really tell you much (or anything) about the ladies day as I only overlapped with them for about 45 minutes at the flat while we packed up this afternoon.

However, I can tell you that the boys and I took the Tube to The Oval to watch the first day of the first Test Match between SA and England. Standing on the platform of the tube was Andrew Hudson (now convener of selectors of SA cricket and previously opening batsman for the SA team). I (of course) said hello to him and we had a brief chat about the cricket. He said he was really looking forward to the Test match and in fact the whole series. He could have simply ignored me but he chose to engage in a conversation. My impression of him being a nice guy was further strengthened.

Of course to get into the ground there was a massively long queue.  The English love a good queue and it is part of the event and excitement to be able to stand in a queue to get into the ground. Of course half the turnstiles were empty. We found our seats in the family section. Unfortunately they were the only tickets I could secure for the 3 of us. In the family section you cannot drink alcohol at all. No beer for the whole day while sitting in the sun watching cricket. Oh no – mistake – forgot, no sun to worry about and the icy cold wind blowing from behind us meant all I wanted was coffee. We had seats in the last row of the stand and it was open behind us which meant we were the windbreak for the whole stand. Upside was that we had seats at the top of the stairs so no one to block our view and plenty of legroom.

If you watched the cricket you would know that we got off the a great start by getting a wicket on the 4th ball but thereafter it was all England and so we were pleased to leave early so that we could get back to the flat, change and then get to the airport. Michael and I are now in Terminal 5 and Helen and the rest are in Terminal 1 as we are traveling on BA and the rest on SAA. Our flight leaves in just over an hour and the rest of them in about two and a half hours. That gives some more time for shopping (which I believe Lara is doing right now). I will send one last blog tomorrow with my final random musings.

 

2 thoughts on “Day 20 of Romance Holiday

  1. You’ve just blown your chance of a commission on the remainder of Lara’s (correction my) money!!

    Sharon says these shopping sprees (which we note have increased in regularity) are due to Helen’s influence!

    We are really looking forward to having Lara (and the Temples) back home.

    I’m going to miss reading the blog over breakfast.

  2. I won’t lie – I was super jealous that you went to the cricket, although the English (actually, SA boys in English dress) dominated. Andrew Hudson came to speak at my Primary School in the early 90’s. He was a very nice guy – think he is a Christian too. Think that was the reason he came to speak! See some of you later …

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