Day Five

After England's incredibly slow start to batting at the end of the second day of the Test, we were not expecting anything exciting on day three. And boy were we right. Slow batting and (if we're being completely honest) some lack lustre blowing did not make for the most exciting day at the Oval.

Still it wasn't a complete loss. Got to try another very tasty pasty. :)

In short: dull cricket was dull

Alice's brother and his wife were due leave the group the following day so we headed out for a family dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian. Now, I'm a fan of Jamie's shows and I love adapting his recipes, but I'm unlikely to rush out to any of his restaurants (chain or otherwise) on the back of that dinner (especially after the fantastic Japanese the night before).

Day Six

Saturday was forecast for rain. Apparently when they forecast rain in London, it's pretty much a certainty.* We ditched the cricket (there was no play that day anyway) and opted for some culture instead.

Hello British Museum!

No images included in this part of the post but you can see them all in in this flickr set.
We walked through that *amazing* collection for 2 & a half hours and saw may be a quarter of everything... but at least we managed to see some of the highlights.

Getting near the Rosetta Stone took some effort (and a little patience) but was worth it. TheEgyptian and Assyrian collections were remarkable. The Japanese collection was brilliant (seriously their collection of netsuke stole the show) and the wing dedicated to various stages of Britain's history was inspiring (and really makes you realise how young Australia's "white" history really is).

By the end the crowds and the humidity were taking their toll on both of us. I look forward to visiting again whenever we make it to London next.

The civilised entertainment continued into the evening with Tim Minchin's adaption of Matilda. How to describe this show?

OMG! is about the best way to sum it up. Even before anyone appeared on stage Alice and I were marvelling at the set design and playing "find the words" on the wooden blocks that framed it all. And then people began to perform. Wow! The entire cast were brilliant, the choreography great and the songs were fabulous (but definitely sounded like TM songs if you know his work well).

NB: London summer rain & Perth sumer rain have nothing in common. London it's light but persistent. In fact we'd normally just say it was "spitting" or a very light drizzle.

Day Seven

Last day of the Test and Malcolm has a bout of insomnia the night before. 2 hours sleep is really not enough. Thankfully Alice was still OK to go along and watch but I stayed at the hotel, cleaned clothes and started packing (while streaming the cricket on the hotel's wifi).

If you have no interest in cricket, skip the next few paragraphs.

This was the most disappointing effort by the Australian bowlers for the series but given it was their first truly disappointing I think we can forgive them. It might be nice to see the bowlers AND the batsmen fire in the same game some time this coming summer. Just saying.

I will admit I was extremely good to see Clarke willing to make a declaration that kept the game alive (and entertaining). What truly surprised me was that Cook was actually to take up the challenge of genuinely trying to win (especially given the poor effort England made in the start of their first innings).

Anyway as any of you following the game know, it ended in a draw... and not a single person was surprised.

Day Eight

The time had come to depart London (for a little while at least). The train trip from London to Oxford was lovely and Oxford, itself, was a gorgeous town to walk through (to collect our hire car).

Most of today was spent driving from Oxford to Liverpool. The highlight was definitely our lunch break at The Malt Shovel, a lovely little pub in Gaydon, just off the M40.

Also if you ever find yourself having to travel to Liverpool, stay at Base2Stay. Fresh, roomy and very conveniently located. Also we were both loving the refurbished warehouse feel of the place... aaannnd (according to Alice) the area around the hotel has been turned into a funky little nightlife spot over the last few years.