Christmas, Shane Warne, India and family!!

You might be wondering just what the hell is going on here. To ease your interest I have taken the liberty of using my time ,while on holiday, to put together a real rant! Whilst I type England are busy making some sort of a fight on day 2 of the fourth test. Warnie will return later in this blog.

Christmas was a huge surprise for Tayla. She had mistakenly left out a plate of tasty biscuits and one beer (only one!!) below the chimney for Father Christmas and duly found it all consumed. She knew something was afoot but could not quite work it out..

She sure found out when she heard a knock on the front door and opened it to find her present (see pic below). It is slightly too big for her and at this stage too intimidating so she enjoys pushing it and playing with the bell.
We followed the present opening session with an "expat" tradition on the island. Champers and salmon sandwiches on Elbow beach. We were probably to the first to arrive thanks to our daughter and this proved to be a good thing. By 11 o'clock there were about 1000 people on the beach. If the government ever wanted to get rid of the foreigners this would be the place to do it. It was fantastically festive with people dressing up and enjoying the hot weather.

Tayla did her usual......took her clothes off and headed for the sea. She must have learnt this from her mother or possibly some other dangerous Rhodent.
After the session of bubbly on the beach we headed for Christmas lunch at the Southampton Princess Hotel. We decided that without help from Thandi or Nellie....cleaning up was not an option; so a stylish eat-as-much-as-you-can (if this can be stylish) feast was a brainwave....not mine, but Nicki's. Yes, you might reflect on this being slightly unusual but it was the chocolate fountain that sold it for her. Needless to say Tayla enjoyed it....

The day ended with an uncharacteristic afternoon sleep...I cannot remember one since Tayla was born, but then again I am never prone to exaggeration.

I did manage to get some focus after the lengthy day to watch the first day of the Fourth Ashes test and if I digress slightly to say goodbye to one Shane Warne then so be it - as a South African supporter he has probably tormented me more often than I care to remember. I can still feel Daryll Cullinan's pain as though it was yesterday - and for him it probably is. I will be glad to see his back shortly, but not before he dishes out further psychological damage on the Poms.

Today we spent much of the time with Carol containing an overexcited daughter. A trip to St George ended with a heavy thunderstorm and a brief stop at the Fort.

Tayla did get a chance to drive our car and then fell fast asleep on the way home - much to our relief!

Carol is with us until the 2nd January and with the odd game of golf booked it is pretty much down to getting things ready for the new year.

Onto cricket.... Bren was telling me that Kingers (Greg King) is smarting after the Indians performence in the first test - and rightfully so. After watching part the first day at Kingsmead and using this blog as the Carr family does, I am going to enter the prediction stakes with a punt at a 1-1 drawn series. I am not able to see us take 40 wickets in the two remaining tests to ensure the series win. Unless, of course, Bobby Skinstad has signed for the Proteas and not the Sharks (I would like to get both Hewletts take on this?). With this in mind, I did for a moment imagine Cavers captaining Border in the 2007 Currie Cup, Ryan Hewlett putting his flag up to ensure a Selborne win next year, Brendan Horan opening the bowling for the Gauteng Lions/Cubs....just pinched myself....still can't believe that comebacks like this are possible. Surely Adam Huckle still has a chance? Time will tell!

Talking about time. I am going to have mine cut out next year. Bath University must have made some sort of administrative error in accepting me for a Masters in Education Management. The bonus of this course is that there are no exams, so I fancy myself in taking the shortest route possible. However, it does feel quite refreshing to have a student number again and get an invite to freshers week. How many of you can say that....

I see Symonds is getting things going for the Aussies...till next time.