Are the Ashes important?

Cate is halfway through her Saudi adventure and has thus far escaped the attentions of the Religious Police.She is however suffering from alcohol deprivation as Riyadh is as dry as a bird’s bum.

Having had to cancel Tuscany because of Cate’s work we are now putting together another week of travel with Liz and Darryl. Our plans are at this stage to pick them up in Salzburg and then drive to Prague and Cracow.

Sissi escaped again today – this time through the Cat Net on the Terrace. I was unfortunately naked again when this happened. I was hopping into the shower when I noticed Moni looking anxious (I have a highly developed sense of knowing how cats are feeling).

I immediately sensed a problem (another skill) and went to the balcony to see Sissi perched on the ledge. I retrieved her (by the neck again) and moved them both off the Terrace.I re-arranged the Cat Net and when Sissi tried this again she ended up tangled like a turtle in a fishing net and had to be cut loose.

I have now trimmed the net and made it cat-proof.

One of the nice things about being in Europe (Cate doesn’t see this as a benefit) is that you can actually watch sporting events as they happen. This was often not the case in Australia where the rights to sporting events are acquired by the TV channels – but not necessarily for broadcast when they occur – or sometimes not for broadcast at all.

Sometimes they acquire the rights simply to prevent anyone else from getting them and it is more cost effective for them to pay the money than to have someone else show the event and get the audience and advertising revenue.

However here they show all sporting events when they happen – a very novel approach compared with Australia.

Cate says I am watching too much sport. I said ‘I am watching the cricket – it is the Ashes’. She said ‘Is that important?’

To which of course there is no response worth uttering.

At least I don’t watch them ski jumping on grass. Now there is a weird concept.