Wot - no cricket?

I had Rain man and Fatty batter come through the post today from Amazon and started to read Rain Man in between the dreaded DIY. I've read 25 pages and already I can see why Tom from www.simplycricket.net made the comparison with this blog and the books. I reckon by the time I'd have finished the book off I'd have started to incorporate some of the style of the book - it's a good read and it's had me in stitches already. One of the things I like about it is the observations regarding the people that you play cricket with, but the books retrospective looking back some years whereas my blog is live and kicking by the minute and if I was to start making honest comments about my mates and the people I play alongside I reckon I could be in for some stick and lose a few friends! I dunno I'll have to see how it goes?


Still no snow but massive difference to yesterday. Yesterday warm and balmy 19 degrees - today northerly winds and about 8 degrees - cold! But there's been hardly any rain and the wicket looks okay. (5 Tree field) I'll have to start referring to Five Tree Field as FTF.

So how do I know it's okay when I haven't been practicing today? Well just like the obssessed autistic nut cases in Rain Man I do stuff like this.....I hate DIY with a vengence, my Dad was a drunk so he never did it or did it very rarely. The outside of the house was done by the council about once every 7 years so I don't have house maintenance and DIY as a part of who I am. This annoys my wife like nothing else. My wife is in a state of perpetual readiness for a vist from Lloyd Grossman (Through the keyhole or the more recent "Cribs" programes from the USA) so she likes everything spick and span. Me - I'm not fussed - I was a surfer - used to hang out with Hippies and I used to live in a tent no fixed abode, so just the fact that the rain isn't making my bed wet is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. So a few scratches on door frames, or paint beginning to peel to me is of no importance whatsoever, especially as I've only got another 30 years left in which to be able to learn how to bowl like Shane Warned so time is of the essence! So why on earth would I want to be painting woodwork for - it's already got paint on it!!!!But now I've discovered cricket it's being used as a bargaining tool. I've got two kids as well and for me to disappear off to some far flung cricket ground for 6-8 hours every Sunday doesn't fit in with my wife and everybodies idea of "Family". So inevitably I have family committment and cricket committment juxtaposed against each other with a big question mark over the top of them. The concession at the moment is that I do some DIY so that's what I've been doing all day! But I start getting cold Turkey and this evening I was thinking what can I do that involves cricket, so I used a trip to B&Q's (DIY shop) to get some filler as an excuse to quickly run over to FTF and check out -

1. Was anyone over there using it?
2. How well did we manage to cut the grass last night and how does it look?
3. Has it got any drier?

The answers - (1) No-one was, (2) yeah it does look like it's been cut but I'll have to do it again with the blades lower (3) yep it's drying out nicely.But having cut it - it's now apparent how uneven the surface is.Tomorrow hopefully a knock with my new mate Ali? 4pm - its a long wait but I'll cope!