Inside the MCG

The short holiday in Oz is winding to a close. I saw two museums yesterday and will see one more today, even though it's supposed to get to 42 degrees.

The holiday was great and the people in Australia were very nice. I miss my family, but I need to get away once in a while because absence makes the heart grow fonder. Today I fly back to Thailand to spend the New Year with them.

I saw my first test match, the 100th test match at the MCG, and learned a lot about cricket. M-rock is like the Walking Wisden. I now understand certain aspects of the game a lot better, such as the importance of getting singles, the positioning of fielders, the corridor of uncertainty, etc., and I know a few more terms, such as a googly, or a diamond duck.

It's just too bad India didn't play better. To quote an Austin band, the Sanguinistas, it was "snatching defeat from the jaws of, ... well, defeat."

Yesterday we toured the MCG. In the members area, our tour guide kept turning left and right and pointing out all the bars. They spent $400 million refurbishing the MCG, and it seems like most of it went to rebuilding the bars in the Members area, giving them air-conditioning, and building elevators and escalators to the bars. Our tour guide was 67 years old, but he was too young to get preferential seating. The oldest member is 103 years old, and many of them are over 90.

Now I know why the members don't do the Mexican wave: they're 90 years old and drunk!