It is now a year since Tress and I moved up to the “boring” bush capital. This time last year, we were on the road, from Melbourne to Canberra. The little fella was seated on the back seat with Tress. I had flown in from Canberra earlier that morning for the drive.
Last night, when we were at Kiddo’s we took a walk around the block in her hood. Abby was on her toy tricycle, happily Flinstone-ing her way through the quiet road around a circuit while I carried her sister in my arms. Mic had Milo their dog, and Tress fussed about how fast Abby was going on that souped up little tricycle. Kiddo fussed about Tress fussing. I hummed a few tunes at the little wonder in my arms as she eyed her sister swanning on her unlicensed and unregistered speed machine, sans helmet or any other PPE. It was a warm late arvo and as the six of us strolled around, I took deep breaths of the cool summer’s air and felt contented gratitude.
We got home later that evening and I sat on couch to soak in Australia’s bewildering second Test victory over the Poms at the Gabba. Captain Steve Smith had dived low to take an unbelievable catch off Nesser to dismiss Jacks and break a promising partnership, and the keeper then took an equally impressive catch to dismiss Captain Stokes, the combustible ranga (sorry…) to set Australia up for a very satisfying romp home. Smith then hit a six (after dishing it out to poor Jeffrey Archer aka Jofra the rap artist wannabe) to pocket the winning runs and end a match in 3 days – one more than the last one – and leave the English with a mountain to climb in this Ashes series. This has been a romp of a start for the Aussies, proving all the naysayers wrong. The Aussies had looked poor on paper compared to the Poms but like Brian Clough famously said, these contests aren’t played out on paper.
well done, Smudgey
The summer has well and truly started. I turned on our evaporative cooler earlier last week and it worked a treat. Here’s a toast to a lovely summer…
Ante 