Back in 2010, England spent the first day of the Ashes test in Adelaide destroying our fielding side. This time, it was a bit different. I woke to the news (and listened to the final few overs) that Australia had batted well and finished on 273 for 5. Not the most brilliant first day but at least they’ll still be batting tomorrow.
Okay, we were helped by a few dropped catches…still, it’s nice to carry on from Brisbane with a reasonable start.
I made sure to mention it on the Alton edition of the Talking Newspaper today. Afterwards, Richard (one of my Readers) made the comment that it was probably one of the first times an Ashes result in Australia has been mentioned in the local Talking News. I had to set him right…I do it as often as I can.
It wasn’t the most brilliant session today as I was feeling a bit tired. Still, it was competent and, I hope, entertaining.
One of the Readers was a woman called Patricia, who’s never read with me before. She’s not new but she usually reads on a Friday so our paths have never crossed. A pity, really, because she was excellent.
The other two readers were okay…I guess. Though one of them has a problem editing repetition out of stories and the other kept jumping in before I made the microphone live. Still, we sorted the latter out and things improved a lot after that.
The biggest effort of the day was getting to the studio in the first place. We had massive winds today (nowhere near as bad as in Scotland). Any leaves left on the trees were sent flying all over Farnham. It was so strong, it was sometimes difficult to remain standing.
After the session we came out to discover it had been raining. It was also pitch black. Alton is the last session of the day and this is the first one I have presented since the clocks went back, so I was taken by surprise by the lack of light. Walking home through the park was somewhat inky.
And there were a lot of leaves on the ground.
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Nelson Mandela died this evening. A great and brave man. How wonderful he existed. Hopefully he will never be forgotten.
I remember those winds and the dark evenings.
love mum x