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I woke a bit late on Christmas Day and got a bit of free hostel breakfast in before it closed. Also got free tram and train travel all day for Christmas, despite buying a ticket.
I then met my surrogate family for Christmas: the Rowes. And what a lovely bunch they all are too! I gave them my present: a pair of paintings from China, and I even got one back! Some freddo chocolates, a book on Australian culture (including a recipe for lamingtons) and my very own stubby holder. I now feel like I belong! Amy's brother Mark got a useful Aussie supporter's hat to go with his ticket to the second day of the boxing day test.
The rest of the day happened pretty quickly and was utterly brilliant. We went over to Murray's (I'm still not entirely sure how the family fits together) and I was introduced to a massive collection of people all at once. I'm terrible with names. The joy! The great thing was the beer/wine/champagne was flowing and everyone was friendly and great to talk to. The food was fantastic (both meals!) and I even got more presents here! From complete strangers! I was known affectionately (I hope) as "the pom" and the fact that the ashes were level at 1-1 probably helped...
The afternoon was mostly taken up by a Nintendo Wii competition where everyone was divided into four teams and someone from each team competed in different Wii games. I was poor at bowling, awful at heading footballs but did well dancing. Go figure... I had such a great time and been so welcomed that it came as a surprise when it was late enough for us to leave. I could have stayed forever!
I had a very comfortable inflatable bed in Essendon and I was able to meet Laura and Ryan (from Christmas Day) as they also had Boxing Day ashes tickets. Unfortunately we missed the train in but the tram got us there in time. That was my own fault due to my need for buying snacks for the long day!
Needless to say, the day was incredible. A huge Aussie collapse meant they were bowled out for 98 by tea. Every Aussie wicket was cheered by a huge number of England supporters around the packed MCG. Then Strauss and Cook piled on 157 without loss by the close of play. All this on probably the most pivotal day in the series. What an amazing day. I was also witness to the longest beer snake I have ever seen, which stretched from the back of the southern stand 4th tier down to beyond the front of the tier. Awesome engineering, folks. You should be proud! Other highlights of the day included walking to the bottle shop to get six cans of VB only to realise I couldn't risk the fine of bringing them into the ground, so I necked two and managed to sell the others to some elves. Naturally.
As if the first day couldn't be bettered, the second came close as we had a great view from the Olympic Stand, about ten seats from the members enclosure. Amy was with me, but Mark had stayed at home with a headache. I sort of hoped for Amy's sake that Australia would launch a bit of a fightback and for an hour they did, but then the runs kept coming. But it was FREEZING. The wind was howling around the G and making everyone, including me with my shorts and sandals (apparently Australia is hot), shiver. Still, it was actually a nice day so we strolled around the botanical gardens in the evening and had "the best dumplings in Melbourne" before hitting the road and heading off to Airey's Inlet on the Great Ocean Road, to stay at Amy's parents house.
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