Aussie Aussie Aussie! 3/3: More Cricket, Sailing and Gillard

With the excitement of the first day of the Sydney Test behind us, on January 4 we both were in need of a rest.  Thought the first day of cricket was actually fairly relaxing it still took a toll on our bodies.  Fortunately we were provided with a great opportunity that was exactly what we needed.

The team had received a message from the PR guy for the sailboat known as the Holy Cow offering to take Ashes, myself and up to a dozen others on a trip around the harbor.  I suppose this was just another benefit of popularity and media coverage, people wanted to jump on board.  This meant that we got the chance to jump on board the Holy Cow (lame joke!) and spend the day in relaxation.  There was no day we could turn this down so LJ picked us up in the morning and off we went to the docks.  We boarded the boat and met the couple that ran it, who were very nice.  Besides us there was also Brad and some of his family, the boats PR guy and his GF, and a few office people from our team.  After departing we sailed under the Harbor Bridge and towards the seafood market.  Along the way I had a chance to talk to the guy who ran the ship who gave me a pretty detailed description of what we were seeing along the harbor.  He also talked about the charity work and musical gigs in which he and his wife were involved.  He was a really cool, easy going guy. 

The boat docked at the seafood market and after disembarking everyone split up in order to pick up lunch.  Ashes and I went with one of the office girls, Alison I think, to pick up some sushi.  This was my first time at the seafood market and the place overwhelmed me at first.  It was absolutely bustling not only with people purchasing various denizens of the waters to eat, but also sitting down and indulging themselves right there inside the building.  I'd never been to any open air market aside from small farmers markets, so this was a new experience.  Fish out in the open, other creatures swimming in tanks, guys rolling fresh sushi right at the counter and a thick salty smell in the air.  It was pretty crazy.  After picking up our first bit of sushi and sashimi Ashes got a call for another interview, so we went outside.  We sat on the fake grass outside while she did her interview.  Seagulls and incredibly ugly Ibis birds crowded the area, hassling all the folks eating outside.  Finishing the interview and snapping a few shots of these foul scavengers (and a creepy pelican) we headed to the boat.  Lunch was very laid back and so delicious.  In particular I gobbled about 20 pieces of sashimi.  Ashes took another interview during lunch while everyone watched on, which didn't seem to stumble her for a second.  She even managed to plug the boat we were on much to everybody's amusement. We finished lunch and headed back towards the dock.  At this point the guy steering the ship handed the wheel, and control of the ship (and our lives!) over to Ashes.  It was a lot of fun and she actually did pretty well (barely missing Fort Denison).  The trip was a really special experience and so relaxing.

 Ashes piloting the boat.

 Ashes and LJ at the front of the boat as we head towards the bridge.

The cow theme even extended to the sail.

Our next priority after the trip around the harbor was a television show.  Ashes had been booked (by LJ presumably, she's really good at stuff like that) onto a new game show called The Trophy Room.

It's a sports trivia show featuring two teams that change week to week, except the captains.  Since it was primarily questions about Australian sports Ashes would certainly be out of her depth, but it was really more about having fun and getting more exposure.  She was to be the "mystery sub" which meant a regular contestant would be swapped out for her at some point.  She was even one of the questions!  She got a chance to wear a cricket helmet in order to hide her identity.  When the sub was used she came out and replaced Lewis Hobba, a local comedian, and they actually had a pretty funny little back and forth.  After filming was done she had her picture taken with a couple of the other contestants who were genuinely excited to meet her.  Jacqui Cooper, an aerial skiier, was extremely nice and seemed stoked to have a chance to talk with Ashes.  After some brief conversations and some pictures we left the studio. 

That night I believe we had a stroll around Chinatown, as we always do in large cities, and had some really great ramen bowls from Ajisan.  We also found a printclub/purikura sticker machine in an arcade on the third floor of Market City, which we had to do.  There were also some amazing shops that had various video game and nerd figurines.  I wanted to buy so damn many of them, but alas I'm a pauper.  One place even had a lifesize Solid Snake statue.

The next day was another big day for us.  We were going to be returning to the Sydney Cricket Ground for more action, and more television coverage.  The biggest story developing for us was of course Ashes getting a chance to meet and interview the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard.  I'm not even sure how this came about or what was involved in it coming up.  All I know is we had to get up early because Ashes was going to meet the head of state of the country we were visiting.  This was a very big deal!  LJ, Ashes and I headed to the SCG early enough that we should have had the time to be prepared.  In the end the producer we were working with ended up leaving LJ and myself in the dust, but at least Ashes got out there to do her thing.  The whole country got to see her ask the PM questions about cricket.  It was very, very cool.  She'd probably have a better account of the story, as at the time I was standing out in the heat watching the players arrive since our press credentials never arrived.  Lame.

After she finished with the PM we went out for some brekky with LJ.  After breakfast we made our way back to the SCG to start our day of shooting.  We had a camera crew from Channel 9 following (or rather leading) us around all day.  I'm not going to go into the specifics of the shooting since I didn't really enjoy it.  I'm not cut out for entertainment it turned out.  We had to do certain shots a few times to get it right.  The heat was baking me since I was extremely over dressed, for High Tea later in the day, and most of our shots were in direct sunlight and in crowded areas.  I kept myself in the background in most shots since the highlight was on Ashes.  The crowd was really wondering why the hell a camera crew was following us around.  A lot of the fans were actually really funny and I had trouble not laughing through the filming.  Ashes signed a few more autographs while were around the SCG that day (I remember one guy in a Hull City shirt).  We also met a cool guy from New Zealand who was sitting in front of us, who had heard about her story on the way over. She did some stuff with the Barmy Army, which really riled them up.

We met up with Steve Waugh again just after the stadium unveiled a statue of him.  He seemed to be in a great mood as he took us to the museum and gave us a personal tour of everything on display.  The highlight was when he brought us over to the display that had his floppy green captain's hat.  When he talked about it you could really tell that he had strong feelings about the memories attached.  Just seeing the hat made him perk up a bit.  The film crew's producer seemed to be irking Steve a bit, but Ashes managed to keep everything very chill.  It was a lot a fun and a great privilege that many Australians would die to get. 

At noon we headed to the High Tea since it was Jane McGrath Day.  The McGrath Foundation is Australia's answer to Susan Koman, it's a high profile group dedicated to breast cancer research and treatment.  Everything was pink that day, from the players to the fans to the stumps.  The High Tea was an invitation only event hosted by Glenn McGrath whose late wife the day was named after.  Arriving early Ashes had a couple of interviews to do, with the wife of cricketer Shane Watson and Glenn himself.  During the tea we got a couple of much needed snacks and water, plus some pink swag in the form of a yearly planner.  We stayed for a little while before leaving.

 Us at High Tea

The last thing we had to do that day was meet with the man that is the voice of English cricket, BBC's Jonathan Agnew or Aggers as he is publicly known.  This was actually an interview that a lot of the English tweeters were waiting to hear.  Aggers is a big name in cricket particularly in England.  This interview was going to be part of Radio BBC official coverage.  We went up into the commentary boxes which was probably my favorite part of the day.  The view from up there was brilliant.  The whole field was spread beneath us, the action on the field was easily visible.  I had never been in a commentary box before in my life so this was very special.  While Ashes was busy having admittedly a great interview with Aggers, whom she seemed to have great on air chemistry with, I was fixated on the view.  The game was on a drinks break but I still enjoyed myself.  At one point I had to step out of Shane Warne's way as he blew past me on his way to the Australian commentary booth.  It was such a great time.

Ashes and Aggers

That was it for the day.  We caught a bit more of the cricket, but were completely exhausted.  The heat and constant running around had taken a huge toll on us.  We weren't able to stay for the rest of the play that day and met Graham out front in order to be taken back to our hotel. 

The next day was another relaxed day.  Ashes, Graham and I started off with a guided tour of the University of Sydney by Brad's wife, an archeologist at the school.  It was a great behind the scenes tour of the ground which was beautiful.  The architecture was, as she said the Japanese pointed out, reminiscent of Harry Potter.  We saw a tree that was unchanged since dinosaurs ruled the earth.  Little interesting bits of the university's history were our treats.  We checked out a museum of bugs and then a museum of archeology.  The ancient artifacts on display in the archeology museum were interesting, particularly the mummies.  She told us an interesting story about how it was probably purchased in a shop with mummies in one room and coffins in another, sort of a mix and match. 

That was our morning and after we finished up there we went to North Sydney to pick up Brad and headed to the Australian Lawyers Cricket Association game.  We had met the Australian team captain in Hart's Pub a few days earlier and he had invited us to the game.  The oval they were playing on was absolutely breathtaking.  It was set down in the ground and was surrounded by a cement wall that was covered in green ivy.  We arrived just in time for lunch, after an over or two, and got some refreshments.  Ashes took a call from the US ambassador in Australia.  We had some kangaroo kebabs and sausages for lunch.  I had a short conversation with an English judge with an outrageously hilarious accent and manner of speech.  Both teams lined up with Ashes down on the field and had their pictures taken in front of the memorial stand.  Before they took the field again we were off. 

We headed back towards Sydney and dropped off Brad at his office.  It was time for something we'd been waiting for all week, the Taronga Zoo.  We picked up Chris, who had done the streaming stuff, and his GF before heading over.  Ashes did her interview with TestMatchSofa during our wait to get into the zoo.  We got in for free as a trade for some coverage.  Chris and his GF were actually really cool and were nice to hang out with.  We were short of time in the zoo since the closed at 5 and we had arrived at 3:30.  That didn't mean we couldn't have a good time, and we did.  Missing out on holding a koala was a major disappointment for Ashes, but we did catch them at feeding time which meant we saw them during their active time of the day.  One koala really laid into another one, smacking him in the face and grabbing all the food for herself. 
We checked out the gorillas, mountain goats, kangaroos, tigers, tasmanian devils, elephants and meerkats while we were wandered.  We had to skip a lot of the cages since we were pressed for time. Also we weren't able to ride the gondolas.  Once we got to the bottom we parted ways with the others and hopped on a ferry to Circular Quay.  And that was it for the day.

Our last full day in Australia was going to be a road trip.  We felt it necessary to get outside of the city while we were in Australia and so Brad, Graham, Ashes and myself crowded into the Fiesta and set out.  Our destination was the Cricket Hall of Fame in Bowral, south of the city in the Southern Highlands.  The drive was pleasant, though we didn't manage to see any wild kangaroos.  The Bradman Museum and Cricket Hall of Fame was full of interesting bits of information about the history of cricket.  The highlight was the outside where a statue of Bradman overlooked a fountain in the shape of a cricket field with squirters in the places of the stumps. 

She did an interview with a local paper, took a few pictures with the curator and off we went.  It was sprinkling ever so lightly which I thought was nice.  We picked up some Aussie Mickey D's and road tripped back to the hotel.  We had been listening to cricket on the radio the whole way and this was the day when England finished their drubbing of the Australians.  Not a proud day for the dwellers down under.  It was the last day of The Ashes and the last day of our trip.

The next day we left early in order to get through customs and catch our flight.  Brad, LJ and Graham all showed up to see us off.  I also got my first chance to try Vegemite and was blown away by how good it tasted!  Toast will never be the same.  After brekky we said our goodbyes, went through customs, boarded our flight and flew home.

This trip to Australia was the best I've ever had in my life and an experience I will never forget.  Being behind the scenes for one of the biggest stories of the tournament was so much fun that I can barely describe it properly.  2011 couldn't have started any better and I know that this is going to be a year to remember.  I was more sad leaving Australia than I ever was leaving home or Maine.  In just over a week I fell in love with a city and a country.  The land down under enchanted me in ways I couldn't have suspected.