This post might just as well be an obituary for my party animal days. It’s 4.30am on Saturday morning. I’m in a Sydney hotel room, just 20 minutes walk from the city, Kings Cross and Darling Harbour.
Normal readers will assume that I just returned from a night on the town. The fact is that I woke up half an hour ago, having gone to bed at 8.30pm!
The story begins at 4am yesterday when the alarm work me at an hour that only exists in my subconscious.
I then had a 75-minute drive to Albury to catch a 6.30am flight to Sydney. I met unplanned at Albury with a mate from Walwa. We chatted on the plane and took a bus into the city together. The peak hour traffic was unreal.
I left my bag at the hotel, asked for directions to the SCG and embarked on the 45-minute walk. It was actually an hour by the time I dodged traffic and found the correct entrance.
I was settled in the grandstand at 10am, 30 minutes before the start of play. Not bad considering that six hours earlier I had been sound asleep in Porepunkah.
The cricket itself was pretty good; slow in the first session as the ball moved around a bit. Gilchrist was sensational when he came in. Hayden’s innings was stodgy more than entertaining.
Back to my hotel a little after six, I bought some Thai food from a neat little restaurant across the road, briefly explored the local area and came back to phone Juliet and the kids.
The area here is hard to describe. I’m at The Boulevard in William Street, accommodation purchased through Travelmate six months ago. It’s equidistant, as I said, from major attractions, but close to nothing.
There are car-hire firms everywhere, hostels, terrace houses, empty shops, convenience stores, hairdressers and seedy-looking pubs. I can’t easily compare it with anywhere in Melbourne, as all the inner suburbs there are now yuppified. Richmond or Collingwood comes closest.
The hotel is okay. Nothing flash, but 10 floors up the constant street noise is slightly diminished.
There was no power point near the phone socket, and my ancient Dell laptop needs power for an external modem. I improvised a solution, logged on and happily found just 14 emails.
The plan now is that I’ll go for a run at first light. The map shows that I’m close to the Domain. Hopefully I won’t trip over any drunks.
RIP party animal.
