Then today. We post a decent 300+ total against the Irish, and early in their innings have them with not too many more that 100 on the board and 5 wickets down. It's all over ... isn't it.
And then, the talk of world record breaking run chases comes back to haunt us, with a fastest ever world cup century thrown in for good measure. I listened to the last few overs on the iplayer at work, lost for words!
To keep my reading record up to date, I finished The Catcher in the Rye last night. Took a while to get used to the first person, stream of consciousness style, along with some of the turns of phrase that were used - everyone being "phony" and every other sentence ending with "and all". Holden isn't exactly the most like-able of characters, although I did end up feeling rather sorry for him.
Maybe I'm too old to appreciate it properly now - should have read it when I was a teenager.
Being the literal (rather than literate) soul that I am, I spent a fair amount of the book wondering where the title came from. I had kind of expected the book to have a rural setting rather than being based mostly in Manhattan with that title, but goes to show what I know. Holden overhears a boy singing a song in the street (well, mishears an extract of a Robert Burns poem) and this gets him to thinking. Later, he explains to his sister Phoebe:
"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."
Anyway, I'm off to marvel at the cricket highlights.