So Friday evening saw me popping my MCG cherry. At around 7.30pm , myself and Toni headed down the 3 blocks from my house to attend the Twenty20 cricket between India and Australia . Now I’m not going to turn this into a big rant about how Twenty20 cricket isn’t a test match and shouldn’t be considered real cricket or anything, but all I have to say is that it’s good for what it is – a quick, relaxed version of the game.

So by the time we got into the ground, 2 of India ’s wickets had dropped, and soon after, the rest came tumbling after! At only 74 runs, it wasn’t going to be a long night or a challenging game. Being in General Admission, I honestly believed there was a potential for trouble in response to the recent Harbhajan ruling, but the crowd was relatively well behaved. There was one point where a group of around 10 young white Australian yobbos were making rude comments toward a couple of guys of Indian-Asian appearance. However, these 2 guys were wearing Australia shirts and were actually from Sri Lanka . Just goes to show how stupid and unobservant some people are. There was predictable booing and taunts when Harbhajan was announced, but thanks to extra police, nothing kicked off and it was a quick, but rather enjoyable night. Watching some highlights, I realised that it wasn’t actually an exciting game – which just goes to show how much the atmosphere can make it!

Hopefully I’ll be able to go to many more football, rugby and cricket matches in the future. In my diary, I’ve already penciled in a game for the rugby league world cup in November – Australia vs England , in Melbourne . I can’t wait!

Now before I had even got home on Friday night, I had received an SMS from a friend I used to know in England , Kayleigh. She is on a gap year and had been in Sydney for a couple of weeks with the intention of coming to Melbourne . The message I got said that she was coming down tomorrow (Saturday) and was I free. Being the lovely person I am, I had already offered her a place to stay, and not having any other plans set in stone, I was looking forward to see her again! I met her at Spencer Street and brought her back to the Crapshack so she could drop her bags, then we went out to St Kilda, where a couple of the people she had flown out with were having drinks and whatnot. A few hit-and-miss bars and being far too tired to properly enjoy ourselves, we all headed home – me and Kayleigh going via McDonalds!

Sunday turned into a fantastically lazy day, spent watching DVDs, eating junk food and just relaxing. Kayleigh needed it because she’s been on the go since she got here, and I needed it because, well, I just wanted a lazy day. We went out for dinner at Mexicali Rose in Richmond , which is turning into a regular eaterie for us all – the food and drinks are fantastic – and then Amber was kind enough to drive her to the airport. After a little trouble finding the hidden and quite shabby terminal 4, she was in time for checking in and on an adventure to Darwin .

So, to go off on a tangent at this point, I’d like to sing the praises of our first online home-shop from Safeway. After an initial problem of not being delivered when requested (was done a day later instead), it arrived on time and the first one of the time slot. While we checked the items, we found that, despite my asking for ‘no substitutes’ of items not in stock, we were provided with alternatives – but better ones. For example, we ordered 2L homebrand tomato sauce. Instead, we were given 4x 600ml Heinz tomato sauce. Now I’m not sure if this was just as an apology for the delivery screw up or because it was our first order (we also get free delivery for our first order), but at least we got the food – and it was the same rather than a completely alternative product as it was once at Coles when we forgot to tick that magic box. So I’ll be doing another online shop tonight, and we’ll soon find out if the quality can keep on going!