August 29th, Australia Day 189

Well, the end has come at last with only few hours left to my departure. Although I may leave the soil, I don't think I'll ever really leave Australia. My time here has been more than memorable, and what's more, very pleasant and I will endeavour to return here as soon as the Fates decree that I can. Today, I decided to visit the famous Bondi (BON-daye) Beach as the last thing I saw before I leave these shores. I will leave it to your imagination to picture a long sandy beach with powerful surf, surrounded by cliffs on one side and restaurants on the other. To see it, you'll just have to come down here yourselves.

It may be a little difficult to get all of the events of the last month into this post but bear with as I attempt to anyway. The same day as I returned from Darwin I had my last baseball game of the season. I had a pretty good record that game getting walked twice and hitting a double. The first time at bat, the pitcher nearly hit me with a bouncing ball that would have hit my ankles had I not dodged out of the way. I eventually made my way to 3rd base and on ground ball I decided to run to home thinking I could make it but, unfortunately, the ball was quicker than I and I was tagged out. My 2nd time up, the pitcher nearly hit me again, this time with a pitch close to my kneecaps. I took it in stride and eventually found myself on 3rd base again. This time, on a safer hit I ran and slid into home and this time I was safe. By my 3rd at bat, the opposing team had changed pitchers and this new one pitched quite slowly. The first pitch I got I slammed into mid left for an easy double. I think I was left stranded there but I may have made it home again, I just can't recall. Actually, a lot of our stronger hitters had trouble with this pitcher because they were used to a faster pitch they swung early and the ball popped up from the top of the bat and they were caught. Whatever our woes, though, I went out on a high note as we managed to keep a 1 run lead to win, the first one I had been present at; it felt good. The next game was our top A-grade team and because it was the last game of the season, they asked if I wanted to play for an inning and I accepted. I struck out at bat against a very fast pitcher and in left field I saw no action and thus concluded my baseball season. The team had a barbecue afterwards and then I said my goodbyes as I left the ground for good.

In cricket news, I should mention that there is a very important series now being played between Australia and England, known as the Ashes Series. The 2 countries compete every so often for an urn-shaped trophy, called the Ashes Cup and they do so by playing a series of 5 5-day tests. The team that wins the most tests win the series but there can be draws in which case if both teams have an equal number of wins, then the team that won it the last time, in this case Australia, would retain the Ashes. Their record now stands at 1-1-1-0 being wins-losses-draws-ties for both teams going into the 4th tests though Australia was in dire straits at last look. Australia won the 1st test handily but lost the 2nd by a mere 2 runs and the 3rd test was drawn. In cricket a draw and a tie are not the same thing. A draw occurs when no decision for the winner has occurred by the end of the 5th day. In this case, although Australia was down in runs they still had 1 wicket (1 out) left by the time the 5th day was over. In cricket because a batsman can score an unlimited number of runs and there is no way to predict how many they'll score, the match was called a draw since England was unable to take the last wicket. We'll have to see how the 4th test goes for Australia. On an aside, Australians refer to the English as "poms" or "pommies", a term which comes from the acronym "P.O.H.M." which stands for "Prisoners Of Her Majesty". This was the term applied to the convicts who were sent to Australia but now the Aussies have turned it around saying that the Brits are prisoners of the Royals on their island while Australians, half a world away, are a free people.

In my personal cricket, I also went out on high note beating my friend Patrick by 55 runs, 63-8 in my last game. We played a little differently than the last time because we were using a thin stick as opposed to a small bat. So to prevent large negative scores, we agreed that once you were out, you were out, but you had up to 2 innings to score runs. It's difficult with a stick of 2 centimeter diameter. Actually, at first we played with another friend of ours, Alex, who won the first two games; with me finishing dead last both times. However, I almost managed a hat trick which is 3 outs in 3 consecutive balls. The term hat trick originates with cricket and it comes from the time when a bowler who 3 wickets in 3 balls was given a top hat by his teammates, hence the name. I was bowling and I managed to bowl Alex out and then on the next bowl, I bowled out Patrick. I pointed out that I was on a hat trick and I convinced Alex to bat again. Unfortunately, I didn't get the hat trick but I was very close. In the game Patrick and I played, we both finished our 1st innings at 4 runs a-piece. Patrick managed to get 4 more runs before I bowled him out. I then stepped up and had a stroke of luck winning nearly instantly with a 6-run shot. Patrick asked me to continue, just for a conclusion and I managed to get a further 53 runs that innings; I was very happy with myself. As I parted with Patrick, I allowed him to keep the tennis ball we used as a memento.

In footy, I had my last practice with the AFL umpires, thanking them all and promising that if I ever found myself in Australia again for a long period of time, I would do this again. In AFL news, I watched the Sydney Swans beat the Kangaroos in their final home game of the season. They have since finished 3rd on the overall ladder and are serious contenders to win the Premiership; it would be their 1st since 1933.

In trivia, I had my last trivia game on Wednesday and came out finishing dead last. For the most part, my downfall was questions dealing with Australiana since I haven't been here long enough to know certain things or certain people. I thanked Gary, the Triviamaster at the Wynyard Hotel Pub and I left, at least for the time being. On Thursday, I had 1 last round of trivia at the SAM Bar at Macquarie University and I decided to go on my own. Although I was in 2nd place at the end of Round 1, again Australiana was my downfall and I finished 2nd last. Oh well, my time spent in both places was not wasted and I am now a more knowledgeable person because of it.

When one looks back on anything at the end, no matter how long it took, it always seems like such a short time. I have spent 189 days in Australia, 201 in the southern hemisphere and by then end of my trip about 210 days away from home. I look back on my time in Australia and it feels as though all that time has just slipped away like sand in an hour glass. I do not regret coming here at all but I do regret that time did not allow me to accomplish and see everything that I wanted. It means that I must one day return to this land and complete that which was left unfinished. I once heard an expression that when one is at home, one dreams of adventure and when one is on adventure, one dreams of home. While that was not always the case for me, I think that when I return to Ottawa, every so often when I close my eyes, I think I'll hear the cockatoos cackling or the roar of a crowd when the home team kicks a goal. I have seen some amazing things from the arid plains of the Red Center, to the tropical climes of the Top End to the towering majestic mountains of New Zealand. Who knows how the winds of change blow and it may be that I find myself back here again and I hope I do.