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The Ashes.  A long-standing tradition in England (and Australia, for that matter).  And England finally won the match, or test, at Lord’s – I believe they said it was the first in 75 years.  Well, it was also the first time I actually watched a cricket a game (or part of).[ad#ad-1]

The English are well-known for their reserve, and I think it also applies to sports.  By this, I mean that they do not go out of their way to explain it.  My husband and his family have always been sports fan.  That is, they follow all the English sports and have their favourites, even if they really don’t go fanatical like some fans.  They also don’t try to convert people to their sports religion.

This is very different from my experience in the States.  Over there, if you mention that you don’t understand the American ball games, someone would stand up and go into detail about how the game works.  Some sports fans, like one of my brothers, may bore you with all the statistics of a particular favourite player, completely oblivious of the interest (or lack thereof) or understanding of the listener.

Football (soccer) is easy for me to understand, as that is played in the US.  Rugby I have seen a little of and understand understand how they score, etc.  But cricket is another matter.  It does not help that I had never seen a match before yesterday.  But the terminology had been cmpletely baffling to me.  Even when I’ve asked a question, everyone just shrugs it off with “It’s cricket.” 

So, while visiting my mother-in-law, who is recovering from her fall and is finally home, we watched the end of the cricket match, the second test.  At this point, England needed 4 wickets and Australia needed something like 185 runs.  As much as comparisons are made between cricket and baseball, they are completely dissimilar.  The physiotherapist, an Australian, arrived just as England scored the first of the last 4 wickets.  By the time she left, the game was over.[ad#ad-1]

In that time, I learned what a wicket was and what is meant by an “over” (though I fail to understand how that terminology came about).  I still don’t know how they decide who bats and who bowls and whether there is a set number of runs that needs to be scored, while I understand that the number of wickets is 10.  I still cannot grasp how a game can last days on end, the terminology of 20/20, or why a female cricketer took nine hours to bowl nine overs.  As far as I can understand, 6 balls is an over, so 9 overs is 54 balls.  Why did it take so long?  Of course, I’m still too ignorant of the game to even ask more questions and no one’s about to explain it unless I ask specific questions.  Is it because it’s too complicated?

Yank by — July 21, 2009 in Sports 4

Little Buppa is a crazy little girl.  Recently, she was lying next to Daddy when she told him he smelled like beef jerky.  “Ummm. Yummy,” she said. “I could eat you.”  Then, she made a pretence of eating him.[ad#ad-1]

Our family ate a lot of beef jerky in the US.  My husband did not like it at first.  He thought it tasted leathery. But, he discovered that there were different brands and different flavours.  Then, it became a part of our regular diet.  It was the snack of choice for long journeys.  My favourites were any that were spicy, while the kids preferred Teriyaki.  Beef jerky was pretty expensive until we discovered the cheap alternatives at Wal-Mart and they were edible.

Yes, we miss beef jerky.  It is such a rarity here that it is expensive.  We managed to find a small kiosk at a train station that had a small pack.  That’s the extent of the availability of jerky here. 

I guess jerky is such an American thing and it has not taken hold in the UK yet.  Though BBQs certainly have.  Maybe that’s more from the Australian influence.  But, then again, I would think jerky might be something the Australians would appreciate.  Even if it wasn’t beef jerky, the Australians might have kangaroo jerky.  Americans also like deer jerky.  (My husband wouldn’t touch the stuff, but the girls and I tried some – homemade).  If the Brits ever like beef jerky, they might consider deer and even lamb jerky.  That would be a novelty.

Yank by — June 11, 2009 in British Culture 0