Cricket,beer and me

Cricket and more cricket,so we pack up with all manner of gear and set off to Dundee to play a league match.It takes us a good hour to reach the place and i soak in Scottish countryside.Here the sheep are in abundance and thank god the english weather is back so its a dry day,slightly sunny and fluffy clouds all around.Of course by the time we reach the place the sun is shining again and the field is just right for a good game of cricket.

Everyone is very impressed that we have travelled all the way to see our friend play a match.Now we were not about to tell them otherwise.I have seen more cricket in england than i have in my entire life but for once i wont complain.The pitch is a lovely green carpet and the grass is soft and think underfoot.The club house is old fashioned but again it did have a ladies changing room.For a small town cricket field,it was rather impressive.In deference to our presence our friend has been pushed up the batting order and in true blue indian style,the boy was off to a good start.By the end of the innings he has notched up 83 runs and was quiet the toast of the team.The sidelights of all this(which i what i am watching,considering i cant understand a silly point when it looks me in the face)is that the team itself is all local boys,some as young as twelve.The young one are fascinated by us and are full of questions,are we are friends parents is the first one.Not to take offence of course considering that a lot of Britain has mothers in their 18s,this was an innocent question.Of course i promptly put the persons age down to 15 and was right though he did try very hard to act 25.With his freckled face he reminded me so much of fatty in the enid blyton series.A Scottish man of some 60 odd years regaled us with stories of local personalities and some stories out of school of our friend,and strangely he and i agreed on many points concerning the friend.The scottish accent takes a bit of getting used to but after a couple of minutes(and after missing a few jokes) i cottoned on to what was being said.Called badger,he swore he was a dying breed(i cant agree with him more) and did mention that badgers were protected in Scotland.He went on to tell me of interesting night walks and Scottish whiskey trails,till he had me in two minds about what to do in scotland.That said we went off in search of food.As always we had worked up an appetite by the time food was found(unlike the english we had no intention of filling our stomachs with beer,ale and stout)One lone place actually had food and we were too tired to look further afield and settled in to eat.The husband ordered a pizza(very wise thing to do).I needed some meat so settled for spaghetti with something which resembled boiled beef mince.Cant say much of how it tasted(i can swear that the english can put the most die hard meat eater,off meat for live by the way they murder the dishes).I didn't earn brownie points when i asked for chille sauce and insisted on adding more salt in a vain attempt to add some flavour to the dish.The chef came out and frowned but i had no intention of bowing to pressure and told him how i thought it ought to be made.lets face it I could have dished up the same thing in a much better way,so much for so called english food.

Back to the match where in our absence our friend has excelled himself and the tea break is on.Chocolate and loads of cream later i wonder how they manage to run between wickets and dive for the ball(please not my acquired cricket jargon)This time on our friend has taken three wickets and the sun is beating down.By now i am ready to sleep so unlike the good English who insist on taking off their clothes and sun bathing on the grass,i head for the nearest tree and shade,lie of the grass and go to sleep.By the time i am woken up the match is over and the friends team has won.Oh no yet another pub crawl and i am not wrong.We all head off to the local to get everyone a round of beers(bad manners not to get a few beers down after winning a match).The husband and i are in no mood to be drinking at that time of the afternoon.I could kill for a cup of tea but manners being manners i gulp down the stuff all smiles and good cheer on my face and we head home to stirling.We cant face another pub or another beer and the husband is now having withdrawal symptoms for indian food so we head off to "ranas".Nice place but try eating indian english food(beggars cant be choosers )and one will realise that there is very little difference between chicken and veggie gravy(i suspect its the same with a few pieces of chicken thrown in).This time i am too tired to put on my purist hat and let it pass.By the time we walk to our B&B,the food is digested and we are ready to sleep and so another day passes.