All I Want For Christmas…..

Dear Santa, I only have one thing on my List for this Christmas. One thing, that is, apart from my usual requests for World Peace, an end to poverty, no more famine, etc etc, and that’s for an end to this debilitating fucking tiredness. Fly safely. Russ

The constant exhaustion is getting me down unfortunately but it may well be something I have to just get accustomed to. I’m sure if I could get through the night without having to get up 3 or 4 times to take a leak I’d have a lot more energy during the day but for the time being multiple night time pees are my life.

Life really isn’t fair, and believe me, I’m not referring to my life. I’ve had a charmed seven decades and no matter what the future holds, I have no complaints. We are born, we grow up and if we are lucky, we grow old then we die. I’ve been lucky and the last week has brought home to me just how lucky I’ve been.

Last Saturday I received news that the young wife of a very decent man had passed away. She was just 39 years old with 3 young children and should have had a wonderful life in front of her but instead, just 9 days after being diagnosed with Cancer, she was gone. Elizabeth is her name and she was basically the same age as my daughter Megan and her children are similar in age to the very best things in my life, my Grandchildren Robert and Ainsley. I would gladly accept the uncertainty of my future with Rupert if it could somehow mean that young families would never have to live with what Elizabeth’s family is now facing. Life really isn’t fair.

One of the things about Christmas that I really looked forward to in a previous life was the Boxing Day Test. One of my best mates growing up was my neighbour Wayne Floyd and his Dad, Peter introduced me to the Boxing Day test with a day trip from Bendigo in my early teens (Peter died from asthma complications when in the prime of his life – life really isn’t fair). From that day on I was hooked.

This was a time when you would get two hours of the Test televised live in black and white on the ABC and to follow the other sessions of the game you’d tune into ABC Radio. I can still remember laying in bed as a 13 year old secretly listening into the early hours of the morning Australia’s tour of South Africa in the 1966/67 test series. Just 4 years later the ICC (International Cricket Council) grew a spine and banned South Africa from all forms of International Cricket in support of the rapidly growing anti-apartheid movement. It took another 24 years of sanctions but eventually apartheid was consigned to the rubbish bin of history and a Democratically Elected Government was formed. The ICC did the right thing.

In my late teens and early 20’s, I’d invariably get to the MCG to watch the Tests. I’d find free accommodation somewhere nearby and head off every morning with my esky full of ice and a few beers and position myself behind the sight screen in the outer. From 11 until 6 I’d watch every ball of every eight ball over, and remember, this was a time when Test Matches went longer than two days! Now I have trouble watching two overs of Test Cricket without changing channels. The Boxing Day Test in 1974 was arguably the best drawn match in Ashes history but it lives in my memory, not for the result, but for an after game experience. When stumps were pulled a mate of mine from the Bendigo Cricket Club and myself picked up our esky and made our way from the Outer to the Members enclosure, found the back entrance to the Visitors dressing room and walked in. Dennis Lillee wearing only a white towel was sharing a beer with English opener Dennis Amiss when Security caught on that the young blokes in footy shorts nursing an esky didn’t really look much like Test Cricketers and probably shouldn’t be in the rooms. Lillee sprung to our defence saying “they’ve brought their own beer, let them stay”. I’d like to say we spent the rest of the night in Tiger Lillee’s company but unfortunately Security had their way and we were shown the street. The good news was that we didn’t go home “in the back of a Divy Van” but the bad news was it took me another 25 years to obtain my MCC Membership. I suspect there’s a good chance the MCC Office had a photo of me leaving the Visitor’s Change Rooms that day that they referred to whenever my Application for Membership crossed their desk.😄 Eventually my 25 year “suspension” was lifted and I became a Member of one of Australia’s most exclusive Clubs and I could take up my position in the Members area without having to sneak in.

That’s about enough for this Christmas Eve. Remember to hug the ones you care about and enjoy every minute of their company. Celebrate these Holidays full of love and remember that “in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make”.