The EPOU on No Sleep

I really hate that how people have hijacked the phrase, "YOLO".  On paper, it is a good description of life as a young adult. If you still live at home, with a full-time job, you can really go for it. Live life to its fullest extent, without the repercussions of falling behind on rent or the washing. It was a great description, until school kids stole it and overused it until it became infuriating. People running around shouting, "Yolo!" in a high-pitched voice, it just got so annoying. But if you stop and think about what it actually means, the acronym has a meaning behind it. It's actually brilliant.

In exactly a month's time, I will be on a flight to Australia, and even now, I'm inexplicably nervous. I shed a tear earlier at the very idea of leaving behind my family and friends for a whole six months, but I just know I have to do it. A free trip to Australia to play cricket, (bar the visa - which I have to pay for) is quite literally my dream come true. I cannot explain in words how I've dreamt about batting under Australian sunshine. Christmas on the beach followed by a Boxing Day Ashes Test match is just absolutely surreal, that I simply cannot get my head around doing it. Christmas in my eyes is all about snuggling up in bed on Christmas Eve, in freezing temperatures until Christmas morning, where you end up putting a dressing gown and slippers on before shivering your way downstairs. I can't imagine a scenario where I end up sweating for the night before putting a pair of board shorts on, opening a few presents and heading my way to the beach for the day. How much of a mind fuck is that going to be?

Oh, Australia. I haven't even entirely accepted that I'm going yet. It all seems too good to be true...

I'm on such a high at the moment though. So much so, that I've got home from my customary Saturday night out at 5am and I've decided I'm just going to stay awake until 8.30. I'm due to play in a bit of a fun 6-a-side cricket day and due to be picked up in a few hours time. I'm on such a high that I'm not entirely fussed if I end up falling asleep out in the middle. It's one of those events where no one really cares if you play good or not - It's just going to be a laugh. Whether or not I'll be in a fit state to have a laugh, I don't know, but its worth a shot, right? I don't want to go to sleep. It reminds me of my BP days. Get in from work at 6am on a bit of a high for cricket later, that I just don't go to sleep. If I remember correctly, on one occasion, I didn't sleep and took two outrageous slip catches and scored 64, so sometimes it works.

 

Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked. I am scared about Australia. Scared and excited. Most of my awake moments are spent thinking about the ups and downs of the trip at the moment. It's taken over my life. I've been telling people that there might be a possibility of me staying in Australia permanently, but in all honesty, I simply cannot imagine not seeing my friends ever again. I love them so much, that its almost an impossibility.

...

That is the point in proceedings where I fell asleep at the keyboard. By the time I came round, roughly 20 minutes later, my laptop had run out of charge and I was feeling the effects of the hangover kicking in. The time was roughly 7am, so I didn't bother going back to sleep, choosing to go downstairs instead and indulge in coffee aswell as walking round the shop to get some Red Bull. I was going to need it.

Right now, its bank holiday Monday afternoon and the last of my days off. It's been a good and eventful week, but the next few weeks at work are going to be tough as I train up the person who is replacing me for 6 months. I've just started completing my visa, thinking it was going to be a long, drawn out process, but 10 minutes later, I found I had finished it. I'm pretty sure there is more to complete... It can't be THAT easy...

Yesterday was actually really good fun. When we turned up to the Annual Southill Sixes Day, it was cold and foggy with a bit of drizzle in the air, and due to my very obvious lack of sleep, I did wonder whether it was going to be a very long and dull affair. Especially as we sat in the clubhouse waiting for the fog to ascend, I thought about locking myself in a changing room to catch some shut eye, but as soon as the call for a coffee and a cooked breakfast came, I jumped up faster than a gazelle on speed and was the first inside to feast upon bacon, eggs and the rest. That seemed to wake me up, and the weather followed suit as the first game got under way. The 6s format is pretty simple. 6-a-side, 5 overs each and each player has one over, (apart from the wicket-keeper). As it was a fun end-of-season event, most of the players donned fancy dress, and halfway through the first game of the day, our team swanned off to the changing rooms to get changed. Our team name was 'EPOU' and no one could work out what it stood for. After all of us had donned our outfits though, it became obvious for those that love the game who we were.

Left to Right:  Billy Bowden (Watty), Simon Taufel (Me), Steve Bucknor (Saggers)
Aleem Dar (Kenny) and Rudi Koertzen (Oli)
The Elite Panel of Umpires CC!
 

As we walked out into the middle for our first game, people were amazed at the efforts. Watty had created proper umpires attire, (with Fly Emirates logo) and despite it being quite difficult to bowl in, plus very hot when batting especially, (the sun had finally come out!), it was a pretty fantastic effort by him.

We won 2 games and lost 2 games, but didn't make the final. Watty had to shoot off at the end of the round-robin games regardless so it was probably best that we didn't, and I was relieved by that stage as I was really, really struggling through lack of sleep. How I used to go whole weekends without any sleep at all I don't know, but by that stage, I had been awake (pretty much) for 29 hours on the bounce.

This coming weekend is the final weekend of the English season, a detail I now have to point out as I will be flying off to the beginning of another one not long after. We have an important game on Saturday, as we look to avoid relegation straight after being promoted, followed by a dead-rubber on Sunday where we can enjoy the end of the season. I think we're drawing the batting order out of a hat!

Yet, all of my thoughts belong 10,500 miles away...