Later London

---

After packing up the flat and saying my goodbyes to the flatties I trained up to Wigan to catch up with my brother Todd. He is the overseas cricket professional for a club called Highfield. He is being put up by one of the guys from the club who seems like a real good sort, so Todd has landed on his feet there. The first night Todd and I just sat and talked for hours about all that we had been up to for the last 10 months or so since we had last seen each other. We also reminisced about our childhood and Todd’s ambition to become a pro cricketer and own a sweet store. I suppose one out of two ain’t bad.

Todd treated me to the delights of Wigan on Tuesday. It is rather similar to Barrow where I lived last year. In a group of 5 people you are almost certain to see a teenage mother, a boy in an England football jersey, a girl that has a carrot-like complexion from way to much fake tan, a ‘chav’ in a grey tracksuit with a dog that would quite happily eat your leg off and another teenage mum.

For lunch, we bought a pie from a local bakery, watch the video to see how terrible the pies are over here. I miss good old NZ steak and cheese pies. The chips aren’t great over here too, they are all soggy and people eat them with mushy peas. Gross.

Over the next few days we played pool, Frisbee, had a few pints, watched a movie and went to one of Todd’s practices. The guy picking us up was a character and had clipped a curb on the way to pick us up so his airbags had gone off. Would have been funny to have seen it happen.

Thursday I continued my journey up North and met Nicola at the station (train not police). We stayed at her Dads for a few days until we got the keys to our new place. Later that night we went into town to watch Nicola’s friend Sarah’s boyfriend James’s band. (Hope you got that). They were really good, hopefully we will see them again sometime soon.

My first cricket game back was for the third team, I opened the batting and scored 23. The other opener managed to get 99, so we put up a good total. I then took 2 wickets for 16 runs off 6 overs and our side won so was an ok day first up.

---