My blog posts over the past few years represent my bucket list items slowly getting checked off. It started with the USA trip with Yosemite, Grand Canyon and New York.  More recently Japan and Paris. My number 1 bucket list item, however is watching an Ashes test at Lords, the home of cricket…. Lords here we come!

I was lucky enough to secure tickets to the first two days of the second Ashes test 14 August 2019. Many thanks again to Mike and his contacts in the England and Wales Cricket Board. This is a boys trip with Gordon and I travelling together. We’re spending a few days with Gordon’s brother, Rendel before joining up with Mike and his partner Rob in London for the cricket. Rendel is terminally ill and this was a good opportunity for Gordon to visit him.

Our adventure started Saturday night with our Qatar Airways flight to Doha, an eleven hour flight on an airbus A380. This was a first for me flying on the Airbus A380. I tried to be clever and selected seats for Gordon and I with a spare seat in between us, hoping that it will remain empty. Bus it wasn’t empty as it turned out because the flight was full. The “middle guy” was happy to take the window seat to allow Gordon and I to sit together. We managed to get some sleep and arrived in Doha relatively fresh.

Doha Hamad Airport is a massive airport servicing mostly Qatar Airways flights. We arrived at 6am local time and found somewhere to get wifi and a coffee. Gordon bought the coffee at $17(AUD). The wifi was pretty flaky but it was good enough to check in loved ones back in Perth. On the way to the gate for the next leg we spotted a Porsche and Aston Martin being raffled off. Gordon asked about it and at $200 per ticket and a limit of 1200 tickets Gordon couldn’t resist and bought a ticket for the Porsche. The young Filipina girl selling the tickets make a special effort to find ticket #1111 for Gordon. It must be noted here that if Gordon wins said Porsche and his wheeling and dealing comes off he promised to give me the Porsche!

I tried my clever trick with the empty middle seat again and missed out for the second time. The seven hour flight to London was again a bit squeezy. Gordon and I had a G&T up the back and chatted with the flight attendants. Interestingly none of the crew were Qataris. The captain was Australian. The Airbus A350 had cameras mounted at the front, underneath and on the tail, so you could watch the journey. It was very interesting watching the approach into London.

We were met at Heathrow by Rendel and his Brother-in-law Nick. Nick drove us to Stalbridge showing off his new Tesla S. The two hour trip through the English countryside took us right passed Stonehenge. The traffic always slows passing it so I managed to snap a few shots out of the car window.

We got settled in Rendel and his wife Mandy’s house before dinner and a few drinks where Gordon and Rendel reminisced. At about 9pm we hit the wall and retired to bed after a long day. Tomorrow Rendel and Mandy promised us a tour of Dorset.