"Don't worry, you're not my type"
"Smart?"
"Single"
 
 
-- Casino Royale 
 
 
It has admittedly been a bit of a long while since we were able to update our wonderful Travelpod site. This is mostly because we are both working very hard, and it is also because nothing of particular Travelpod note has happened recently.
 
That is to say we have failed miserably to be involved in amusing tales of death defying bus trips involving AK-47 wielding crazies. We have also been unable to get involved in a heated argument about a train ticket that nearly started a riot. When it comes to being the victim of elaborate confidence tricks that have something to do with diamonds and/or drugs, we're just not on board. Likewise, we are very low on anecdotes about being stuck on trains for six days with Jehovah's Witnesses.
 
We have been in the same place for six weeks now, which is six times longer than anywhere else over the last six months. I continue to tend bar of an evening and throw bricks around of a day, while Vinny is up to all sorts, from gardening all the way up to that other extreme, unloading frozen fish from containers at the docks with fork-lift trucks.
 
We are now three, as we have been joined by Tom Wood, friend/legend from back home. He will be making us a trio, allowing us to form a triangle in moments of difficulty, for the foreseeable future and certainly as far as Melbourne in the new year.
 
Christmas is a-coming, and it is a-coming with great speed. It is nigh-on impossible to get into anything that even nearly resembles a festive mood. This is partly because there isn't the same madness of advertising and decorations out here that we get at home, but it is mostly because the temperature hovers at around thirty five degrees.
 
For those of you who have been watching the cricket for the last few days, that's where we are. Well, a few miles south to be exact. And you see all those people with sunblock and sunglasses and sunhats and suncream and sun.... cold drinks? Just saying.
 
Vinny told me before we got here that I would find it impossible to not get involved in the excitement of the cricket, which I steadfastly denied. Cricket, I said, can kiss my ass. But he was right. It is impossible not to get involved. Apart from the fact I have to hold court behind the bar at night speaking on behalf of my fair nation (which I do extremely badly) there is also the good old fun of the competition.
 
And I have (as is my style) allowed things to get a little out of hand and organised an eleven against eleven recreation of the Ashes with the staff from my pub against the backpackers we live in.... with me as the umpire. That's tomorrow, so we should have some entertaining photos of high jinks. I've got the Manager of the pub's tie and the owner of the backpacker's hat, and today we're burning them and setting them in an urn (provided by Vinny from one of his clearance jobs) and setting that on a trophy stand.... All good fun.
 
Those who are inclined to suggest the umpire of a one day cricket match should have a reasonable understanding of things like the rules of cricket are wrong... I just need to go and buy a white coat.
 
So there.
 
And we would like to say thank you for all the lovely e-mails and comments and stuff that we got from people while our site was being featured on the front page.... And from the usual suspects too. You are all of course great, and we want to give each and every one of you a big kiss.... Maybe take you out for dinner... a few drinks... a night at the opera... a shared taxi and a world of possibilities.