I am sure that one day in the future I will view these past few months and it will be only regret that I shall feel about them. Little progress has been achieved, a little overdue knowledge has been gained but then nothing that is particularly noteworthy. Perhaps this will go down as the most unproductive six months of my life. Well they say everythins is part of the learning curve and I sincerely hope this is part of it otherwise the God of time (if he exists) owes me these six months as a refund.
I am fast joining the rather vocal group who want test cricket to be stopped at least being played in India. I believe they should play all the tests in Australia where the grounds are big, lovely and green, the pitches favour some outcome and not five days of montony. I think the only thing more boring than a slow test match is golf but then thats an unfair comparison. Golf is by far the most boring viewing sport. Even watching the spelling bees held on ESPN are more lively and entertaining. The contestant who looks like he/she doesnt see the sun much is given a huge word by a guy who sounds like he were delivering a death sentence (though I cant think of any entertaining way to say such huge and twisted words maybe I would prefer death rather than trying to spell them) and then repeats it, asks for the meaning, repeats it some more times and then has a sporting go at trying to spell it. Even worse there are actually commentators who try and give commentary during this event. Most of their sentences are'

"do you think he's gonna get it?"

" I think so. Look at the concentraion on his face"

After numerous such banal comments they then sit and analyze every thing about the event though I havent watched it long enough to hear what the actually talk about but I am guessing its along the lines of "Do you think...." I am sure the contestants are very smart and I am sure we are all very proud of the fact that they can use large words in case of a national emergency or in case they need a human dictionary to solve a crossword to save the earth but the least that can be done for ignorant, and boorish viewers like me is that they put cheerleaders or something to make it more exciting. Though I wonder then whether any of the judges or the contestants would get any of the words right.