Spotted: Very white Englishman with a straw hat in Sydney

So, I've been in Australia a few days now. Feels like a crazy social psychology experiment along the lines of "What would happen if one took a middle class Englishman and deposited him 10,000 miles away from home?". It's been surreal, from the sloping sleekness of Singapore airport which reminded me of martial arts flicks to the soaring humidity upon entering Sydney, which was in stark contrast to the freezing hats and gloves weather i'd left all of a day earlier. So far, I don't have much to report, but will write a post every weekend (Australian time, which is GMT +11). Due to technical limitations, I'll post my photos periodically to a host site rather than integrating them- will post links here. Have done some walking so far as the heat and humidity has allowed, seen Circular Quay and Darling Harbour. Have also indulged one of the Australian national passtimes by watching cricket at two world-famous grounds, the Sydney Cricket Ground and the ANZ Olympic Stadium, built for the Sydney Olympics.
For those that are interested, here are my brief match reports:

Australia vs South Africa- 3rd ODI- 23/1-Sydney (SCG) http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/175/175400.html
South Africa (270/7) beat Australia (269) by 3 wickets with 3 and a half overs to spare in front of a raucous near capacity crowd at the SCG. Both innings followed a similar pattern with a fast start , with special mention to young New South Wales opener David Warner (69 off 60 balls) for Australia and Herschelle Gibbs (64 off 54 balls), who was dropped twice on 0, and Jacques Kallis (60 off 72 balls) for South Africa, followed by a period of rebuilding in the middle of the innings after wickets fell. Both sides had bowlers who were able to keep a lid on the scoring in the middle overs, notably the acting South African captain off-spinner Johan Botha (3 for 32 off 10 overs) and NSW swing bowler Nathan Bracken, whose first 6 overs went for only 10 runs. However, Australian pacemen Johnson and Tait were too inaccurate in the final overs and a blistering assault by Man of the Match all-rounder Albie Morkel (40 off 22 balls), before holing out off NSW off-spinner Nathan Hauritz on his home ground, in the end saw South Africa home with 3 overs to spare.

New South Wales vs Victoria- Twenty20 Big Bash Final- 24/1- Sydney (ANZ Olympic Stadium)
http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/180/180652.html

New South Wales (167/5) beat Victoria (166/4) by 5 wickets in a thrilling last-ball victory at the ANZ Olympic Stadium, Sydney. Both sides were considerably short fof full-strength due to international commitments and injuries; the hamstring injury sustained in the preliminary final win over Queensland by leading Victorian run-scorer Brad Hodge perhaps being very significant in the end. However, this provided the opportunity for some lesser-heralded players to shine, notably Victorian opener Rob Quiney (91 off 56 balls), who hit 3 fours and a mammoth 8 sixes, Man of the Match NSW batsman Ben Rohrer, who struck 45 off 20 balls including 4 sixes at the death to seal victory, and the pick of the bowlers, Aaron Bird of NSW (3 for 21 off his 4 overs). Other valuable batting contributions for NSW came from captain and Australian test opener Simon Katich, who scored 37 off 24 balls with 5 fours and a six, and Phil Hughes, tipped to open with Katich in the Test team following the retirement of Matthew Hayden, with 43 off 32 balls with 6 fours and a six.

Max