Sporting Sunday

Last night, before I called it a night, I moved my bed, put my TV on standby, and set my alarm for 3:45am. Yes, I was going to wake up in the middle of the night to watch the Australian Grand Prix from the comfort of my bed.

This morning, I woke up at 10am. Now what happened there? The TV was still on standby, the remote hadn't moved, and my alarm showed little signs of life. I've absolutely no recollection of waking up at 3:45am, so either my alarm didn't go off, or my 3:45am sleep deprived-self decided there were better things to be doing than watching the Formula One. So upon having breakfast I decided to bake some cookies to console myself.

This afternoon, the suspicions of my 3:45am self were affirmed. Having spent just over three hours watching a repeat of the race this afternoon I'm rather glad something did go wrong at 3:45am, for it wasn't exactly thrilling entertainment and I doubt I'd have stayed awake through it all. In fact, I rather more enjoyed the one-hour pre-race build up, even though it was in Dutch.

This evening, I had a rather amusing introduction to American basketball. Those on Facebook will probably have noticed the basketball related features that mean absolutely nothing to most outside the USA, but I have the pleasure of living with an American flatmate who very much does know what they mean, and now, so do I. Almost. He's a Wisconsin supporter and this evening they were playing Nevada. However, being devoid of any TV showing or Internet broadcast we had to content ourselves with a time-delayed text comment service. Probably not the best introduction to the sport, but it was more fun than the Formula One. Wisconsin lost, something I found myself quite disappointed about, but I now know more about basketball than I do football, which isn't saying much.

Last week, when I was on the train back from Schipol to Utrecht, the train passed Amsterdam Ajax's football stadium, and I caught myself thinking that I should probably try and watch them play while I'm here. A sign advertising Utrecht FC triggered a similar reaction the other day. But why? Back home I've never been to see a football match, a cricket game, or even a rugby match, and I haven't really been inclined to do so despite it presumably being easier to do so. In fact, even badminton, the only sport I do actually play, doesn't register on my sport-awareness radar.

Last Summer (see what I'm doing here?), when I was in the States, we sought out every type of sport we could, regardless of whether we knew anything about it, and although we got to see two thoroughly confusing baseball games, I'm still disappointed not to have caught an American football match, and after this evening I'm wanting to see a basketball game. All this despite the fact that I don't follow any of these sports.

Perhaps the grass really is greener, but either way, it's all very odd.