Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

Second Test: We lost. Badly.
Third Test: We won. Well.
Fourth Test: We lost. Badly. And lost the Ashes.

I've said it all on Twitter.

Energy to blog? What's that?

In the immortal words of D.Bumble Lloyd, England flippin murdered Australia at The Gabba this week. And what a crushing demoralising draw it was.

Whatever else happened over the five days, the scoreline "517 for 1" at the end of the England second innings is all you need to know to understand how horrible an experience this has been for Australia.

Defining moments on the opening day of the Ashes of 2010-11? Three Vicious ones all in a row.

There was a false dawn when Andrew Strauss' cameo appearance ended three balls after he won the toss and chose to bat first. Nicked to Hussey off Hilfy midway through the first over for nought.

It's called the ultimate challenge in world cricket. Not the ultimate fighting challenge, but the ultimate challenge nonetheless. Australia playing England in a five-game series of cricket matches that last a maximum of five days each. The trophy, a fragile and minute 125 year-old artifact - The Ashes - securely and permanently stored and displayed in London.

A giant of 20th century mathematics died on Friday, Benoît Mandelbrot, the man who gave prominence to the theory of fractal geometry.

(This item is my contribution to Blog Action Day 2010, whose topic this year is "Water".)

Australia is being confronted with a national dilemma which has a major impact on its society and the environment, and it will take a huge amount of wisdom, courage, co-operation and, yes, pain to reach a stable outcome.

Kenya's upset of the West Indies. Ireland's giant-killing of Pakistan. Moments in the sun for Canada, Bermuda, the Netherlands and others. Sri Lanka's rise from minnows to champions. Even Afghanistan's near-miss at joining the club. All these things could be consigned to the trashcan of history with the ICC approving a recommendation to downsize the Cricket World Cup.

Does the sporting world really need a Commonwealth Games every four years? Is it worth the trouble, the cost, the sporting overkill, the anachronistic vestages of empire? You can probably tell which way I'm leading these questions.