Well, ready or not, here it comes.

I have been reaching for the "awkward adolescent" cliché when thinking about the current transitional phase of the Australian team: spottiness, all odd angles and unevenness, etc. It's probably the non-physical traits of adolescence that are more pertinent: paralysing self-consciousness and self-seriousness, for example. But the comparison is very hard on adolescents and the team is growing down rather than up. I don't know, I just don't know what to do with them when they're being like this. I am in knots of anxiety about this coming summer, and those knots are only tightened by the pull of Pollyanna-ish hopefulness. Maybe the awkward adolescent is me.

Wikipedia tells me that Pollyanna had something called "The Glad Game", which consisted in "finding something to be glad about in every situation". I was at the WACA on 31 October for the T20 game against Sri Lanka that started the cricket season, and let me tell you that the WACA purveys some of the finest hot chips I have ever eaten. No really, I made lots of notes about the chips. For example I find there's a point in a bucket of chips - about half way or two thirds through - when you start to feel remorseful and not needing any more but you still finish them and then feel a bit sick. These chips however were somehow both delicious and clean: as wicked in terms of fat and salt as you could want a chip to be, but untroubling of digestion or conscience. Magic chips. Like the magic chalk circle that somehow managed to restrict the batting rather than the fielding in Australia's first innings. But also the enchanted scene one wanders through when leaving the WACA to get back to the city, with the floodlights streaming over Queens Gardens.

Lovely! That's my story for the moment. The sports section today is all about Hauritz being dropped for the new guy but I really don't know what to do with that either. When things aren't going well, the shuffling around starts and it's never a good look or feel, but I'm not qualified to offer an opinion and honestly hasn't there been enough opinion in the last few weeks? So, so much opinion. That's the other thing that happens when things aren't going well. Let it begin, I think I am ready after all.