Carrot on Carrot

OK. So, me and blogging.

The blog: this is not a cricket blog per se. I will write a lot about cricket, I'm sure, given that I've been obsessed with it ever since I can remember, but I'll be writing about a lot more than just cricket.

Me: I'm in my late twenties, Australian, and currently a music student. I just started a postgraduate (of a sort) course in singing in a Dutch conservatoire. I'm a lyric tenor, and hope that doing this will lead to a stage career singing Monteverdi, Bach, Handel and Mozart, and maybe the likes of Rossini and Donizetti later on.

I've spent a fair amount of time in London, and up until recently had a high-pressure, full-time job in the West End that went pretty close to driving me insane, and ushered on the career-change that I've now embarked upon. Office jobs are good as a means to an end, but I don't think anyone really entered an office environment thinking "this is what I really want to do". Certainly not me, anyway. The endless pursuit of money, power and political gain are not things that sit easily with me, either. Greed is not good. I might elaborate on this later on - I might not.

I like just about every mainstream British or Australian sport you'd care to name, with the possible exception of AFL and Rugby League - I'll still watch them if you put them in front of me, though. I like how sport reflects life. I like how it takes talent, but above all how generally speaking, it takes determination, character, technique and discipline to succeed in it. Sport often helps me with my singing, and I find that as a performer, musician and artist that there are parallels with sport to be found in abundance. I'm a pretty poor sportsman myself, although growing up in Australia you don't get much choice but to play every sport under the sun, and I'm loosely capable of not embarassing myself at squash, tennis, basketball, swimming, hockey - usually anything that isn't a contact sport. Best sports are cricket, which I am fair to middling at, and golf, which if I played enough I could probably be quite good at. But, generally speaking, as a sportsman I'm a good spectator. It's the psychology, aesthetics and statistical analysis of sport that usually interest me. Oh, and I'm a Fulham FC fan.

Why a blog? I've always wanted one, actually, but until I quit my job I didn't have the time or the energy. Ever since a mate started and aborted one that Tony linked to in 2002, I've been a regular in the comments on aftergrogblog, and particularly when it's cricket-related. Even got my own, post once. Had to go to Moscow to do it, though!

I'm also kinda keen on the idea of becoming world-famous and being paid to write a blog, like dooce, but in all honesty, all this is is a chance to write down some ramblings. There's writing in the family - I'm pretty closely related to George Bernard Shaw and more distantly to Walter Scott, so maybe that has something to do with it.

And since I got gagged after the urbanfeminist disabled anonymous comments, she'd better watch out!

My promise to you, as a loyal reader: This blog is not an exercise in ego-centricity. I've written all of the above for context, and nothing else. Neither is this some sort of e-journal. I probably do enough soul-searching as it is, and don't need to inflict it on you. I'd also like to stay anonymous, within reason.

'Nuff said? Right. On with the show then.