Today was hot. Ridiculously hot.

I played cricket and felt like I was melting. Batting for over an hour, sucking in super-heated 41 degree air. Gasp! Another 2…. on my way to 45 as we finished with 191 which was well and truly enough as we demolished the opposition for 87. I took 1/8 off 4 which was more than reasonable.

Racing off home, I had to make it to the Opera House to see The Matthew Herbert Big Band – another Sydney Festival event.

Herbert’s Big Band project combines the cream of the jazz scene, both locally for the tour and from Europe, on trumpets, trombones, saxophones, piano, bass and drums – with Herbert’s own mad professor tomfoolery and the one moment booming, the next, dulcet tones of Eska Mtungwazi (pictured).

Herbert played a ’secret gig’ at the Spiegeltent that night, which we planned to go to for a while but fatigue set in. The same reason as to why we didn’t make it to see Mathew Jonson either – but he’s playing again this weekend.