I am often asked who I support in the cricket now that I am a dual national, it's like a coded way of saying 'I know you've got both passports but what you are you really? Like deep down. In you soul.' And the answer is England, that is how I choose to see my life story. I'm an Englishman who went to live in Australia and also become an Australian. I am not an Australian who used to be an Englishman. Either would be acceptable but I choose the former.

I've become interested in this concept of how we see the world, and our part in it, since I read a book about Selfies*. Those who follow Tracy and I on our travels through our Instagram account @anttrails will know that we enjoy taking selfies. In an idle moment, wandering around a bookshop whilst Tracy had her nails done (a prominent feature of Tracy's life story!), I bought said book. Now it turns out that the book wasn't really about selfies at all, that was just put into the title to pull in suckers like me. It was actually far more interesting than that. It tracks "the idea of 'individualism' as it evolved through the ages of Christianity, industry, science and psychology, right through to Silicon Valley and the era of hyper-individualistic and competitive neoliberalism most of us have grown up in". Heady stuff! Paraphrasing drastically one thesis within the book is that we all carry a narrative of our life stories, recited to us by the voice in our head, that is heavily shaped by our culture and environment. "We absorb the stories that flow around our culture and use to them to make sense of our past, our future, and to help us figure out who we are and who we want to be. We use them to construct our 'narrative identity'".

As it happens cricket plays a prominent role in my life story. Winchmore Hill Cricket Club formed the backdrop to my formative years, introducing me to important life skills like building camaraderie and drinking beer. Which is why sitting there with my life long friend from the club Ally and our respective fairer halves Tracy and Lou (I can say that, I'm post-woke), swigging pints and listening to leather on timber felt so comfortable. We were fortunate that England batted first and we got to experience 'Bazball' in full swing. Well fullish. Sadly on too many occasions the timber being struck by leather was the best English batsmen's stumps. Root, Stokes, Bairstow all out bowled.

Thinking about this concept of everyone having their own personal life narrative shaped by their culture I was reminded of a conversation I got into in Paris with the nice man serving us breakfast at our hotel. He was from Bangladesh. Now Bangladeshi's are as cricket mad as the Indians and my new friend was keen to tell me how much he loves the Australian team and in particular David Warner. I have to confess this came as quite a shock to me. I don't even know many Australians (and fewer Englishmen) who like David Warner, orchestrator of the greatest cheating scandal in recent cricket history. Why would the Bangladeshis? Well it turns out that Warner went to play in their country when he was coming back from his cheating ban and it was a great shot in the arm for Bangladeshi cricket. He ingratiated himself with the people there and they love him. My Bangladeshi friend and millions of his compatriots have a cultural narrative that holds David Warner in extremely high regard. I don't. There is no absolute right or wrong on the matter, just different stories that we tell ourselves.

The final life story to reflect on from our day at the Test is that of Tracy's friend David Peacock who we caught up with for a chat at Tea time. Many years ago David and a friend started to go overseas to watch England play. A few more friends and friend of friends started to join them and the group grew in size and took a bit more organising. Eventually the group became so large and popular that it needed to be formalised and a travel club was formed. David sold the Barmy Army earlier this year. He never did it for the money and he's happy to be free of the hassle of running the show, back where it all started as a fan. David's story is that he was only ever a fan, life just took him on an interesting and unexpected journey. Many journeys in fact, following the England team and more importantly following his passion. It's a wonderful life story.

Two more stops to go on this summer sporting crusade, intertwined with Tracy's and my narrative identities. Thanks for taking the time out of your life to read my musings, your likes and comments are very much appreciated. I learnt about why in the book: