I had so much lined up for this weekend – Davitt Awards on Friday, writers' festival followed by drinks with a friend on Saturday, and a free family pass to watch the Melbourne Storm v the Manly Sea Eagles on Sunday – that at the back of my mind was the thought that with so much to look forward to, one of us was bound to get ill and skittle the whole thing. But it didn't happen and I got to do all of it – the power of negative thinking! Ditto with the cricket – I fell asleep just before lunch last night and decided to go to bed. Ponting and Hussey were batting, not much was happening really, and I thought probably they'd still be in by stumps, and maybe the tail would be in tonight. But no – when we got up it was all over and England had regained the Ashes! I was happy, though it has to be said somewhat disappointed for the two boys in my house, one of whom was philosophical, but the other of whom is devastated. But yes, I bet if I'd gone to bed thinking "This is all over, England'll have 'em all out by tea", Ponting would have scored 200.

Now I'm trying to watch stuff on the BBC website and getting frustrated by the "only available within the UK" footage. What about us expats who paid our licence fee for YEARS? And what's this deal whereby you don't have to have a TV licence to watch iPlayer if you live in the UK, but you can't watch it if you're outside the UK "because you have to have a TV licence". Grrr. Oh, well, I've been able to watch Sky's coverage on our free-to-air SBS channel all series, as well as Test Match Special in the car, so I suppose I can't complain too much.

The rugby match yesterday was great! I don't follow rugby league at all, but we'd got the free tickets and I really enjoyed it. It was a close match and we had good views of the ground. It was a shame the Storm lost, but you can't have everything in a weekend, can you? Hawthorn (AFL) won, England won, and Wolves (English Premier League) lost and the Storm lost. Two teams out of four ain't bad.

Yesterday I went into the city for the Writers' Festival panel on 'Crimes within Crimes' with British author Tom Rob Smith and Australia's Marshall Browne. I got in early, so had time to wander around the second-hand book stalls, and also take a look in the overcrowded bookshop that was selling titles by the various Writers' Festival panellists. I hadn't read books by either of the authors I went to see and thought about buying a couple - but I couldn't find an Australian price on the cover, so didn't. I found a British price and rather wished I had my Pommie money still with me so I could have said, "Here's the seven pounds ninety-five - that's what it says on the cover". So I'll look out for the books elsewhere, where I can see a price, I think.

The panel was interesting, though there seemed to be a bit of friction between Tom Rob Smith and Liz Gaynor, a judge who was chairing the panel. I'm not sure what that was all about, but he seemed to contradict everything she said. Anyway, Marshall Browne was very relaxed and interesting and talked about how he never plans his books. He begins with a visual image and takes it from there, never knowing what's going to happen next. Tom Rob Smith says he plots his books beforehand, so he has some sort of structure to work with as he's going.

Afterwards, I met a friend from my writing group for a drink, and we went to a fabulous bar with a view over the Yarra to the Arts Centre. Then I came back and watched the cricket till I feel asleep. So I didn't see Trott's century. Very interestingly poised is this final test match - my gut feeling is that Australia can bat it out for two days for a draw and retain the Ashes. Actually, I wouldn't put it past them to send that ball flying to the boundary over and over for an almost unbelievable win. I don't know if I can stand the tension tonight!

Had an excellent night at the Davitt Awards (for Australian women's crime fiction and true crime) at the Celtic Club last night. I caught up with heaps of people I hadn't seen for ages, and also caught up with people I'd seen only the other week. The speaker, Justice Betty King, was brilliant and wonderfully opinionated, and the awards went to:

Best adult crime novel:
Malla Nunn, A Beautiful Place to Die

Best YA crime novel:
Catherine Jinks, Genius Squad

Best true crime book:
Chloe Hooper, The Tall Man

Readers' choice award:
Katherine Howell, The Darkest Hour

I listened to Test Match Special in the car coming home, and when I got back put the telly on and watched cricket until tea. Amazing afternoon session! Who will win, I wonder? I feel a bit nervous about tonight's play, but first I'm off into the city again for a writers' festival session on crimes within crimes ...