Well done England management for picking Tremlett, and well done Strauss for uncharacteristically putting them in, he's learning to take calculated risks at long last as good captains should do.
Can't be long now before the Australia media turn on the Aussie management slating them for not building a new team soon enough and thinking they could live off their reputation alone. Personally I think the whole Aussie board should be replaced, with chaps like Ponting and Warne.
I'll go back to bed now. 
Ignore my former post, what was I thinking? This is England after all - officially rubbish once again, normal service is resumed. >_<
It's almost as if Pakistan's fixers slipped into the England rooms overnight. Yesterday afternoon, the bookmakers that I'd placed a bet with for England to win the Ashes announced they would immediately begin paying out all bets for England to win/retain the Ashes: "... the writing is on the wall and we can't see the Aussies coming back from here. We'd be paying out soon enough anyway so punters may as well have their cash now in time for Christmas." Result! Meanwhile, other bookmakers were early this morning offering odds of 9-1 for Australia to win the Ashes. Odds have fallen off a bit now, but I'd still put my money on England.
Bugger
Makes for an interesting Boxing Day deciding test.
Well yes it puts a bit of interest back into it.
I always fear the domino effect with England's batters under pressure, they are still so easy to tumble out. Done in by the swing of Johnson and the crazily erratic KP! England have to start again but it's Australia who have their tails up now.
Think I'll still go for England edging the series.
Reasonable start !
Comedy batting at its finest from the Strallies 
Can you believe that after the the two dropped catches in the first three overs I switched off.
Great performance from the boys. I expect the aussies to be a much harder prospect to knock over in the second innings however. I would bat till tea ( if possible ) and get a 500 lead and then crowd the bat.
Shame about Rickys behaviour. I've always been one to saty the bloke shouldn't get booed and he should be treated like we treat any other great player. But the guy does bring it on himself doesn't he. It shows a lack of class about the bloke.
Final thought. Colly. I've always been a fan. The sort of bloke you want with you in a scrap. However, it may be that his time is now up. But of course with a four man attack Colly is the 5 bowler, so a simple replacement with morgan just isn't really on. My guess is stick with the bloke till the end of the tour. Long term? Bresnen? Wright? Ravi?
I'm listening to TMS while reading on here and also the OBO on the BBC website.
Lovely stuff !
Warm glow.
This joke was posted on another forum
Johnny was at school this morning and the teacher asked all the children what their fathers did for a living. All the typical answers came out,
fireman, policeman, salesman, chippy, captain of industry etc, but little Johnny was being uncharacteristically quiet and so the teacher asked him about his father.
"My father is an exotic dancer in a gay club and takes off all his clothes
in front of other men. Sometimes if the offer is really good, he'll go out
with a man, rent a cheap hotel room and let them sleep with him."
The teacher quickly set the other children some work and took little Johnny
aside to ask him if that was really true.
"No" said johnny, "He plays cricket for Australia but I was just too
embarrassed to say."
I'm imagining Ricky Ponting's pompous little face as you tell him this joke. Now I'm imagining what it'll look like when you tell him he is officially the worst Aussie Ashes captain on record, when England win.
A truly great batsman and very good fielder, a bit of a nonentity as a test captain. He looked good when he had a great team, now he has an average team he looks average at best. He tinkered too much in the field and lost his composure when things went against them. This always sends the wrong message to your team. NOT a great captain, imo.
Cricket = being raped by a rent boy