At the WACA - 3rd day - Just loveLEE

Day 3

9.15am

We got to the WACA at 9.15am this morning, just in time to see the South African team start warmups. They all seemed pretty upbeat today, smiling & joking with each other. I headed over to watch the Aussie team warm up in the nets, (The WACA nets are just beautiful, surrounded by a white picket fence, they have trees overhanging the nets). Brad Hodge & Mike Hussey were both having a bat, with Glenn McGrath and Nathan Bracken bowling to them while Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting & Andrew Symonds were kicking around a football (that is Aussie football, not soccer.)

My most photographed player.. The South African captain, Graeme Smith.

After a little while I headed back to the stands, as I didn't want to miss seeing the full South African warmup. Makhaya Ntini came bouncing up the race as usual.. and upon seeing Me & C. He gave us a big smile and 'Good morning girls!' Only a few of the Aussies came out to warmups in the middle - Brett Lee & Shane Warne. Warnie ambled over to Ian Healy & Mark Taylor who were doing the usual pre-match TV coverage of the coming days play, while Brett Lee bowled a few deliveries.

Brett Lee finished warming up and unlike every other Aussie player, he didn't go back to the dressing rooms through the underground route, instead coming up the player race, which is directly in contact with the crowd. Immediately a security guard came up to him to escort him back to the rooms without him having to deal with the crowd, but he turned around and said 'Nah, I'm fine mate' and started signing autographs for all the little kids, who's numbers were rapidly increasing as they spot 'Brett Lee!' in the crowd.

Brett Lee during his warmup.

I had made a sign, with two photos of him, Australian flag in the middle, and AwesomeLEE! written across the top. I was unsure whether or not he would stop to sign anything for me, 'cause I was just hanging back in my seat, letting everyone else push past us (I never want to be a fan who runs after people, I just hang back, and if they want to sign, they will.) .. but he stopped! smiled with 'Hello girls!' and took my sign & marker... He saw the sign.. looked up at me and gave another smile.. and paused thoughtfully for a second before starting to write something on my sign (oh, I thought, He must have a rather small autograph) - but it was taking him a while.. ''there' Brett Lee said, as he handed my sign back to me with yet another smile. 'Thank you' I said and he took C's hat to sign..

Meanwhile, I looked down to read my sign, fully expecting to see a tiny little 'Brett Lee' scribbled on it instead it said ..

'lots of love
xxx
Brett Lee'

I couldn't help the biggest smile coming over my face.. as he saw my reaction, his eyes brightened and he said 'Thanks girls, you have a really great day!' and ran up the race back to the dressing rooms to prepare for the start of the day's play.

I was literally on cloud nine for the next half-hour, and immediately rang Cl. at home to tell her the whole story with lots of loud 'He is REALLY nice!' 'no, seriously, He did that!' phrases punctuating my conversation with her.

All I can say is that Brett Lee is one of the sweetest, most genuine people I have ever seen, and he deserves every accolade and every bit of support he gets. It's wonderful to meet one of your favourite sportsmen, and to find that they surpass your expectations. That was just AwesomeLEE!! :D

You can catch all the photos I took (I think it was around 112!) on my flickr album.. I'll have them all uploaded in the next day or so