China

China, China, China….. Hmm where to start. Arrived in Shanghai over a week ago and headed to the Shanghai institute of sport, which is about an hour out of the city. Here we have been enduring some intense sessions in order to maintain both strength and fitness while we are away before heading to the World League Finals in Changshu on Sunday.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner include rice, noodles and mystery meat. To top it all off no facebook, no twitter, no tv. Luckily us girls are stocked up on books, movies and of course snacks. After 6 days of hard training we are finally head out with the team to explore Shanghai. First stop, an Ancient water village. Zhouzhuang, built in 1086, is surrounded by water and boats are needed even for short-distance trips. This town features small bridges connecting the various parts of the city.

Next Stop, Shanghai. Straight off the bus and into the first coffee shop we can see. Ahhh, finally some coffee that isn’t instant and from a packet. Feeling rejuvenated we head out into the streets of shanghai and head to the markets to put our bargaining stills to the test. After some thrilling haggling, more coffee, we stroll down the bustling streets towards the Bund. Here we meet up with the rest of the team to head on an evening river cruise (pictures to follow shortly).

Back at the institute and back into training. Not long to go now. Only 3 more days of training before heading back on the road. Looking forward to getting back into playing some games!

Ready to Rumble

London to Tokyo to Singapore

London to Tokyo to Singapore in only a few short weeks, 2 to be exact. With little to no down time plus hard training and games, Singapore will be a perfect place to rest and recovery before moving on to our next phase. We finished off our London Campaign with a win against the USA for the Gold Medal. It was great to be playing in the Olympic venue, with big crowds and tough games…..

Chiba, Tokyo second round of World League Finals where we played China and Japan. Although there wasn’t much time to do some sightseeing we were able to enjoy some of the local cuisine. As we headed off for our long awaited mini break in Singapore, Japan was nice enough to put on some great weather as we were flying over Mount Fuji. Great view!

So now we are enjoying our mini-break over the weekend in Singapore, as on Monday morning we fly out for Shanghai, where we will set up a 2 week training base before heading to World League Finals. 

London's Calling

It’s the beginning of our international season and off to London we go….

           

·      Flight to Singapore 7.5 hours

·      Layover 4 hours

·      Flight to London 13 hours

·      Border Security 1 hour

·      Bus ride during peak hour to pool 2 hours

·      TOTAL = 27.5 hours

And after all this travel time, we head straight to the pool for a training session…. As you can guess we are all lovin’ life right now. After training we head to the hotel, where we can’t check in till 2….. only 3 hours away. So we grab some lunch and wander a bit of the surrounding area of our hotel (not much to see). We finally get to our rooms to relax for a bit, only to find out that we are heading to the gym in about an hour to do weights. Never a dull moment on the road. 

Needless to say we were all buggered and crashed quite early that night. This first event of the international season allows us to test out the Olympic Venue, which is not only exciting but important to get an understanding of how the games will progress behind the scenes. Plus we have had a sneaky peek around the Olympic compound and the other venues.

We are here to play 3 round games, followed by a final against the likes of USA, Hungary and Great Britain. From all reports the 5000 seat stadium should be near capacity, which should create an amazing atmosphere. We have our first game against the Brits on Thursday night. Should be a good hit out.

The first leg of our trip begins…..