After a long and tiring journey, I arrived at Heathrow, very pleased not to be jumping onto another plane anytime soon. Things became slightly more stressful when I was not allowed through immigration as I didn’t know exactly where I was staying and I didn’t know the professions of the people I was staying with, who really knows that anyway?. Eventually after they confirmed with Caroline Shearing that there is actually a game called polocrosse and that I wasn’t a terrorist, I was finally allowed through. From my first week in England I would have happily agreed that England doesn’t constantly rain, and can be at times hot enough to get burnt. However, the sun didn’t stay very long as from that point it was thick fog, rain and floods all the way! My second week I caught up with some well needed sleep and learnt that TVs, DVDs and couches in the UK aren’t all that different to home. The cancellation of the Sleaford tournament was really disappointing, being the first tournament I’ve ever had cancelled. By the time Arden was cancelled it wasn’t that much of a big deal as the party still went on and three nights of solid partying had me stuffed anyway. By this point I barely noticed the constant
rain!
There wasn’t really a bad thing about my trip over there, except that I had to go home and go back to uni! The families I stayed with were great, I was so well looked after, and everyone went There wasn’t really a bad thing about my trip over there, except that I had to go home and go back to uni! The families I stayed with were great, I was so well looked after, and everyone went out of their way to show me the sites of England. I slept in everyday, spent a day in PJs, ate pizzas and Seaspray way too much and the drinking, well, yeh. I must say, the only annoying thing was lugging my suitcase to each tournament and packing it up was even worse as I’d have to attempt to think what else I had brought, and my head was already hurting enough. I think if I was there even longer, going from one place to another would be irritating as I noticed every house has bedrooms up a set of stairs!
I had some great experiences, watching a bar be built up from very little, I enjoyed a barbeque under an umbrella and had fun squelching through mud in ‘my’ welly boots.
Overall I had a fantastic time, and I would love nothing more then to come back and do it all again!! Cant wait to hear who’s coming this way next year, with nationals in Perth it should be great.
Thanks to everyone who looked after me, thanks to the UKPA for my medal and jacket and good luck for the 2011 World Cup preparations. Hope to see some of you over here before then.
Edders
Jul 172008