Day 20
An early start today! We woke up at 6:50 again and did the same usual route! 103 bus and then the train route to Vasco station.
Today was a mixed day with a variety of tasks which was nice! From 9-11 I was helping people out with their CV's and also general ICT and online help. My best CV was created for a woman called Susie! She had heaps of work experience and good grades so I was baffled why she hadn't found a job yet however she informed she wanted an updated CV to apply for an 18 month internship at a law firm! I sat down with her for a good hour or so to help with her CV and have a good chat! Then from approximately 11-1 Jeff,Joe,Lourens,Azile and myself had a meeting regarding Saturdays communicare league big kick off, a league where there there are fixtures between all the complexes start on Saturday! We had an hour break from 1-2 where we visited a shopping mall. We went into many shops where there was the perfect kind of shoes and caps that I like! They're around 30-40 pounds out here in comparison to the UK where they would be about 70 pounds. For the trainers of course, not the caps.
From 2:30-4:30 Jeff and I was coaching! We headed back to De Waveren school where they had previously asked for autographs and photo's! Today was exclusively or the school and not the Ruyterwacht community so we had a solid 35 kids! We worked on Ball control and attacking focused sessions today where we did some kick up exercises, piggy in the middle (with 1 in the middle or 2 holding a cone) and then we finished off with 3v2/attack vs defence.
We departed from De Waveren school at just before 5. Our next session is on the 6th, so we'll be looking forward to that just as much as the kids! We checked out a couple more complexes which communicare own and just spoke to the kids about football and had a little kick about with them! Where I got nutmegged by a 9 year old. They were convinced I was Lukas Podolski which was quite funny!
Overall a good day! EARLY START tomorrow. Have to be out of the door at 6:40!
All the best.
Luke
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Day 19
Day 19
Back to work!
Jeff and I arose at about 6:50 to be out the door by about 7:25! This gave us enough time to shovel some cornflakes down and make ourselves presentable!
The usual route was taken and we arrived in Ruyterwacht at about 8:50! We didn't start coaching till 10:30 at Goodwood Crèche. Jeff and I both wrote up a few CV's and helped people on computers in that hour and a bit. It felt great to be helping people potentially getting a job and improve the living conditions of their family!
Goodwood Crèche is the nursery we was teaching at last week! In our first visit we did a fun races session but today we focused on target practice and kicking a bit more! We split them in to four teams and gave each team a ball. The aim of the game was to knock the balls off the cones, kind of like bowling or coconut shy at funfairs! We started with aiming at 3 balls and the pupils were rolling it with their hands, just so that they could understand what they had to do! Next we introduced the technique of kicking which they were just as good at that! Jeff, Joe and I were really surprised at how well they all did! We started with 3 cones so that it was easy for the kids and they could get a feeling of success which of course encourages them to carry on and get that feeling of success even more.. And of course the big high 5 from coach Luke! Gradually we reduced the amount of cones but all 3 groups were so good at the tasks.. the girls were much better than the boys which was nice to see! We finished each session with a competition to see which team could knock all 3 boys down first! My 'team' knocked all 3 off within a minute so I placed the balls back on the cone and let them go again! They did it 3 times in comparison to other teams who struggled to do it once or twice. My coaching skills and encouragement obviously played a massive part in their success.. That goes without saying!
Another great day at Goodwood Crèche! I hope we go back their more, the kids are definitely keen! The lunch provided is always a treat too by the way! Chicken curry was the delicacy today. Lovely stuff. My mum makes a good chicken korma to be fair to her!
We went back to the learning centre in Ruyterwacht, did a couple of admin stuff, helped with CV's and planned our session for the afternoon at De Waveren College.
Unfortunately the afternoon session was a bit of a flop at De Waveren! The school finished at 3:00, but around 15 boys came over to us just to see what was going on.. Not to be coached! They were adamant that they knew nothing about our coaching session! However the school were the opposite and emphasised that they publicised it a lot and it was the boys fault! Who to believe? Hmm! If they advertised it so well.. Surely one boy would bring a pair of boots or trainers? But nope not even one! I'm swinging towards the kids if I'm totally honest. From previous experience if you even mention the word arsenal.. Kids will come as an army to greet you and ask you questions! The boys were gutted but we are back their next week and we have told them to bring their kit and to spread the word! One of the main teachers at the school said that he wouldn't mind if we moved on to another school where soccer was more focused on which didn't show the best signs of enthusiasm and again makes me want to believe the kids that there wasn't much energy in to promoting an arsenal coaching session.
Off to watch the Arsenal game, have a few beers and some dinner now at mixers!! COME ON YOU REDS! 2-1 arsenal. Giroud and Ozil to score.
Buzzing to go back to the school where we signed loads of autographs tomorrow! Joe says we may even get 90-100 kids! Bring it on, that's what it's all about!!
Loving South Africa. Hope everyone's cool in whatever country they're in when reading this!
All the best.
Luke
Back to work!
Jeff and I arose at about 6:50 to be out the door by about 7:25! This gave us enough time to shovel some cornflakes down and make ourselves presentable!
The usual route was taken and we arrived in Ruyterwacht at about 8:50! We didn't start coaching till 10:30 at Goodwood Crèche. Jeff and I both wrote up a few CV's and helped people on computers in that hour and a bit. It felt great to be helping people potentially getting a job and improve the living conditions of their family!
Goodwood Crèche is the nursery we was teaching at last week! In our first visit we did a fun races session but today we focused on target practice and kicking a bit more! We split them in to four teams and gave each team a ball. The aim of the game was to knock the balls off the cones, kind of like bowling or coconut shy at funfairs! We started with aiming at 3 balls and the pupils were rolling it with their hands, just so that they could understand what they had to do! Next we introduced the technique of kicking which they were just as good at that! Jeff, Joe and I were really surprised at how well they all did! We started with 3 cones so that it was easy for the kids and they could get a feeling of success which of course encourages them to carry on and get that feeling of success even more.. And of course the big high 5 from coach Luke! Gradually we reduced the amount of cones but all 3 groups were so good at the tasks.. the girls were much better than the boys which was nice to see! We finished each session with a competition to see which team could knock all 3 boys down first! My 'team' knocked all 3 off within a minute so I placed the balls back on the cone and let them go again! They did it 3 times in comparison to other teams who struggled to do it once or twice. My coaching skills and encouragement obviously played a massive part in their success.. That goes without saying!
Another great day at Goodwood Crèche! I hope we go back their more, the kids are definitely keen! The lunch provided is always a treat too by the way! Chicken curry was the delicacy today. Lovely stuff. My mum makes a good chicken korma to be fair to her!
We went back to the learning centre in Ruyterwacht, did a couple of admin stuff, helped with CV's and planned our session for the afternoon at De Waveren College.
Unfortunately the afternoon session was a bit of a flop at De Waveren! The school finished at 3:00, but around 15 boys came over to us just to see what was going on.. Not to be coached! They were adamant that they knew nothing about our coaching session! However the school were the opposite and emphasised that they publicised it a lot and it was the boys fault! Who to believe? Hmm! If they advertised it so well.. Surely one boy would bring a pair of boots or trainers? But nope not even one! I'm swinging towards the kids if I'm totally honest. From previous experience if you even mention the word arsenal.. Kids will come as an army to greet you and ask you questions! The boys were gutted but we are back their next week and we have told them to bring their kit and to spread the word! One of the main teachers at the school said that he wouldn't mind if we moved on to another school where soccer was more focused on which didn't show the best signs of enthusiasm and again makes me want to believe the kids that there wasn't much energy in to promoting an arsenal coaching session.
Off to watch the Arsenal game, have a few beers and some dinner now at mixers!! COME ON YOU REDS! 2-1 arsenal. Giroud and Ozil to score.
Buzzing to go back to the school where we signed loads of autographs tomorrow! Joe says we may even get 90-100 kids! Bring it on, that's what it's all about!!
Loving South Africa. Hope everyone's cool in whatever country they're in when reading this!
All the best.
Luke
Monday, 27 January 2014
Day 18
Day 18.
Just to get you back on track with my posts.. This is 27th January's post! So I am now back in cycle with my daily posts.
I think Jeff would agree with me when I say today was a day off well used!
We woke up at around 10 o'clock, showered and headed down to the dining room/wifi area to wait for lunch which was at 12 o'clock. Our main concern, pretty sadly, was whether the wifi was working! My main reason was to update my blog and check twitter etc. It gets you thinking though.. How many kids in the areas we have visited.. get up, have a warm shower and head downstairs to be served a nice lunch and use internet connection to check their gadgets!? Not many I would say.
After lunch, we headed down to the beach! Camps bay again, can't go wrong with a bit of camps bay! It was a lovely day about 27c.. A comfortable temperature but that didn't fool me! I slapped on sun cream like it was paint! I listened to music, walked the length of the beach, tanned but most importantly finished my book! It was a very informative read but the lack of storyline puts me off reading those kind of books. I hardly ever read books so to finish it, I was quite proud of myself! On to the next one. My next book is a story about an agent who finds a Taliban sniper (who had previously shot him in the shoulder) living in London all well and good! Should be a decent read.
Our evening was not that exciting! We just chilled and recouped some energy after the sun had drained it from us! We planned our sessions for tomorrow. We start at the goodwood crèche to have our second session with the 5-6 year olds groups and we have developed a session which is focused on targets and working as a team to knock the balls off the cone. The session starts really basic, using their hands to understand what we mean.. Afterwards we move on to using their feet and having a bigger area to aim at, gradually decreasing the amount of balls they can aim at to make it a tad more difficult. Then to finish off we'll have a fun game where they are in teams, first team to kick all 3 balls off the cone wins!!!! In the afternoon we are at a secondary school but we are unsure of our age, ability and group size so we will plan that tomorrow!
Hope everyone's enjoying reading my blog whether you may be family, friends, fellow gappers or even future gappers! I've been astounded with the amount of views I've got so I will keep updating it! Last time I checked I had 1,400 views!
Bed time now! Early start.
All the best,
Luke.
Just to get you back on track with my posts.. This is 27th January's post! So I am now back in cycle with my daily posts.
I think Jeff would agree with me when I say today was a day off well used!
We woke up at around 10 o'clock, showered and headed down to the dining room/wifi area to wait for lunch which was at 12 o'clock. Our main concern, pretty sadly, was whether the wifi was working! My main reason was to update my blog and check twitter etc. It gets you thinking though.. How many kids in the areas we have visited.. get up, have a warm shower and head downstairs to be served a nice lunch and use internet connection to check their gadgets!? Not many I would say.
After lunch, we headed down to the beach! Camps bay again, can't go wrong with a bit of camps bay! It was a lovely day about 27c.. A comfortable temperature but that didn't fool me! I slapped on sun cream like it was paint! I listened to music, walked the length of the beach, tanned but most importantly finished my book! It was a very informative read but the lack of storyline puts me off reading those kind of books. I hardly ever read books so to finish it, I was quite proud of myself! On to the next one. My next book is a story about an agent who finds a Taliban sniper (who had previously shot him in the shoulder) living in London all well and good! Should be a decent read.
Our evening was not that exciting! We just chilled and recouped some energy after the sun had drained it from us! We planned our sessions for tomorrow. We start at the goodwood crèche to have our second session with the 5-6 year olds groups and we have developed a session which is focused on targets and working as a team to knock the balls off the cone. The session starts really basic, using their hands to understand what we mean.. Afterwards we move on to using their feet and having a bigger area to aim at, gradually decreasing the amount of balls they can aim at to make it a tad more difficult. Then to finish off we'll have a fun game where they are in teams, first team to kick all 3 balls off the cone wins!!!! In the afternoon we are at a secondary school but we are unsure of our age, ability and group size so we will plan that tomorrow!
Hope everyone's enjoying reading my blog whether you may be family, friends, fellow gappers or even future gappers! I've been astounded with the amount of views I've got so I will keep updating it! Last time I checked I had 1,400 views!
Bed time now! Early start.
All the best,
Luke.
Day 17
Day 17.
I found out today that it's not berghof who have trouble with their wifi it's the majority of the area! Even a few of the pubs I went to try and post didn't have any connection! Don't worry I'm writing my posts still and they're in my drafts ready to be posted online.
Sunday was a very chilled day. I managed to lie in till about 11:00 which was nice! After last nights antics I think it was wise for me and jeff to get a good few hours sleep! I woke up with my creamy hamstrings feeling the burn of yesterday's mountain climb and we were meant to be playing football later at 3 o clock!
We headed down to the dining room at 12:00 where we had white onion soup followed by roast chicken, potatoes and various other vegetables, finished off by chocolate ice cream!! Still no wifi! Everyone's slowly starting to realise that we're residents at berghof and are gradually starting to speak to us more which is nice! They really appreciate what we're doing in the community and they seem really impressed! The language in the dining room is mainly Afrikaans but they all speak great English. This is like the majority of Cape Town! The main language is Afrikaan which has hints of Dutch and German but English is also widely spoken!
We walked down to mixers after getting ready for football and got a taxi to Hellenic soccer club which was where Eric and Anna told us to go at 3:00! They had some nice 3G football pitches which I play on quite a bit back in England! Unfortunately Eric and Anna had booked the pitch but had not turnt up. I think they were feeling the burn of yesterday's mountain climb! We were sceptical that they would come but we wanted to get out and kick some ball and explore Cape Town even further. Jeff and I kicked around for about an hour and a half. Where I showed Jeff how to master the knuckle ball free kick technique, used by Ronaldo,Bale,David Luiz and Drogba.. Oh and Luke Cawdery. They key is to hit it on the valve, really get over the ball and then step to the side as you kick it. Many gappers will be reading this thinking I'm diabolical at doing it but they've only seen it with the horrible excuse of balls we use in the gap year programme which are rock hard and don't bounce whatsoever! Jeff and I played a little game where we both stood outside of our area and try and lob eachother from one end to the pitch to the other. 5 a side 3G pitches aren't big so it was key to get the dip on the ball or chip perfectly weighted. I only ever knuckled ball'd it which worked 4 times out of 10 I'd say! Jeff was a tad more accurate with the Beckham halfway line goal vs Wimbledon technique.
We finished up at around 4:30 and headed to sea point which was literally a 2 minute walk. We were quite peckish so we headed to a restaurant/cafe type place! Where I bought a pot of pineapple slices! We consumed our purchases infront of the sea and then headed home in a taxi!
Jeff and I had a shower got changed and headed down to mixers for a beer and some food to top off a really wicked weekend! We have tomorrow off too which is an absolute touch! We always have Mondays off as we work for a bit whilst the communicare 5 a side league happens on Saturdays! We coach the kids inbetween their games! Only for a few hours though so we don't mind at all.
Beach tomorrow sounds like a great shout!
Peace out.
All the best,
Luke
I found out today that it's not berghof who have trouble with their wifi it's the majority of the area! Even a few of the pubs I went to try and post didn't have any connection! Don't worry I'm writing my posts still and they're in my drafts ready to be posted online.
Sunday was a very chilled day. I managed to lie in till about 11:00 which was nice! After last nights antics I think it was wise for me and jeff to get a good few hours sleep! I woke up with my creamy hamstrings feeling the burn of yesterday's mountain climb and we were meant to be playing football later at 3 o clock!
We headed down to the dining room at 12:00 where we had white onion soup followed by roast chicken, potatoes and various other vegetables, finished off by chocolate ice cream!! Still no wifi! Everyone's slowly starting to realise that we're residents at berghof and are gradually starting to speak to us more which is nice! They really appreciate what we're doing in the community and they seem really impressed! The language in the dining room is mainly Afrikaans but they all speak great English. This is like the majority of Cape Town! The main language is Afrikaan which has hints of Dutch and German but English is also widely spoken!
We walked down to mixers after getting ready for football and got a taxi to Hellenic soccer club which was where Eric and Anna told us to go at 3:00! They had some nice 3G football pitches which I play on quite a bit back in England! Unfortunately Eric and Anna had booked the pitch but had not turnt up. I think they were feeling the burn of yesterday's mountain climb! We were sceptical that they would come but we wanted to get out and kick some ball and explore Cape Town even further. Jeff and I kicked around for about an hour and a half. Where I showed Jeff how to master the knuckle ball free kick technique, used by Ronaldo,Bale,David Luiz and Drogba.. Oh and Luke Cawdery. They key is to hit it on the valve, really get over the ball and then step to the side as you kick it. Many gappers will be reading this thinking I'm diabolical at doing it but they've only seen it with the horrible excuse of balls we use in the gap year programme which are rock hard and don't bounce whatsoever! Jeff and I played a little game where we both stood outside of our area and try and lob eachother from one end to the pitch to the other. 5 a side 3G pitches aren't big so it was key to get the dip on the ball or chip perfectly weighted. I only ever knuckled ball'd it which worked 4 times out of 10 I'd say! Jeff was a tad more accurate with the Beckham halfway line goal vs Wimbledon technique.
We finished up at around 4:30 and headed to sea point which was literally a 2 minute walk. We were quite peckish so we headed to a restaurant/cafe type place! Where I bought a pot of pineapple slices! We consumed our purchases infront of the sea and then headed home in a taxi!
Jeff and I had a shower got changed and headed down to mixers for a beer and some food to top off a really wicked weekend! We have tomorrow off too which is an absolute touch! We always have Mondays off as we work for a bit whilst the communicare 5 a side league happens on Saturdays! We coach the kids inbetween their games! Only for a few hours though so we don't mind at all.
Beach tomorrow sounds like a great shout!
Peace out.
All the best,
Luke
Day 16
Day 16.
Firstly, apologies for the late post.. Berghof are having trouble with the wifi and I don't really take my phone out unless I need to!
Day 16 was definitely one to remember!!!
We were picked up by Azile, her boyfriend Ernie and his sister Tasha at 8:00! It was time to climb table mountain! Jeff and I were so buzzing, it was something we had both wanted to do and today it would be finally ticked off our "to do" list.
We arrived at table mountain at about quarter past, it's an easy short drive but you can't realistically walk there in my opinion. We started at the starting point which is a couple hundred metres up, as I don't think you can start at sea level. It took us two hours to hike up the mountain and get through the gauge which is a gap in between the mountain which is pretty much the point which people think is the highest. However, we decided to go to the actual top of table mountain, the highest point! That takes an additional 45 minutes which jeff and I really didn't care about! How often do you get to climb a mountain in Enfield or Hammersmith!? Jeff got some fantastic photos (as did I) but I will post them later!
We headed back down at about 11:45 I'd say. The way down was a bit more dangerous to be honest! Gradually overtime the rocks have become smoothened and are actually quite slippy! Even though I had running trainers on.. my grip would often fail me. No worries though! Azile told me a good technique of going down sideways! Her technique never failed and the hike down became a picturesque, very tiring, descent! As I've previously wrote in my posts, I am often nicknamed dangerous Brian in my family so I was constantly thinking it wouldn't be a surprise if I missed a rock and just went tumbling down the mountain to my death! We saw Eric and Anna, the two Americans we saw at grassroots soccer! What a coincidence! Despite giving us their numbers.. We hadn't contacted them. This wasn't necessarily through choice, Jeff and I just had a manic week and didn't have any minutes on our little Nokia. But we agreed to play football with them tomorrow at 3:00 near the World Cup stadium so that should be fun!
Eventually after 2 and a bit hours, we had arrived at the bottom of Table Mountain! Your ankles and knees take a bit of a battering coming down so to be walking on flat ground was surprisingly soothing. We made it though, that's the main thing! Such a cool experience, Lions head next!!
We headed for a couple beers at a bar after our hike for a little celebratory drink! After, Azile drove us home to berghof! We thanked them all so much for taking us out, such a great experience and something I'll look back on for many years to come. Getting to the highest point and looking down on Cape Town is a crazy feeling, it feels like your on top of the world!
We collapsed on our beds through exhaustion! I had a little siesta for around an hour but Jeff was dead to the world! I headed down to the wifi and then realised it wasn't working.. Idiot! So I came back listened to some music and read my book! Can't complain.
The couple beers we had earlier really had us in a mood to go out!! So jeff and I had our showers and then got ready! My hairs pretty long now, but I managed to carve out a quiff thankfully! If you haven't seen my hair without hair clay in it.. It is TRAGIC! We headed to a few bars and clubs and i can honesty say it was one of the best nights I've had in the last few months! We went to a reggae bar which was so funny, had such an awesome time! We met a few interesting people who were keen to take the pee out of our London accent but it was good to have a few drinks and walk around as a group rather than just two of us! Sensible heads were on! Being the man of steel that I am, I can handle my drink quite well but Jeff on the other hand was starting to go! So like I said it was good to be in a group! Long street is the place to be on weekends.. That's for sure! We went to a over 21's bar to try our luck and we got in! Good ol' Cape Town.. Full of surprises!! Don't get me wrong I miss going out with people like Matt,Robert,Laurence and of course Gavin! But I'm sure they're having a good time without me anyway, a big night out is on the cards when we get back!
Such a good 16 hours!
All the best,
Luke.
Firstly, apologies for the late post.. Berghof are having trouble with the wifi and I don't really take my phone out unless I need to!
Day 16 was definitely one to remember!!!
We were picked up by Azile, her boyfriend Ernie and his sister Tasha at 8:00! It was time to climb table mountain! Jeff and I were so buzzing, it was something we had both wanted to do and today it would be finally ticked off our "to do" list.
We arrived at table mountain at about quarter past, it's an easy short drive but you can't realistically walk there in my opinion. We started at the starting point which is a couple hundred metres up, as I don't think you can start at sea level. It took us two hours to hike up the mountain and get through the gauge which is a gap in between the mountain which is pretty much the point which people think is the highest. However, we decided to go to the actual top of table mountain, the highest point! That takes an additional 45 minutes which jeff and I really didn't care about! How often do you get to climb a mountain in Enfield or Hammersmith!? Jeff got some fantastic photos (as did I) but I will post them later!
We headed back down at about 11:45 I'd say. The way down was a bit more dangerous to be honest! Gradually overtime the rocks have become smoothened and are actually quite slippy! Even though I had running trainers on.. my grip would often fail me. No worries though! Azile told me a good technique of going down sideways! Her technique never failed and the hike down became a picturesque, very tiring, descent! As I've previously wrote in my posts, I am often nicknamed dangerous Brian in my family so I was constantly thinking it wouldn't be a surprise if I missed a rock and just went tumbling down the mountain to my death! We saw Eric and Anna, the two Americans we saw at grassroots soccer! What a coincidence! Despite giving us their numbers.. We hadn't contacted them. This wasn't necessarily through choice, Jeff and I just had a manic week and didn't have any minutes on our little Nokia. But we agreed to play football with them tomorrow at 3:00 near the World Cup stadium so that should be fun!
Eventually after 2 and a bit hours, we had arrived at the bottom of Table Mountain! Your ankles and knees take a bit of a battering coming down so to be walking on flat ground was surprisingly soothing. We made it though, that's the main thing! Such a cool experience, Lions head next!!
We headed for a couple beers at a bar after our hike for a little celebratory drink! After, Azile drove us home to berghof! We thanked them all so much for taking us out, such a great experience and something I'll look back on for many years to come. Getting to the highest point and looking down on Cape Town is a crazy feeling, it feels like your on top of the world!
We collapsed on our beds through exhaustion! I had a little siesta for around an hour but Jeff was dead to the world! I headed down to the wifi and then realised it wasn't working.. Idiot! So I came back listened to some music and read my book! Can't complain.
The couple beers we had earlier really had us in a mood to go out!! So jeff and I had our showers and then got ready! My hairs pretty long now, but I managed to carve out a quiff thankfully! If you haven't seen my hair without hair clay in it.. It is TRAGIC! We headed to a few bars and clubs and i can honesty say it was one of the best nights I've had in the last few months! We went to a reggae bar which was so funny, had such an awesome time! We met a few interesting people who were keen to take the pee out of our London accent but it was good to have a few drinks and walk around as a group rather than just two of us! Sensible heads were on! Being the man of steel that I am, I can handle my drink quite well but Jeff on the other hand was starting to go! So like I said it was good to be in a group! Long street is the place to be on weekends.. That's for sure! We went to a over 21's bar to try our luck and we got in! Good ol' Cape Town.. Full of surprises!! Don't get me wrong I miss going out with people like Matt,Robert,Laurence and of course Gavin! But I'm sure they're having a good time without me anyway, a big night out is on the cards when we get back!
Such a good 16 hours!
All the best,
Luke.
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Day 15.
Day 15.
Not really much to blog about today to be totally honest, very relaxed day!
I was awoken by Joe at 8:00 to tell us that we needed to make our way Ruyterwacht as soon as we had our lunch! We had carrot soup to start followed by hake and chips for lunch then chocolate ice cream to finish!! The 103 bus took forever to arrive (a good 30/35 minutes!) but we caught the 14:10 train from Cape Town station! Jeff and I arrived at the learning centre at about 14:45 and had a nice discussion about our first coaching week, a paper article which we will feature in and also how to use sky drive to upload photos from the communicare canon camera! This lasted for just over an hour and then we were back on our way home... Like I said.. A very chilled Friday!
Jeff and I arrived back at about 5 o clock at berghof and had no real plans until the arsenal match! There was only one venue which we would be watching the game.. Mixers!! After a couple pints of black label carling.. Arsenal had won 4-0.. A great victory!! We knew we needed as much sleep as possible for tomorrow's mountain climb so we promptly got the bill and headed home!!
We both can't wait to climb table mountain... Bring it on!!!!
All the best,
Luke.
(This was written yesterday but due to wifi issues.. I was unable to upload it! Don't worry I'm not beginning to crumble. I will definitely write about each days events)
Not really much to blog about today to be totally honest, very relaxed day!
I was awoken by Joe at 8:00 to tell us that we needed to make our way Ruyterwacht as soon as we had our lunch! We had carrot soup to start followed by hake and chips for lunch then chocolate ice cream to finish!! The 103 bus took forever to arrive (a good 30/35 minutes!) but we caught the 14:10 train from Cape Town station! Jeff and I arrived at the learning centre at about 14:45 and had a nice discussion about our first coaching week, a paper article which we will feature in and also how to use sky drive to upload photos from the communicare canon camera! This lasted for just over an hour and then we were back on our way home... Like I said.. A very chilled Friday!
Jeff and I arrived back at about 5 o clock at berghof and had no real plans until the arsenal match! There was only one venue which we would be watching the game.. Mixers!! After a couple pints of black label carling.. Arsenal had won 4-0.. A great victory!! We knew we needed as much sleep as possible for tomorrow's mountain climb so we promptly got the bill and headed home!!
We both can't wait to climb table mountain... Bring it on!!!!
All the best,
Luke.
(This was written yesterday but due to wifi issues.. I was unable to upload it! Don't worry I'm not beginning to crumble. I will definitely write about each days events)
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Day 14
Day 14.
Can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I set sail to depart from London!
We started at 2 today which was an absolute touch!!! I had a nice lie in but I had to wake up at 7 to put my washing outside our door to be done! Thursday is Laundry and room clean day! It was the first time our apartment room had been cleaned, because we had a hectic week last week and either one of us has to be in the room whilst they're cleaning according to Monique. The woman did an absolutely brilliant job! Looks so nice now. She literally cleaned every nook and cranny, the place looks spotless! AND SHE EVEN FOUND MY WATCH! I don't feel complete when I coach without my new Casio watch. (Don't judge)
Jeff and I headed down for some lunch at 12:30. Bangers and Mash was on today's menu! It gave me a taste of home before we headed out to coach today! Motivation food!
We arrived at The Italian club (where we previously trained Atlantic soccer club) to coach some boys from the drommedaris complex which is part of communicare. We did a session based on shooting and attacking. We did a nice dynamic stretching warm up and then an exercise called 'two goals' followed by a drill I like to call 'numbers'. The level of footballing ability was good but not great, which I totally prefer when coaching. I say this because, it means I can gradually get to see them improve whilst also having fun! That's what coaching is all about for me! Therefore when I qualify to be a PE teacher in the future I think my approach would be a lot different to typical boring PE teacher's.. Some of which I have experienced myself! The drommedaris complex's usual coach is called Adnan who use to play professionally with players such as Quinton Fortune of Manchester United and also Benni McCarthy, Former Blackburn and champions league medal winner with Porto! Only South African to do that by the way! He seemed really impressed and wanted us to come back again, so we will see in the future how things pan out and whether we can come back again!!
Joe picked us up and we arrived back at Berghof at around 7, a fair bit earlier then previous days! We chilled out for 10 minutes and sorted our laundry out which we had got given back, and then headed out to mixers for a two week celebratory drink! How cute.
Jeff and I start at 1 tomorrow so again we get a nice lie in! Happy days. Tomorrow we've got a few office-y stuff to do and we'll be helping out kids to do their homework when they come in from after school and also potentially adults with their CV's and stuff! All of this will be done in Ruyterwacht at the learning centre.
Early night for me! Need to make the most of my lie in. I got bit to hell last night by mosquitoes but I had to open my window seeing as my room was an absolute sweatbox!
All the best,
Luke
Can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I set sail to depart from London!
We started at 2 today which was an absolute touch!!! I had a nice lie in but I had to wake up at 7 to put my washing outside our door to be done! Thursday is Laundry and room clean day! It was the first time our apartment room had been cleaned, because we had a hectic week last week and either one of us has to be in the room whilst they're cleaning according to Monique. The woman did an absolutely brilliant job! Looks so nice now. She literally cleaned every nook and cranny, the place looks spotless! AND SHE EVEN FOUND MY WATCH! I don't feel complete when I coach without my new Casio watch. (Don't judge)
Jeff and I headed down for some lunch at 12:30. Bangers and Mash was on today's menu! It gave me a taste of home before we headed out to coach today! Motivation food!
We arrived at The Italian club (where we previously trained Atlantic soccer club) to coach some boys from the drommedaris complex which is part of communicare. We did a session based on shooting and attacking. We did a nice dynamic stretching warm up and then an exercise called 'two goals' followed by a drill I like to call 'numbers'. The level of footballing ability was good but not great, which I totally prefer when coaching. I say this because, it means I can gradually get to see them improve whilst also having fun! That's what coaching is all about for me! Therefore when I qualify to be a PE teacher in the future I think my approach would be a lot different to typical boring PE teacher's.. Some of which I have experienced myself! The drommedaris complex's usual coach is called Adnan who use to play professionally with players such as Quinton Fortune of Manchester United and also Benni McCarthy, Former Blackburn and champions league medal winner with Porto! Only South African to do that by the way! He seemed really impressed and wanted us to come back again, so we will see in the future how things pan out and whether we can come back again!!
Joe picked us up and we arrived back at Berghof at around 7, a fair bit earlier then previous days! We chilled out for 10 minutes and sorted our laundry out which we had got given back, and then headed out to mixers for a two week celebratory drink! How cute.
Jeff and I start at 1 tomorrow so again we get a nice lie in! Happy days. Tomorrow we've got a few office-y stuff to do and we'll be helping out kids to do their homework when they come in from after school and also potentially adults with their CV's and stuff! All of this will be done in Ruyterwacht at the learning centre.
Early night for me! Need to make the most of my lie in. I got bit to hell last night by mosquitoes but I had to open my window seeing as my room was an absolute sweatbox!
All the best,
Luke
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Day 13
Day 13.
Jeff and I were up at 8:00 today as we only had to get the bus to the support office in Cape Town. That usually only takes about 20 minutes, if that. We had a short coffee meeting with some of the directors of communicare and talked about our progress so far.
After the meeting we headed back to the apartment at about 9:45. Joe and Lourens gave us 4 hours to chill out back at berghof seeing as we've had a tiring last couple of days. We arrived back at the apartment at 10:00 and were collected at 14:00 by Lourens.
We drove to the learning centre in Ruyterwacht and headed down to a school (whose name I can't remember! I'll find out though.) The reception we got was crazy!! Sooo soo buzzed to see us. We had over 50 kids turn up to be coached by jeff and I! We did a round robin tournament with 8 teams which lasted about an hour and a half! After the tournament had finished we were SWARMED by the players and parents to sign shirts, boots, books, FIFA 14 cases and even bags! It was so crazy! It just goes to show what the badge of arsenal can do in a community!!
We were pushed for time so we had to bundle in the car and drive away, with a crowd of kids running behind us trying to keep up with the car! Like a typical movie scene when a celebrity is in town!! Time to go to Atlantic Soccer club.
We arrived at 5:45, greeted the coaches we had previously met and then had a good 20 minute talk about life in the uk, arsenal and just footballing stuff with the under 19's before their game which was at 6:45. But the main reason for being at the Atlantic soccer club was to coach a squad of under 9's.. 12 of them to be precise! They were all really good boys who are already at a high standard and we had a really fun session planned for them which they loved! Again, they all answered every question with 'yes coach luke' 'no coach luke' Etc. Jeff and I really enjoyed ourselves and we are both keen to go back there!
We arrived back at berghof at around 8:30 and got straight into the shower, got changed and headed straight to mixers for a few beers and some pizza before watching the Manchester United match! WHAT A GAME! Jeff is in tatters. I was knackered and fell asleep through extra time but I was woken up when Javier Hernandez knocked in the equaliser. Pleased for Vito Mannone, a formal arsenal player, knocking united out! Hahahahh
Sorry for the late post. Only just got back. It's 12:40 at night as I'm writing this.
Peace out.
All the best,
Luke
It is boiling out here by the way! About 31 degrees.
Jeff and I were up at 8:00 today as we only had to get the bus to the support office in Cape Town. That usually only takes about 20 minutes, if that. We had a short coffee meeting with some of the directors of communicare and talked about our progress so far.
After the meeting we headed back to the apartment at about 9:45. Joe and Lourens gave us 4 hours to chill out back at berghof seeing as we've had a tiring last couple of days. We arrived back at the apartment at 10:00 and were collected at 14:00 by Lourens.
We drove to the learning centre in Ruyterwacht and headed down to a school (whose name I can't remember! I'll find out though.) The reception we got was crazy!! Sooo soo buzzed to see us. We had over 50 kids turn up to be coached by jeff and I! We did a round robin tournament with 8 teams which lasted about an hour and a half! After the tournament had finished we were SWARMED by the players and parents to sign shirts, boots, books, FIFA 14 cases and even bags! It was so crazy! It just goes to show what the badge of arsenal can do in a community!!
We were pushed for time so we had to bundle in the car and drive away, with a crowd of kids running behind us trying to keep up with the car! Like a typical movie scene when a celebrity is in town!! Time to go to Atlantic Soccer club.
We arrived at 5:45, greeted the coaches we had previously met and then had a good 20 minute talk about life in the uk, arsenal and just footballing stuff with the under 19's before their game which was at 6:45. But the main reason for being at the Atlantic soccer club was to coach a squad of under 9's.. 12 of them to be precise! They were all really good boys who are already at a high standard and we had a really fun session planned for them which they loved! Again, they all answered every question with 'yes coach luke' 'no coach luke' Etc. Jeff and I really enjoyed ourselves and we are both keen to go back there!
We arrived back at berghof at around 8:30 and got straight into the shower, got changed and headed straight to mixers for a few beers and some pizza before watching the Manchester United match! WHAT A GAME! Jeff is in tatters. I was knackered and fell asleep through extra time but I was woken up when Javier Hernandez knocked in the equaliser. Pleased for Vito Mannone, a formal arsenal player, knocking united out! Hahahahh
Sorry for the late post. Only just got back. It's 12:40 at night as I'm writing this.
Peace out.
All the best,
Luke
It is boiling out here by the way! About 31 degrees.
Tuesday, 21 January 2014
Day 12
Day 12.
Hi guys, hope the pictures covered what I did this Morning!
Carrying on from where I left off.. We headed back to Ruyterwacht and prepared for the open day that the leaning centre were holding! We collected some crates of juices which the local supermarket 'sentra' had donated for the day! We also prepared the hall for the little action soccer tournament we were holding. Action soccer is pretty much small sided indoor football, about 4 a side. Around 40-50 kids turnt up and we spoke to them all about what we're planning to do in partnership with Communicare and that they would be seeing our ugly faces a lot over the next 3 months! But the main motivation behind our talk was to stress the fact that they should always go to school, try not to get dragged into bunking and doing drugs and just generally going off the rails down a rocky road. The learning centre allow children to come in after school and use the computer room for research, homework and generic studying for FREE which is a really good incentive and the kids should make the most out of it. Jeff and I stressed that the kids should feel lucky to have such a fantastic company and centre full of such helpful people like Joe and Lourens.. Only a matter of minutes away from where they live!! We tried not to make the talk a lecture but to just try and motivate them to chase their dreams if they have any! Dropping out of school to play Xbox will not help them reach their goals and dreams. The action soccer tournament was fun and I used my expert referee knowledge to officiate it all. At the end we stopped for a few photos but it was now time to head somewhere else! Time was pushed.
Afterwards it was time to take a drive the Italian, Atlantic soccer club in Brooklyn! Who have a pretty high standard of football and are just one division behind the premier league in South Africa. Jeff and I took a mixture of their under 15's,16's and 17's and had about 28-30 kids EACH in two seperate groups.. which you would think would be a challenge... Unfortunately you would be wrong! I enjoyed myself immensely and the boys were so polite, well mannered and most of all..always listening! They were very disciplined it seemed and answered to me with 'yes coach' 'no coach' 'thanks coach' which was a real nice touch.
As Jeff and I didn't get to perform our awareness session to a big extent yesterday we decided to do it to the kids today! We had an hour and fifteen minutes of coaching from 5:45-7:00! They loved the session and it was a change from doing a lot of physical work such as running, endurance training and general high intensity drills. I did a lot of game based exercises and did a little round robin tournament of handball seeing as I had 4 teams of 7 (one with 8). They understood the importance of communication, pass and move but also the fact that you always have to be aware on a football pitch! After they understood these important facts.. It was time to let their feet do the talking! They were still in their teams and we did an end zone based passing session all based around my session objective which was passing,awareness and communication! I changed the restrictions a lot so that they could get a feel for all types of plays and environments they may face on a pitch! For example, 3 touches, 5 passes before you can pass it into the end zone, the pass into the end zone has to be a first time, one touch pass and much much more! They loved the session and were so grateful. A lovely bunch of boys! Can't wait to be back!
We headed back to the clubhouse for a couple beers and some pizza with all the coaches and discussed our sessions, football in general and we also talked about the soccer school we will be running later on in our time in Cape Town!
Time to head home! We arrived home at about 8:15, ate our dinner, showered and headed downstairs for some wifi time! I don't know about jeff but I am soooooo tired!
Speak to you guys tomorrow.
All the best,
Luke
Hi guys, hope the pictures covered what I did this Morning!
Carrying on from where I left off.. We headed back to Ruyterwacht and prepared for the open day that the leaning centre were holding! We collected some crates of juices which the local supermarket 'sentra' had donated for the day! We also prepared the hall for the little action soccer tournament we were holding. Action soccer is pretty much small sided indoor football, about 4 a side. Around 40-50 kids turnt up and we spoke to them all about what we're planning to do in partnership with Communicare and that they would be seeing our ugly faces a lot over the next 3 months! But the main motivation behind our talk was to stress the fact that they should always go to school, try not to get dragged into bunking and doing drugs and just generally going off the rails down a rocky road. The learning centre allow children to come in after school and use the computer room for research, homework and generic studying for FREE which is a really good incentive and the kids should make the most out of it. Jeff and I stressed that the kids should feel lucky to have such a fantastic company and centre full of such helpful people like Joe and Lourens.. Only a matter of minutes away from where they live!! We tried not to make the talk a lecture but to just try and motivate them to chase their dreams if they have any! Dropping out of school to play Xbox will not help them reach their goals and dreams. The action soccer tournament was fun and I used my expert referee knowledge to officiate it all. At the end we stopped for a few photos but it was now time to head somewhere else! Time was pushed.
Afterwards it was time to take a drive the Italian, Atlantic soccer club in Brooklyn! Who have a pretty high standard of football and are just one division behind the premier league in South Africa. Jeff and I took a mixture of their under 15's,16's and 17's and had about 28-30 kids EACH in two seperate groups.. which you would think would be a challenge... Unfortunately you would be wrong! I enjoyed myself immensely and the boys were so polite, well mannered and most of all..always listening! They were very disciplined it seemed and answered to me with 'yes coach' 'no coach' 'thanks coach' which was a real nice touch.
As Jeff and I didn't get to perform our awareness session to a big extent yesterday we decided to do it to the kids today! We had an hour and fifteen minutes of coaching from 5:45-7:00! They loved the session and it was a change from doing a lot of physical work such as running, endurance training and general high intensity drills. I did a lot of game based exercises and did a little round robin tournament of handball seeing as I had 4 teams of 7 (one with 8). They understood the importance of communication, pass and move but also the fact that you always have to be aware on a football pitch! After they understood these important facts.. It was time to let their feet do the talking! They were still in their teams and we did an end zone based passing session all based around my session objective which was passing,awareness and communication! I changed the restrictions a lot so that they could get a feel for all types of plays and environments they may face on a pitch! For example, 3 touches, 5 passes before you can pass it into the end zone, the pass into the end zone has to be a first time, one touch pass and much much more! They loved the session and were so grateful. A lovely bunch of boys! Can't wait to be back!
We headed back to the clubhouse for a couple beers and some pizza with all the coaches and discussed our sessions, football in general and we also talked about the soccer school we will be running later on in our time in Cape Town!
Time to head home! We arrived home at about 8:15, ate our dinner, showered and headed downstairs for some wifi time! I don't know about jeff but I am soooooo tired!
Speak to you guys tomorrow.
All the best,
Luke
A few pictures today from Goodwood Park Pre-Primary Creche.
Our second group were an all English speaking class and were 6 years old so this made it a bit easier for us! They responded well and really enjoyed the races session we did. We even managed to get one more race in! This one involved them running to the cone with the ball in their hands, then running back and joining the front of the cue and passing the ball with their hands to one another through their legs until eventually it would get to the person at the back who would run to the cone and repeat the sequence! A great session all round once again. Lourens got some great photo's which he said he will upload to skydrive which he said he will show us how to use.
The third group were all Afrikaans speaking, not english! So that was a bit of a test but Joe helped us with translation. They understood phrases like 'Are you ready?' and '3,2,1 go!' but apart from that we had to use words like 'mooi' or 'baie mooi' when praising (which means good or very good).
We stopped for some lunch in the staffroom and all the kids certainly seem buzzed to be having us back a few times in the future! They were all running over and giving us hugs and high 5's.. once again this shows how grateful they all are!
I'm writing this post in the learning centre's IT Room. There is a big open day at Ruyterwacht today to show off their learning centre and to try and get the awareness of the centre maximised! It's also an opportunity for the public to come and see Jeff and I but also an opportunity for us to explain what we're doing here and to really promote the learning centre!
I'll write a post later to update you on the rest of the day's events!!
Peace out.
All the best,
Luke
Monday, 20 January 2014
Day 11
Day 11.
Today was a very early start! I set my alarm for 6:50 to be out of the door at about 7:20ish. Jeff and I put on our arsenal uniform for the second time during our trip! It felt good to be putting on the uniform and to be wearing the badge which means so much to people out here, the power that one little badge has is crazy!!
Time to head towards Vasco! We got the 8:13 train after the 8:08 got cancelled and the train journey took the usual 35 minute duration which we are getting use to!
We arrived at the Ruyterwacht learning centre at 9:00, Joe wanted us to create a PowerPoint slide to put on in the background when we have our meet and greet tomorrow and coach at the crèche! It's been advertised in the local supermarkets and all around the Ruyterwacht area so we are expecting quite a reception!
We left at around 10:00 to head to a home called victory outreach which is a rehahibilation home for men and women who have had rough pasts and upbringings and have truly felt the effects of external influences such as gangs, drugs and alcoholism. Again, they were buzzing to see us and really welcomed us with open arms!! The workers at victory outreach have a unique approach to rehabilitating residents, instead of getting psychiatrists,psychologists and using pills to help their residents.. They use a biblical approach!! Every morning, afternoon and evening they have prayer sessions, discussions and they have pastors come in etc, which was nice to hear! Whenever I introduce myself as Luke they are always quick to say 'just like in the bible eh!' which shows that victory outreach's biblical studies are definitely having an impact! It was great to meet all the guys, answer their questions and just explain what Jeff and I do in England but also what we're trying to change in Cape Town! I know we're only here for 3 months but believe me those 3 months will start off a snowball effect of the realisation of what sport can do in the community!! I personally believe it will anyway. The reaction we've had so far has been unreal so there's no reason why our impact (and many other sporting organisations) won't begin a period of change! It won't be a short easy fix but over a long period i believe things will start to change!! We stopped for a few photos and were given a farewell chant/dance type of thing which was hilarious!
We had a few hours to kill before we we headed to to the All Stars soccer club so Joe,Lourens,Jeff and I grabbed some lunch and collected the football equipment we had ordered from a footballing supplier called Mike's Sports! All the local Cape Town teams use mike's apparently! The shop was great, it had all the new boots, shirts etc.
After an hour or so back at the learning centre we headed to the All Stars Soccer Club! Which are quite a big team in Cape Town, who have teams from under 9's to a first team itself! We visited a shelter which focuses on bringing in and looking after around 30 homeless children from ages 9-18..some of whom play for the All Stars First team! They all were happy to see us and we answered a few questions from them which was pretty neat! The Charmain of Atlantic soccer club called Dallah took us for a tour of the shelter and then transported us to the big field area which All Stars use! We met most of their coaches and a few of their players and generally just had an open meet and greet, Q&A session which we really enjoyed!! They asked about football in England and compared what they do with tier youths and our youths bio mechanically, dietary wise and also in terms of drills etc which was good to get a comparison of the two. They knew jeff and I were into sport science from when we had introduced ourselves and they asked Jeff about the biomechanics of sprinting and me about the importance of nutrition and diet in youth teams. We answered to the best of our ability and believe me our college and A-level knowledge's cobwebs had to be dusted away! But they all seemed to agree and understand where we were coming from so that was the main thing! We did a little mini session based around awareness and communication using a numbers based session. The exercise is very much based on being vocal and being aware of your team mates around you. So for example, we gave 7 children a number from 1-7 and made them play handball passing it around in order from 1-7. But as we all know kids are very quick to pick up on patterns so they'd soon work out that James and Joe are either side of them for example as number 1 and 3. Therefore, they would only ever be looking for James and Joe as they'd know that they were up next to receive the ball. In my opinion this doesn't promote awareness so what we did was we individually told the players which number they were so no one else knew what their number was! Therefore this created awareness as they did not know who they would be passing to next to so it was all about being aware of your position on the pitch and where your team mates were and most of all being vocal and shouting your number so your team mate can hear where you are! We stressed how important communication is in terms of awareness and they all totally agreed. We took some photo's with a couple boys and even some of their parents and then headed home thanks to a lift back to berghof from Dallah!
To end the night, Jeff and I had a shower (separately) and then headed down to the supermarket to pick up some groceries!!
Bring on tomorrow!!
All the best,
Luke.
By the way.. I will put some more pics up tomorrow. Oh and I can't find my watch :(
Today was a very early start! I set my alarm for 6:50 to be out of the door at about 7:20ish. Jeff and I put on our arsenal uniform for the second time during our trip! It felt good to be putting on the uniform and to be wearing the badge which means so much to people out here, the power that one little badge has is crazy!!
Time to head towards Vasco! We got the 8:13 train after the 8:08 got cancelled and the train journey took the usual 35 minute duration which we are getting use to!
We arrived at the Ruyterwacht learning centre at 9:00, Joe wanted us to create a PowerPoint slide to put on in the background when we have our meet and greet tomorrow and coach at the crèche! It's been advertised in the local supermarkets and all around the Ruyterwacht area so we are expecting quite a reception!
We left at around 10:00 to head to a home called victory outreach which is a rehahibilation home for men and women who have had rough pasts and upbringings and have truly felt the effects of external influences such as gangs, drugs and alcoholism. Again, they were buzzing to see us and really welcomed us with open arms!! The workers at victory outreach have a unique approach to rehabilitating residents, instead of getting psychiatrists,psychologists and using pills to help their residents.. They use a biblical approach!! Every morning, afternoon and evening they have prayer sessions, discussions and they have pastors come in etc, which was nice to hear! Whenever I introduce myself as Luke they are always quick to say 'just like in the bible eh!' which shows that victory outreach's biblical studies are definitely having an impact! It was great to meet all the guys, answer their questions and just explain what Jeff and I do in England but also what we're trying to change in Cape Town! I know we're only here for 3 months but believe me those 3 months will start off a snowball effect of the realisation of what sport can do in the community!! I personally believe it will anyway. The reaction we've had so far has been unreal so there's no reason why our impact (and many other sporting organisations) won't begin a period of change! It won't be a short easy fix but over a long period i believe things will start to change!! We stopped for a few photos and were given a farewell chant/dance type of thing which was hilarious!
We had a few hours to kill before we we headed to to the All Stars soccer club so Joe,Lourens,Jeff and I grabbed some lunch and collected the football equipment we had ordered from a footballing supplier called Mike's Sports! All the local Cape Town teams use mike's apparently! The shop was great, it had all the new boots, shirts etc.
After an hour or so back at the learning centre we headed to the All Stars Soccer Club! Which are quite a big team in Cape Town, who have teams from under 9's to a first team itself! We visited a shelter which focuses on bringing in and looking after around 30 homeless children from ages 9-18..some of whom play for the All Stars First team! They all were happy to see us and we answered a few questions from them which was pretty neat! The Charmain of Atlantic soccer club called Dallah took us for a tour of the shelter and then transported us to the big field area which All Stars use! We met most of their coaches and a few of their players and generally just had an open meet and greet, Q&A session which we really enjoyed!! They asked about football in England and compared what they do with tier youths and our youths bio mechanically, dietary wise and also in terms of drills etc which was good to get a comparison of the two. They knew jeff and I were into sport science from when we had introduced ourselves and they asked Jeff about the biomechanics of sprinting and me about the importance of nutrition and diet in youth teams. We answered to the best of our ability and believe me our college and A-level knowledge's cobwebs had to be dusted away! But they all seemed to agree and understand where we were coming from so that was the main thing! We did a little mini session based around awareness and communication using a numbers based session. The exercise is very much based on being vocal and being aware of your team mates around you. So for example, we gave 7 children a number from 1-7 and made them play handball passing it around in order from 1-7. But as we all know kids are very quick to pick up on patterns so they'd soon work out that James and Joe are either side of them for example as number 1 and 3. Therefore, they would only ever be looking for James and Joe as they'd know that they were up next to receive the ball. In my opinion this doesn't promote awareness so what we did was we individually told the players which number they were so no one else knew what their number was! Therefore this created awareness as they did not know who they would be passing to next to so it was all about being aware of your position on the pitch and where your team mates were and most of all being vocal and shouting your number so your team mate can hear where you are! We stressed how important communication is in terms of awareness and they all totally agreed. We took some photo's with a couple boys and even some of their parents and then headed home thanks to a lift back to berghof from Dallah!
To end the night, Jeff and I had a shower (separately) and then headed down to the supermarket to pick up some groceries!!
Bring on tomorrow!!
All the best,
Luke.
By the way.. I will put some more pics up tomorrow. Oh and I can't find my watch :(
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Day 10
Day 10.
Not really much to report on today to be totally honest. It's been a really chilled weekend. I've had a bit of stomach and back pain.. both cramping up and stuff! But nothing a paracetamol and some deep heat won't fix!
I woke up really early again, which is starting to annoy me a bit! Weekends are for lazy lie in's.. I'd definitely do it in England so why is it not happening here!?!? God knows. I rolled my duvet up into a roll and stuck that under my back for some support. I wondered whether it was because I slept funny! Seeing as I was up so early and my fellow room mate wasn't.. I had some time to waste! I stuck my headphones in for an hour or so and read my book some more afterwards. Only 90 pages left now.
As soon as jeff awoke I made him do a quick maneouvre on my back which usually works as a quick fix for back pain! You cross your arms and then your partner lifts you up. (Hard to explain) but it makes your back click a few times! It worked anyway, so that's the main thing. I'm sure many of my family reading this will lecture me saying I shouldn't do that! But before you even go there.... Pipe yourselves down!
In the afternoon we had some lunch in the dining room, tidied our room and emptied out bins which believe me was MUCH needed. We decided to do some chores in the afternoon so that we could then treat ourselves to a nice kick about in the park with some music in the background. A musician called Mark Hayes was hosting a concert for free in De Waal Park. Many families arrived for a nice relaxing Sunday with picnic baskets etc, but Jeff and I were there just to kick some ball and work on our long range passing. There was still acres of space for us to play in so don't worry.. We weren't playing football in the middle of a concert!
We headed back to the apartment for a shower and then went to make the most of happy hour at mixers!! (Our local bar) We felt like watching the game in a decent footballing atmosphere with some food and a couple beers! Overall it came to 130 rand for 4 beers, a margarita pizza plus a bacon and cheese burger with chips. That's about 8/9 pound I would say.. Give or take. Pretty damn good!
After the game, it was time to knuckle down and plan our motivational talk tomorrow and the coaching session we may have to do!! It feels good to be planning again, I've definitely missed coaching! I personally find it so fun!! I have an idea what I will be speaking about in my motivational talk but I will reveal all tomorrow!!
Goodnight readers!!
All the best,
Luke
Not really much to report on today to be totally honest. It's been a really chilled weekend. I've had a bit of stomach and back pain.. both cramping up and stuff! But nothing a paracetamol and some deep heat won't fix!
I woke up really early again, which is starting to annoy me a bit! Weekends are for lazy lie in's.. I'd definitely do it in England so why is it not happening here!?!? God knows. I rolled my duvet up into a roll and stuck that under my back for some support. I wondered whether it was because I slept funny! Seeing as I was up so early and my fellow room mate wasn't.. I had some time to waste! I stuck my headphones in for an hour or so and read my book some more afterwards. Only 90 pages left now.
As soon as jeff awoke I made him do a quick maneouvre on my back which usually works as a quick fix for back pain! You cross your arms and then your partner lifts you up. (Hard to explain) but it makes your back click a few times! It worked anyway, so that's the main thing. I'm sure many of my family reading this will lecture me saying I shouldn't do that! But before you even go there.... Pipe yourselves down!
In the afternoon we had some lunch in the dining room, tidied our room and emptied out bins which believe me was MUCH needed. We decided to do some chores in the afternoon so that we could then treat ourselves to a nice kick about in the park with some music in the background. A musician called Mark Hayes was hosting a concert for free in De Waal Park. Many families arrived for a nice relaxing Sunday with picnic baskets etc, but Jeff and I were there just to kick some ball and work on our long range passing. There was still acres of space for us to play in so don't worry.. We weren't playing football in the middle of a concert!
We headed back to the apartment for a shower and then went to make the most of happy hour at mixers!! (Our local bar) We felt like watching the game in a decent footballing atmosphere with some food and a couple beers! Overall it came to 130 rand for 4 beers, a margarita pizza plus a bacon and cheese burger with chips. That's about 8/9 pound I would say.. Give or take. Pretty damn good!
After the game, it was time to knuckle down and plan our motivational talk tomorrow and the coaching session we may have to do!! It feels good to be planning again, I've definitely missed coaching! I personally find it so fun!! I have an idea what I will be speaking about in my motivational talk but I will reveal all tomorrow!!
Goodnight readers!!
All the best,
Luke
Saturday, 18 January 2014
Day 9
Day 9.
After a fun but tiring week.. It was finally the weekend!!
I had dedicated my Saturday morning to a lie in with no alarms or disruptions! That flopped and I was awoken by the beaming sun into my room! I was up and out of bed at 7:30. I had not planned to get up so early but I really struggled to get back to sleep so I thought I might aswell get up as Jeff's an early riser and would surely be up soon! I was wrong.. He woke up at around 11:00 and physically got out of bed at 12:00. These few hours gave me time to clean up room, have a shower, ready my book, do my hair and get changed, have breakfast and make a quick visit downstairs for some wifi time! I didn't want to wake up jeff as personally I would be annoyed if someone woke me up unnecessarily!
Never the less, we left the apartment at about 1:00 to head to camps bay beach! It was a sunny day but not very hot at all, perfect for me! I'm in no real rush to get a tan and even more so, I'm not in a rush to get burnt up again! We caught a cab for 70 rand which I guess is approximately £4.50. Reasonable I thought for two of us! We arranged for the taxi man to come back at 4:45, so we could catch some of the arsenal game!!
We arrived back at the apartment, washed off some sand and headed down to the wifi area to realise that there was a memorial service! There was no way I was intruding that, even for arsenal!
I managed to watch the second half of the arsenal game! 2-0 win.. Happy days!! I'm going to update the blog with some text and some photo's now and then grab a bite to eat!!
Peace out!
All the best,
Luke
After a fun but tiring week.. It was finally the weekend!!
I had dedicated my Saturday morning to a lie in with no alarms or disruptions! That flopped and I was awoken by the beaming sun into my room! I was up and out of bed at 7:30. I had not planned to get up so early but I really struggled to get back to sleep so I thought I might aswell get up as Jeff's an early riser and would surely be up soon! I was wrong.. He woke up at around 11:00 and physically got out of bed at 12:00. These few hours gave me time to clean up room, have a shower, ready my book, do my hair and get changed, have breakfast and make a quick visit downstairs for some wifi time! I didn't want to wake up jeff as personally I would be annoyed if someone woke me up unnecessarily!
Never the less, we left the apartment at about 1:00 to head to camps bay beach! It was a sunny day but not very hot at all, perfect for me! I'm in no real rush to get a tan and even more so, I'm not in a rush to get burnt up again! We caught a cab for 70 rand which I guess is approximately £4.50. Reasonable I thought for two of us! We arranged for the taxi man to come back at 4:45, so we could catch some of the arsenal game!!
We arrived back at the apartment, washed off some sand and headed down to the wifi area to realise that there was a memorial service! There was no way I was intruding that, even for arsenal!
I managed to watch the second half of the arsenal game! 2-0 win.. Happy days!! I'm going to update the blog with some text and some photo's now and then grab a bite to eat!!
Peace out!
All the best,
Luke
Friday, 17 January 2014
Day 8
Day 8.
Today was a day that I'd been looking forward to since we got our programme printed out.. Robben island!!!
We were collected by Lourens at 10:30 to head down to the waterfront for the 11:00 ferry. However there was immense amounts of traffic which meant we realised that 11:00 was a bit hopeful. We didn't mind though, this meant jeff and I could explore the waterfront! We headed straight to the mall to check out the shops and get a bit to eat! There was many shops in the mall that you would find in England such as topshop,Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger etc which was good to see and it also meant I could get lunch at a place close to home (London)... Subway!!
After lunch we made our way to the ferry point where we would board the ferry to take us to robben island, after Lourens bought our ticket. The ferry was a great experience, Jeffrey and I got some fantastic photos! I've taken so many photos so hopefully when I'm back I can show the hundreds of photos on the TV via HDMI!
We got off the ferry after a 35 min journey, we were edging closer to robben island!! How surreal! Jeff and I would be visiting the place were THE Nelson Mandela was incarcerated! Not many people can say they have visited South Africa, let alone Robben Island! How lucky am I to be involved in such a programme and have the support of my parents to make it possible, aswell as communicare! Over the course of your trip to robben island, you have two tour guides. One on the bus and one former political prisoner who takes you around the prison! The bus tour guide was very informative and funny whereas the prison tour guide was a bit more serious but still as informative, despite how fast he talked! It felt really weird seeing the places which the film was based on! I thank Kate and Mark for taking me before I left as this gave me a bit more of an insight into it all. After the tour.. We started to speaking to MP (our bus tour guide) for quite a long while and afterwards we took his number as he was keen to show us more of Cape Town and wanted to know more about what we was doing in the community!
We walked to the 103 bus stop at the civic centre after the ferry trip back to Cape Town. Believe me, jeff and I were shattered but it's good to experience how to walk about and direct ourselves rather than just jumping on a bus! Again, it was all adding to our Cape Town knowledge!
We jumped on the 103 bus back to Berghof. Jeff and I fell asleep on the bus but luckily awoke at Montrose, a couple stops before rayden (our stop). Surprisingly, sight seeing takes it out of you!
We arrived at Berghof at around 17:45 and we were starving! We grabbed our food from behind reception and headed to our room! We both felt dirty and thought it was priority to have a shower/bath before we started eating! Dinner was really nice tonight, one of the best we've had so far at Berghof. We had chicken salad with wedges and then cod and chips! Lovely stuff.
After eating we headed down to mixers, despite being knackered! It was Friday.. we wanted to celebrate the great week we had with a few beers, 5 to be precise!! Coincidentally we met a woman who was backpacking and who had lived in earls court (near jeff) but worked in Enfield (where I live). What a small world!! She lived in England for 5 years but her nationality was Australian. We had a seat which was quite prone to being asked by homeless to give some rands to them! Someone asked me for 20 rand but I had only brought out a 100 rand note. For this reason.. The guy pointed at me and told me to 'watch out!'. It would be an exaggeration to say I took that statement with a pinch of salt but that kind of behaviour is part and parcel of Cape Town so I wasn't massively fussed, but no doubt it still made me cautious!
We made our way back to Berghof for the second time in one day. I was excited to call Kate and Mark who were looking after Holly, my grandads dog.. who of course I was missing hugely! After a few technical difficulties we managed to get hold of each other by face timing! It's always good to speak to the family.. Even if it's for a couple minutes!
I'm gonna shoot now anyway, time for bed I think! Day off tomorrow.. Did someone say beach?? I think so.
All the best,
Luke
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Day 7
Day 7.
Wow! What an awesome day today was. I hope you enjoyed my photos yesterday after finally finding out how to upload them!
Today was focused on getting a feel for the surroundings of townships and to visit a company called Grassroots Soccer.
We started the day by waking up at 6:45 to leave the apartment at about 7:20 to get the 103 bus down to the civic centre and then the train from Cape Town to Vasco. Overall the train journey takes an hour and a half, give or take a few minutes! Of course this all depends on bus arrivals and train times etc. We arrived at Vasco and took a short 10 minute walk into Ruyterwacht to meet Lourens and Joe at the learning centre. We arrived at the agreed time of 9, although we were leaving the learning centre at 11, these couple of hours gave us plenty of time to catch up with some workers, do some research on the computers and just chill for a bit before setting sail!
11 soon came and before we knew it we were on our way to Mvalis, a lovely township tavern which is a neighbourhood butchers but is also a restaurant. The meat was delicious and really filled us up for the day ahead, I was stuffed! The meal was the best that we've had so far, closely followed by the stew we had the day before! It was b-e-a-uuutiful! We stayed at Mvalis for just under a couple of hours before heading to grass roots soccer.
It was a half an hour drive to the grass roots soccer centre but i enjoyed it! Since there's no air con in the car, we get to open our window and feel the African breeze and get a close look at the scenery. It seems common that at each set of traffic lights someone will be selling something!! You see an assortment of all kinds of things from watermelons to big issues, sunglasses, drinks and sweets.. All sorts!
We arrived at the grass roots soccer centre and straight away were greeted by a small bunch of children so happy to see us! The kids are really playful and smiley out here which is great. As soon as I got out of the car, a girl took my bottle of water and wanted me to play with her to try and get it back! Despite having the pace of Usain Bolt I have the reflexes of an old man and therefore she soon ran away with it! Oh well! Let her enjoy it I thought to myself. I'll upload a photo later where it shows me playing with her trying to get my water bottle back!
We spoke to some employees of the grass roots soccer centre, soon a circle formed and gradually one by one we all introduced ourselves and everyone said a little something about themselves. We met two American interns who are spending 12 months out in South Africa working for grassroots soccer. Lucky sods! Their names were Anna and Eric and at the end we got their numbers as they only live 5/10 minutes away. Afterwards, we took a tour of the centre before moving onto a football related exercise to explain the risks of HIV,Aids and Sexual Partners. This gave us an insight into what message grassroots are trying to project and how they relate it to football. For example, we did an exercise where we had half the group as strikers and the others as 'HIV'. The strikers would have two footballs representing two sexual partners and HIV would have to try and catch the strikers, whilst they were dribbling two balls. Emphasising how tricky it is to control HIV when you have more than one sexual partner. Weirdly, I managed to dribble the two balls to the other side without getting caught! To be honest it was my shins which handed me luck rather than my footballing ability being high. Oh and don't forget my Usain Bolt pace! The staff clicked their fingers instead of clapping and did a little clapping whooping chant instead of saying well done, which was hilarious!
Shortly after these exercises we played a 15 minute match, which believe me was enough! The guys we were up against were a really good set of guys and were so quick and strong! We won on sudden death penalties after drawing 2-2 in normal time. Jeff managed to get on the scoresheet with a flukey goalkeeping blunder from the opposite team! A little crowd formed round the side of the pitch and I'm sure you can guess that the little kids were as vocal as ever! We were drenched with sweat (sorry to be that blunt) but the African sun is powerful! Not to mention we ran our hearts out for the grass roots soccer team!
It was time to go home, a few children followed us out and waved us goodbye and were high 5'ing us out of the car window! Shouting "Issa!" (Not sure of spelling).
Thankfully Lourens dropped us to the station. Jeff and I took the usual Vasco>Cape Town train journey then 103 bus from civic centre>rayden!
We were home and desperate to get in the shower and have some dinner! Jeff and I came home to our laundry done which was a nice surprise!! Time for a chilled night, going to Skype some family and get an early night before heading to Robben Island tomorrow!! CAN'T WAIT!! Jeff is flat on his bed, face down conked out snoring whilst I'm typing this so he should be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow!
All the best
Luke
Wow! What an awesome day today was. I hope you enjoyed my photos yesterday after finally finding out how to upload them!
Today was focused on getting a feel for the surroundings of townships and to visit a company called Grassroots Soccer.
We started the day by waking up at 6:45 to leave the apartment at about 7:20 to get the 103 bus down to the civic centre and then the train from Cape Town to Vasco. Overall the train journey takes an hour and a half, give or take a few minutes! Of course this all depends on bus arrivals and train times etc. We arrived at Vasco and took a short 10 minute walk into Ruyterwacht to meet Lourens and Joe at the learning centre. We arrived at the agreed time of 9, although we were leaving the learning centre at 11, these couple of hours gave us plenty of time to catch up with some workers, do some research on the computers and just chill for a bit before setting sail!
11 soon came and before we knew it we were on our way to Mvalis, a lovely township tavern which is a neighbourhood butchers but is also a restaurant. The meat was delicious and really filled us up for the day ahead, I was stuffed! The meal was the best that we've had so far, closely followed by the stew we had the day before! It was b-e-a-uuutiful! We stayed at Mvalis for just under a couple of hours before heading to grass roots soccer.
It was a half an hour drive to the grass roots soccer centre but i enjoyed it! Since there's no air con in the car, we get to open our window and feel the African breeze and get a close look at the scenery. It seems common that at each set of traffic lights someone will be selling something!! You see an assortment of all kinds of things from watermelons to big issues, sunglasses, drinks and sweets.. All sorts!
We arrived at the grass roots soccer centre and straight away were greeted by a small bunch of children so happy to see us! The kids are really playful and smiley out here which is great. As soon as I got out of the car, a girl took my bottle of water and wanted me to play with her to try and get it back! Despite having the pace of Usain Bolt I have the reflexes of an old man and therefore she soon ran away with it! Oh well! Let her enjoy it I thought to myself. I'll upload a photo later where it shows me playing with her trying to get my water bottle back!
We spoke to some employees of the grass roots soccer centre, soon a circle formed and gradually one by one we all introduced ourselves and everyone said a little something about themselves. We met two American interns who are spending 12 months out in South Africa working for grassroots soccer. Lucky sods! Their names were Anna and Eric and at the end we got their numbers as they only live 5/10 minutes away. Afterwards, we took a tour of the centre before moving onto a football related exercise to explain the risks of HIV,Aids and Sexual Partners. This gave us an insight into what message grassroots are trying to project and how they relate it to football. For example, we did an exercise where we had half the group as strikers and the others as 'HIV'. The strikers would have two footballs representing two sexual partners and HIV would have to try and catch the strikers, whilst they were dribbling two balls. Emphasising how tricky it is to control HIV when you have more than one sexual partner. Weirdly, I managed to dribble the two balls to the other side without getting caught! To be honest it was my shins which handed me luck rather than my footballing ability being high. Oh and don't forget my Usain Bolt pace! The staff clicked their fingers instead of clapping and did a little clapping whooping chant instead of saying well done, which was hilarious!
Shortly after these exercises we played a 15 minute match, which believe me was enough! The guys we were up against were a really good set of guys and were so quick and strong! We won on sudden death penalties after drawing 2-2 in normal time. Jeff managed to get on the scoresheet with a flukey goalkeeping blunder from the opposite team! A little crowd formed round the side of the pitch and I'm sure you can guess that the little kids were as vocal as ever! We were drenched with sweat (sorry to be that blunt) but the African sun is powerful! Not to mention we ran our hearts out for the grass roots soccer team!
It was time to go home, a few children followed us out and waved us goodbye and were high 5'ing us out of the car window! Shouting "Issa!" (Not sure of spelling).
Thankfully Lourens dropped us to the station. Jeff and I took the usual Vasco>Cape Town train journey then 103 bus from civic centre>rayden!
We were home and desperate to get in the shower and have some dinner! Jeff and I came home to our laundry done which was a nice surprise!! Time for a chilled night, going to Skype some family and get an early night before heading to Robben Island tomorrow!! CAN'T WAIT!! Jeff is flat on his bed, face down conked out snoring whilst I'm typing this so he should be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow!
All the best
Luke
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
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