Day 48

Day 48

The day after Eminem.

After making our way to Ruyterwacht, it was time to coach Sunflower Creche. My favourite group, along with Ysterplaat Educare. We did a fun warm up incorporating animals, soccer actions and just a general active warm up to get them excited for the session ahead. Jeff took the game of statues, where whoever didn't stop when the whistle was blown.. they were out! I, on the other hand kept anyone who was out entertained. I kept them involved in the session by cheering on everyone, helping me referee who didn't stop and even let them all have a go at blowing the whistle. Well, I let one and then I got bundled over by the kids screaming "and me, and me, and me!" "my chance, my chance now." which was quite funny. They said it was the loudest whistle they had ever heard. It was my referees whistle which I bought in England so it is pretty ear-deafening. We then moved on to some kicking exercises and ten pin bowling, which the kids insisted we did! They really enjoy that game! This was our last session with sunflower creche and I have to say they have been an absolute pleasure to coach. One of my favourite groups. Such a lovely bunch to coach and the teachers have really educated them well and i'm sure they'll become lovely human beings in the future!

Joe could see were struggling from last night, after getting in at about 1:30 and then having to wake up at 6:45. Therefore, he said we could just chill out for a bit on the computers and just recuperate some energy. So that's how our afternoon was spent up until about 1:30

When 1:30 came around, it was time to head to the black township Gugulethu. This was our fourth session there and this time we decided to do some shooting. I used an exercise which I learnt from my dad when he used to manage our football team back in the day! Whitewebbs Eagles. It's a pretty simple set up but you have one goalkeeper in goal, the coach as the person who lays it off and then a cue of no more than 8 or 9 kids. Basically in the exercise, the boys pass it into me, I lay it off, they take a shot. Pretty simple, but effective. I made sure I got key coaching points across like don't lean back, get over the ball, foot placement and what part of the foot to use. When they passed it on to me I worked on right and left foot first time and two touch finishes. Afterwards, it was time for some left and right foot volleying. I wanted to incorporate some throw ins in my session, so I explained to them the 3 rules of throw ins and I also told them that I referee in England. The three rules are, feet behind the line, ball behind your head and feet must stay planted on the floor. Very simple, but believe me people get it wrong! I asked them to throw it to me using those 3 rules, I would then catch, throw it up and they would volley it. The boys are so athletic and agile so this was no problem. However, the boys struggled to get to terms with timing. They would often kick their leg out before the ball had even reached their foot, therefore meaning it would hit their knee or shin. I told them to never take their eye off the ball and let it come down which helped them out a bit. To finish off, I asked the goalkeeper to come off of his line a little bit, so the boys could do a few chipped shots or lobs. Which is not an easy task, but I was confident the boys could do it! 

To finish off our session, Jeff and I brought both of our 10 man groups in and asked whether they would like to do some cross bar challenge for some fun at the end! 2 boys hit it out of 20 which wasn't too bad! Jeff and I tried and came very close. Inches away! This was our last session in Gugulethu and to be fair it's been a crazy experience. The first time we came 80 boys and girls turned up! But I have to say the thing that strikes me the most about our time here is the fact that the boys and girls make do with what they have, for example facilities and equipment. The pitch is literally sand which is full of thorns, glass and bits of metal but that doesn't deter their passion for football one bit. Boys and girls in the UK don't realise how lucky they are to have such good facilities given to them. The school we were coaching at would use a flat ball to play, tyres for goals and on a dangerous sand pitch with no shoes! Crazy. 

Just before we left, we had some left over food and drink from lunch which we didn't want. Hake Fish and Chips. So we decided to give it out. As soon as we put it down there was a huge swarm of kids fighting for the food which was in a polystyrene box. The box was obliterated and the kids grabbed as much fish and chips as possible before shovelling it in their mouth. They didn't shovel it in to be rude but just because boys would chase them to try and rob it from them. Especially the older ones, they would chase the younger kids. We had a second box to put down and exactly the same thing happened. I couldn't believe how eager they were to just get a little bit of food for themselves. Sad to see!

A successful day, enjoyed it! So tired now though. 

Jeff and I are gonna sit in and watch the end of Oblivion which has Tom Cruise in it. Been a good watch so far!

All the best

Luke. 

Day 48

Not really much to report on today to be honest apart from Eminem.

Joe was off so we couldn't really go anywhere to coach because he normally takes us everywhere and organises it all. However we came in as Lourens wanted us to help with Admin, CV's, Homework and Faxes.. which is all dealt with at the front desk.Weirdly, the learning centre was extremely quiet the whole morning so we didn't have much to do at all to be honest. I uploaded some photo's to skydrive and Jeff took care of some folders and then we went home at about 1:00.

We arrived back at Berghof at around 2:30 and then prepared for the Eminem concert! His album was on repeat until we went out!

We caught a cab down to the waterfront for 50 rand (about 3 pound) and met Johnathan aka Jonti, not sure of the spelling. Jonti is a really good laugh and anytime with him is really enjoyable.  For a few hours anyway. Because usually there is drinking involved. He comes up with all sorts of rules and games and after a while it takes it's toll. We met Jonti in a pub called Mitchells which was packed full of locals. The pub was really nice to be fair. We ordered some food and chilled for a while which was much needed. Jeff had a Pizza and I had a Calamari and Chicken basket.

After meeting Danielle and Nicola, it was time!! EMINEM TIME..MARSHALL MATHERS TIME! MADNESS.

The concert was awesome and the stadium was absolutely packed. We had really, really good seats. Not far from the stage at all, nicely placed!! The stadium was buzzing and I know for a fact, Jeff and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm so glad I can say that i've seen Eminem in concert. Not many people can say that.

Both Jeff and I can't thank Danielle, Louren and all the family enough for sorting it all out. We had an amazing time

All the best

Luke

Bridgetown High School yesterday.

Random photo's. Mountains, Beach, Trains and pools! All happened over the weekend.

Day 47

Day 47

I am writing this blog whilst chilling on the sofa listening to Eminem's new album- The Marshall Mathers LP2 Deluxe Version. Which I bought before coming out to Cape Town, thanks to an ITunes voucher given to me by my Nan. 

Today we were called by Danielle to tell us that Louren and herself had managed to get Jeff and I Eminem tickets at Cape Town stadium tomorrow!!!! Jeff and I are so excited, like two little kids. We're both two big Eminem fans and have masses of Eminem songs on our iPhone's and iPod's, so to be going to see him tomorrow whilst we're in Cape Town means that yet another memory will be made. Can't wait!!!! A HUGE THANKS TO DANIELLE AND LOUREN FOR SORTING THAT OUT, YOU'RE THE BEST.

Anyway, on to today's events! 

We did our usual route to the station, we missed the 8:08 train however there is always a second one scheduled to make route to Vasco at 8:13 every day. We arrived at the station to realise the 8:13 was cancelled and that we would have to wait until 8:40 for the next one! Just our luck. After arriving 15 minutes late, we made our way to Bishop Lavis to coach at Riverton Creche.  In today's session we thought we would use it as a tester for new exercises! Last night and on the train we came up with some pretty cool idea's. There's no way of finding out if something doesn't work, unless you try it! After speaking with Leo and James on Skype, it seemed like from a third person perspective that all we do is races and target practice. But let me assure you, we've never done the same thing with a creche. We just repeat the same sessions with a few differences to a selection of creches. However, to be honest, I took Leo's comment to heart a bit so it gave Jeff and I a motive to think of brand new stuff! We came up with four new exercises after about half an hour of planning time. I felt that when we did kicking and shooting sessions, the boys and girls weren't as buzzed and exciting in the session. I came to the conclusion that this was because we hadn't done any running or fun creative types of movement, instead we just went straight into kicking. I think i would find that quite  hard to get excited too to be honest, thinking it about it now, especially at that age! In Bishop Lavis there is loads of planes to be seen in the sky! So I came up with the idea that we could do a little warm up called Aeroplanes and Bridges. The idea being that the boys and girls would run with their arms out, like aeroplanes, to the cone, around it and then back. Once they were back they could go under the bridge aka crawling through their team mates legs. We couldn't think of a way to make it soccer orientated but we were keen to use the Bishop Lavis surroundings to our advantage! To be fair it worked really well and some kids were too excited to be honest and lost their concentration but oh well, as long as their having fun!! 

The second thing we did was the boys and girls would do an egg and spoon race, however the spoon would be the cone and the egg would be the cone. The kids would try to make the ball remain balanced on the cone. This worked to an average extent but like I said before it's something that we wanted to experiment with. 

Our third part of the session was a exercise that I came up with where every person in the team was involved and it needed a high amount of teamwork. Every person would put two hands on the ball and the team would make a circle around it. As a team, they would have to shuffle to the cone and back without the ball dropping to the floor. It may sound easy but if you add the competition element of a race, mistakes soon start to happen but that's good in a sense because they're having fun and are all chuckling and laughing just to come first! This worked really well so i'm glad we will be able to use that in the future. 

The fourth part of the session was a game where 4 teams would be facing the ball, and whenever Jeff or Myself said go, they had to shoot to try and knock the ball off the cone. Whoever knocked it off first would earn a point for their team. It took them a little while to get use to but we have done it with other creches and it's worked well in a short amount of time.  This is no problem at all and it allows us to adapt to different situations and explain elements more simply etcetera but most importantly it allows us to coach more which of course is our job!

We had some time to do some admin work and eat our lunch at the learning centre after finishing at Riverton but at 1:30 it was time for our next appointment. Bridgetown High School. We had a session which involved 30 boys, ranging from 14-16. We focused on ball control in our session. I took the warm up doing Chicken Or Hero and Active Stretching (asking the boys what stretch would be good for each body part and myself explaining why). Jeff set up for our session which involved 7 servers on the outside, 7 on the inside. We focused on right foot volleys back to the servers ,who had a ball, left foot volleys, chest control, knee control, headers, knee volleys, lace volleys and more technical controls for example chest then knee then bring it down and pass it back to the server. The boys were very talented and could do any drill that we gave them. The pitch we had today was full of thorns and a couple times I found a few inserted into my hand, which really hurt and drew a lot of blood. The footballs also suffered and I think we should be expecting a few punctures tomorrow. The ball control session lasted a good half an hour, both Jeff and I's group doing really well and listening to all of our instructions and tips. We then finished the session with a football tennis tournament which went excellently, the boys are so athletic, agile and posses really great ball control which made the session go swimmingly. We are back at bridgeton next Wednesday. The teacher's were great there and very happy to have us there and they gave us some lovely food and drink. South African's definitely know how to cater for their guests, that's one thing i've learnt since being out here! One of the PE teachers is one of the top referee's in the country too and refereed at the 2010 world cup, which I thought was amazing personally. Not many people can say they have refereed in a world cup. 

We had a very tiring day and by the time we got back to Cape Town and visited the civic centre to catch our bus, it was running 32 minutes late. Our option was to either wait 32 minutes or walk home which was quite a trek but something we've been meaning to see how long it takes. It took 25 minutes which meant our choice was the right one. Otherwise we would have to wait 32 minutes and then take a 20 minute bus journey on top. 

A very tiring but experimental day. We are just going to chill tonight in our apartment and watch the united which is conveniently on ETV which we have on our TV. Happy days!

All the best 

Luke 

Day 46

Day 46

A pretty bland today to be honest1 Not that much to write about.

We awoke at 7:50 and prepared for the working day ahead! However, we were called at 8:20 by Leana to tell us that we didn't have to come in. We were very relieved to say the least, we were both feeling the effects of a heavy week and an eventful weekend! We didn't manage to get back to sleep as we were all dressed, washed and ready for the day ahead! Oh well, never mind! 

We watched I Am Legend on DVD in the morning, on Jeff's laptop. By the time that was over it was still only about 10:30 and we were both quite bored. Our next event was lunch in the dining room. Today it was beef bolognese, not too shabby! We were both checking our emails, twitter and message on our phones and I heard one table start saying stuff about us which wound me up quite a bit! I find it so annoying when people don't have the courtesy to air their concerns to your face, they'd rather mutter stuff behind our backs. Very cowardly.. especially when are in the same room, a matter of feet away!! Anyways, lunch was nice and we decided that in the afternoon we would visit camps bay, just like we have done every Monday since we arrived here.

We arrived at camps bay, 100 rand later, to find that the beach was empty! We were very baffled until we stepped foot on the sand. The wind was RIDICULOUSLY strong today, so when the wind hit the sand it was like a sandstorm of a thousand daggers hitting your leg. Quite painful to be honest! So we chilled in the sun on the grass for a bit and then got the bus back to Kloof Street, a few minutes from our apartment. It was quite funny getting off the bus, we had to literally squeeze past a lot of maturing larger african women with big bottoms as the bus was packed! Despite visiting camps bay we still wanted to go for a swim somewhere. 

We knew there was a swimming pool venue down long street which we had been meaning to try for the last few weeks. We went and checked the prices and just to check what it was like.. 5 rand! Bargain. It had been a long time since I had last been in a pool with lanes and swam lengths. I use to swim a lot as a kid but this didn't deter the fact that I was very rusty when I got in the pool. I forgot how tiring it is.  Jeff and I would take turns to do 5 laps each at fast pace. One would look after the bags, one would swim. Constantly changing until we were knackered. Swimming is such a good aerobic exercise and it uses pretty much all of your muscles. I will upload a few photo's of todays events later.

We arrived back at the apartment at 5:45, both had a wash and laid on our bed for an hour or so! Swimming had taken it out of us. We've decided to go nando's later, i'm not a fan of it in England and I don't see the obsession of some people to go Nando's, especially where I live. The one in Enfield Town is pretty poor. However, i'm keen to try it out here as every chicken and chips we've had out here has been unreal. 

Tommorow we are at Riverton Creche and then Princeton High.

All the best.

Luke

Day 45

Day 45

Jeff woke up rather dishevelled, but then he saw the big 21st birthday decorations and realised where he was! Everyone slowly woke up after 8 o clock, chuckled at Jeff, treated him like a little baby and made sure he was okay but the general atmosphere was happy after such a good day yesterday. Don't get me wrong, everyone was tired but we all ploughed on! Alec and Johnathan were scheduled to play softball at 9:30, god help them! 

Jeff,Myself and Loren left at around 9 o clock and headed back to town! Home time! Both Jeff and I, despite being very well fed last night, were both quite peckish and we definitely needed something to soak up last nights drinks. Louren came up with a great idea! She invited us back to her house and she cooked us a lovely cooked breakfast which really hit the spot! I don't think this family have a bad bone in their body. They're all so nice to Jeff and I, we're so lucky! After breakfast, the three of us literally just sprawled ourselves out on the sofa's and watched TV. We watched yesterday's premier league highlights for a short while before switching to the movie channel and watching Apollo 13. Great film! We even managed to catch the last half an hour or so of Harry Potter which was nice. I miss watching films! Definitely going to make an effort to watch a few more when i'm back with my friends and stuff. Loren put three or four piles of DVD's in front of me and let me pick any that I wanted to watch! I picked about 8, mainly action films! That will sort me out for a few evenings rather than going out. Decent stuff! 

Loren dropped us back to the apartment at about 2 o clock, maybe a bit earlier and we were glad to be home! The berghof staff were all quite worried where we had been and were trying to get hold of our number! They said they were worried because we went out and didn't return. To be fair though we didn't necessarily intend to stay over but it was for the best! I think it's fair to say most of them were glad to see me when I popped my head in the dining room and nurse room to say hello! Rings of "where were you!?" surrounded the dining area but I innocently explained myself! They thought we got in  a spot of trouble with the law which I found quite humorous! What do they take me for!? We're home though and that's the main thing!

This afternoon we both caught up on some sleep and washed! I spent my afternoon writing my blog for day 44 and 45 also! I'm currently writing this with my feet up, Eminem's new album in my ears with a nice breeze whistling past me with table mountain in the background! So chilled out. I can't believe it's only 3 o clock, feels so much later! 

This evening we don't have anything planned so I guess we'll watch a couple films, go on the wifi and just relax! We've been called in tomorrow on our day off which is a bit of a killer. It means we have had a very hectic 6 day week, hopefully it doesn't catch up on us! We usually use sundays and mondays to recover from our week of events so it will feel odd working from Mon-Saturday! Ahh well though, I guess it's better than sitting on our backside! 

All the best

Luke. 

Day 44

Day 44

Before I start, let me just say Happy Birthday to my Grandad Bill back in England. I will be sending you a video message later but let me give you the privilege of getting a shoutout on my blog! I hope you have a lovely day and the family are treating you like a king for a day! Hopefully you enjoy my message later. 

Week 4 of the communicare league! 

We met Joe at Goodwood station at 10:30, like we do every saturday, and then made our way to his house to pick up some of the teams. Sakkabula and Bothasig were up first because they have the furthest to travel. We came up with a solution in terms of teams not waiting around and previous travel arrangements we had trouble with. The furthest teams away will play first and when they're done they can be driven home in the mini bus rather than wait around all day in the sun. Where as, in contrast, Drommedaris live literally 5 minutes away, so they play in the latter stages of the day from 3-4. Of course times differ each week because of the teams you play but in general the further away you are, the earlier you play! 

The day went okay, however the downside would be Thornton didn't turn up and Ruyterwacht struggled to function as a TEAM! Ruyterwacht brought 10 players this week and instead of simply playing 5 players in the first half and 5 in the second half they wanted to keep chopping and changing every few minutes! Now obviously that means players refuse to come off, arguments happen, team morale starts to drop and it just generally causes disruption. I can't believe they didn't do the solution that I just said!? That means players get a full 20 minutes each rather than bit-part roles throughout the game! 

My positives of the day would be that my team Bothasig put a really good effort up against Sakkabula. The work that Tracey is doing seems to be working and the boys are hugely improving and it's clear for all to see. They lost 6-5 but to be fair to Bothasig.. Sakakbula have four players that play for the seniors because they're that good! So to lose 6-5 to a team who have four outstanding players was quite a shock to be honest, not many expected Bothasig to score 5. I have to say my standout players were Liam and Reegan! They really showed grit and determination today. Liam who predominantly plays centre back was pulling off tricks,flicks and shots that I never knew he had in his locker. He was also running up and down constantly helping his team, big leader! He would batter me in a stamina race I reckon. (Not that that's hard). Reegan has really improved too, he's a really bubbly boy and confident but on the pitch he's usually a bit shy and doesn't show for the ball but this week it was a different story. Well done to both of the boys.

Joe realised that we had a really long week and he allowed us to leave midway through the afternoon. We travelled back with Jayden and Yonick (Joe's sons) and on the way, after going to mcdonalds, we really wanted to go for a swim! Today was a very hot day so we couldn't think of anything better than just jumping in  a cold pool! We headed back to Joe's, borrowed some shorts and made our way to goodwood pools. It was time!!! Time to jump in the pool and freeze the stresses of the week away. Beach bodies were out, shorts were on, there was only one thing left to do. Jeff did a huge frogsplash kind of dive, Yonick followed suit, Jodie did some knee tuck jump kind of dive (hard to explain) and I did a front flip! Ahhh it was good fun. For two seconds. MY SHORTS HAD FELL DOWN! Yonick gave me some 'Italia 98' football shorts to use as swimming trunks and they came straight off! There was no strings to tie them up with so as soon as I hit the water, they were a goner. By my thighs pretty much. I'll spare you the details but I hope no one was wearing any goggles under the water! As soon as I felt a 'breeze'.. I swiftly pulled my shorts up. I don't think anyone saw which was good, to be fair my shorts were only down for 2 seconds before being promptly yanked back up. 

We swam till 4:30 and then headed to long street to watch Arsenal. The drive was about 20 minutes but we had some cool drink and the Africa family banter to make the ride go smoothly! It was great hanging out with the family today, despite the racial mickey taking of my accent and the poor short selection process prior to Goodwood pools.. it was great spending the day with them. Arsenal managed to get a resounding 4-1 win which was a lovely way to end the afternoon. I was happy for Giroud because of his recent problems but also because Jeff hasn't stop slated him since we got here. But i assured him he's not a bad player to have at the club. He's not great but certainly not bad. He's a fickle, glory hunting manchester united fan anyway.. what does he know!?

Before we knew it was 7:00! We had to be back out at 8:00. MANIC MANIC MANIC. On Thursday we were invited to Heather and Alec's house again where we had the worlds most awesome Braai. How could we say no!? We were picked up by Louren at 8:00 at Berghof before heading to Heather's house. To start we had a prawn dish with a spicy kind of rice which of course was delicious. Secondly, we had Curry Rooti which were introduced to do a couple days before on Jeff's birthday so we were keen to try it again. To Finish we had some Swordfish which was aaamazing. Love it! Oh and how could i forget.. we had red velvet cake to finish. Once again the beach body which has taken me years of hard work to finely chisel.. was being ruined. Cough! I jumped in the pool and yelped at how cold it was! 'Sherbert' as Joe would say. Of course that didn't matter.. there's a jacuzzi!!!! The evening was filled with great family conversations, music, food, swimming, laughter and drinking!! Jeff was struggling to say the least so he was put to bed. I stayed in the Hot Tub with Nicola and Loren from about 12:30-4:30. Time was flying and we covered so many different conversational topics it was crazy! I was loving life literally! I was in a hot tub under the stars in the early hours of the morning! I kept saying 'you just don't get this London!'. The night ended with everyone crashing at Heathers and Alec's house. The house is massive so everyone was catered for in terms of sleeping arrangements. Loren even said she might be able to get tickets to Eminem, so fingers crossed! I'm not even fussed where we sit, just to say i've seen Eminem would be so good. Jeff didn't really fancy going,despite being a huge Eminem fan! However I sent Danielle on a mission and she completed it with flying colours! He's excited to go now.. Wooop!!

We had amazing day yet again and these moments I will definitely remember when I go back to the London. Thank you so much to ALLLL of the family for making it such a memorable weekend for us!! It was extremely Lekkar! (Nice!)

Busy, busy day. 

Sorry for if I got spelling of names wrong etc, I hope you're still able to understand who i'm on about!

All the best.

Luke

Day 43

Day 43

As I said in yesterday's blog.. We only had one session today! Sunflower crèche.

We arrived at 8:45 at the learning centre in Ruyterwacht to set up and prepare ourselves! However the hall was being renovated. Some wood pieces needed to be replaced in the floor! Both the sub contractor and Jeff and I had not been told about this! The subcontractor wasn't keen on budging as he had alot to do, so this meant we had to move across the road to a patch of grass. Kind of annoying but we just had to adjust to the situation. It didn't really affect our session but there was a risk of danger seeing as the road was surrounded by road! So both the teachers, myself and Jeff made it vitally clear that boys and girls were not to follow their ball and definitely not go wondering! The session went fine and after yesterday I made effort to remember names! There was three boys in my "team" who were so enthusiastic and a pleasure to coach! Julian,Darius and Aiden. They all seemed really close as friends and would cheer as a trio if their team did well.  Lovely boys and I wish them the best in their schooling life! Much like the rest of Sunflower crèche, they were a great bunch to coach and both the teachers were so helpful! Buya Danki to sunflower crèche! (Don't judge my spelling).

We left the learning centre at around 11 after checking our emails etc on the Internet. We had to make one stop on the way home.. The post office! I was given a slip yesterday that my parcel was too big to deliver so it was sent to the post Office Depot in Cape Town. We went with our slip to the Cape Town post office near the town hall (where Mandela once did a famous speech) but were told our slip was for the depot in Mill Street near our apartment. Despite getting off the bus early and going to the wrong post office.. All was not lost! We found a really nice chicken and chip shop which gives you LOADS of chips and huge bits of chicken. The stereotype of chicken and shops in England is not great but out here it's a different kettle of fish (or chicken in this matter). They are so nice. We couldn't finish our chips that we shared, so we gave them to a homeless person on the street. Good deed done for the day! I can feel myself slowly edging closer to being given a freedom pass to heaven by god!! I joke. It feels good to give to people who are in need though! Even for a portion of chips.. They are really grateful. You get approached by homeless people alot in Cape Town but eventually you get used to it. Jeff and I often give them the ends of whatever we've got whether it be crisps, drinks or sweets! Rather than battle the feeling of fullness in our stomach it feels alot better giving it to someone who is battling the feeling of starvation in their stomach.

We waited for the 103 bus at "darling" and got off at Gardens station. Finally the post office was in sight! Happy days. We collected the parcel and headed back home. It took a good 3 hours to get home, eventually arriving at 1. Despite the long trek home, we were able to visit places we had never seen before and it allowed us to establish different routes throughout Cape Town and of course the famous chicken and chip shop!
I opened the package and there was 4 Arsenal SnapBack caps in there for Jeff and I sent from home. Rather than wear my purple Toronto SnapBack at work I can now wear an Arsenal branded cap! Thank you to my family for sending that over. Jeff sends his thanks too! However..... I said they were a birthday present for him from all of us. Shhhhhh! It'll keep me out of the dog house for forgetting to get him anything. We both tried them on and they fit really well.. Thank you again!

We both slept for two to three hours after we tried our hats on. Once we woke up we were both quite peckish so we sat down to the meal that Berghof provided for us and then we headed down to the wifi area! It was finally working again!! I can now skype my family from the comfort of my own residence rather than going to a bar! Nice!!

We need to do some shopping before we go out tonight! I need some toiletries such as shower gel, toothpaste and shampoo. But jeff and I need to refill the fridge with butter,cheese, tuna and some cold drinks for when we come back from work. Looking forward to long street tonight, always provides a good night and we always talk to people and end up having a really cool night! Jeff even tries to learn Koser (not sure of spelling) when he hears people talking in it.

A nice day today!

Week 4 of the communicare league tomorrow! Not sure if I'll be playing for Bothasig tomorrow! But either way I will be coaching them and helping out with the organisation of the day.

All the best.

Luke

Day 42

Day 42

Wow! What a long day.

We were up at the crack of dawn! 6:50 to be precise. We made our daily journey towards the bus stop called "Lower Resevoir". Jeff and I approached the bus to find that Jeff had forgotten his myciti bus pass. What a fool! This meant we had to pay 30 rand to get to the train station rather than 5 rand 80.

It was time to coach Maja Crèche for the third time this morning.. Their last session! They're always good fun and they even game with name tags this morning. I never really realised the importance of names until today. It really aided the session in terms of how well it went and it allowed us to add more of a personal edge when praising. So for example "Well done Caleb, great shot!!" It's hard to remember all their names, some are really hard to pronounce and also we only have 3 lessons to remember all 30. The session went reasonably well, we did target practice for the first time with Maja. However, I said to Joe and Jeff that the session was missing something! Something stupid or silly just to break up the concentration and to get them energised once more. Joe and Jeff both agreed. Jeff and I will work hard to come up with something to add to the session over the next few days. I just felt that the same level excitement wasn't there in comparison to their two previous sessions.

We had a long break in the afternoon. It consisted of helping boys and girls with their homework, creating some study tips to produce for kids at drommedaris and uploading photos to sky drive. The afternoon seemed to go really fast but that was a good thing of course! It was nice to help boys and girls with their homework, it's sad to see that some kids literally don't have a clue to work a computer. If you compare that to kids who in England who have it from such a young age using applications on tablets, such as an iPad, from such an early age. You often see children as young as 2 sitting in restaurants with headphones playing some sort of game. I saw that the other night actually in Cafe Paradiso where we went for Jeff's birthday! Such a contrast.

Our second appointment of the day was coaching Atlantic Soccer Club's under 15's at the Italian club. I had coached them before where as Jeff had taken a separate group a tad older. The boys were again an absolute pleasure to coach and they show such great respect for coaches and passion for the soccer. We did Arsenal VS Kaizer to warm up, stressing that there is many fun ways to warm up rather than just laps. Secondly we played 3 attackers vs 2 defenders. We were trying to focus on attacking and defending today so both drills we came up with were perfect. We then finished our session off with "numbers" which focuses on 1v1 situations. Both games are rather competitive and fun so the boys were also lively.

We arrived home at 8 o clock, washed, had dinner and then chilled watching two films with the same main actor in it. The first film was called John Tucker must die and the second one was called on the other end of the line. They were both a good watch though.. That's for sure!!

We have a pretty empty day tomorrow. One sunflower crèche session in the morning and then we have the whole afternoon off. I need to collect a parcel from the post office which is a bit annoying but it allows us to explore the depths of Cape Town once again. I've never been so it will be fun to try and find. I think we're gonna buy Eminem tickets tomorrow! They're selling them for 200 rand which is around 10 pound! BARGAIN!

All the best.

Luke

Just some miscellaneous pictures from the last few days!