26th August 2007 :::

So the season is almost upon us and the friendlies are all over. It seems a long time ago now that we played Dagenham & Redbridge in the first of the warm-up games. There isn’t much to say about that one, other the crowd cheering "Denzel, Denzel, give us a wave!" at Tony Warner none stop. By the way we’ve found out that Paul Konchesky used to be called “Eggy” by his West Ham teammates. But it’s not just because of the shape of his head though. Take a look at the West Ham chairman you’ll know why.

Next up was Brighton but I almost didn’t even make it to that one after a slight domestic incident. With the game in the evening we were supposed to be in at two in the afternoon to prepare set pieces, so I was at home all morning doing bits and bobs. About an hour before I had to leave I went to the toilet which was where the fun began because the bathroom door wouldn’t open and I couldn’t get out! I was trying everything but although the handle was moving, nothing was happening. I checked my pockets but my mobile wasn’t on me and it was then that I really started to panic. After a few minutes of continued attempts to budge the door I started shouting, because fortunately our cleaner was in. But she couldn't open the door from the other side either, so I asked her to get hold of our handyman to rescue me.

 
But it was all happening at the same time as London was being hit by a monsoon so all the workmen were super busy because the building was being flooded. So I decided stay calm and look at the funny side as I sat in there stranded for the next 40 minutes. At least I had a few books to flick through. With the bad weather going on outside it felt like being in some sort of Hitchcock movie - the light was flickering, there were all these creaking noises, and from outside all I could hear was thunder and rain.
 

My girlfried was on holiday at the time too, so if the cleaner hadn’t been there I could have been stuck in that poxy room for days! Oh well, at least I was in the right place to be crapping myself. And I can’t let rip about poor plumbers on this one can I? Bloody carpenters!!! Can't even make a proper door!

We eventually got to Brighton, who pretty much tried to kick us off the pitch, and then it was off to Hong Kong to play in the Barclays Asia Trophy. What a fascinating place - doubt if I could live there but was definitely interesting to visit. None of the buildings are less than ten stories high and most are three of four times that. At first I imagined it to be quite small and dense but it was much bigger than I’d imagined. And the people are so friendly. We were really looked after – nothing was left to chance and anything that we needed, either as a team or individuals, was taken care of without any fuss.

It was really humid and training was tough in all the heat, but it was nice to be able to recover by the hotel’s fantastic pool. The tournament involved us, South China, Liverpool and Portsmouth. I didn’t feature in the first game which was against Portsmouth, but I thought we played pretty well. Even though we lost we probably had the better chances but just didn’t make enough use of them. The second game, against South China, was for third place which we won quite comfortably. I played 70 minutes in that one.

We didn’t get out much, but the one time I did go out was with Carlos and Brian to a shopping mall across the bay. Instead of just taking a taxi, we decided we’d get on one of the ferries that locals use, but by the time we got to the ferry we realized that none of us had any Hong Kong dollars on us. It was absolutely baking hot and the idea of walking back to the hotel was a non-starter. So while Brian went off for about 20 minutes trying to find a cash point, Carlos and I decided to try and offer a few locals some US dollars in return for Honk Kong dollars, but at a really good rate. It didn’t really get us anywhere. In fact, in a city where everyone speaks English, all those we approached just pretended they didn’t understand and tried to walk off pretty quickly. After four or five failed attempts, we got helped by a school girl. In fact she even offered to pay for us, but we insisted she took some money in return. And when we finally got on the boat after all that fuss, the fare was only $2.20HK – which works out at about 25p!

What else has happened since the last update?  I went on a tourist trip down to the Tower of London. Some German friends gave me tickets after being shocked at how few London sites I’d seen during my eight years here. The Tate, the Millennium Wheel and Barnet Town Hall is about the size of it. But I couldn't be bothered to queue for the torture chamber. After seeing our gym this summer I don't think there would be anything that could shock me.

I’ve been down to the park recently, not to watch Sunday League football this time, but because a friend of mine has started playing Ultimate Frisbee. Imagine Frisbee crossed with rugby and you’ll get the idea. I checked it out on YouTube and it’s amazing so he’s had me down in Kennington Park showing me some moves, and he even gave me my own personal Volzy Frisbee. Keen to practice, I’ve since got my girlfriend down to the park too. But I doubt she’ll be coming again after breaking a nail on her first catch. And the local dogs took a bit of a liking to the disc too, which made handling it a bit off-putting!

More soon!