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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

GNOMES AND OUTSIZE SWEATERS 17th June 2008

The match that we played against South Korea yesterday was at 2:00pm, so today we had a little more time to recover in the evening. We are therefore, a little less sore than after the previous game against Argentina. Of course, when I say "we," I am actually talking about me. I am sure that my teammates would not appreciate me speaking for them.

We are all very pleased with yesterday’s win against our hosts, even if the victory wasn’t as comfortable as it should have been. The team is in good humour, morale is good, and it is fun to be here playing. Winning really is great!

This Tuesday morning was a quiet one, with people getting up anywhere between 7:00 and 9:30 am for breakfast. The Euro 08 soccer was being shown at 8:00 am though, so that was a good incentive for many of us to be downstairs for that. However, even then, a good number of our team wandered in towards the end of the game.

The team walk was at 10:00 am, obviously to Starbucks, and my little group made this trip a much longer one. This is because the “gnomes away from homes” are back! If you are unsure of what I am referring to, I will have to direct you to Amy Walsh’s website where there is already an album up for them. This album will soon be extended, along with guest appearances by a few others.

I know I am not alone when I say that these picture series by D and Amy are some of the funniest things ever. Even watching the pictures being taken can be hysterically funny. Even as I laugh though, I spend much of my time bright red with embarrassment, and cowering in corners to try to avoid being connected with these two and their gnomes. Often these two jokesters try to drag innocent bystanders into the fray with them and, often the locals die of laughter too, and seem to love being part of this odd western humour. What else could you call it. However, I can’t help feeling mortified and embarrassed. I am sometimes roped in as the photographer, but for the most part, I am as far away from the “gnomes” as possible. I love the pictures though.

At 2:00pm, we had a team workout at a gym a few blocks away from the hotel. Our trainer Andrew ran the session so we were soon sweating buckets. We ran a few intervals and did a weight session before spinning for a while on some exercise bikes. The workout was not overly tough, but it definitely got our heart-rates up... as well as our sweat glands, so I was really looking forward to my shower by the time it was all over. The gym was quite entertaining though, as the treadmills were equipped with fans as well as speakers attached to the television playing the Brazil/US soccer game (US won 1-0). Some of us still had physio to undergo in the hotel.

This is about the sum of events for today, except that we also had a team meeting. Oh, of course, there is some of the adidas Olympic gear.

I forgot to mention that our manager had ordered some sample jerseys of some of the adidas gear we will be wearing at the Olympics. The viewing did not go well. Not only are the jerseys all men's sizes, but they are horribly ugly and made of terrible material that is see through. We are not very happy.

We will be calling our Adidas rep as soon as we can to try to get things changed, but to be honest, we are all well aware of where we stand on their priority list. They have made it abundantly clear to us in the past, and now they send us these XXXXL samples. Once the laughter had worn off, we were pretty upset that we have not been consulted nor apparently taken into consideration.