In the first of a series of diary pieces from within the England camp, Sue Smith and Siobhan Chamberlain are the first to step up and provide an 'alternative' take on the build-up to the World Cup, aided and abetted by Rachel Yankey and Karen Carney.
The day of our departure to our training camp in Macau on Sunday 19 August started off very early, even though our flight wasn’t until late at night.
There were environmental protests at heathrow and our ‘security guard’ thought there may be beach parties on the m4!! Most of the squad bought their buckets and spades with them!!
But don’t feel too sorry for us as we travelled in comfort and had full use of the first class lounge - including unlimited free food and drink - with several members of the squad spending the day star spotting - full marks to Jill Scott, above.
We arrived at the hotel in Macua late on Monday night after a long, long, long time travelling. We were slightly sceptical of what food we would encounter this time, but we were pleasantly surprised with what we found. Especially Browny who failed to escape the temptation of the chocolate fountain, coming back to the table with a plate full of healthy melon but the tell tale sign of chocolate on her chin.
Everyone was extremely tired by this point, after travelling for about 24 hours. Crossing seven time zones, our body clocks were very confused. With the heat and humidity too, this could be the recipe for some very ratty people; naming no names Yanks. Time for bed I think.
The following few days were spent acclimatising and starting to get over the jet lag. It was cloudy for the first couple of days which led us into a false sense of security that it wasn’t too hot, that was until we stepped outside. It was still at least 30 degrees with about 80-90% humidity, and that was without the sun.
After the days of training hard and getting used to the conditions we had a rest day in order to recover and have some down time. Most of the squad used this as an opportunity to try out the hotel's driving range, however this was one unlike any you’d seen before.
Instead of hitting the balls at different targets, you hit the ball at markers in the sea, and a man in a boat went round collecting all the balls. Some players decided it would be funnier to aim for the man in the boat instead of the real targets.
That afternoon we went into the old town of Macau. Some people decided to do some sightseeing, but we decided to do some serious girlie shopping; ten bags later Casey was still going.
Although the food in the hotel was much improved, we still managed to find the most horrendous meat market we’d ever seen; we had no idea what kind of meat it was.
The next day we had a friendly match against China. Unfortunately we lost 1-0, but it was a good team performance and we felt we played well enough to win; we just needed to take our chances.
It was a good test for us as we had never played a match in those conditions before, and that is what we will experience in the World Cup games.
To keep ourselves amused we’ve decided to have a ‘donkey of the day’ award for whoever does or says the stupidest thing that day.
The artistic talent of Alex Scott created a masterpiece of a t-shirt that the culprit has to wear to the team meeting and dinner, along with some amusing ears created by Unitt and Chapman.
As you can probably tell, spirit in the camp is really high, and we're all looking forward to moving to Shanghai on 3 September.
Myself and Shiv have laid down the gauntlet, and we look forward to the next set of players giving you their unique insight into 'Team England' over the weekend.