Hallo allemaal…groetjes uit Pattaya! 👋 (Just because I promised to write one thing in Dutch)

Today started early for me with an unplanned 3:50am wake up thanks to jet lag. Who needs sleep during a tournament anyway? Lucky for me my lovely roomie Amy was also wide awake which meant we had plenty of time to watch a movie before breakfast

The breakfast buffet threw us a curveball today with no cornflakes on offer which left Waz and the girls a little devastated. Luckily there was plenty of other options on offer including bacon which is our only rationed food in the morning. After wondering why this was, Jazz was kind enough to mansplain the reasoning behind it (he probably had a point, bacon is amazing and none of us have self control when it comes to food).

Next we took the bus from the hotel to the stadium…except for Andrew and Mel who weren’t to be seen as they were still at the laundry waiting for our washing to be ready for collection. Luckily they arrived not too long after us as our playing uniforms were all in the laundry that was being collected and we couldn’t play without them.

After sorting through everyone’s underwear and some mysterious white FILA socks, it was time to get ready for our first game of the day.

First up we had Malaysia and thanks to a nice lead in the first half, everyone was able to have a run in the second half and we came away with a 17-5 win. I say everyone had a run but that’s not entirely true, Nik stayed firmly seated on the bench today as he was struggling with some bathroom related issues and wasn’t keen to risk any surprises on court! Probably a wise move!

After our first game we got given our lunch packets and after yesterday’s meal consisting of ‘bag of fish’, we were a little apprehensive. Turns out we had nothing to worry about as today saw garlic pork on the menu and even included both fruit and veg portions which we hadn’t seen either of in the lunchboxes up until today. Zac has declared today’s lunch ‘the best so far’ so hopefully we continue on this trend over the next few days.

After lunch we had a several hour wait at the stadium until our second game of the day but much to our delight we were told that we would have access to massage therapists. After everyone got their problem spots massaged out we had a team stretching session. Then came a rest and relaxation period where according to Isabel we spent way too much time on our phones and never spoke to each other in person. It may be the language barrier but I’m pretty sure she thinks we only communicated with each other via Facebook during the day.

But during my time on Facebook I did receive some lovely comments from my friends back in The Netherlands. My 2 personal favourites were asking if Zac came out of another era due to his hair style and lovely moustache and the shear panic that one friend had over watching Jazz’s penalty taking style. You have to admit, it’s unique, but it works so no hate there!

It was then finally time to get ready for our second game but there was a small delay due to the intense match between India and Malaysia that was being played directly before us. As we were finishing our warm up and walking over to the playing area we were able to catch the last few seconds of the game which saw Malaysia score the game winning goal with a very impressive one shot attack.

After the high of seeing that we hit the court ready for Thailand. It was a slow start but we managed to pull away and ended up with a 10-17 win and everyone except for Nik hitting the court for the second time today.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel, have a quick shower and head down for dinner which was the exact same offering as yesterday. We had mixed feelings about this but everyone ate to some extent and left the dining room happy.

Last up for the day was a very brief team meeting followed by a team activity that we were told to prepare for by wearing shoes (and given no other information). After being split into 2 teams of children vs adults (younger vs older players) the game was finally explained and we would be as teams stealing each other’s shoes for the following 5 minutes. The rules were simple but the final note included ‘no biting’ which may or may not have been directed at me after last night’s team activities. After an intense 5 minutes of manhandling each other, the children were declared winners!! And yes, at 29 I am still in the younger half of the team so considered one of the children!

Now it’s time to get an early night after a big day and tomorrow you will get to hear about our adventures from the one and only Zac Marshall.