My absolutely brilliant long weekend!

Saturday was a lovely sunny day in London and very warm! I spent most of the day at the beach volleyball court (London only has 1!) coaching/meeting junior players. It was our first kick off day of London Juniors as part of the London Beach Volleyball Club. We had 6 players turn up, 2 who were complete beginners. The aim for now is to get some of the indoor players playing beach and representing London in tournaments—long term maybe even Great Britain in the world under 21s! I also had my first game of the English season for this year after the juniors training. After 7 hours out in the sun it was home to lie on the couch watching Britains Got Talent-the UKs fav TV show!

Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. I was off to the train station at 10am to catch my train south to Pulborough. (just north of Worthing) This took just over an hour and my friend Ali met me there as her and some others had been camping down there. The reason being that Sunday was the Big Church Day Out which was held on a private estate where there is a huge historic stone house called Wiston House. The day started at 2pm but we were running touch rugby coaching sessions so were there much earlier. It was a glorious day. Many of us kiwis there commented how it felt like we were home in NZ. It was beautiful clean green countryside and there wasnt a cloud in the sky and with the temp pushing 25 deg or more we were remarking how hot it was!! (well for England anyway!) Around 6pm we headed for mainstage. It really felt like a mini parachute festival! Families were all spread out on the grass hill which formed a natural ampitheatre feel—not steep like the one at Totara Springs but also no sheep poos but rather lush green grass. Michael W Smith was on at 6:45 and was as good as usual playing for just over an hour. Then at 8:30 as a huge orange sun was setting over behind mainstage Delirious came on. After a few songs some of us wanted to be way closer and so made a run that Karen Macnab would have been proud of to get closer to the stage and mosh pit—yes there was almost a mosh pit! 5 of us went up there and had a brilliant time singing and jumping and dancing to the music. They played for 90 minutes and challenged us to again be history makers—break down denominational barriers and speak out about injustice in the world etc. Overall a phenomenal evening. I then got a ride down to Brighton and caught the fast train back to Clapham junction.

Monday (a public holiday) I went to Battle (near Hastings) with my football club. We took 2 teams-an over 35s and an under 35s. Battle Baptist were our hosts and at 1:30 the over 35s took the field. As we were short of players I played for them on the right wing. We dominated and went ahead 3-0 before letting them score 3 goals to level it very late in the game. But we then scored the winner just before full time. It was very hot and humid making for a tough time esp. in long sleeved winter shirts! Then the under 35s played. I rested and refueled for the first half and then came on 2nd half and played on the left wing. The temp had dropped and even had a few rain drops which was refreshing. Although we had been down 1-0 and 1-1 at half time we finished them off 5-1. I had a chance in both games both times putting it over the bar. After a BBQ we drove back to London—my legs were rather sore after playing 130 minutes but no cramp so pretty happy!