Day 2

Liz

Both Helen and I woke early - feeling pretty good then realised nothing was going on so went back to sleep and woke too hot. More bowls of tea! Still not bad for only 3 hours sleep the night before and downtown Marseille at rush hour!

Caught up with those who had arrived after we had passed out and then the two intrepid drivers led the foray to the local supermarket (having lost Nina's car within 2 minutes of leaving the building!). Starting to get used to the strong sun and the temperature and was looking forward to swimming in the Med!

Then on to the pool!

Beautiful (ok as good as concrete ever is!) pool with stands on one side which look out over the surrounding mountains. The girls got in for a warm up and a 6 on 6 against each other which maybe lacked the necessary wham factor and several of the girls complained that the pool bottom was affecting their flicks. But everyone seemed fairly happy with the surroundings and were starting to get a good atmosphere going within the team.

On the promise of a trip to the beach at 5 everyone returned to the hotel to have a break and get ready. I had offered to sort out the team bucket/cold bag, spray paint and batteries for Perry's boom box and wandered down the road to find the Bricolage and maybe the large supermarket, Monoprix, a couple of the boys had found on the previous day.

Unfortunately, in my fascination with the shop and getting the gear we needed amassed, I missed the pickpocket who relieved me of my wallet!! So my cultural knowledge of France has now been expanded with 3 hours in the Gendarmerie National reporting it!

So that makes 2 thefts in 2 days - thank god for Baggy's carbonara and the bowls of tea!!

Aly

I arrived 2nite after a pretty long 12hrs on my own, probably a good thing with my nasty chesty cough! But hey had some pretty good luck in the airport after having left my some mini discs on the coach from Pompey! Whilst frowning to myself a security guard came over and asked if I was ok, after a quick yep I'm fine he carried on to tell me about his recent to trip to Marseille spending most of his time on the nudist beaches umm….. decided it was an ample time to say goodbye to him!! But then I decided to ask him about what shops were on the other side of departures and he said 'ok well do you want to go through now; if you do I can skip the queue for you!!' Well what the hell I thought, so followed him past a line of frowning people, oops! So once in departures and turned to him, smiled and said thanks have a good day!! Hee hee, what luck!

But it didn't end there……when I got on the plane to Frankfurt I wandered down to my seat to find a family sat there. So I turned round and wandered back thinking about where I should sit. Coming across empty seats I started to sit when this girl turned and asked me if I could swap seats with her friend so they could sit together. I agreed and sat in my new seat and lo and behold it was in BUSINESS CLASS! And the best bit is I hadn't even realised I had ended up in BC! Had a yummy meal of prawns, beef and salad, fresh fruit jelly, and even a little box of choccies! After landing in Frankfurt I got on my connecting flight to Marseille. Landed in Marseille to be picked up by Bags and Terry, it was soooooo good to see friendly faces and talk to people even if I did still sound like a frog!

Day 5

Nev

Right, two matches today…Hungarians and the Dutch. Quite a reputation these Dutch girls had….but no match for the elegant violence presented by the British ladies…not even on our top form.

After playing Hungary and winning by something like 15 -0…(I don't actually remember this match by the way…coz of the magnificence of the dutch one!) we then hung around on poolside psyching ourselves up to meet the orange ladies.

It hurt that match…we pushed and rolled and consolidated and scuttled, scuppered and swam and scored….twice…once a goal that I think maybe me or janet scored???? Any other offers? And the second a phenomenal penalty from Soph and J, again doing us proud.

Despite not being totally organised as far as positions and timing…we're not going to let them beat us. Boy was it sweet shaking their hands at the end - the orange ladies certainly looked like they had been tangoed.

Poor old Pezza….he promised us twenty euros if we won. If he keeps making promises like that he's gonna be out of pocket. Tomorrow we HAVE to beat the Serbians….and I'm sure we will.