I was looking forward to going to Norway. I had been before, many years ago with a friend travelling around Scandinavia after university, and we remembered Norway as a magnificent country. Of course I was there to play badminton, first and foremost, but I tried to soak in as much of the sights as I could. After being taken to the hotel from the airport by a very friendly man from the tournament organisation, I checked in and was told I had arrived just in time for complimentary waffles. I looked over at the little waffle iron and huge bowl of batter the receptionist was pointing at, and my spirits went from great to awesome! I had felt that I was paying quite a lot for a room at this hotel, but when I heard about the waffles and the buffet dinner every evening included in the price, I was already planning my return next year! The girl at reception suggested lathering the waffle in some kind of sour cream and raspberry jam, which was delicious (perhaps not massively nutritious) and I can recommend it to anyone with a waffle iron! In fact, as a result of this tournament, I am now a proud owner of a waffle iron, which my girlfriend got me for Christmas because I wouldn’t stop harping on about it. I use it all the time (it can also do toasties) and it’s great for between-training snacks!

Anyway, enough waffling on about waffles, I was here to play a tournament after all. The evening I arrived I went to the manager’s meeting and tested out the hall. The next day I was on court after 17:00 as I actually had a bye in the first round. So I was well rested, well fed (on waffles :-)) and ready for my match against a former world number 192. He was a tall guy, and had a very aggressive style (despite a very friendly demeanour). The match reminded me of the one I played in Switzerland, fast and aggressive rallies, and I had trouble keeping up and getting the shuttle past him. I don’t have much experience playing such tall players, and this really is something I need to adjust to. When I was placing the shuttle well and moving him about, I was winning points. But my lack of consistency let me down, and I lost 14-21 and 13-21.

So my tournament was over, and I still had a few nights booked at the hotel. It was Thursday, and my flight home was on Saturday, so I needed to fill my time. With all this travelling, I struggle to find the time to train. Ideally I should be training in excess of 20 hours a week, but with spending two days a week in transit, this is very difficult. I was very happy to see therefore, that my hotel room was literally 2 steps from the gym. Of course it wouldn’t have mattered if it was further, I would still have used it, but it was just one more of those little things about this hotel that put a smile on my face. I was in the gym every day during my stay, except the day I played my match. The hotel was also pretty much in the centre of Sandefjord, a great little place famous for its whale hunting a century ago. In fact the hotel doubled as a museum, displaying whale hunting relics and paintings down every corridor and in every corner. On the Friday I went to have a look around the town. It was quiet and had a calming aura about it. It was November, so pretty cold, and all the tourist attractions, such as boat tours (it was a fjord after all) were shut down for the winter. But I took an hour or two to have a walk around, as the sun was shining, before heading to the hall to watch the other players, and figure out what I need to improve.

The following day I packed my bag and was taken back to the airport by the tournament organisers. This tournament didn’t get me many ranking points, but it was an excellent trip, and I look forward to playing again next year, with the aim of improving my performance of course.

I have played this tournament 3 or 4 times already, despite it being classed as a Grand Prix Gold, one of the strongest tournaments in Europe. This is because it is only an hour’s drive to get to, and Luxembourg has always managed to enter some players every year. However, it is always touch and go whether we actually get into the qualification or not, as it is only a 16 qualifying draw. And this being an Olympic qualification year, I had my doubts about getting to play. You can imagine my surprise therefore, when I found out at the manager’s meeting the evening before, that due to 7 players withdrawing from qualification, 7 had therefore been promoted to main draw and 2 poor souls had to battle out a single qualifying match to fill the last spot. I was among those who had been promoted, and although perhaps not the most elegant way of getting into my first main draw ever, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit pleased about all the ranking points this would get me.

The next day the smile was quickly wiped off my face however, when I began my match against Toby Penty from England, ranked 78 in the world. I think I managed to equalise at 1-1 in the first set, but ended up losing it 2-21!! The reality of how far I still had to go if I was serious about reaching that kind of ranking hit me very hard! I managed to triple my score in the second set, but losing 6-21 is still pretty pathetic. Toby had an answer for everything I did, if I happened to play a shot which didn’t go out. I had played this tournament before and always felt nervous, but I had hoped my recent experience in international badminton would have helped a bit. Little things affected me, like the umpires having microphones, each court being under the spot light, the obvious presence of the spectators. At one point I even had to focus on my breathing I was so nervous. The problem is that with every point you lose, the feeling intensifies, and to be a top player you need to be able to take control of yourself, calm down, and focus on playing your game. I couldn’t do this, but I am grateful for the brutal lesson I learnt that match. One thing I can be pleased about is that I did not hang up my rackets there and then. If anything the experience made me even more hungry for that level of badminton. Next time I’ll put up more of a fight.

Another tournament fairly close to home. After checking hotel prices in Switzerland, I opted to stay in a Bed & Breakfast in France, a 40-minute drive from the tournament venue, so it also meant I didn’t need to drive as far the day before the tournament. It was a nice place to stay, like one of those chalet places you usually find up in the mountains, only this was in a quiet village not far from the border. Unfortunately, the weather the next day was grey and misty, otherwise I would have had some spectacular mountain views on my way to the venue. I was impressed by the venue and the tournament organisation, I was not impressed by the extortionate prices in the cafeteria! Still, it is Switzerland after all, and I suppose I did manage to save a bit of money by spending the night in France.

So my first match was against a guy from Switzerland. I had not heard of him before, and I was very pleased to win the match in 2 sets. The second was close, but I managed to avoid a third set. I felt determined to win it in 2 and the determination paid off. This secured my third official win since starting, and it felt good. I ate some lunch, watched the other matches, and tried to prepare as best I could for my next match, against a guy from Finland ranked 189 in the world. Going on court I felt OK physically, but soon realised I would need to do something very special to give this guy any sort of a game. He was tall with an excellent reach, meaning I needed to play the shuttle well into the corners to get him moving. It turned out he was quick as well, and we were playing a game which was quite simply too fast for me. I lost 12-21 and 17-21, not too bad in the end, but I needed more experience at that level. I’m sure his speed came from his ability to anticipate my shots, which most of the time he managed to do. I did manage to lob the shuttle over him to win the point once or twice as he would smash and charge in to the net, but it certainly wasn’t enough to keep up with the pace he was setting.

It was late afternoon by the time I had showered and packed the car, so I decided the best thing to do was to head home and try and get in some valuable training the next 2 days before the weekend. Because I was travelling so frequently to tournaments at the moment, it wasn’t easy fitting the training in in between. Before leaving however, I wanted to at least pay a brief visit to the town of Yverdon-les-Bains, and get some food before driving the 4 and a half hours back home. It was a nice town, but everything was pretty much closed by the time I arrived. I scouted out the best burger restaurant and ordered their specialty burger. It was good, and just what I needed to keep me going for the journey home. As my tournament spendings were on a tight budget for the time being, I was aware of the bill being in excess of 30 euros for a burger and lemonade. Switzerland is a nice place, but I couldn’t afford to stay there for too long.

This journey started with a pleasant 30-minute stop-over in sunny Rome from Frankfurt-Hahn, so although it was a bit of a detour, I managed to stock up on some vitamin D, before catching the plane to Sofia. I had booked into one of the tournament hotels, which was really nice and within walking distance of the venue. I arrived just before midnight, so pretty much went straight up to the room, and it wasn’t until the next day that I was able to appreciate not only the hotel, but the amazing surroundings as well!

This is the view from the park as I walked to the venue. I left well in time for my match, good thing too, because I thought it would be fairly obvious to find, but it turned out it wasn’t. After walking around for ages, but exploring the university sports campus at the same time, I finally decided I should ask for directions from a woman who very helpfully guided me straight to the hall. It turned out to be a standard sports hall which I estimated to be quite old, as it seemed to be in a state of disrepair, with water stains down the walls. So I was very surprised to learn that the hall was only two years old! This information came from a physical education student sitting next to me in the stands. I was probably as surprised as he was when he walked in this morning, expecting to have a gym class, only to find an international badminton tournament going on. He didn’t seem too bothered though, and I later learned that actually, this kind of thing is quite normal in Bulgaria. After spotting my opponent, I realised I had actually already played this guy, and not all that long ago either. We had played each other in 2014 at the European Club Championships in Amiens, France. Back then he won 21-14, 21-16, and I figured that as I was now in better shape and had been living and breathing badminton for the last few months, things could only go better.

Things did go better, and this time I managed to lose 22-24, 15-21. In all seriousness, I did play better than last time, and I did manage to surprise him a little bit, but I guess it’ll have to be third time lucky! I should have won the first set, and that is something I need to work on, going for the points when it really matters. We both did have to fight however, and I think a bit more experience and I will start winning matches like this one. Still, for now, my tournament was over, and because of ticket prices and flight times, I had booked my return journey for Saturday. It was now Wednesday, so I had some time to kill in Sofia.

The next day I went to the hall in the morning to watch some of the matches. At this stage I can still learn a lot from simply watching the other players. In the afternoon I met up with a fellow athlete as we had arranged to train together in another hall not far from his hotel. It was a strange place, and was apparently one of the national training centres for the Bulgarian team, so it served us very well. After several hours of training we went for a well-deserved Italian meal!

My last full day in Bulgaria I spent watching some more badminton and then in the early evening made my way into the city centre by metro. It was a bit of a walk to the metro station, but the metro itself was cheap and quick, and it took me right to the city centre. I didn’t really know where to go or what to see, and upon my arrival in the city I realised I was quite hungry, so I treated myself to a Wok-to-Walk, which is basically a mix and match pot of noodles with whatever you want in it. I probably could have been a bit more adventurous, but it was tasty, and it meant I could eat quickly and continue looking around. All I really did was walk around though. It was dark, and everywhere was shutting, so there wasn’t much else to do, other than admire the buildings. I stumbled across a very grand building with a plaque which read “Ministry of Science and Education” or something along those lines. Being a scientist, I thought I would take a picture. As I did I glanced up and noticed a CCTV camera. Not unusual, as it was pointed at the entrance, basically where I was standing. I continued to walk around looking at buildings and stuff, taking a picture here and there, minding my own business, and about 40 minutes later, made my way underground to a nearby metro station. It was busy, people bustling about in all directions, but through the crowds I happened to notice a policeman listening to his walkie-talkie and at that moment glanced up at me. I turned right, walking away from him, but I could feel his eyes still on me. Moments later he had caught up with me and murmured something in Bulgarian. Bewildered, I said “do you speak English?”, “Document!” he replied. Slightly nervously, yet with intrigue, I showed him my ID card. After scrutinizing it for a while, he handed it back and said “OK!”. Anxious not to provoke him any further, I got on the metro and went back to the hotel. It’s odd to think that since taking that photo, I was being watched and probably considered a threat to national security.

The next day I packed my things, went to the venue and watched the end of the tournament, and just as the finals finished, I got the bus to the airport. Sofia was a nice place to see, the tournament was also very good, and next time I hope to do a little better! After last night though, I was glad they let me leave the country 🙂

This was one tournament I wasn’t expecting to play. The list of accepted players had been published a month before, and I was last on the reserve list. So a week before the start of the tournament, the organisers contacted me to tell me I had made the qualifying draw, and after a moment of hesitation (it was a strong tournament and flights would most certainly be expensive at this point) I set about planning my trip to Prague! It turns out that Prague isn’t as far from Luxembourg as I thought, so I decided to drive there rather than book an expensive flight. This took around 7 and a half hours, would have been quicker if it weren’t for the multitude of roadworks wherever you go on German motorways. I arrived at the hotel I had booked late afternoon, and in the evening set off for the manager’s meeting at the venue. The meeting was quite late in the evening, and I was surprised to see that the organisers were still preparing the hall. There were cables and random props all over the place, and no sight of any nets. Looked like they were in for an all-nighter! At the manager’s meeting I learnt that my first opponent wasn’t coming, so I had a walkover the first round. This meant I could have a leisurely start to the day, and I wasn’t on court until 18:00. I didn’t know much about my opponent, but I did know that he was currently ranked 213 in the world. Still, I managed to play some very good badminton (by my standards) and I won 21-15 and 22-20! This meant I was now through to the third and final round of the qualification draw! But the next match wasn’t until 11:20 the next day, so plenty of time to rest and mentally prepare for the number 130 in the world!

After a nice Italian dinner and a good night’s sleep, I made my way to the venue all geared up and ready for my next match. This time however it was one stretch too far, and I had trouble dealing with the speed of my opponent. Still, I managed to fight my way into double figures, eventually losing 11-21 in both sets. But I was happy! I had made it to the third round and won an important match in my new-found career! Here you can see me celebrating with some victory grapes back at the hotel!

And to celebrate further, now that my tournament was over, I went into Prague with some fellow badminton players. It really is a nice city, and I regret not spending more time there. As I had to drive back to Luxembourg still, and remembering that Germany was pretty much one big roadwork, I thought it best to set off for home at 22:00 that evening, after a quick look around the town. Hopefully this would mean I could just sail through the roadworks and avoid the usual daytime traffic holdups. Once I finally made it onto the motorway, this was indeed an effective plan. It took me an hour to do so however, as pretty much every slip road in the vicinity of Prague onto the motorway I needed had been shut!! But in the end the entire journey took just under 7 hours, and I was very thankful when I finally crawled into bed in the early hours of the morning. All in all though, a very successful tournament!

With my new found confidence from my experience in Belgium last week, I set off full of enthusiasm at 5am on Wednesday morning to Frankfurt Hahn, an hour and a half’s drive away. I was flying to Krakow via Rome, the delights of budget flying. Thankfully this trip went very smoothly, and I had plenty of time in Rome to get my luggage, check it in again, and stand in the carpark to get a bit of Italian sun. I was a bit concerned that my journey home 3 days later would only allow 40 minutes to do all this in Warsaw, Poland’s biggest and busiest airport. Still, that was 3 days away, right now I had more important things to think about, like how I was going to win my first match, preferably without completely lungging myself like I did last week. After a long wait in Krakow airport, the father and cousin of one of the organisers of the tournament took me and two other players to our hotel. Family is apparently top priority in Poland, as my taxi driver to the airport on my return journey would explain to me; the Polish do whatever they can to help out their family members. The father was the driver, and the cousin, who was studying business in English at a nearby university, was the interpreter. Once at the hotel, dropped off my stuff, packed my badminton bag, and went to get the shuttle to the venue. I wanted to test out the hall, but I also had to attend the manager’s meeting at 20:00. So I went to that first and then I warmed up and hit a few shuttles with one of the Portuguese players who had kindly offered to let me use their court for a bit. Getting the shuttle back to the hotel was not so easy, and along with some other players, we wangled some seats on a very crowded bus full of officials. We got back to the hotel at 22:00 and we were all starving. The only food we could get at that hour was KFC, 10 minute walk from the hotel along a busy main road….In the dark. We survived and were thankful to have eaten something before the tournament the next morning.

After an OK breakfast, my plan was to get the 9:45 shuttle, as I estimated my match to start after 11:00 (a TV court again, so no scheduled time). I waited in the carpark of the hotel with some other players, and at 9:40 a promising van pulled up, the driver got out, had a chat with the hotel receptionist for 5 mins, then got back in his van and drove off, without letting anyone on. We were all left a bit bewildered, and thought maybe another van would show up soon. The minutes passed by, and no minibus came. After about 45 minutes of frantically calling the tournament organisers, a minivan finally turned up, much to the relief of some other players who had to be on court very soon. We arrived at the hall just in time, as one of the players only had about 15 minutes to warm up. An hour later I was on court myself, against a Polish player, ranked just over 200 in the world. I put up a bit of a fight, but made so many mistakes, and was overall very disappointed with myself. I think these ups and downs are probably part of the experience, and I can only learn from them, but what I am doing now is a little bit more serious than the badminton I was used to, and I still need to work on staying calm and playing my game, and not getting drawn into my opponent’s game. At this stage I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and this is a state of mind I need to achieve on court.

Still, my tournament was over, and I now had 2 more days to wait until my flight home, and I was still very sceptical that I was going to make all my connections. As I left the venue, I stopped off at the cafeteria and bought myself a piece of traditional Polish cake made primarily with poppy seeds. It was pretty good, and literally stuffed full of seeds (as you can see in the picture). Back at the hotel, I made the decision to book another flight home a day earlier, which would take me from Katowice Airport directly to Frankfurt Hahn. I had calculated that there was almost no way that I would make my connections, as I would have to collect my luggage, check it in again, pass through security, meaning I would most likely be spending a night in an Warsaw airport, paying more money on alternative flights. I am all for experiences and a bit of adventure, but in this case I wasn’t prepared to take that chance. Plus this meant I would make it home in time for training Friday evening, which I felt I needed. In the end I spent 100 euros on the flight, but I’m glad I did it, and I know for next time, not to simply go for the cheapest option, but to look carefully at the itinerary before purchasing. I am on a tight budget at the moment, as without any sponsors I am paying my own travel and accommodation, but time is also money. Anyway, I made it back without any hassle and managed to train in the evening as well.

As this tournament was held in Leuven, I only had a 2 hour drive to the hotel which I ended up booking the day before. My first match was on a TV court, and so no start times are issued, you just go on when the match before yours finishes. I had thought to drive up early the day itself as I had estimated to be on court around 10:30, but I had forgotten that I needed to attend the manager’s meeting which is always held the evening before. As I am currently the only player from Luxembourg, and generally travelling alone, I need to assume the role of player, coach, manager, masseur, mental coach, physio…. In short, if a country is not represented at the manager’s meeting, that federation receives a fine. So I drove up the evening before and stayed in a hotel. This was just as well because it meant I could practice in the hall before the tournament began. It is actually very important to do this, to ensure you are used to the conditions before the first match.

This certainly paid off, because I managed to win my first match!! This is the first match I have ever won at such an event. I have won matches at international team events, but never in an individual event like this. It was very tough and I ended up winning by 2 points in the final set! Very close, and I was physically ruined, but mentally I had received a huge boost of confidence. I wasn’t quite sure how I would manage to play the next match, but I would cross that bridge when I got to it. I had two hours to enjoy my win and gobble down some spaghetti bolognaise. At 13:30 I was on court again, this time against a French player who had had a walkover in his first round, so was still nice and fresh. But I tried not to let that get to me, and in actual fact I manage to hold it together rather well. There were periods when I felt exhausted, so I eased off and played more defensive, waiting for the errors of my opponent. This worked well, and it was ridiculously close, however this time I lost by 3 points in the final set. Overall I was very happy with my performance, a huge improvement from last week, and a win in the bag! Bring on Poland!

Schiphol, 05:38. Having just parked the car what seemed to be miles away from the airport, we scrambled our luggage together and set off for the shuttle to take us to the terminal. Having had four hours of sleep (I am not a morning person) I was glad to have made it through check-in and security just in time and by 07:15, we were sitting in the plane waiting for take-off. We were on our way to Kharkov, Ukraine, two days after the bombing in Kiev, resulting in over 90 casualties. Kharkov lies to the East, around 30km from the Russian border and a couple hundred kilometres from the current warzone. Probably not top of my list of places to go to at that point. However, this is the first of many destinations I have planned out for this next stage in my life. Fifteen destinations for the remainder of 2015 to be exact, meaning I will be flying or driving to a different country virtually every week up until Christmas. Honestly, I have no idea how things will pan out, whether I will achieve the goals I have set myself, or if I truly understand the decision I have made. But one thing is certain, it will be an experience to remember. I have two things going for me at the moment, time and motivation, and the rest will sort itself out as I go along.

Sitting in the plane with my sleeping girlfriend drooling all over me, I am thinking about what I am embarking upon, and that at 18:00 tomorrow, I will be on a court playing my first individual, world-ranking badminton tournament in years. I am a national badminton player representing Luxembourg, and playing world-ranking tournaments is the reason for my travel-packed agenda over the coming months. I am very excited about it, and I have managed to train twice a day for the last six weeks, to build up a minimum on-court fitness level required for international badminton. Of course I would have preferred a much longer preparation period, but for the last four years I have been doing a PhD in Health Sciences, specialising in biomechanics and sports injury prevention. I successfully defended my thesis in July and have since been able to find the time to get back into the training.

After a five hour wait in Kiev to get our connecting flight to Kharkov, we finally boarded the plane. We were exhausted and looking forward to an hour’s nap before landing. This was not to be however, as we experienced a very wobbly take-off, and at one point during the ascent quite a violent lurch of the plane. This caused a woman in the row in front of us to let out a piercing scream that left the other passengers feeling quite unnerved for a while afterwards. The stewardesses hurried to bring her little cups of calming drinks, which seemed to do the trick. In fact she managed to get her nap in! They should have done the same with the hyperactive little boy in the seat in front of me.

We landed safely in Kharkov, much to the relief of the screaming woman, and as we collected our baggage, got talking to some other players, recognisable by their badminton bags. It turned out they were getting picked up by the organisers and taken to their hotel. I thought it best to latch onto them and try and sweet-talk a ride with them. A tall man in his fifties wearing a pink shirt was busy grouping all the players together outside in the carpark, so he seemed to be the one to talk to. With the help of a very friendly umpire who was able to communicate in Russian with this man, assured us that Ukrainians can sort anything, and sure enough, five minutes later we were being driven to our hotel. It turned out that all the others were staying in another hotel, and after dropping them off, the man in the pink shirt graciously insisted he take us on to our hotel. I really was very impressed by his kindness and willingness to help, and as we drove on, it transpired that he was actually the Ukrainian national coach! I’d have expected he’d have more important things to do the day before the tournament. We arrived at the front desk of where I had told him we were staying, which was also the venue where the tournament was being held, and he was greeted by a chirpy women with curly hair and glasses. When she saw us though, she looked a little puzzled. We were given check-in forms to fill in all the same while they continued to chat. After filling in half of it, the coach turned to me and asked “you booked here?” I replied with a nervous “yes”, glancing at the concerned look on the woman’s face. She checked her computer and then exchanged a few words with the coach again, shaking her head from time to time. The coach then said “You live here, no problem, but maybe you book hotel in Hungary.” This news led me immediately to question my online booking skills so I nervously checked the confirmation email I had been sent and showed it to the coach. He scrutinised it and all of a sudden his face lit up and he went over to the window and pointed. A building not far off with “hotel” painted on the side was where I had booked. So I didn’t get it too wrong.

The hotel turned out to be just fine, clean, tidy room, with an interesting breakfast (things like cottage cheese pancakes with honey, a Ukrainian speciality I think). We had a good night’s sleep, and the next day we walked over to the venue, and I prepared myself for my first match. I was a bit nervous, after so many years of not playing these types of tournaments. Also, it being my debut match for this rather ambitious project I had embarked upon, I wanted it to go well, naturally. But on court I felt tense, which made me use so much more energy than necessary. I had made the mistake of overanalysing the fact that if I won my first match, I could make it to at least the first round of the main draw. I think this added unnecessary pressure, and I ended up losing 13-21 and 17-21. It was frustrating, because I knew I could have won had I have managed to relax and play my own game, but it was very good experience, and certainly a great lesson!

After losing my match, I did need some cheering up, so back at the hotel we asked the receptionist what her favourite restaurant was in Kharkov. Half an hour later we were in a taxi on our way to the sky Lounge, a five star hotel restaurant on the top floor overlooking the city. The food was really good and very affordable and after a relaxing evening we left the restaurant to the sound of “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”, as it had now become a karaoke bar.

As it was a balmy 30°C outside, so we initially decided that we would walk back to the hotel, but quickly realised that this was probably not the best idea at one o’clock in the morning without knowing the way. Every now and again a car would pass and most of the time it was a taxi. Frustratingly, although the green light was on, they always seemed to be full of people. Eventually we did manage to hail one however, and as it pulled up I could barely make out the driver through the thick haze of cigarette smoke. I held the card that our hotel receptionist had given us up to the passenger window, and a hand beckoned me to get into the passenger seat. I did so and handed the driver the card. I could now make out that this driver was well into his eighties and as he reached for his magnifying glass to read the rather large print on the card I had just given him, I remembered the last words my girlfriend’s Mum had said to me before we left “please take good care of my daughter.” We made it back to the hotel in one piece, thankfully.

The next day we spent first at the tournament watching the matches, in particular the men’s singles, and then headed into the city, for a bit of sightseeing. Checking the map on our smart smartphones we thought we’d check out what we expected would be a huge park. It must be noted that we couldn’t understand anything, as none of the signs anywhere in Kharkov are in English. We joked about a sign which looked like it said “beware of the elephant”, and strolled through a rather dilapidated gate into the park. We walked on, chatting and looking around as you do, when we realised that a rather shrill voice behind us had been getting progressively louder. We turned round and a woman had been following us for a while, and yelling at us it turns out. She beckoned us back to the gate and we then deduced that we needed to pay an entry fee. We thought this a bit strange for a park, but we eventually understood that we had actually strolled into the zoo. We paid the one Euro something entry fee and quickly left the disgruntled woman to mutter Ukrainian expletives (I would assume) under her breath. I will not go into detail about the zoo, but I will say that my girlfriend and I agreed that it was the most depressing zoo either of us had ever been to. I wouldn’t recommend it. After a lot of walking around with no idea where to go or what to see, but taking photos of random buildings and things anyway, we made our way to another rooftop restaurant for dinner. Again, good food, good views, and a nice way to finish off our day in Kharkov.

The next day we had a final leisurely breakfast and went to the venue to watch a few more matches. Around lunchtime we collected our luggage from the hotel, ordered a taxi at reception and went to the airport. Apparently this airport isn’t used much, as it was more or less deserted when we entered. There was however a woman at the souvenir shop, where my girlfriend bought a carefully selected fridge magnet and I treated myself to one of those inflatable neck cushion things, reasoning that I would be doing a lot of flying in the coming months, and thought it would be a good investment.

We had quite a long stopover in Kiev again, an airport which we had extensively explored on the way over, so after getting some food we found what we thought would be a nice quiet spot to sit overlooking the runway and wait for boarding. It wasn’t quiet for very long, as apparently we had sat next to a small family who had gone for a walk with their, young, very noisy child to try and calm him down. My heart sank as we watched him and his parents approach the pile of bags on the seats next to us. However the following series of events certainly brightened up our long wait. The child wouldn’t sit still. After a while his parents decided to just let him roam free, rather than continue to fail to discipline him. After a few minutes of him running around while doing an impression of what I could only imagine to be an orangutan with fireworks up his bottom, he spotted a group of passengers who had just entered the building from the runway, and were walking past where we were sitting, along the glass corridor in front of us. A wall of glass separated us waiting to board and these passengers. Anyway, they had caught the child’s his attention, and we watched as he decided at that moment, that he wanted to accompany them to wherever they were going, and set off at a considerable pace after them. It all happened so quickly, and all we could do was watch, as he quick marched headfirst into the glass wall. As you could imagine he was none too pleased, and decidedly dazed and with a faceful of tears, he stumbled back to his parents, who were both in hysterics! Once the mother had regained some control of herself, she fumbled around in her bags and eventually pulled out a juice carton to give to him. Apparently however, she hadn’t quite gained full control, and as she pushed the straw through the little hole at the top and pointed it in the direction of his face, she for some reason had some kind of what I can only hope was an involuntary hand spasm, and she succeeded in expertly squirting half the content of the carton into his already tear-soaked face. The boy stood there, stunned, as the juice dribbled down his front and onto the floor. At this point we were doing our absolute best to contain ourselves, as we watched the mother grapple with her bags once more to retrieve some tissues to mop up the mess, all the while emitting shrieks of laughter. Surprisingly, a faceful of juice had actually calmed the boy down for a while (or else with all the excitement he was slightly concussed from his previous mishap). As his mother mopped up the juice from the floor, and everyone started to calm down again, my girlfriend reached into her bag for a packet of sweets. As she pulled the colourful packet out of her bag, it caught the eye of the little boy immediately, and determined as he was when he got an idea in his little head, he had grabbed the packet out of her hand before she knew what was happening! At this point, the boy’s father, who had been enjoying the spectacle so far with a bottle of beer, decided to intervene. He grabbed his son with his free hand, and somehow thought he could prise the sweets from his tiny fist with the other, which still had the half-full bottle of beer in it. The boy didn’t give the sweets up without a fight however, and after a bit of a struggle, the father eventually managed to free the sweets from his son’s clutches, but not without pouring pretty much the entire content of his beer bottle over the little boy. It was a ridiculous scene, but really brightened up our wait! To sum up, this trip to the Ukraine had certainly been an experience, and I had definitely learnt some important lessons on court. I anticipate a very steep learning curve over the next few months, and I am definitely looking forward to next week!