Hello and welcome back to all of you who read my first blog,
 
On the 20th of May the morning started early as we had a 3 hour bus trip to the airport, about half way through the bus had turned into a sauna as the air conditioning had packed up, it showed small glimpses of air every now and then but it was a relief to get out in the fresh air once we arrived at the airport.  We then had a hour and a half flight back to Beijing.  We had 3 hours at Beijing where Timmsy shouted the team starbucks, we had some food, a stretch and got ready to board our flight back to Singapore.  When we arrived in Singapore it was time to say goodbye to a few of the players and staff that had graced us with their presence in Asia, and to welcome some new faces for the European leg.
 
The flight from Singapore to Milan was long, I think like 12 hours, by this stage I am sure that I have seen all of the movies on the plane, but had to make sure I stayed awake for 3 hours into the flight to try and help make adjustments to the time difference.  In Italy they are 6 hours behind Perth/ China, so it was really important to get yourself into some sort of routine as soon as you could. 
We arrived into Milan on the 21st of May, after almost 28 hours of travel time, more than a day and night.  Then we were on the bus for another hour to get to Varese where the AIS are developing a base for athletes venturing to Italy.  The roads were narrow and I have no idea how the bus managed to swerve its way up and around the mountains, but we managed to make it to our nice little motel.  It was really beautiful where we were staying, just like Italy.
 
It was really weird landing in Milan as that was where I had landed and departed from when I played in Italy 2 seasons ago.  I had a real sense of excitement being back in Italy, I do really love it and hope that oneday I can actually go to Italy for a nice relaxing holiday, but until then, back to reality, we were there for a training camp that was not going to be easy.  I will definiently have to say though I really am fortunate to be a basketballer who has travelled and seen different parts of the World, I do have one of the best jobs out there, there is not one minute that I dont appreciate the opportunities that basketball has provided me with.
 
When we arrived at the motel, we had time to shower and then get some breakfast before we were out for a walk and stretch to try and shake some of the jet lag and again try and get rid of our fat ankles.  After such an intense travel schedule, you are always craving a shower and you never want to get out that is for sure once you are in there, however I was rooming with Kathlene and I think we drew the short straw as our shower was terrible.  It took about 10 mins to warm up and then when it worked it was just a small drizzle, it was really disappointing as you really look forward to a good shower after travelling, but we made do for now, and after questioning everyone else about their shower we knew there were good ones out there that we could use if needed.  And that we did, we stole Rach's (the physio's) shower after every practice, it was a good shower.  
 
We had a team meeting, then the rest of the day was ours with an optional shoot around in the evening.  I ventured to the gym downstairs at the motel, which had some dumb bells, however I had huge trouble removing the locks on the end of the weights so had to settle for whatever I could do with the weight that was on it.  Also got on the bike to get rid of some of the fluid retention.  Kath and I also spent a lot of the day laying upside down on our beds with our legs up on the wall trying to return our ankles back to a reasonably normal size.
 
I went to shoot around and I have to say just getting there was an experience.  Not sure if Bucks has a manual car at home, but last time I checked taking off in third was not very effective, nor is hill starts in third.  I guess we have to cut him a bit of slack given the pressure he was under, a bus full of women, driving on the other side of the road and the gears on the right not the left, he also managed to find the wipers instead of the blinkers.  This was just the first trip in the bus, so surely it would get better, or would it??
 
Shoot around was good it was great to get lots of shots up and a good sweat after all the travel and sitting.  But what was even better was dinner.  The food in Italy was amazing.  It was all fresh, well cooked and tasted awesome.  I eyed off the deserts a few times but settled for the fresh fruit as I hadnt had much of that through the first part of the tour.  The body felt much better with a good healthy feed that is for sure. Unfortunately there was no time to enjoy a traditional Italian pizza, but they did serve pasta which was apparently delicious and risotto which was yum.

The day had felt like it had gone forever, and an early night was on the cards, but again I had to find a way to keep myself awake as long as I could to try and adjust to the time difference. 
 
The next morning 22nd May, I was awake at 6am and those who know me, know I am not really a morning person so to be up and about wide awake at 6am would really impress you, but dont get any ideas, it just happens when you are adjusting to the time, I am sure I will be back to normal in no time, when I get home.  I enjoyed a nice breakfast and read some more of my book, Angels and Demons, have to say it is an awesome book and once I started it I didnt want to put it down, I hope the movie is good.  Anyways then it was time to get ready and head to practice.  After a tough week in China and extensive travel time a couple of the girls pulled up really stiff and sore in their backs so we were down to 10 for training.  Training was solid and intense.  As you would expect.  Training was 2 and a half hours and by the end we were exhausted, but it is important to recover and be ready for the next session.
 
At lunch the coaches and physio had a meeting and decided that the afternoon session would be removed so we could do some more recovery and then head into the town centre of Varese and get a gelato, we had to be careful as we were down on numbers and had 6 games in 7 days coming up.  Also we still had 2 trainings to go the next day.  So we had a core stability session where we learnt that this is a big area that we all need to work on, not to get 6 packs but to enable us to be stronger and our bodies to work better.  After that was dinner then our trip to the town centro.

The town centre was really nice, however all the shops were closed, luckily enough we found a gelateria, Italian gelato is the best without a doubt.  The biggest decision was what flavour we were going to have.  I think I tried about half the flavours and when I chose mine
I made a well informed decision that really hit the spot hehe.  Gelato in Italy on a warm night, awesome!!!!
 
Again that night I was in bed early as I still hadnt completely adjusted to the time zone change, but knew it would take a couple of days to settle into a routine.

On the 23rd of May I knew we had to be ready to train, no excuses just had to get the job done, it was going to be tough as we had 2 trainings and it would be expected that the afternoon off had given us time to get the recovery that we needed done.  I was up early again and ready to go. 

The trainings have been really intense, physically and mentally, there has been lots of learning and I feel that I am improving everyday,
I have more and more things that I know I need to work on but thatis the beauty of basketball you can always improve nobody is perfect.
 
2 trainings later, some food and a laundry service done by some of the players, it was again time to pack up the bags from our 4th motel ready for our early morning departure with the destination of BRNO Czech Republic in our sights.
 
However, before I move on to the Czech Republic, I have to mention the coaches and their ability or perhaps inability to drive our manual mini vans on the other side of the road.  There is a lot of things going on in Italy on the small roads, I am not sure who was in more danger the other people on the road, our fellow team buses or us passengers.  It was definiently an interesting time, but we managed not to hit anything, anyone or each other and all came out alive.  I am sure that driving back in Australia will seem like a breeze for the coaches after their Italian experience.
 
On the 24th of May it was time to head back to Milan airport and on to the Czech Republic, by this time it felt like we have been training for ages and I am really looking forward to getting to play some games.  But I know that the time will come considering we have 6 games in 7 days.
 
We flew from Milan to Prague then we had a 3 hour bus drive to BRNO. The bus trip seemed to take forever, however the countryside was beautiful and green, so it was a really nice drive with some pretty little towns to look at in the distances along the way,  Well that was what I saw in between falling asleep.  When we finally arrived in BRNO it was time for a well earnt lunch, seen as we had been travelling from the early hours of the morning. 
 
Stay tuned to hear about the next leg of our trip where we take on the Czech Republic in BRNO in a 2 game seriies before heading to France for a 3 nations tournament.
 
Until then Ciao.