Went to do some shopping and then on to the beach at Port Royal today. Shopping was fine, pretty boring, got some stuff for back home. Left the booze til I get back to Mobay as I know a wholesalers there who sell it all ridiculously cheap. Mr Nolan came with me to Port Royal and thankfully so, the busses getting there were a nightmare. It was so hot, the sun was out all day and we were traveling in the hottest part of it. The busses were equally as hot, very busy and took such a long time. Not a pleasant journey but once we got to Port Royal all was good as it was really nice and quiet there.
The bus system out here is pretty hectic, we had to get one of the mini busses - which are the probably the most unsafe thing I have ever seen on a road - down to half way tree (the main transport hub in the city), then from there to a station down town then onto Port Royal. In all, it took us a little over 2 hours for a 20 mile journey. Probably less than that actually. It was so busy and the busses were rammed, I would guess well over the weight limit anyway and the drivers were insane - overtaking on single track roads on blind corners and the like. Learned that these little busses cause most the accidents over here and I'm not having trouble seeing why. Gonna stay away from those if possible from now on.
On one of the bigger busses down to Port Royal, a fat guy walked on who was spitting image of Nate Griffin (you remember that episode of family guy where Peter finds out he has a black ancester who was a slave called Nate Griffin and he looks like Peter with an afro and black - well him). It was pretty funny, I couldn't contain the hilarity and couldn't help but laugh as he walked past. He looked at me with the kind of, "what the hell is your problem?" look about him and didn't seem too pleased, but he didn't say anything.
Port Royal itself was lovely, nice and quiet, the beach wasn't anything special but it was alright - not as good as the one in Mobay. There, I had THE best fish I have ever had - brown stew fish. AMAZING, enough said. Basically a snapper cooked with loads of veg, tomato and all sorts of amazing spices, very very nice. Didn't do a lot else there, walked around, saw the fort and stuff there and it was all very pleasant. Forgot to take any photos though. On the bus back we saw a homeless Chinese fella - quite a rarity. Didn't get a photo but now I know there is one, I will keep my camera handy.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Day 19 & 20
Got a few days off rugby for the next few days so I get to be a bit of a tourist. Thursday we went to the Bob Marley museum which was pretty amazing. They tried to charge me 20 US dollars to get in as opposed to the 300 jamaican dollars it cost mr nolan (about 2 quid) cos I was white - they charge tourists a lot more than locals. But I managed to blag my way in as a jamaican which saved a bit of cash, so that was good. You weren't allowed to take a camera into the museum and had to have a guide taking you round, which was good cos they were able to tell you a lot about the guy but I would have liked a bit more time on my own to have a good gander at everything. Don't know why you weren't allowed cameras in there, they didn't even have any photographs on sale so I don't see the sense in that. And you were allowed to take as many photos as you wanted outside the house so I don't know what they're thinking there.
The museum is about 10 mins walk from where I'm staying in Kingston, which was pretty handy and the building is Bob Marleys old home where he lived when he died, though he grew up in a different part of the country. It's pretty much all preserved as when he last lived in it and it's a really nice place. Even his land rover was still there outside, though his BMW which he apparently owned wasn't - he bought the BMW because he thought BMW stood for Bob Marley and the Wailers (his band), which I guess makes sense. I always knew he was famous n that, but I never realised quite what an impact on society he had, not just in Jamaica but across the world. The museum was incredibly in this respect and is definetly something I will remember. Shame the gift shop and cafe was so extortionately priced though.
We were at the museum for about 2.5 hours and after that I had to go to the bank to change some money. I can't remember if I've said about Jamaican banks already but it is not an enjoyable experience. The queues are ridiculous and the cashiers take so bloody long - it took me 50 mins to change some money over. At least the building was air conditioned. In the queue, I came up with a theory as to why Jamaica produces so many world class athletes and why they can run so fast. It has nothing to do with the fact that track & field is the most important thing to all kids going through school, or the massive competitions they have with it every year, or the idolising of guys like Bolt, or the fact that they have good genetics and fast muscle fibres, or carry less body fat than most, or are just naturally built for running - I reckon it's all down to the conservation of energy principle (energy cant be destroyed or created only transfered etc). I reckon, cos the Jamaicans all seem to do everything slowly, and I mean everything (except drive where they are just insane, not necessarily fast but definetly rushed) - they walk slow, talk slow, act slow, think even slower (if at all), always late etc - that because of all the slowness they have too much energy bundled about so they need to release it, so they have to run fast to release it cos they won't do anything else. I think it makes sense anyway, simple physics.
Anyway, we were going to go the zoo and see the monkeys and crocs n all that, but because the bank took so bloody long, it was now about 2.45, so we had some lunch and then by that time Mr Nolan had to go to work. I went and had a gander round some shops in Liganny and went to get a hair cut, which I decided against when I saw the people coming out the barbers had little to no hair left.
I went home for an hour or so then Mr Down came home and we went to play some touch rugby. He plays every tues and thursdays with the Old Boys team and guys from the uni team and some guys from the local clubs come down as well so it's usually a decent turn out. It's pretty good fun, played for about 1.5 hours and it was a good laugh - pretty chilled out and in good spirit but with some decent, fast rugby. The guys over here don't have that much knowledge of how to play the game so it's good for them to play with the older guys who are all ex-pats and can play a bit. One thing they can do though is run (my theory still applies) so the games were all real fast and tiring. Afterwards I went for a drink with some of the guys and played some pool. There was an aussie guy and an irish fella there so it was good to get to chat and hang out with people of a similar background rather than pure jamaicans. It was a good time and we got back pretty late.
Friday was a very relaxed day. Slept in to recover from the late one the night before and tried to get hold of Mr Nolan and Mr Thomson to do something - Mr Nolan was working and despite Mr Thomson saying whenever I wanted to go anywhere or do anything, I should call him and he could arrange it. He didn't/wouldn't/wasn't able to or just couldn't be bothered. While I was on the phone I tried to find out my arrangements for next week as Victor seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth and there are no plans as to what I'm doing. He didn't know any of this either. Just to fill you in, I was due to be going to St Mary next week with Victor to go to the schools there, but as I saw Victor has disappeared, won't answer his phone, nobody has seen him for over 2 weeks now - so there has to be another arrangement.
I had some stuff to do and had to get some stuff from the shops up the road so I just did that and then there was some live rugby on the tv, which was good. In the evening I met up with Antonio and his lot again and we had some drinks and got some chicken and we had a pretty good night.
The museum is about 10 mins walk from where I'm staying in Kingston, which was pretty handy and the building is Bob Marleys old home where he lived when he died, though he grew up in a different part of the country. It's pretty much all preserved as when he last lived in it and it's a really nice place. Even his land rover was still there outside, though his BMW which he apparently owned wasn't - he bought the BMW because he thought BMW stood for Bob Marley and the Wailers (his band), which I guess makes sense. I always knew he was famous n that, but I never realised quite what an impact on society he had, not just in Jamaica but across the world. The museum was incredibly in this respect and is definetly something I will remember. Shame the gift shop and cafe was so extortionately priced though.
We were at the museum for about 2.5 hours and after that I had to go to the bank to change some money. I can't remember if I've said about Jamaican banks already but it is not an enjoyable experience. The queues are ridiculous and the cashiers take so bloody long - it took me 50 mins to change some money over. At least the building was air conditioned. In the queue, I came up with a theory as to why Jamaica produces so many world class athletes and why they can run so fast. It has nothing to do with the fact that track & field is the most important thing to all kids going through school, or the massive competitions they have with it every year, or the idolising of guys like Bolt, or the fact that they have good genetics and fast muscle fibres, or carry less body fat than most, or are just naturally built for running - I reckon it's all down to the conservation of energy principle (energy cant be destroyed or created only transfered etc). I reckon, cos the Jamaicans all seem to do everything slowly, and I mean everything (except drive where they are just insane, not necessarily fast but definetly rushed) - they walk slow, talk slow, act slow, think even slower (if at all), always late etc - that because of all the slowness they have too much energy bundled about so they need to release it, so they have to run fast to release it cos they won't do anything else. I think it makes sense anyway, simple physics.
Anyway, we were going to go the zoo and see the monkeys and crocs n all that, but because the bank took so bloody long, it was now about 2.45, so we had some lunch and then by that time Mr Nolan had to go to work. I went and had a gander round some shops in Liganny and went to get a hair cut, which I decided against when I saw the people coming out the barbers had little to no hair left.
I went home for an hour or so then Mr Down came home and we went to play some touch rugby. He plays every tues and thursdays with the Old Boys team and guys from the uni team and some guys from the local clubs come down as well so it's usually a decent turn out. It's pretty good fun, played for about 1.5 hours and it was a good laugh - pretty chilled out and in good spirit but with some decent, fast rugby. The guys over here don't have that much knowledge of how to play the game so it's good for them to play with the older guys who are all ex-pats and can play a bit. One thing they can do though is run (my theory still applies) so the games were all real fast and tiring. Afterwards I went for a drink with some of the guys and played some pool. There was an aussie guy and an irish fella there so it was good to get to chat and hang out with people of a similar background rather than pure jamaicans. It was a good time and we got back pretty late.
Friday was a very relaxed day. Slept in to recover from the late one the night before and tried to get hold of Mr Nolan and Mr Thomson to do something - Mr Nolan was working and despite Mr Thomson saying whenever I wanted to go anywhere or do anything, I should call him and he could arrange it. He didn't/wouldn't/wasn't able to or just couldn't be bothered. While I was on the phone I tried to find out my arrangements for next week as Victor seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth and there are no plans as to what I'm doing. He didn't know any of this either. Just to fill you in, I was due to be going to St Mary next week with Victor to go to the schools there, but as I saw Victor has disappeared, won't answer his phone, nobody has seen him for over 2 weeks now - so there has to be another arrangement.
I had some stuff to do and had to get some stuff from the shops up the road so I just did that and then there was some live rugby on the tv, which was good. In the evening I met up with Antonio and his lot again and we had some drinks and got some chicken and we had a pretty good night.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Day 15 - 18 ( to 28th October)
So far this week I have been coaching in high schools so the kids are a bit younger and challenging. The kids over here are usually pretty well behaved, the schools all hammer home the principles they feel are important to Jamaican culture. The kids therefore show a lot of respect for guests, elders and are often punctual in turning up for lessons and that. They seem attentive but don't seem to take much in, that could be down to them not understanding my accent though which I guess it's fair enough.
Anyway, Monday I went to Vauxhall high school. We went there the saturday before for the national team training. As with pretty much everywhere here, the playing field was dry, stoney and as hard as concrete. Because of this it's hard to do contact without the kids complaining of getting hurt or just fagging out. Did lots of games n that with them. It's hard to get the kids to do three simple things: run forward, take a tackle and recycle the ball (they just rush to chuck it away before a tackle) and get onside. These three things have proven to me a major challenge so far and will continue to be so for the rest of the week at least! Went alright though, the coach at the school is on the national players so it was a bit easier to help him to develop his coaching and he was pretty keen to get stuck in and help out which is good for his development as well as the kids. Got home and did some prep for the rest of week and made some plans, pretty boring really.
Tuesday was a decent day, met Mr Nolan (eventually, he was 2 hours 45 mins late) and we went on a drive down to Tivoli high school via the port, which was good to see. We were due to get a lift from Mr Thomson but he didn't show up and said his car broke down. He turned up at the school 5 minutes after we got there so this couldn't have been true. There were 50 kids in the session, we had 2 balls and 8 cones but luckily Mr Nolan was there to help so we split into two groups. This made things a lot more manageable. The kids were pretty experienced with the game. Due to our lateness the session was a little over 50 mins so it was pretty hectic to get everything I wanted to do into the time.
After this, we went on up to the defence force camp for the womens team training. It was a fair drive up there, about 40 mins and for the first 25 Mr Thomson was bleating on about some criminal getting extradited to the states for trial and how it was so unfair. Luckily he ran over a dog and stopped talking. The session at camp was pretty short cos it was getting dark, wasn't a lot to do either as there were only 6 players.
Wednesday followed suit, another late pick up followed by a long drive and a hectic session full of kids who couldn't listen and couldn't stop fighting, but it was a fun time. It was an interesting journey there and back, had to use one of the reggae busses and some other busses which are always an event in themselves. One was so packed you literally couldn't move inside and was so hot and sweaty. The reggae busses just play loud music all the time and are a good laugh. It's generally not a very pleasant experience on the public transport over here. The drivers are insane and the roads of insanely busy in the city so it can be a bit nervy at times.
On the way back, we stopped off and got some cheese patties and cocoa bread - amazing. Got back pretty late, about half 7 cos of the amount of travelling and found a 2 hour program about jenna jameson on the tv! See you later x
Anyway, Monday I went to Vauxhall high school. We went there the saturday before for the national team training. As with pretty much everywhere here, the playing field was dry, stoney and as hard as concrete. Because of this it's hard to do contact without the kids complaining of getting hurt or just fagging out. Did lots of games n that with them. It's hard to get the kids to do three simple things: run forward, take a tackle and recycle the ball (they just rush to chuck it away before a tackle) and get onside. These three things have proven to me a major challenge so far and will continue to be so for the rest of the week at least! Went alright though, the coach at the school is on the national players so it was a bit easier to help him to develop his coaching and he was pretty keen to get stuck in and help out which is good for his development as well as the kids. Got home and did some prep for the rest of week and made some plans, pretty boring really.
Tuesday was a decent day, met Mr Nolan (eventually, he was 2 hours 45 mins late) and we went on a drive down to Tivoli high school via the port, which was good to see. We were due to get a lift from Mr Thomson but he didn't show up and said his car broke down. He turned up at the school 5 minutes after we got there so this couldn't have been true. There were 50 kids in the session, we had 2 balls and 8 cones but luckily Mr Nolan was there to help so we split into two groups. This made things a lot more manageable. The kids were pretty experienced with the game. Due to our lateness the session was a little over 50 mins so it was pretty hectic to get everything I wanted to do into the time.
After this, we went on up to the defence force camp for the womens team training. It was a fair drive up there, about 40 mins and for the first 25 Mr Thomson was bleating on about some criminal getting extradited to the states for trial and how it was so unfair. Luckily he ran over a dog and stopped talking. The session at camp was pretty short cos it was getting dark, wasn't a lot to do either as there were only 6 players.
Wednesday followed suit, another late pick up followed by a long drive and a hectic session full of kids who couldn't listen and couldn't stop fighting, but it was a fun time. It was an interesting journey there and back, had to use one of the reggae busses and some other busses which are always an event in themselves. One was so packed you literally couldn't move inside and was so hot and sweaty. The reggae busses just play loud music all the time and are a good laugh. It's generally not a very pleasant experience on the public transport over here. The drivers are insane and the roads of insanely busy in the city so it can be a bit nervy at times.
On the way back, we stopped off and got some cheese patties and cocoa bread - amazing. Got back pretty late, about half 7 cos of the amount of travelling and found a 2 hour program about jenna jameson on the tv! See you later x
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Day 11 - 14 (22nd - 25th October)
Apologies for the delay in updating but I have been quite busy as you will see!
Thursday I had a session at Campion College, one of the higher achieving schools in Kingston. In terms of rugby, like all the schools here, they were still relatively new to it but had a decent group of players (about 30 odd) that regularly turned up to training. The coach explained to me that the major problem he has was building consistency in the team as so many boys leave and new ones come in every year, as seems to be the case with most the schools.
The session went on for quite a while as it was after school, got there about 2.30, the kids started turning up at about 3.15 and the session started properly at about 3.30 ish and ran til 5.30. In terms of my coaching, I have realised that the kids over here just love playing games and generally don't seem to respond too well to more intensive exercises or game situations, which is a shame as they don't learn quite as quickly and it's harder for me to keep an eye on all the kids at once, but I guess if they are interested all the time they will be learning and it's best for them to learn the game at this stage - you can't really learn it much better than playing eh? We did some 3d touch, then normal touch, some 2 v 1's and some short intensive handling then we went back into a game - bringing in all sorts of conditions and breaking to learn new skills throughout. I would say it went pretty well, and this is a good group of players here. One kid, called Mario in particular seemed pretty exceptional. I think he is the fastest player I have ever come across and he's still only 15. He seems to be able to see space and side step, swerve etc like a pro - head and shoulders above anyone else I've seen so far. All the kids over here can run, really run, they are all natural athletes so I guess that's gonna be good for them playing the game, but not so good for scrums and what not as there are very few bigger chunkier players.
Myself and the school coach joined in with a touch game with the kids after the sessions as about half of them had a while until they could be picked up and we had a real fun game of touch. It was good getting involved with them as I could show them the sort of the skills they should be picking up, even if I was frequently getting gassed by the kids! When I say these guys are fast, you probably won't believe me quite how fast but the fastest kid is faster than anyone I have played with or against or have seen play in England (with the exception of 1 or 2 internationals). Just unbelievable the talent they have.
After the session, when I was now knackered and dripping with sweat, we went down to the university of the west indies where Mr Down and his old boys team play some touch on a thursday evening. A lot of the UWI rugby team came down too and joined in. We played for probably 1.5 hours constantly and had some real good quality touch games going. Needless to say, I was in pieces afterwards as my fitness training up until this trip has consisted of bench press, tricep extensions and gun curls with the occassional squat session and sprint thrown in. A good workout though and hopefully I will get a few more opportunities to have a good run around before I leave so I can get back to fitness and get playing when I get back! We got home about 9.45, had dinner and collapsed til the next morning.
Friday was slightly less busy but managed to go on a bit. I had a session at St Georges College, again this is rated as one of the best colleges in Kingston and there is some intense rivalry between here and Kingston College which is pretty much over the road. I think the coach said this is the highest performing college in the city if not in the country, I can't remember which. But good anyway.
The kids were a pretty good bunch again, these guys had played a lot of rugby (relatively speaking) in the past 3 or so years and had done contact so we could get stuck in to that. One thing I have noticed about the kids (and some of the adults for that matter) over here is that they can't take a hit or a bit of pain. They go down and clutch whatever body part, or their face and roll around like, well, footballers. Not what the sport is about, I'll do my best to correct this! One kid was on the floor for about a minute with a (very minor) grazed knee, limped off then realised what a pansy he was being and started playing again. I think it's because footballs such a big sport here relative to rugby so that's what they expect when someone gets a knock. Anyway, session tried to follow suit with yesterday but threw in some intensive rucking as that is what the coach said they needed to work on. I think they got a lot better as it went on, the kids work ethic improved too. That's another thing, players over here are lazy when it comes to training, really lazy. If you say run they will walk unless you really have a go, sort of lazy. Walk into contact in rucking drills sort of thing, needs to be sorted out. I suggested to the coach for them to watch as much rugby as possible so they get an idea of what is really expected in the game.
After that, myself and Mr Nolan waited around for ages as he was waiting for a ride to come. After about an hour, he got a call to say it was going to be another hour so we got a taxi back. Mr Nolan wanted to take me round town for a bit in the evening to see some more of the life here, so he said to get showered etc and he would pick me up soon when the ride arrived - he called me 2 hours later and picked me up about 30 mins after that. He was borrowing the car off a friend, not really sure what was going on seemed a little sus and then he had go and pick someone up from the airport at about mid night so he dropped me back home. Was a good time though, we got some fish from what was really just a big bbq in a yard outside a garage with a few deck chairs around it. Food was great though - had a whole red snapper with some festival (fried dumpling sort of thing) and some sort of vegetable, can't remember what it was called but it was like a slimy corgette. After that we went to a couple of bars and he dropped me home before he had to go to the airport.
Saturday was an early start to go to the national teams training again. Again, we got there about 8.30 when it was due to start and the session didn't start til 9.45 when the players (and Antonio the coach of the womens) had arrived. Good session, lots of game play sort of things and some situational plays. Have seen a lot of progress with the group, they are real easy to work with and generally have a decent work ethic though they need to train slightly harder I would say. The womens again were pretty difficult to get anything out of despite saying they were keen, I left them to Antonio. The training went on til about mid day then we had a team talk and left about 3. Had a nap when I got home and then went over the Antonio's again and we went out again.
I like it at Antonio's and wherever he goes, all his group are real friendly and relaxed and it's a pleasant sort of environment. We went to a bar after going to his friends who's birthday it was and drank some more of that drink I mentioned last time (guinness, red bull and magnum). They drink differently to over in the UK (much different to Loughborough especially!), when they do they will drink a fair amount but it's regularly broken up by water, soup or food so you look after yourself, keep hydrated and hence you feel fine the next morning, which is nice. There was a pool table in the place we went to and we played on that quite a lot. Needless to say, I cleared up the place and was undefeated all night - standard. One guy kept making up rules as we went along so he kept saying I was fouling, I didn't know what he was on about so I duly handed him an ass-kicking to make up for the hassle.
Got some pretty late, don't know how it even got that late it's not like we really did much there but the time just seems to go, had some chicken from the KFC and slept in the next morning. Supposed to be going to the beach today, phoned Nolan when I got up and he said because it was raining the guy he was getting a ride off wouldn't come out. I still find it funny the way everything stops with a tiny bit of rain. Anyway, don't really mind too much as I quite enjoy a lazy sunday and I've had a busy week.
Hope all is well with you guys back home and enjoy the blog x
Thursday I had a session at Campion College, one of the higher achieving schools in Kingston. In terms of rugby, like all the schools here, they were still relatively new to it but had a decent group of players (about 30 odd) that regularly turned up to training. The coach explained to me that the major problem he has was building consistency in the team as so many boys leave and new ones come in every year, as seems to be the case with most the schools.
The session went on for quite a while as it was after school, got there about 2.30, the kids started turning up at about 3.15 and the session started properly at about 3.30 ish and ran til 5.30. In terms of my coaching, I have realised that the kids over here just love playing games and generally don't seem to respond too well to more intensive exercises or game situations, which is a shame as they don't learn quite as quickly and it's harder for me to keep an eye on all the kids at once, but I guess if they are interested all the time they will be learning and it's best for them to learn the game at this stage - you can't really learn it much better than playing eh? We did some 3d touch, then normal touch, some 2 v 1's and some short intensive handling then we went back into a game - bringing in all sorts of conditions and breaking to learn new skills throughout. I would say it went pretty well, and this is a good group of players here. One kid, called Mario in particular seemed pretty exceptional. I think he is the fastest player I have ever come across and he's still only 15. He seems to be able to see space and side step, swerve etc like a pro - head and shoulders above anyone else I've seen so far. All the kids over here can run, really run, they are all natural athletes so I guess that's gonna be good for them playing the game, but not so good for scrums and what not as there are very few bigger chunkier players.
Myself and the school coach joined in with a touch game with the kids after the sessions as about half of them had a while until they could be picked up and we had a real fun game of touch. It was good getting involved with them as I could show them the sort of the skills they should be picking up, even if I was frequently getting gassed by the kids! When I say these guys are fast, you probably won't believe me quite how fast but the fastest kid is faster than anyone I have played with or against or have seen play in England (with the exception of 1 or 2 internationals). Just unbelievable the talent they have.
After the session, when I was now knackered and dripping with sweat, we went down to the university of the west indies where Mr Down and his old boys team play some touch on a thursday evening. A lot of the UWI rugby team came down too and joined in. We played for probably 1.5 hours constantly and had some real good quality touch games going. Needless to say, I was in pieces afterwards as my fitness training up until this trip has consisted of bench press, tricep extensions and gun curls with the occassional squat session and sprint thrown in. A good workout though and hopefully I will get a few more opportunities to have a good run around before I leave so I can get back to fitness and get playing when I get back! We got home about 9.45, had dinner and collapsed til the next morning.
Friday was slightly less busy but managed to go on a bit. I had a session at St Georges College, again this is rated as one of the best colleges in Kingston and there is some intense rivalry between here and Kingston College which is pretty much over the road. I think the coach said this is the highest performing college in the city if not in the country, I can't remember which. But good anyway.
The kids were a pretty good bunch again, these guys had played a lot of rugby (relatively speaking) in the past 3 or so years and had done contact so we could get stuck in to that. One thing I have noticed about the kids (and some of the adults for that matter) over here is that they can't take a hit or a bit of pain. They go down and clutch whatever body part, or their face and roll around like, well, footballers. Not what the sport is about, I'll do my best to correct this! One kid was on the floor for about a minute with a (very minor) grazed knee, limped off then realised what a pansy he was being and started playing again. I think it's because footballs such a big sport here relative to rugby so that's what they expect when someone gets a knock. Anyway, session tried to follow suit with yesterday but threw in some intensive rucking as that is what the coach said they needed to work on. I think they got a lot better as it went on, the kids work ethic improved too. That's another thing, players over here are lazy when it comes to training, really lazy. If you say run they will walk unless you really have a go, sort of lazy. Walk into contact in rucking drills sort of thing, needs to be sorted out. I suggested to the coach for them to watch as much rugby as possible so they get an idea of what is really expected in the game.
After that, myself and Mr Nolan waited around for ages as he was waiting for a ride to come. After about an hour, he got a call to say it was going to be another hour so we got a taxi back. Mr Nolan wanted to take me round town for a bit in the evening to see some more of the life here, so he said to get showered etc and he would pick me up soon when the ride arrived - he called me 2 hours later and picked me up about 30 mins after that. He was borrowing the car off a friend, not really sure what was going on seemed a little sus and then he had go and pick someone up from the airport at about mid night so he dropped me back home. Was a good time though, we got some fish from what was really just a big bbq in a yard outside a garage with a few deck chairs around it. Food was great though - had a whole red snapper with some festival (fried dumpling sort of thing) and some sort of vegetable, can't remember what it was called but it was like a slimy corgette. After that we went to a couple of bars and he dropped me home before he had to go to the airport.
Saturday was an early start to go to the national teams training again. Again, we got there about 8.30 when it was due to start and the session didn't start til 9.45 when the players (and Antonio the coach of the womens) had arrived. Good session, lots of game play sort of things and some situational plays. Have seen a lot of progress with the group, they are real easy to work with and generally have a decent work ethic though they need to train slightly harder I would say. The womens again were pretty difficult to get anything out of despite saying they were keen, I left them to Antonio. The training went on til about mid day then we had a team talk and left about 3. Had a nap when I got home and then went over the Antonio's again and we went out again.
I like it at Antonio's and wherever he goes, all his group are real friendly and relaxed and it's a pleasant sort of environment. We went to a bar after going to his friends who's birthday it was and drank some more of that drink I mentioned last time (guinness, red bull and magnum). They drink differently to over in the UK (much different to Loughborough especially!), when they do they will drink a fair amount but it's regularly broken up by water, soup or food so you look after yourself, keep hydrated and hence you feel fine the next morning, which is nice. There was a pool table in the place we went to and we played on that quite a lot. Needless to say, I cleared up the place and was undefeated all night - standard. One guy kept making up rules as we went along so he kept saying I was fouling, I didn't know what he was on about so I duly handed him an ass-kicking to make up for the hassle.
Got some pretty late, don't know how it even got that late it's not like we really did much there but the time just seems to go, had some chicken from the KFC and slept in the next morning. Supposed to be going to the beach today, phoned Nolan when I got up and he said because it was raining the guy he was getting a ride off wouldn't come out. I still find it funny the way everything stops with a tiny bit of rain. Anyway, don't really mind too much as I quite enjoy a lazy sunday and I've had a busy week.
Hope all is well with you guys back home and enjoy the blog x
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Day 9 & 10
Had a morning to myself to do some plans, emails and what not before meeting up with Antonio and doing a session at Jamaica College. Neither of us realised that it was the mid term break over the weekend and so hardly any of the kids were there. 3 turned up. Still though, we were able to do some stuff with them. Did lots of tacking and 1 on 1's and that sort of thing then did some kicking which all kids seem to love.
After that Antonio took me to the army camp where his girls team was training and I did another session with them. I don't know what it is with the girls team here, they don't really seem to care about what they are doing. Or know what they are doing for that matter. They are all keen at the beginning to do stuff as long as it doesn't involve any hard work or anything they find difficult. This attitude makes it hard for a coach to really get much out of them in terms of development and game understanding but they seemed to improve a little. Antonio seems pretty keen for me to do more sessions with them.
Wednesday was a pretty good day, a good amount of coaching today too. Richard Nolan (the Kingston RDO) picked me up before lunch and he showed me round town a bit and we went for lunch in an Island Grill - Jamaican fast food at it's best! I don't know why they can't do fast food like that in England instead the shit we get over there. Actually, I guess we kind of do in Wetherspoons, but it's still not the same thing. Anyway, when we were in there it started raining. It was pretty funny to watch all the cars slow down to almost a halt and everyone run indoors or under cover. It seems that any little bit of rain here and everything stops quite literally. Rich said that if it rains in the morning most people don't even bother going into work. Unbelievable really, but pretty funny.
After that and a good gander round town, we got in another mad taxi and went down to St Andrews college. Because the roads were still wet it was a really slow journey. On the way, we saw a rasta fella on a bike holding up traffic going the other way. He didn't seem to realise or care and the cars were going mental behind him, which was pretty funny. When we got to St Andrews it was school kick out time and all the kids were walking out. The reaction I got walking into the school grounds by some of the kids was mixed...Some of them were friendly and waved, some of them death stared me, some of the girls came up to me and wanted a photo (???) and were laughing. I think they must have never seen a white person before. Another thing that I didn't catch on to at first was a lot of the kids, when I walked past, started making chinese noises and pretended to talk in chinese. I didn't understand this and thought they were doing something else that I just didn't get. Jamaica is a pretty culturally diverse place, or at least it's history is. There have been many influxes of different nations over the past years, most of them from black of middle eastern countries, but the biggest white influx has been from china and there is a pretty big chinese community here (somewhere anyway, I'm yet to see it, though I've seen plenty of takeaways). It dawned on me, when some kid came up to me on the rugby field, not one of the kids I was coaching just some random when I was setting up, and stared talking to me in a chinese accent. I asked what he was doing and why he was talking like that. He said "do you understand me?" I said I didn't and asked why he was doing that accent. He said something else chinesey sounding. I asked if he thought I was chinese. He said yes. So, I'm guessing the only white(ish) people a lot of these kids have seen have been chinese people, and hence they think I'm chinese...
The session at St Andrews was pretty good, the kids were keen and I just played games with them for a little over an hour as there weren't that many and they were running about the whole time - not something they are used to doing. They enjoyed it and I was able to offload another couple of t-shirts, making a bit more room in the suitcase for all the rum on the way home!
I packed up and was walking away after the session when I heard someone call my name..it was Mr O'Mally the mens 7's coach for the national team who works at the school. The team had a session starting now and some of the guys had just started turning up - he asked me to take the session for him, which put me a little on the spot to say the least. Did loads of handling stuff and support play etc then finished off with a 7 on 4 game...the team of 4 won. I have done pretty much all attack stuff with them and little defence so far so I like to think this was down to my good coaching :). It was pretty dark too and the ground was pretty stoney so, actually when the game finished it was hard to see the ball so not ideal conditions, I don't think they should judge their abilities in conditions like that.
The session finished pretty late and I was knackered. Got given some stuff to do on the net about player/coach development not exactly sure what so I better do that. tarraa.
After that Antonio took me to the army camp where his girls team was training and I did another session with them. I don't know what it is with the girls team here, they don't really seem to care about what they are doing. Or know what they are doing for that matter. They are all keen at the beginning to do stuff as long as it doesn't involve any hard work or anything they find difficult. This attitude makes it hard for a coach to really get much out of them in terms of development and game understanding but they seemed to improve a little. Antonio seems pretty keen for me to do more sessions with them.
Wednesday was a pretty good day, a good amount of coaching today too. Richard Nolan (the Kingston RDO) picked me up before lunch and he showed me round town a bit and we went for lunch in an Island Grill - Jamaican fast food at it's best! I don't know why they can't do fast food like that in England instead the shit we get over there. Actually, I guess we kind of do in Wetherspoons, but it's still not the same thing. Anyway, when we were in there it started raining. It was pretty funny to watch all the cars slow down to almost a halt and everyone run indoors or under cover. It seems that any little bit of rain here and everything stops quite literally. Rich said that if it rains in the morning most people don't even bother going into work. Unbelievable really, but pretty funny.
After that and a good gander round town, we got in another mad taxi and went down to St Andrews college. Because the roads were still wet it was a really slow journey. On the way, we saw a rasta fella on a bike holding up traffic going the other way. He didn't seem to realise or care and the cars were going mental behind him, which was pretty funny. When we got to St Andrews it was school kick out time and all the kids were walking out. The reaction I got walking into the school grounds by some of the kids was mixed...Some of them were friendly and waved, some of them death stared me, some of the girls came up to me and wanted a photo (???) and were laughing. I think they must have never seen a white person before. Another thing that I didn't catch on to at first was a lot of the kids, when I walked past, started making chinese noises and pretended to talk in chinese. I didn't understand this and thought they were doing something else that I just didn't get. Jamaica is a pretty culturally diverse place, or at least it's history is. There have been many influxes of different nations over the past years, most of them from black of middle eastern countries, but the biggest white influx has been from china and there is a pretty big chinese community here (somewhere anyway, I'm yet to see it, though I've seen plenty of takeaways). It dawned on me, when some kid came up to me on the rugby field, not one of the kids I was coaching just some random when I was setting up, and stared talking to me in a chinese accent. I asked what he was doing and why he was talking like that. He said "do you understand me?" I said I didn't and asked why he was doing that accent. He said something else chinesey sounding. I asked if he thought I was chinese. He said yes. So, I'm guessing the only white(ish) people a lot of these kids have seen have been chinese people, and hence they think I'm chinese...
The session at St Andrews was pretty good, the kids were keen and I just played games with them for a little over an hour as there weren't that many and they were running about the whole time - not something they are used to doing. They enjoyed it and I was able to offload another couple of t-shirts, making a bit more room in the suitcase for all the rum on the way home!
I packed up and was walking away after the session when I heard someone call my name..it was Mr O'Mally the mens 7's coach for the national team who works at the school. The team had a session starting now and some of the guys had just started turning up - he asked me to take the session for him, which put me a little on the spot to say the least. Did loads of handling stuff and support play etc then finished off with a 7 on 4 game...the team of 4 won. I have done pretty much all attack stuff with them and little defence so far so I like to think this was down to my good coaching :). It was pretty dark too and the ground was pretty stoney so, actually when the game finished it was hard to see the ball so not ideal conditions, I don't think they should judge their abilities in conditions like that.
The session finished pretty late and I was knackered. Got given some stuff to do on the net about player/coach development not exactly sure what so I better do that. tarraa.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Day 7&8 - 18 & 19th October
Day 7 - didn't do a great deal today. Slept in til 11 after the late one last night to catch up, then went for a pretty great jamaican brunch with the Mr & Mrs Downs. The brunch was nice, lots of good stuff to try and apparantly it was all pretty traditional. Jamaicans seem pretty traditional with their sunday lunch, much like us Brits but instead of doing roasts, they have stuff like chicken rice and peas, ackie and salt-fish (ackie is a fruit, doesn't taste like anything else kinda hard to explain and the salt fish I guess is a bit like an anchovie) and plenty of other things based on fruit and fish and chicken. All very good, I could go on but I would just sound like a pig.
Went back to the house and there was some currie cup rugby on the tv so we watched that for a while. We talked about refereeing for a bit while the rugby was on, as Mr Down is a referee co-ordinator over here. We came to the conclusion that in order for rugby to grow over here, teachers in the schools and coaches need to be educated on how to get the best out of their players rather than the parrot fashion learning they tend to do with the kids and the same with refereeing.
Later on I went over to Antonio's again and we went to a bar to listen to some reggae. I have noticed over here that there are a lot of wild dogs, i.e. they have no owners. Antonio said a lot of them aren't cared for and in a pretty poor state. There was a bald one in the bar with a missing foot, lazy eye and a bent tail. Although the dogs are wild they are not aggressive, in fact they are pretty pathetic and will run away from anything that confronts them - can't see how they can survive if they are like this but I guess they find a way.
Along with the dogs, there are some equally scraggy looking women here too. One of them with missing teeth and a shaved head kept trying to dance with me. I looked over to Antonio and he just laughed hysterically. Cheers Antonio. Needless to say I just wanted her to leave me alone, but being in a ghetto bar and being white, I didn't feel like I could tell her this so I kept saying politely that I couldn't dance and made up some stuff about having a bad leg. Antonio kept laughing. She didn't seem to care and kept on trying so I just sat down. An awkward half an hour there to say the least. Either she really wanted to dance with me or she was a bit simple. Or both. Antonio said she was crazy and I should just ignore her - a bit late to tell me this really. Left there pretty early so I could get an early night.
Day 8 - Got up at 6.30am to attend the Jamaican National Honours awards - basically the Jamaican Equivalent to the Queens New Years Honours. It was held at Kings House where the PM lives and it was a pretty grand event. Myself and Mr Down were there as we were invited by Mr Thomson (president of the JRU), he was collecting an award for services to the jamaican youth through rugby over the last 25 years. Just goes to show how much work the guy has done for rugby over here. I also found out that a year or two ago he had recieved an award from the IRB for Jamaica being the most improved country.
The ceremony was pretty good although a bit boring, but I guess all these sorts of ceremonies are for spectators. All the Jamaican government people were there and the guard of honour and it was good to see these guys march by with their dress uniforms and the music and all that. The biggest cheer of the day was for Usain Bolt who was collecting an award (Order of Jamaica) for his performances in the athletics. Unfortunately I never got to meet him as he did some autographs for the other people who had recieved awards and then seemed to be whisked away by his security. Don't fully understand why he even had security, he wasn't going to come to any danger and he wasn't being overly hounded. Think it was a bit over the top personally but I guess that's the way it his for him now. He walked past us and high 5'd Mr O'Mally (the JRU head coach) and didn't say anything.
After the ceremony we attended a lunch at a nearby hotel put on by Mr Thomson. It was a pretty nice thing for him to do and especially for him to invite me. I made sure to speak to him and thank him for his hospitality and got some photo's, as the powers that be wouldn't let me take any at the actual ceremony. Got back to the house at about 3pm and fell asleep on the sofa. In this time I was bitten by more bloody mosquitos - which by the way are really pissing me off. No-one else over here gets bitten by them. Maybe it's because I'm fresh to them, I don't know, all I do know is that my feet are covered in bites and they itch like hell and come up in big pink blobs. Mr Down says I will get used to them soon and they won't come up anymore and won't itch. I hope this is true.
Went through some coaching stuff in the evening for a session at Jamaica College tomorrow. Don't know if this will be the only session, there was talk I will go to the national team training as well later in the day but as ever, no plans have been made yet. Was pretty tired after this so got an early night. I made sure I lit a mosquito candle when I went to bed so the little bastards don't come near me.
Hope everyone is well back home and you aren't too bored of the blog yet! Take care x
Went back to the house and there was some currie cup rugby on the tv so we watched that for a while. We talked about refereeing for a bit while the rugby was on, as Mr Down is a referee co-ordinator over here. We came to the conclusion that in order for rugby to grow over here, teachers in the schools and coaches need to be educated on how to get the best out of their players rather than the parrot fashion learning they tend to do with the kids and the same with refereeing.
Later on I went over to Antonio's again and we went to a bar to listen to some reggae. I have noticed over here that there are a lot of wild dogs, i.e. they have no owners. Antonio said a lot of them aren't cared for and in a pretty poor state. There was a bald one in the bar with a missing foot, lazy eye and a bent tail. Although the dogs are wild they are not aggressive, in fact they are pretty pathetic and will run away from anything that confronts them - can't see how they can survive if they are like this but I guess they find a way.
Along with the dogs, there are some equally scraggy looking women here too. One of them with missing teeth and a shaved head kept trying to dance with me. I looked over to Antonio and he just laughed hysterically. Cheers Antonio. Needless to say I just wanted her to leave me alone, but being in a ghetto bar and being white, I didn't feel like I could tell her this so I kept saying politely that I couldn't dance and made up some stuff about having a bad leg. Antonio kept laughing. She didn't seem to care and kept on trying so I just sat down. An awkward half an hour there to say the least. Either she really wanted to dance with me or she was a bit simple. Or both. Antonio said she was crazy and I should just ignore her - a bit late to tell me this really. Left there pretty early so I could get an early night.
Day 8 - Got up at 6.30am to attend the Jamaican National Honours awards - basically the Jamaican Equivalent to the Queens New Years Honours. It was held at Kings House where the PM lives and it was a pretty grand event. Myself and Mr Down were there as we were invited by Mr Thomson (president of the JRU), he was collecting an award for services to the jamaican youth through rugby over the last 25 years. Just goes to show how much work the guy has done for rugby over here. I also found out that a year or two ago he had recieved an award from the IRB for Jamaica being the most improved country.
The ceremony was pretty good although a bit boring, but I guess all these sorts of ceremonies are for spectators. All the Jamaican government people were there and the guard of honour and it was good to see these guys march by with their dress uniforms and the music and all that. The biggest cheer of the day was for Usain Bolt who was collecting an award (Order of Jamaica) for his performances in the athletics. Unfortunately I never got to meet him as he did some autographs for the other people who had recieved awards and then seemed to be whisked away by his security. Don't fully understand why he even had security, he wasn't going to come to any danger and he wasn't being overly hounded. Think it was a bit over the top personally but I guess that's the way it his for him now. He walked past us and high 5'd Mr O'Mally (the JRU head coach) and didn't say anything.
After the ceremony we attended a lunch at a nearby hotel put on by Mr Thomson. It was a pretty nice thing for him to do and especially for him to invite me. I made sure to speak to him and thank him for his hospitality and got some photo's, as the powers that be wouldn't let me take any at the actual ceremony. Got back to the house at about 3pm and fell asleep on the sofa. In this time I was bitten by more bloody mosquitos - which by the way are really pissing me off. No-one else over here gets bitten by them. Maybe it's because I'm fresh to them, I don't know, all I do know is that my feet are covered in bites and they itch like hell and come up in big pink blobs. Mr Down says I will get used to them soon and they won't come up anymore and won't itch. I hope this is true.
Went through some coaching stuff in the evening for a session at Jamaica College tomorrow. Don't know if this will be the only session, there was talk I will go to the national team training as well later in the day but as ever, no plans have been made yet. Was pretty tired after this so got an early night. I made sure I lit a mosquito candle when I went to bed so the little bastards don't come near me.
Hope everyone is well back home and you aren't too bored of the blog yet! Take care x
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Day 6 - 17th October
Early start today with a session with the Jamaican national 7's teams (men and womens) due to start at 8.30am. We arrived at about 9.15, Mr Down said there was no point getting there on time, which I was a little anxious about as I don't like being late and didn't want to piss anyone off. Turned out he was spot on, we arrived and players were still turning up and just starting to warm up.
The night before I had done a decent amount of preparation for the session so I wouldn't be caught off guard. Mr Thomson had said I was only there to observe and comment on anything they were doing if I wished. G had told me about his trip and that he was told he was taking the session with no prior warning, so I wanted to be prepared for both eventualities.
I arrived and was greeted by Antonio/Warrior, whatever you know him by. Out here he is also known as Apple Jack so there's plenty of choice, hard to forgot his name anyway. Antonio is the coach of the womens and the mens coach also came out to see me, and said he wanted to do some defensive drills with them, but he wanted me to do one drill before he started on this. I started my drill after being introduced which was on handling and support play (basically I had taken most of it out of the 'Top Coaches' 7's dvd we were all given early in the year, and other stuff I have been part of in the past. It went down very well and the players all learned a lot from it. The guys are all pretty decent players, don't wish to stereotype but all are pretty quick and agile. I guess it's just handling skills and some decision making that they lack and no suprisingly seeing as the bank of knowledge here is much less than in the UK. So, this is what I worked on with them.
It appeared the coach liked what I was doing so much he had buggered off and Antonio then told me I was doing the rest of the session, about another hour and a half. Luckily I had planned stuff to do, so it was ok and the rest of the session was equally good. I hope they learned something from me, they certainly seemed keen and all thanked me at the end of the session and there seemed to be an improvement in the games they played at the end. Hopefully I did a decent job with them and it would be good to see if I could get another session with them at some point.
After that, we had some lunch at the college they were training at and Victor took myself an Antonio onto Jamaica College where we had a session the u19 group there. On the way, Victor had to pick up and drop off some of his family - 7 kids and their 2 mothers, on top of the 4 people we already had in the car. I guess it was lucky Victor has a 7 seater, but even still it seemed a bit over loaded!
The college session was ok, started with 5 lads and ended with 10. It was tricky to make it balanced as some of them had played before, others hadn't and with people arriving all the time it was tricky to get everyone up to the same speed. Over all though I think it went well, we kept it fun and they were moving all the time and I think they learned from it which I guess is the goal. The kids seemed to enjoy it which was good. I had had enough of being in the sun after 4.5 hours in the baking heat after all that. It was a mistake to wear my gym vest all day, I am now the not so proud owner of some offensive tan lines, hopefully I will get a chance to fill the white bits in soon!
Antonio then took me on the bus to his home in Augustown (sp!) and I met his family who were great. He has a wife and 2 kids, a son aged 11 and a daughter who is 17, both very studious and seemed really well behaved. Good kids to say the least and very pleasant company. Antonio lives in a ghetto area of the city, things are generally quite poor although all the houses are nice once you get inside. We watch some currie cup rugby on the tv and then Antonio took me his local bar, via the jerk pork stand, which was very tasty! We had some drinks here. Antonio drinks something that doesn't have a name, but is a concoction of red bull, guinness and a drink called "Magnum". As the name suggests it is supposed to give you 'good stamina' and the advertising posters on the wall featured a nice looking lady, not wearing very much. I don't know whether it does have that affect but it certainly gets you drunk. The drink he made tasted pretty different to anything I've had before, not really something I could drink too much of by choice. I didn't have much choice though, so we had a bit.
I didn't get drunk, as I thought it best if i maintained my whits. The area didn't seem safe for a white man. The looks I was getting off most the people as we walked through suggested that they had never seen a white man before which if I was on my own there (not something I aim to do), I'm guessing I would not come out in one piece. I was safe enough with Antonio though, and he says even if I was on my own I would not get any bother from anyone...I don't plan to find out if this is the case. All the guys at the bar were really friendly again, not what I was expecting actually but this made for a really pleasant and relaxing evening. From here, we then moved on to another bar after driving round town in a toyota corolla estate, filled with 11 people. I can't imagine that car will last very long as apparantly this happens pretty regularly.
Again, everyone was really friendly at this place. Antonio introduced me to his friend who he was known since they were 4 and his wife, who has a restaurant that cooks seafood. They invited me down to the restaurant when I was available, which is nice and everyone said the food there is amazing. I will make my best efforts to take them up on this!
After that we went to a club later, and returned home at about 4am.
The night before I had done a decent amount of preparation for the session so I wouldn't be caught off guard. Mr Thomson had said I was only there to observe and comment on anything they were doing if I wished. G had told me about his trip and that he was told he was taking the session with no prior warning, so I wanted to be prepared for both eventualities.
I arrived and was greeted by Antonio/Warrior, whatever you know him by. Out here he is also known as Apple Jack so there's plenty of choice, hard to forgot his name anyway. Antonio is the coach of the womens and the mens coach also came out to see me, and said he wanted to do some defensive drills with them, but he wanted me to do one drill before he started on this. I started my drill after being introduced which was on handling and support play (basically I had taken most of it out of the 'Top Coaches' 7's dvd we were all given early in the year, and other stuff I have been part of in the past. It went down very well and the players all learned a lot from it. The guys are all pretty decent players, don't wish to stereotype but all are pretty quick and agile. I guess it's just handling skills and some decision making that they lack and no suprisingly seeing as the bank of knowledge here is much less than in the UK. So, this is what I worked on with them.
It appeared the coach liked what I was doing so much he had buggered off and Antonio then told me I was doing the rest of the session, about another hour and a half. Luckily I had planned stuff to do, so it was ok and the rest of the session was equally good. I hope they learned something from me, they certainly seemed keen and all thanked me at the end of the session and there seemed to be an improvement in the games they played at the end. Hopefully I did a decent job with them and it would be good to see if I could get another session with them at some point.
After that, we had some lunch at the college they were training at and Victor took myself an Antonio onto Jamaica College where we had a session the u19 group there. On the way, Victor had to pick up and drop off some of his family - 7 kids and their 2 mothers, on top of the 4 people we already had in the car. I guess it was lucky Victor has a 7 seater, but even still it seemed a bit over loaded!
The college session was ok, started with 5 lads and ended with 10. It was tricky to make it balanced as some of them had played before, others hadn't and with people arriving all the time it was tricky to get everyone up to the same speed. Over all though I think it went well, we kept it fun and they were moving all the time and I think they learned from it which I guess is the goal. The kids seemed to enjoy it which was good. I had had enough of being in the sun after 4.5 hours in the baking heat after all that. It was a mistake to wear my gym vest all day, I am now the not so proud owner of some offensive tan lines, hopefully I will get a chance to fill the white bits in soon!
Antonio then took me on the bus to his home in Augustown (sp!) and I met his family who were great. He has a wife and 2 kids, a son aged 11 and a daughter who is 17, both very studious and seemed really well behaved. Good kids to say the least and very pleasant company. Antonio lives in a ghetto area of the city, things are generally quite poor although all the houses are nice once you get inside. We watch some currie cup rugby on the tv and then Antonio took me his local bar, via the jerk pork stand, which was very tasty! We had some drinks here. Antonio drinks something that doesn't have a name, but is a concoction of red bull, guinness and a drink called "Magnum". As the name suggests it is supposed to give you 'good stamina' and the advertising posters on the wall featured a nice looking lady, not wearing very much. I don't know whether it does have that affect but it certainly gets you drunk. The drink he made tasted pretty different to anything I've had before, not really something I could drink too much of by choice. I didn't have much choice though, so we had a bit.
I didn't get drunk, as I thought it best if i maintained my whits. The area didn't seem safe for a white man. The looks I was getting off most the people as we walked through suggested that they had never seen a white man before which if I was on my own there (not something I aim to do), I'm guessing I would not come out in one piece. I was safe enough with Antonio though, and he says even if I was on my own I would not get any bother from anyone...I don't plan to find out if this is the case. All the guys at the bar were really friendly again, not what I was expecting actually but this made for a really pleasant and relaxing evening. From here, we then moved on to another bar after driving round town in a toyota corolla estate, filled with 11 people. I can't imagine that car will last very long as apparantly this happens pretty regularly.
Again, everyone was really friendly at this place. Antonio introduced me to his friend who he was known since they were 4 and his wife, who has a restaurant that cooks seafood. They invited me down to the restaurant when I was available, which is nice and everyone said the food there is amazing. I will make my best efforts to take them up on this!
After that we went to a club later, and returned home at about 4am.
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