Early morning call at 7.00am. I had been on ‘duty’ the night before and had stayed in the corridors until nearly 1.00am. All had been quiet and not even a door had been opened. Well done students. Parents can be proud of their behaviour.
We are down to breakfast by 8.00am and again its fantastic, there are no illnesses in the camp at the moment but both Shane Harris and Tom Wedlake have suffered sprained ankles in yesterday’s game. Their ankles are swollen and a little bruised. Shane’s is more serious, we will monitor them both during the day.
After breakfast we have to check out by 9.00am. Suitcases are bought down to the reception where they will be stored until we leave for the airport at 5.30pm.
At 9.30am there is still no sign of two girls, staff go to check their room and they are still asleep and have missed their early morning wake up call. Even worse, there is a strong smell of alcohol and after inspection that is proved to be the case. It is very disappointing and they have to be spoken to and will be dealt with when we’ve had the time to ‘cool down’.
They are packed and down with their suitcases within 10 minutes. Before they arrive Miss Jeffreys organises the second ‘donkey of the day’ vote, as usual there are numerous contenders.
Alisa Howells for binning her Hong Kong dollars, Callum Macdermott for thinking apples could taste like cherries, Jayde Anderson for stating that eggs were a dairy product, Tom Froom for butterflying into another hotel guest and Richard Keefe for putting his locker key in to someone elses shoe were joined by;
Tom Wedlake who woke up having been sleep walking and was inside a cupboard.
Brittany Jenkins proved she was a ‘nutter’ by going to look out of the window at the ‘Peak’ and head butting the glass.
Some called in to question Joel Young’s sanity. He lost his suitcase key and his answer to the problem was to ask reception for some bolt cutters!
At evening meal, Max Harris has spent 10 minutes peeling a shrimp only to state ‘I don’t even like shrimps!’.
Whilst the quality of the teaching of food technology in Gowerton was again called into question when Marcus Besley stated that “lamb and goat are the same thing!”.
When the votes were counted, Ailsa Howells was second, but Tom Froom walked away with the award with over ¾s of the votes and was duly presented with the shirt by Morgan and Miss Jeffreys.
We are to leave for the hockey game at midday and therefore the students are given the option of staying in the hotel or going to the shopping centres near to the hotel. Some would like to go to the markets, but none of them open before midday.
Those who go out to the shops are quickly back when they are caught by another very heavy rain burst.
At midday we set off to the hockey field at Kings Park. The team gets changed when they arrive and are about to set out onto the pitch when the ‘heavens open’ and torrential rainfall occurs.
Miss Jeffreys and the squad are undaunted and make their way out onto the pitch to warm up. I am impressed at their clear determination. The opposition watch from the comfort of the dry stand.
When midday arrives, the rain has been so heavy that the umpire says that the field was not fit to play. We agree to wait to see if the rain stops which it does and by 12.15pm enough of the surface water has evaporated to allow the match to start.
Gowerton are in front early on, when good work by Georgia Davies and Hannah Williams sees the ball crossed from the left hand side and Jessica Rees is on hand to tap in.
However, in the oppressive heat, Gowerton struggled to come to terms with the humidity and the Hong Kongselect team gradually took control of the game and scored 4 goals to lead comfortably 4-1 at half time.
Gowerton had continued to create opportunities with Katy Baran, Hannah Breeze-Jones, Kira Button and Georgia Davies all posing a threat on occasions. Jessica Rees was awarded the man of the match.
At half time it was clear that out girls were finding the conditions extreme. Kira Button nearly fainted and even worse for Rachel Walsh who was very short of breath and had a very tight chest.
While we are looking after her, the ‘heavens open’ again and it’s not possible to restart the second half. That is quite good because Rachel has become quite distressed and we are a little worried about her. In consultation with our rep Shuman, Eva from the Hong Kong hockey association and the medical support team at the stadium we decided to be on the safe side and get Rachel to hospital to be checked out. The hospital is near by but with our flight due to take off at 9.35pm that evening, by calling for an ambulance it’s felt that things could be pushed through more quickly.
With the rain not abating we decide to abandon the game. Miss Rushworth goes in the ambulance with Rachel and the rest of the squad goes back to the hotel where they use the facilities by the pool and 2 rooms we are given access to, to shower and clean up and prepare for departure from the hotel at 5pm. Our itinerary states that our flight is at 11.55pm, but a check of our flight confirmation says we are departing at 9.35pm. We assume that our flight confirmation is the correct version as it had been for our outbound flight.
At 4.30pm as we are preparing to depart we hear from Miss Rushworth, Rachel has had a chest x-ray and has been given the all clear and would be released once the paper work was completed. We will wait for their return to the hotel.
They are back by 5.15pm. Mr Mason greets them both with a big hug-that’s enough to send anyone back to hospital.
We depart at 5.30pm and arrive at Hong Kong international Airport by 6.15pm. We check in and pass through customs and security by 7.30pm and give the students 90 minutes to get something to eat and wander around.
Unlike Heathrow there are no seats in the large waiting area- perhaps the Chinese are not used to hanging around and we find an area to leave our hand luggage and those who are to stay with it lay around on the floor. Most of the pupils change their usual McDonalds order to Pop-eye’s Chicken that we don’t have back home in Swansea. Lewis Macdermott said to Miss Rushworth “It was amazing Miss.”
At 9.00pm we make our way to departure gate 40. The airport is so large that we have to travel there by speed train and numerous escalators which seem to be popular in Hong Kong.
Whilst waiting to board Jayde Anderson asked Miss Jeffreys and Miss Rushworth what food we were having on the plane, something they had no idea of at the time. So they told Jayde that it would either be Ostrich dinner or curried goat. “Ohhhhhhhh really” Jayde replied and proceeded to spread this news to the rest of the party.
After take off we have a meal of smoked duck starter and a choice of main meals from Spare ribs, Carbonara pasta and Fish and a dessert of Haagen Dazs cookies and cream ice cream – very nice! Not quite the Ostrich or Goat Jayde was expecting though.
At the end of the meal it was just past midnight, it was Tom Wedlake’s 18th birthday. We sing a resounding ’Happy birthday’ to Tom and give him a card and badge signed by the tour party. He might not be able to celebrate with a drink but not many are able to say they have celebrated their 18th birthday 35,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
