Tit Bits Until the Real Action Begins 8am Tomorrow

Arrived in Aberdeen. Temperature above freezing so naturally it was raining hard. Got hopelessly lost looking for the apartment, while desperate for the toilet. Driving with legs crossed is not easy.

Finally found appartment more by luck than judgment. One of team there. Eventually rest of team arrived too. Michael has a Chinese wife who recently brought a daughter in to the world so Michael has enjoyed his parents-in-law cooking Chinese food for last few months. Naturally we ate Chinese and made Michael go and buy it too.

AND so to the curling. This morning was practice ice. Each team is allocated ten minutes on each of the 6 sheets at Curl Aberdeen, the "field of play" for the next few days. We had practiced "practicing" within this tight timeframe so we accomplished what we needed in checking out the ice and stones efficiently. Ice was good - reasonably keen (fast) but not stupidly so. Unless things change, no excuses there, then.

Before that was the BIG MOMENT: pulling on the England shirt for the first time. The shirts have to have our names and country on the back, the event sponsors Gruyere cheese's badge and we also have our team sponsor: Fentons Rink's badge, so the shirts had been some time in preparation (professional embroidery mainly but thanks to Shona for excellent badge stitching as well.) We had had a trial run in one game last weekend but that was not truly representing England - a bit bizarre really as I was in a Scotland t-shirt, Scotland fleece and Scotland training top to see Scotland mess it up against Argentina at rugby and then into the changing rooms to strip that all off and put on England kit. Split personality!

Anyway, kit felt good, nobody in Aberdeen lynched us (yet) and an old Scottish friend at Aberdeen curling rink promised to support us. It may only be one supporter but it is a start. I am worried that he was grinning insanely at the time but you can't have everything.

Now is a good time for a big thank you to our team sponsor (he may not want to be associated with us by end of the competition so better say thanks now!) So thank you to Ernest Fenton of Fentons Rink in Kent for his support. Amazingly I am no longer the only link to curling in the asset finance world in which I practice law: two clients quite independently have seen their children take up the game at the rink in Kent. Many people in the Kent area have tried the game for the first time; for some it is like a night at ten pin bowling and for others it has become a sport which they have taken forward. There is a schools league and England are competing at junior level again. All thanks to Ernest and this, still the only rink in England (perhaps Sheffield soon though...)

Tomorrow, 8am we take on Greece in our first game, so early to bed tonight

Keith