Lights, camera...

In the finest tradition of Bank Holiday's, it's been pouring with rain! Although the sun is bravely attempting to make an appearance. In fact, last night, I feel asleep to the rain (and NO barking!) which was lovely.
On our walk this morning, the air was really fresh and the birds were in fine voice. Two Blackbirds were having a scrap - sibling rivalry one suspects and a Coal Tit and a Robin were dancing around each other, dipping and darting, jumping from one branch to another - both tiny but very robust. No doggie friends for Pluto to play with, but he enjoyed the exercise nonetheless.
Spoke to my partner again last night - she had to be up at 5am to get a bus to Uganda which would take approx. 8 hours. 2 hours of which are for the border crossing alone. OK, I'm not a fearful person normally, but why did the words border crossing make me so nervous when she said them? Maybe I've watched too many stupid films... Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting a text when she's at the hotel tonight. I set my alarm for 4:15am (5:15 there) to wish her a safe journey. Daft I know, but it would have made her smile and I fell straight back to sleep.
Yesterday and today I've spent fairly quietly; pottering round the house, watching a couple of DVD's (probably the same ones that make me nervous about border crossings!!) Unbelievably I'm still really suffering with my shoulder so I will be phoning the doctor's tomorrow to get an appointment ASAP.
Saturday I went to the rugby but the other team had cancelled the game. This could have been a disaster because I had organised a photo shoot, but the Chairman had asked players to turn up for training - we have a 7s competition today. 17 players did turn up, as did over half a dozen supporters. So the photographer managed to get some great player shots after training. He was from Zuma Press International - the largest independent photo agency, who primarily market to the US. Basically, the shots that Gerard took were sent to Zuma's HQ in California, where they will start to push them to all their major clients, including the San Fran Chronicle, the New York Times etc. Apparently there is a lot of US interest in the Kings Cross Steelers going over to NY to compete in the Bingham Cup. And the Bingham Cup itself is getting a lot of attention because Alice (Mark's mum) has just finished giving evidence at the hearing of one of the terrorists and there is a new film on release as well, in which Mark (Bingham) features prominently. That will be a hard film to go and see. Believe it or not, I never met Mark and yet when I worked on the Bingham Cup 2004 which was held in London, I had this weird feeling I was working for him and he knew it - that somehow he knew what we were all doing and that he thought it was a blast!
I also got on very well with his mother and former partner and when we went to San Fran we went for a drink in the bar in which he used to hang out and where they proudly hang his picture from the wall.
I'm looking forward to the tournament in NY and the host team deserve all the success in the world because they are a good team and a nice bunch of guys, but honestly, I think there are a few things they should be doing differently: there are no shower facilities at the pitch, no secure storage, an unfamiliar playing surface, lunch is a sandwich, crisps and a piece of fruit - that should be a snack bag! Would it be so difficult to do masses of hot, cheesy pasta (for example) for all the players? Remember you are talking about grown men who are playing a full contact sport for most of the day. They need carbs and plenty of liquid. Getting to the Island itself will be a bit of a work up. And people on lower incomes are saying, they can't afford to eat at the hotel. (The hotel is expensive - it's a good deal considering it's a public holiday weekend, but it is still expensive, my partner and I are not staying there.) So that means getting up even earlier to go get breakfast and then head on over to where the tournament is taking place...
Anyway, it's so easy to criticise and seemingly churlish to do so before we've even landed, but we had to send someone over to NY the other week just because things had still not been sorted and we had a responsibility to get information to our players. I have to be careful what I say anyway, as one of the organisers of the last BC I don't want to be seen as being disrespectful or dismissing another team's efforts. Well, I've waffled on for long enough and I haven't even had breakfast yet!