We're on our way...

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Well……… after all the months of planning it was finally time to get the show on the road as they say! Despite the early morning there was a good crowd of supporters to see us off at the airport and everyone was there on time - wonders never cease! There had been a couple of false starts already with Darren forgetting the tickets but we managed to get checked-in and through immigration well before 6 am.


The elder statesmen of the tour retired to the Business class lounge (thanks Paddy and Chris) while the boys ran riot throughout the terminal. We managed to round them all up on time and get them onto the aeroplane only to find out we had beaten all the bags and had to wait 30 minutes while they loaded them. Once that was finished we got underway and were soon on our way northbound for Glasgow. One advantage of travelling with boys from Dubai is that they are all so used to flying they just get on board, crank up the ICE and you never hear from them again!


Seven hours later we touched down in a sunny but cold 7 degree afternoon in Glasgow. Clearing immigration took a while but at least all the bags made it and we still had 25 boys - let’s hope it stays that way! The bus was waiting for us outside but - it was, as they say around here, a wee bit small. It was technically a 30 seater but not really designed for 30 boys and 30 bags! We managed to squeeze in - Mrs Rapallo as well - but it will not be big enough for 10 days. A couple of quick phone calls and the bigger one will be with us tonight.


From there it was just over an hour to Edinburgh - courtesy of Alec the driver - who will be with us for the whole trip. We found Leith and got everyone checked in to the Premier Inn which will be our home for the next 2 days. All the boys plus Tim and Richard headed down to the local park for a training session to iron out the kinks of a 7 hour flight, whilst Paddy, Darren and Chris headed off to find food, laundry and - believe it or not - a pub!


The training session went well although the boys found the cold difficult to deal with - heavy breathing and cold hands were a bit of a shock but they’ll come right in a couple of days. The other contingent were very successful (especially on the last bit) and by the time the boys were trained, showered and dressed they had organised dinner at the “Old Chain Pier” restaurant just down the road. As you can imagine, 25 boys who had only had airline food all day were famished by this stage and wolfed down everything in sight. They were then allowed a bit of free time to explore the sights of Leith before being tucked into bed just after 9:30. They all looked very tired - it was 12:30 Dubai time and they’d been up since 4am so there weren’t many arguments about going to bed!


We met up with the coach of the Musselburgh team in the bar and it sounds like tomorrow will be a good day. We are off to Edinburgh castle first thing before heading down to Musselburgh around lunchtime. The club has organised a reception after the game - they are expecting a lot of supporters - and trying to make a fun day out of us being there. As long as the snow stays away I think we’ll be fine!!


Please remember if you want to send the boys (or the dads)a message of good luck then send it to [e-mail] and we'll get it straight away!

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