Fiji 2!

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The schools were all on half term for the next to weeks, so instead of going to school to coach we held coaching courses in a local field/ pitch. So for the next 2 weeks we were doing coaching 10til11 then wed go home for an hour break have some lunch etc then head back for a second session 12til1! The first week was quite good we had about 10/ 15 kids turn up most days so we tended to split them into footbal and rugby (these were the most popular options!). Some days we just concentrated on one of the 2 so some days me and lucy were learning with the kids how to play rugby etc! . Ive come to the conclusion this isnt my sport! These sessions usually ended (to the kids disgust and my relief) with a game of touch rugby- this was usually great fun and some how the kids all still managed to be throwing themselves on the floor!. Other days we concentrated on football. On these days it tended to be me luce and charlie leading the kids doing a lot of basic drills and passing, a few shooting sessions and again usually ending in a big game! The first few times we made the stupid mistake of not taking any bibs- this meant the kids knew who was on their team but of course we had no idea!. One morning we had a whole load of very young children turn up so i took the session with kimbo which was basic teaching of just kicking the ball corectly- this was quite painful did take them a while to grasp but in fairness for some of them the ball seemed bigger than them!. Between sessions we sometimes stayed and had a bit of a kickabout- i got taught how to do a johnny wilkinson and just about managed to get it over the bar for a conversion a few times ! This also was a painful learning curb- i wont lie it took me quite a while to pick it up!. As coaching was during the middle of the day it tended to get very hot (especially running around!) so we all started to get very sexy footbal short tan marks on our legs!. Most of the kids that turned up tended to come to the sessions everyday! We had 2 vwery small children milaka and alena turn up a few times so some of the sessions me and helen took it in out strides to look after them! Il be honest it didnt involve a lot compared to what the others seemed to be doing but it was still extremely tiring! constant piggybacking and for some reason they liked to aimlessly run and make you run with them then decide that they want to run back 2 seconds later to wheer they were in the first place! As i said tiring in the heat!. After sessions again we spent a lot of time in town or at the northen club a few times eating cake and attempting to play tennis. One of the afternoons we spent watching the guys attempt to kill themselves by trying to do flips over a pole which they were making higher and higher into our pool which is not actually that deep! Luckily none of them suceeded in cracking their heads open which made good entertainment for us as they kept falling in!. Thursday night was eds bar again and for some reason me and lucy experimented with a 30p 'vodka in a tube' we thought it looked interesting meant to taste like a bacardi breezer or something along those lines- il be honest it really was pretty skank but that probably was becuase it was 30p!. It was Jos last night so we went dressed normally this week- another good night apart from having to calm our 3 madventurer leaders down- they got in a fight/ arguement there were some tears it was quite dramatic and yet very funny at the same time! On the friday me and helen went and picked up lucys birthday cake that we had ordered from an unreal cake shop in town (dont buy any other food from it - the rest tends to come with salmanela on the side but the cakes are good!) So that night we had another grog session (the taste really doesnt get any better!) and ate a lot of chocolate cake!

The saturday was lucys birthday so we were all up extremely early - there was only 8 of us left in the house but we had 11 new arrivals coming today!. We were up so early because we were leaving to spend the weekend at Bounty island just north of Viti Levu island. Was really easy to get to - get a short taxi ride to a local harbour then a half hour boat ride to the island!. This boat ride was not soo fun. The sea was VERY choppy and the plastic to stop you from getting wet really didnt do its job very well! Still we got off that boat and clambered onto a smaller boat which took us the last 100m to beach on the island. If you look at the sea surrounding you can just see loads of tiny islands- all looks so beautiful felt like we should be in teh carribean or something with all the palm trees!. When we arrived we got shown to our dorms- we had a dorm of 8 soit was all of us in one- all the guys were assigned the top bunk - much to our amusment especilally seeing as i had Matt a large rugby 27 year old in the bunk above me!. Was amusing watching him clamber upand in! Me Helen and Sophie were ready to go and sunbathe when for some stupid reason i got dragged to go kayaking round the island with luce steve and james instead-- i think they must have done it for entertainment purposes!. Il be honest i had issues even getting into the kayak but once i got going i was fine just a bit slow!. The weather was amazing really hot and the sea was beautiful turquios. As we got further round the island it started to get harder because the tide was quite strong so we decided to take a break on the beach. I have no upper body strength though so this itself turned out to be an issue! Lucy James and steve got there fine but i seemed to be paddling and not getting anywhere- this got VERY frustrating and tiring and im pretty sure i ended up further out then i started. Everyone else seemed to find this idea hilarious (apart from me who was not enjoying myself so much!) and EVENTUALLY steve half swam ahlf waded out and pulled me in- he wont let me forget this point! We chilled on the beach for what was not long enough - i was pretty content to follow the tide back round and head back but apparently i wasnt allowed so 10minutes later there i was again struglling- in the end i just tied my kayak to steves and pretended to paddle for a bit that was a lot easier!. When we were half way round the island we had another break. We lay in our kayaks on the beach for a good few hours. Was really nice - soo quite all you could hear was the waves there was liek no one else really around and the view of the other islands was amazing! By the time we decided to get back in the kayaks the tide was soo far out it was shallow still water for about 20m!. This was a lot easier and funner to kayak on so i untied my boat and went myself- had the odd problem with getting beached on rocks but apart from that it was great!. We even managed to see some fish and a bright blue starfish was soo cool. We also saw a shark!!!!!!!! only a mini one though but was a scary moment when could see it coming our way! As we got further roound the island it got a bit harder again because the tide kept pushing you to the beach so kept having to get out and push yourself off the rocks and beach. Seeing as i hadnt fallen in yet it was bound to happen- a proper bridget jones moment- one foot in the kayak one in the water, my legs were getting further apart lucky for me everyone saw me fall on my ass!. I was even more gutted that for some stupid reason i had $20 in my pocket! I managed to safely get back into the boat and the tide was now very helpfully going round the island in the direction we were headed so when we arrived back at the resort it looked as if it was all easy and as if id gone round all by myself no problem! We got back just in time for lunch- it usually takes about half an hour to get round but for some strange reason we were gone for about 3 hours!. The rest of teh day was spent sunbathing, playing pool, playing scrabble by the pool and beach (very surreal!), And numerous walks around the island. The beach is soo nice - can walk around the whole island on the beach in about 20 minutes theres palm trees everywhere its soo lush!. Then went on an explore through the island- the middle is like foresty with no shoes on for some very strange and stupid reason! We managed to find the remainders of celebrity love island! Yes This island was the one which celebrity love island was filmed on! the one with calum best and a whole load of other nobodys but still we were quite impressed!. We then all sat on the beach and watched the sun set over the sea! very beautiful! before heading back to get ready for the evening. We had an amazing buffet bbq dinner (the food here is sooo good!) and then back to the dorm for some sneaky predrinks!. We then headed to teh bar for happy hour and got some birthday cocktails in for luce!. Had a really good evening chilling on the beach playing pool etc it was quite a late one! In bed at about 3ish ( ithink- i decided to go to bed after discovering sleeping on a beach hammock turned out to be really quite cold!).

The next morning nearly all of us failed to wake up for breakfast - leaving us very very hungry for lunch!. Checking out was a bit of a shock- $100 (about 30pounds ) for all the boats, food and for the dorm for the night- how cheap is that! O and then the $57 bar bill on top (id like to point out some bday drinks for luce and water was very expensive at $5 for a bottle!) Spent most of today sunbathing asleep and walking around the island again!. Our boat came to pick us up at half 3 and by half 4 we were back at the harbour on the main island!. The harbour is literally about a 10min walk to first landing resort so we decided to walk to there and had a few drinks and some food as we met our 11 new people!. We all got a mini bus home and it was a very quiet but very crowded night! Weve come to the conclusion we definately need some more chairs!.

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