It’s home time. There are a few sore heads in the shalley this morning.

The bags are all packed and we have to drag them and ourselves up to the reception area one more time. Yesterday I picked up a sheet that had the arrangements and times for the departure of the teams and other comments that were appropriate. Under the Irish team, the organisers had written that we were to bring back the wrong luggage to the airport. See we mistakingly brought a bag with us from the airport that wasn’t ours and we handed it in to reception to have it sent back to the airport. Martin “Software Engineer” Baxter, our coach, thought that they were taking the P outta us by making this comment and was getting his knickers in a twist over it but guess what? Yep, they didn’t send it back and we had to bring it back ourselves. By having to do this, Martin had to stay with the airport security guys til the Police came to inspect the bag because we didn’t pack it or know what was in it. While Martin was with security, the rest of us decided to amuse ourselves by weighing ourselves on the weighing scales that the airport used for the luggage, now that was a sight. There’s feck all else to do at airports, apart from exercising the eyeballs. The flight home was a comfortable affair and a chance for me to catch up on some shuteye before the 180 mile car journey home after we’d landed. After picking up all my gear and luggage, bidding farewell to the rest of the squad, I headed to the carpark to be reunited with my car and lo and behold what was awaiting me but a flat tyre. A great way to finish the week, having to change a tyre. Well with the help of Pecks, it got changed and after a quick cuppa in the airport, we headed off home. I got there by 11.30 pm and after 8 gruelling days, it was great to be back at home again.

Looking back on it now, it was an experience not to be missed and with the changes that appear to be coming in the European Zone, it could well be my last chance to compete at this level. We’d moved up two ranking places and were now officially eleventh in Europe and seventeenth in the World, so there was some positives to come from this venture. And it’s not everyone that gets to captain his country in a major championships and therefore write crap like this. Time we got us a new captain, I think.