15th March 2008
My cover note finally came through on Monday, I went and picked it up from Gaz and had the road tax in my hand along with my insurance, RAC European cover and my keys 30 minutes later :). That evening I met mum on the motor way for a quick goodbye and to dump all things I don't need in her lap, then went on to meet Ben 10 minutes down the road when we set of to Dover. On the fairy over to France we both had a kip in the camper as it was 4am at this point and before we knew it we were driving in the rain on the other side of the road in France. We had no trouble all the way through France and Spain, then we ran into a little hiccup in Portugal.... It started of with us having to pay a 66 Euro fine after a toll booth was closed and we couldn't take a ticket, then when it came to paying they charged us the full amount as we had no ticket. I was not a happy chappy ! Toll booths are a nightmare here, we must have spent £300 pound on them by the time we got to Portugal as they were about 30 Euro each and we went through at least 10. I've now learnt that I can set my sat nav to avoid toll booths, so once again I've learnt the hard way.
It went on to get worse...From after seeing a petrol station every 10 minutes we went to not seeing one for at least half an hour, then we had to cross a massive bridge so obviously there wasn't one on there, so at 1am in Portugal we rolled to a stop in the middle of nowhere with no cars around and the only light we had was the moon :),..There was a sign for a services 10k away, so I suggested running there, picking up some petrol and running back, Ben then hit me around the head and pointed to an SOS phone on the side of the road, within 20 minutes road side assistance arrived we gave them 10 Euro for putting some petrol in and 5 minutes later we were at the station filling her up :).
The first tournament was in Lagos, which is right on the beach of Portugal. We put up camp in the car park, had a couple days of training to get the cob webs out, and then I was all ready to get on court. I had an interesting first round winning the first set 6.0, then suddenly I slipped a bit and the other guy picked up his game and just like that I lost the second set 6.4. We were given new balls (which I love and play so much better with), the guy started to pull out a couple dodgy calls at big points but I still got an early break and then another at 3.1 up and went on to win 6.0 - 4.6 - 6.2 :) The following day I was 5th match on and all the matches on my court before me went on for soo long, so by the time I got on court it was 7pm which means we had to play under the lights. I didn't know anything about my opponent apart from he had beaten a pretty good player in the first round and has a big forehand and serve. I started of pretty well holding my serve with no trouble but was also really struggling to break him as he really did have a big serve, I got broken at 3.4 then just like that the first set was over 3.6, I still felt good though and that I was in the match and was fired up for a 3 set battle, unfortunately my opponent had other ideas and really picked up his game, then with 3 badly played points by me on my serve I suddenly got broken early, then again and went on to loose the match 6.3 - 6.1.
I learnt from this tournament that its not how big your weapons are its how you use them at the right time, I've really got to stick to my guns and play my game the best I can when I need to as in break points and 30 all points, those are the points that can win or loose you the match.
Ben had a really tough draw and lost to a French guy who didn't miss one ball, the French guy went on to qualify and win a match in main draw so Ben had a bit of bad luck there.
We spent a couple days in Lagos and spent the days training in the mornings and hitting the beach for the rest of the day. This one spot was unbelievable with coral reefs, clear blue water and white sand, it was really nice swimming in the sea again, as the last time I did it was in Australia.
On the way to the next tournament we stopped over in Portamao which is supposed to be a really nice spot, by the time we got there it with dark so we parked up and hit the hay...when we woke up the next morning we were right on this unbelievable beach, and a nice little restaurant with cheap breakfast :)
The next tournament was 40 minutes away in Albufeira, it was in this big hotel complex, the courts were the same as Lagos, outdoor hard and pretty slow. When we got there we did the same as usual and had a good hit then signed in.
In the first round I played a a guy from Brazil who I had never heard of neither had anyone else so I didn't know what to expect. We went on in the middle of the days right in the heat of it, I was dripping sweat just in the warm up. I think the heat or something must of got to my opponent because he hardly had any fight in him and I won with no worries 6.2 - 6.2.
The next round I was up against a guy from the Ukraine 880 in the world and had got to the semi final of the main draw the previous week. I broke him first game very easy the way he played looked like he was ready to shake my hand then suddenly he woke up and started to play. He had a really big first shot (serve and return) and I was on the back foot straight away on 80% of the points, once I got into a rally with him I was fine and did well, but he played too good and didn't give me a chance on those big points i was talking about and I ended up loosing 6.1 - 6.1
Ben got a buy in the first round but lost to another French guy in the second, again the guy went on to qualify so Ben was having a bit of bad luck with the draw these two weeks.
That evening after my match we had a bit of trouble with the van. On the way to giving a friend a lift back to his villa we heard this clinking noise coming from the bottom of the van, so we had a little look and the exhaust was hanging off and another bit was missing a part. We were right in the middle of nowhere and obviously couldn't drive anywhere, so we had to get the RAC out. The mechanic wasn't that great just tying the loose bit up with my shoelace and saying its ok to drive with to a garage....We couldn't stay at the villa so we drove closer to the garage that night so we were there for the morning. Half way there the van started to really overheat to the point we had to pull over and sleep on the side of the road and hope it would cool down enough by the next morning to get it to the garage. We managed to get it to the garage and the guy put a bran new exhaust on it which costs 175 Euro. We were hoping that it would solve the overheating problem but again we had to stop because it was on the red and starting to really smell and make funny noises, there was no chance we could drive any further and we needed to get it fixed that day as Ben needed to get to the airport the next morning and we were miles away from there... so once again we had to use the RAC, they were really good and there within the hour, he toed us to another garage, we couldn't go to the same one as before as they only did exhausts. The guy didn't speak one word of English but pointed at  5pm on his watch. So we just hung around for ages while they were working on the engine, they looked to be taking the whole thing apart and I was not looking forward to the bill. By 5 the engine looked good and we were told it was fixed, it was a little part linking something to something had broken (I haven't got a clue about cars haha), with a new part and all their work cost 75 Euro.. The van is running better than ever now, so touch wood there wont be any more problems for a while. Ben and I had a really nice meal out, after 2 weeks of cooking pasta in the van I couldn't believe it when he ordered a lasagne haha. It was the best meal I've had for ages and had a good laugh with Ben looking back at the trip :)
My plan was now to spend a while in Spain playing the futures there until club tennis in Germany in June, so after dropping Ben off at the airport I headed to Barcelona where the first Future was. I've not been able to check how much money I've got while being over here as you cant do it when your in a foreign country at cash points and I was a right plonker and didn't set up internet banking before I left. So unfortunately I had to find out the hard way when I went to take some cash out for petrol and I couldn't even withdraw 20 Euro. By this time I was 24 miles away from Madrid, so no where near Barcelona. It wasn't looking good as I also didn't have a phone as I lost mine in Lagos.. I have a really good old friend who lives in Denia which is just above Alacante on the cost, so i figured if I could get there I could stay with him for a bit until I got things sorted. With the last 5 Euro to my name I called mum to get her to call Oli and tell him the situation and see if I can stay with him for a bit.. The champ that he and his family are said it was ok and mum put 40 pound in my account so I could get there..
So at the moment I'm on Oli's computer in his house, and in a minute we're going to go down to the courts and have a hit, just like the good old days :), and if I can get money sorted out soon, Oli is going to join me with my travels and split costs with me for a while as he's in the same boat as me and playing Futures trying to get his first point.
Its great seeing him again, we just worked out the last time we hit was over 4 years ago... it feels funny staying with him here in Spain as this is the same place i went on holiday with him and his family when I was about 13 :)
Hopefully I might be playing a money tournament next week which will be my first match on the clay since my last trip to Europe in August, so I'm looking forward to that, then we'll be hitting the road and playing the Spanish tour for a while :) :)

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