Diary for 1^st April 2009:

I got Gary to sign my coaching hours sheet the other day, I sent it off and told them to send my level 1 qualification to my Australian address :). The next day I re-dated my ticket to Perth for April 7th. So I'm off this Tuesday :). I couldn't make it any earlier as the friends I'm staying with had to go to Sydney for a wedding this weekend, so 7th of April it is.
I'm really looking forward to getting back out there. Tristan has put my name down for winter pennants, so I'll be straight back into playing a couple of matches every weekend. He's also got some coaching work for me while I'm not on court or training.
Darren is still around, he's not coaching anymore but I'm sure he'll still help me out and make sure I'm staying on the right path with my tennis.
It's been a good couple of months back in the UK, I've now got a good coaching qualification under my belt, The physical side to my game has kept on the path of improvement and one of the main aspects I've noticed to be helping me win alot more cheap points is my serve, which I look forward to using on the Australian hard and grass courts.
Jake got back from America the other day. He's come back for a month or so to see his family before he goes to college. I had a good hit with him today at Vicy Av, the sun was out and we were hitting the ball really well. As this was probably the last time we would play each other for a long time, we thought we should play a proper 3 set match :). It was a fun couple of hours battling, he won the first set by breaking my serve at 5.6, hitting a net chord on set point (lucky). But my serve really picked up and I think I had to face only one more break point in the rest of the match (which I saved) and I went on to win 5.7 - 6.1 - 6.3!
My dad is coming down on Friday for lunch. be nice to see him as it's been a good year since the last time I saw the old man :). Then my mum is coming down Sunday to take me back up to Reading (where she lives) so that I can spend a bit of time with her before I go, then I leave for Perth, Australia on Tuesday. My mate Rob is picking me up from the other side when I get there. I arrive 5pm local time, so I'm going to pop straight round to my sister's house to surprise her, as I told her I wont be in Perth for another 3 weeks :).

Diary for 17^th March 2009:

After a little bit of hassle and moving some things around, I finally got to take my level one coaching course the other week. Unfortunately it hasn't finished yet, as I have to do 20 hours of coaching, working under another coaches wing, then I go back to show what I've learnt etc. As I've already done a fair bit of coaching in Australia, and there's not much coaching work avalible in England at the moment, I've been working under my old coaches Gary's wing, who's a very flexible teacher. Thanks to him I'm sure I would have done my 20 hours by this time next week. Then that will be it, I'll have my level one coaching quallifiction and will book my flight to Australia :).
I had entered a tournament in Bath for this weekend, but unfortunately I didn't get in. There's a new system that has been brought out this year. You can now enter a tournament a couple of weeks before it starts, then on the internet you can see if your in and what the draw is a couple of days before hand. This is a huge advantage as before you used to have to just rock up the day before, sign in and hope that you got a spot in the draw, if not, you would have to just pack up and go back home. But now with this new system you can save yourself the money and time if you don't get in.
I knew this tournament would be very strong, as I saw players in the top 300 had entered, but as it didn't cost me anything, I thought I might as well try, just in case, where as before I would of unlikely of traveled all the way to Bath on the slim chance that I got in, so now with this new rule I'm able to take more chances and hopefully be able to enter more tournaments, meaning more experience, and higher chance of getting my foot on the world ranking ladder :).
My days recently have been jam packed. I've been getting on court with Tim and Ben as much as possible, followed by doing my 20 hours of coaching, my gym membership runs out at the end of this month and even tho I plan to be in Australia by April, I've still been trying to get the most out of it as possible by going everyday. I'm also working in the factory now and then for some extra bit of cash, they don't need me that much, but I try to get as much work there as possible so I can get straight into full time training and playing tennis as much as possible while keeping plenty of food on my plate and a big roof over my head at the same time for when I land in Australia :)
I've been hitting the ball really well recently. I cant wait to get on the Perth Grass courts, where I play my best and see how I do against the players I use to struggle against last time I was there :)
Everything off the court is going well. My mum came down from reading the other day.. It was great seeing her, as the last time I saw her was new years day. My sister Jenny is getting close to finishing her college course in Australia which will help her get residency and hopefully a good little job out there, so she's happy.
One of my best mate's Nathan is going to Thiland with his girlfriend for a couple of weeks on Thursday, so by the time he gets back I would probably be in Australia, so I'm off out for a round of golf with him and another mate in a couple of hours. We play a fair bit of golf and snooker in our down time, and usually put a bit of money on it to make those 3 inch putts a bit more nerve racking, so hopefully I can win the last bet with him before I go to Oz :)

Diary for 12^th February 2009:

I feel extremely lucky to have such good people around me. My friend James and his family have been really kind to me while I've been staying here. My friend Rob and his family in Australia have already got a bed waiting for me, along with a spot in the Wembley Downs pennants team and Tristan has a coaching position there for whenever I need it. So thanks to good friends my work and living arrangements are well looked after now.
Down the track Rob and I are going to hopefully move into a smaller apartment together so we have a strong base to come back to and train from after travelling, playing tournaments. This would be ideal as Rob's mum would be buying the house and the only time we would have to pay rent etc is while we're there. So when we go travelling we only have to worry about our travel costs :)
My mum has found a good job up in Croydon, she drives around to businesses selling and stocking up their first aid supplies. whenever I speak to her she seems very happy. My sister, Jenny is still studying hard in Perth, I believe she has one more year then she will be entitled to apply for her Australian citizenship.
I haven't set an exact date to go to Perth yet as I my flight insurance on my original flight was the cheap version and only allowed to change the flight date once, so I didn't want to do anything until I know for sure the coaching course and everything I need to do in England is done and dusted so that I can leave for Australia (Asia and all over the world again :)) 100% ready!

I've had some good training sessions with Tim over the last couple of weeks. A friend of mine Matt Combs runs 3 indoor tennis courts in Bournemouth Gardens and has been really nice to Tim and I by letting us use them for free, so not even all the snow and rain we've had has been able to stop us hitting some good balls (thanks very much Matt).
Tim and I have always trained well together. We never really used to get along, but I think since allot of the other players we knew back in the day have now quit and we are still going strong, I think we have good respect for each other for coming this far.
Because we are using the courts for free, unfortunately the second a paying customer wants to play, we have to pack up our rackets, but most of the time we get a good hour and usually another one later in the day. As we don't have long on the court we haven't played any practice matches yet and we mostly just hit 100's of balls, but we were thinking about paying as a one of for a couple hours so that we can have an un-interrupted match :)

Mark De-Mori (who was my fitness and injury prevention trainer just before I left Australia) has continued his support while I've been in Europe, America and now England over the last 15 months. As I said in my last update I feel I have physically improved over the last year, but I also realised that I haven't had any injuries either (touch wood).
The walk to the gym here isn't the best one, as it takes a good 30 minutes, and with the weather like it has been recently I usually end up there looking like a drowned rat but I really enjoy the program Mark has given me, and going on the results he has helped me achieve and the fact that I've had no injuries. I little walk in the rain is more than worth it.

The one thing that I've had to slow down on is the court fitness. All the outdoor courts have been under either water or snow and the time I get indoors is precious and have to make the most of it by hitting as many balls as possible. But a little rest from cretin exercises for a couple of weeks isn't that bad, infact it could be a good thing. When I arrive in Perth and get back into it, I'll probably be faster and fitter than ever :).

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