Journey to Amsterdam

I am sitting writing this from my hotel room in Holland, still amazed that I am actually here after a whirlwind past week.

The days before I left were a crazy rush of last minute shopping, packing, training,work,more training and more packing (I even managed to miss my own suprise going away party at work because I was out of the office with a client. But I did enjoy eating all the yummy party food when I stayed back late to finish up work before my trip).

Sunday night after training on the track (with my friend Debbie so she could learn how to help me with triathlon transitions in Budapest) I called in at my mums and you wouldnt believe it- the brakes on my car failed completely and I couldnt drive home! Lucky mum could give me a lift but I had my bike and racing wheelchair in the car which didn't fit in her car with my wheelhcair.Ordinarily I would have just left them there, but I needed them for a media photoshoot the next morning ...there's always something! Luckily mum dropped them off in the morning.Oh, and the wheels on my day chair started falling off too just to add to the chaos!

Monday, my last day at home was spent doing said media conference with the Sunshine Coast Daily and Channel 7 local news. After that I headed out to get a sports massage.

Then I still had to pack. My Aussi uniform for the swim meet finally arrived late monday avo (just in time) and I managed to squeeze it into my suitcase. We got a gorgeous bright yellow jacket and some funky tshirts. The pants dont fit my at all, but no time to swap them or get alterations done.

I left Australia on tuesday with Mum and we flew to Singapore where we spent a night to break up the flightMy grandparents and their cute little dog Malty drove us to Brisbane airport, where I totally embarrassed myself by falling face first onto the footpath.I was sitting outside the airport when Mum put my backpack on the back of my chair and it was so heavy I went over backwards...but stayed in the chair. Then mum caught me and shoved me forwards which resulted in me flying forwards out of my chair and landing face first on the ground! Quick repack of bags required to ensure that didnt happen again!

After that our flight was pretty uneventful. We got to our hotel late that night, and I was asleep immediately! The next day we had an amazing time exploring for a few hours. I have been to Singapore many times, but only for brief stopovers so all I had seen was hotels, the airport and the zoo. So this time we explored local hindu and Budhist temples, China town, little India, called into the raffles hotel and even saw the iconic Singaporean Merlion!

Then it was back to the hotel for a rest before meeting the rest of the swim team at Chengi airport for our midnight flight to Amsterdam.

I was so tired by the time I got onto the plane that I slept 8 hours straight. when i woke up there were just 4 hours to go which passed quickly with meal service and preparing to land.

Once we landed it was time to collect our bags and say goodbye to mum, who was heading off to stay with her aunt Trude.

Our team headed for Eindhoven on the bus where we checked into our home for the next 2 weeks "hotel Konighoff". Literally translated this means kings house, and thats a pretty good description- this place is massive. It has multiple wings, courtyards, gardens, guard houses, a giant chess board, bell tower and clock tower,tennis court, squash courts, swimming pool-even a bowling alley (and that's just the places we've explored so far).

So far I have been training each day and resting up at the hotel.

11 days till I race!

Thats all for now

tot ziens

Marayke