Photos From Day 36 - De Beers Football Club

Day 47 - Cape Town Peninsula Half Day Tour

Today was the day we booked our Cape Town Half Day Tour, and the day of our weekend where we go full tourist and see the sights that Cape Town has to offer.

We weren't getting picked up until 1:10, so were a bit annoyed and confused when there was someone knocking on our door at 10am, disturbing the lovely lie in I was having. Turns out it was the laundry lady wanting to get our laundry, and cleaning lady ready to clean.

I was up, so thought might aswell get moving. So I got dressed and headed downstairs to message the girlfriend and check emails, while Martin was still getting up.

After getting washed and sorted, we get picked up. We were travelling around in a sort of minibus, which looked a lot like the taxis that we hate, where the drivers are all crazy. Luckily this driver was a decent one, so the sense of danger was eliminated fairly early on. In our tour we had a fella from Singapore, a couple from Madagascar, and a couple from Nigeria, so 7 of us in total.

After driving for just under 2 hours, we arrived at our first stop. Boulders Beach. Now, one of my favourite animals is the penguin, so I was pretty psyched to go here since we arrived, and even happier when I heard it was part of our tour.

The Penguins were incredible. You pay around £3 to get in, and you walk along this long bridge, which goes through Boulders Beach, which puts you right up close with the Penguins in their natural habitat. I took so many photos I was terrible. I was loving it. I even managed to see a penguin poop aswell, which is another thing to tick off the bucket list!

We were allowed half an hour to look around, and before too long that time was up, so we headed back to the taxi to go to our second and final stop of the day, Cape Point, which was a further hourish drive from Boulders.

We eventually arrived at Cape Point, where we checked out the most Southern point of Africa, and saw some incredible views. We also saw the line where 2 currents meet in the ocean, the warm current and the cold current. There was a pretty clear divide, with a white, wave looking line splitting the sea all the way from quite a way out, to right up next to the beachfront. It was amazing.

After we got back to the taxi, our driver wanted to take us to Cape of Good Hope, which is right on the coast, and is the most South Western point of Africa. After a quick stop, taking a few photos, we got back in the taxi to head home, as we had completed all our stops.

On the way back though, we saw a few baboons on the hills, so the driver came to a stop so we could take some photos. We were urged not to go out the car though because they were wild baboons, and could be quite dangerous. It was amazing to see them up close though.

On the journey back, our driver took a different route back, which took us through Chapman Peak road, which you had to pay to go down, as it was a beautiful stretch of road that had been used for movies many times before. However, we had to delay the journey a bit, because the fire that hit the mountain during last week, meant that Chapman Peak road had to be closed, and wasn't going to be open again until 5:30. Luckily it was open when we got to it, and we drove on through. There was a point when you could park up and take photos, so we all got out the mini bus for 5-10 minutes to take photos. It was beautiful. The views were amazing it was quality. You can see why it was such a big deal.

After that we headed home, and we were dropped off at Berghof. The plan for tonight? Arsenal vs Man Utd! FA Cup quarter final. Arguably one of our biggest games of the season. Win this, and we are favourites to win it.

What. A. Game. I was on the edge of my seat for most of it, and was shaking too. It was amazing to watch, but so nerve racking to be a fan watching it. Both teams were attacking constantly, and it was back and forth all game. Thankfully, we won 2-1. With Monreal grabbing the first, and Danny Welbeck getting the winner against his old club, after Rooney equalised. I was going nuts I was so happy. Both teams played really well, and it could've gone either way. Thankfully it's us that heads to Wembley, where we take on either Bradford or Reading. A game we should win, but you can't be too sure with the FA Cup. My girlfriend, Maddie, seemed to get really into the game aswell, saying she was nervous throughout and happy when we won. Finally, my work with her is starting to pay off!

Tomorrow, back to work, with another session at Riverton Crèche and Wesbank. Hopefully it's not as hot as last week, and we're not sweating just standing around!

Harry

Day 46 - Lazy Day 2.0

As part of our curriculum out here in Cape Town, Martin and I work from Tuesday's to Saturday's, and get Sunday's and Monday's off. We aim to do at least one touristy thing every weekend, and possibly just laze about on the other day. As we are doing the Cape Town Peninsula Tour tomorrow, today was our day to laze about and do nothing.

It was lovely.

Between August and December, I was pretty much working non stop, doing 5 days a week at Arsenal, then working all weekend at Specsavers. So any day where I can just chill and laze about I take in with open arms and abuse it. Which is exactly what I did today.

All we did was sit downstairs, messaging the girlfriends, watching movies, just chilling out, before heading down to Mixas to watch the Liverpool-Blackburn game, in the FA Cup Quarter Finals. There is literally nothing to say about the game, it was dead boring, and finished 0-0. Would be well happy if Blackburn knock Liverpool out though. It's unbelievably annoying how much I've heard about the FA Cup Final being on Gerrards birthday, and how it would be a "perfect send off" for when he leaves this summer.

No. Shut up.

For one, a BETTER send off would be winning the league for the first time, but we all know what happened last season. They let it slip (pun intended - for those that get it).

Secondly, I strongly believe that whoever wins between tomorrow's game, Arsenal vs Manchester United, will win the FA Cup. I just know. Hold me to it if you wish.

After the game, we headed back to Berghof, via Checkers supermarket to pick up some bread, where we ended the day just chilling out, watching movies, skyping the family and the girlfriend. It was nice.

It's slowly starting to hit home the amount of time we've been out here, and the smaller things that I miss about home, I'm starting to miss more now. 5 weeks left though. Hopefully March will fly by, then we'll be getting ready to go.

Don't get me wrong South Africa's incredible, and the people we've met and the kids we've coached have on the whole been amazing so far, just we're both looking forward to being home and seeing our friends, family's and girlfriends again.

Harry

Day 45 - Communicare Action Soccer League

Before I continue with this blog, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who's reading it. I've just checked, no found out that I now have over 1000 views on my blog. I never thought it'd be so popular so thank you. Martin and I together have almost 2000 views now which is just incredible. So thank you everyone.

Today was the second round of the Communicare Action Soccer League fixtures. We arrived at about 11:30, but not many people were there so we ended up just having a kick about with a couple of other people.

Selwyn, one of the coaches at Atlantic, and one of our buddies out here, arrived, and told us that the Bothasig team hadn't turned up, and asked if we could put together a side to play the Drommedaris senior team, 2 of their players we'd coached at Atlantic, and were part of the under 19's there. So we grabbed the lads who we were having a kickabout with and played. It was a mess. We ended up losing 6-1, yours truly scoring our only goal. To be fair the other team were so much better than ours, and they deserved to win. Our team were woeful. Ahh well, it's just a friendly.

At around 1, Joe, Yonick and the Ruyterwacht team showed up. Densel had already arrived but we hadn't seen him until then. They got in their kit, and on the pitch ready to play. Half time, they were losing. I grabbed a Ruyterwacht shirt and asked Densel if I could come on. After checking with Joe to see if it was allowed, I eventually came on. Sadly I wasn't as formidable as first time around, and had my first game without scoring. Their keeper was insanely good though. So fair enough. We lost in the end, but I forget the score. Densel said we can go along to training if we wanted, which I'm quite keen on, to play with the lads and get some proper match time.

Yesterday, Conan called us asking if we could help him out by doing a coaching session at his wife's-boss's-kids school, as they were having an overnight camping on the field thing. We were up for it so we're happy to agree. After we got back today from the Soccer League, Conan came and picked us up. We got to the school, and the field, which was pretty large, was packed. They had music, loads of tents up, stalls, loads of stuff it looked quality! After being introduced to various people we took a group of lads to an open space and organised a match. Martin and I were going to make it count to our own little competition thing, but Martin was off the pitch for a while, helping a kid who got injured, then pretty much straight after I had to take a couple of lads to the side after there was a punch up. It was a nightmare, so we decided that this would be a "friendly".

After the match was over we got the group into a large circle and got them to show off their skills. Martin, unfortunately, decided to be an absolute mug and guilt trip me into doing a skill, which he did at the Reach For A Dream session a while ago. Luckily I had more luck than last time and did a couple of tricks without completely embarrassing myself. We pulled a few kids up to do some tricks, before calling it a day and packing everything up.

We grabbed some food, courtesy of Conan and Shelley (Conan's Wife), which was a really nice treat. They also gave us a chocolate bar each, which we were thankful for and headed home, via dropping Shelley off at her work friends house. Tired and dirty, we decided to end the night chilling out in front of the TV.

Harry

Day 44 - Drommedaris Girls & Boys

Another trip to coach Drommedaris, another late start.

We were told to be at the Learning Centre for 1:30, where we spent a couple of hours hanging around, helping people that wanted it. Although it's quiet quite a lot of the time, so it's often just a chance for us to chill out on the computers, which is alright.

We headed to Atlantic Football Club at around 4, to have a little kick around before the Drommedaris lot turned up. Adnaan wanted us to take both the boys and the girls today, even though we had the boys yesterday. We were happy taking them, though.

We started with a simple follow the leader exercise, where the group is split into pairs, with one ball for each pair. One person dribbles around, the other follows. When "Switch" is called, the follower takes over and dribbles, with the other person dropping back and following,

It was really odd though because, as we had 5 boys and 5 girls, there had to be a boy-girl partnership. But the 2 players that were going to be this partnership refused to even look at eachother. Luckily another boy turned up, and I became partners with a girl. It was strange though.

After follow the leader, we played a numbers game. This got the girls and boys working together which we were pleased to see. They all seemed to love playing it too which was nice, and was a fresh difference to ending the session on just a normal match.

After that, it was over. Martin and I headed to the Africa household where we met Jodi and Yonick to head over to GrandWest and watch a movie. American Sniper was the chosen film, and I'm so glad we went. It was quality. Bit of a shock to see right at the end that it was a true story, too. Would definitely recommend it to anyone that can watch it. Top film.

Harry

Day 43 - Drommedaris Boys

Today we had a late start, as we weren't coaching until around 5, where we had an afternoon session with the Drommedaris boys, at Atlantic Football Club.

After an early call from Joe, saying we didn't have to come in at 10, but come in at 2 instead, I extended my lie in for a few hours which was much appreciated.

We had lunch and headed to the Learning Centre where we would spend a couple of hours there, helping those that needed help on the computers, before heading to Atlantic Football Club at 4 for a quick kick around before our session.

2 lads joined us as we arrived so we had a 2v2 game, which was decent. Then along came Adnaan and the rest of the Drommedaris kids too.

We had 2 older lads, from the under 19's joined in our session too which was alright, but meant we had a pretty vast range in ages and abilities, which made it hard to make it worthwhile to everyone, but I think we did well

We did a shooting session with them, similar to what we did with the girls team, but we made it a bit more challenging. They still managed to miss quite a few of their shots. Something Martin and I have discovered since coming out here is that the ball control of the kids is exceptional, they can control the ball incredibly. Shooting on the other hand, they couldn't hit a barn door from 5 yards. It's odd, the one major areas for improvement that the kids need is shooting. Very rarely out here you see a kid who can score loads of goals, and takes loads of shots. It's strange.

After the shooting session was over, a few of the kids departed to start their Atlantic training session. With the remainder of the players we had, we decided to have a match. Martin and I would join in, and it was a chance for me to claw it back to 4-3.

Nope

5-2. This is bad now. It's starting to get more and more competitive. Martin was wasting time like there was no tomorrow, and I was getting more and more frustrated. Ahh well.

Headed home, and went out for dinner. We tried the Slug & Lettuce today, to see if it was anything like back home. I had (you guessed it) the ribs, and they were the thickest, juiciest ribs you'll ever see. Beautiful.

After that we headed back home, where we're just going to chill out and watch movies. Another lie in tomorrow, and another late afternoon session, which should be good!

Harry

Day 42 - Ysterplaat Crèche (1&2), Goodwood College & Drommedaris

Day 42, and officially 6 weeks into the trip. It's weird thinking that around 5 months ago we found out that Martin and I were the chosen ones to make the trip to Cape Town. It feels like last week. Time has flown by.

We started the day off with the 2 Ysterplaat Crèche's. The first crèche were, like last week, relatively quiet. It took a while for them to get into it, but in the end we got them shouting Arsenal, which is what we like to see!

In the second class of the first Ysterplaat crèche, there were a few problem children, nothing major just very energetic and disruptive. While picking teams, Martin (somehow!) managed to put most of these excited, disruptive bunch in the group I had, meaning while I could look over and see him having a decent last 10 minutes, I had to constantly encourage them to listen and keep to the task. Before to long, though the session was over, and I was already exhausted.

We went into the second Ysterplaat crèche with high hopes, as they seemed a lot more mature, focused, and generally more fun to coach than most of the other Crèche's we've visited. Sadly, 5 minutes in our hopes were dashed, after we asked them all to gather round they literally bundled in, every time. One time they managed to floor me, as I had about 20 kids grabbing my legs! Luckily I managed to not crush anyone. Oddly enough though, when Martin blew his whistle to try and get their attention, they all ran to a cone, as if we were playing the game we played last week with them. We were both completely surprised, but made the most of it, and played that game again with them.

Around 20 minutes in, the rain started to pour, and the kids went crazy, it was like they've never seen rain before. The teachers hurried them in, and that pretty much ended our session with them. Odd.

After having our lunch break at the Learning Centre, we headed for Goodwood college. Joe wasn't joining us as he had to be elsewhere, so it was us, and Densel. Not as many boys turned up for this weeks though, as Densel turned most away for not having their kit. We had enough for an 11-a-side game though, which is what the school wanted as they had games coming up, and wanted Densel to see what he was working with for the rest of the year. Martin and I saw an opportunity. He joined one side, I joined another. It was an awful game. Awful pitch, awful play, awful all round. My team lost 2-0, which means Martin is now beating me 4-2 on games. But I tell you what, we had so many opportunities to score and win that game. One of our strikers missed an absolute sitter from 2 yards out too! Unbelievable. I've got a lot of work to do now to claw it back! 

After Goodwood College we headed straight to Drommedaris to do our life skills session. My, these kids were so clingy! After teaching them about compliments, we went outside to play, and Martin and I were literally a climbing frame for these kids. It was a nightmare. I managed to get head butted by some girl who tried jumping on me, and was luckily not to have a bleeding lip. As soon as Joe said we could, we headed home, completely exhausted from a tiring day, and ready to settle down in front of the TV for the night.

Tonight's schedule - School Of Rock, Hangover 3, Arsenal game. Hopefully all 3 will be good. I know the first 2 are. Expecting nothing less than 3 points today.

Harry