Day 69

This is our final week of coaching and we are winding down a bit. But today we had a new crèche. We only have 1 session with them but it was 1 Joe wanted to do as it was in his old area and had fond memories of. We had 2 groups a 4-5 year olds and a 5-6. The first group was slightly smaller as it's the start of the holidays so some parents have taken their kids away. Both groups we did our usual movement game followed by passing the ball around a circle and finished with our hello friend game we came up with. The 2nd group were louder and more active and whilst passing the ball in a circle I found a few would intentionally drop it and start kicking it. After them continually asking for soccer I gave in and let them kick the ball and pass it to me etc. Joe and Harry decided they'd copy me and it worked for all 3 groups, which was nice. Lots of shouts and high 5s and that was us done. We sat in the sun drinking some juice the teachers had given us whe we saw a few little 1s wondering out. The baby class had come out to have a look around and me and Harry were more than pleased to play, pick up and give the little 1s a cuddle. They were 2-3 year olds and were so cute, it was really nice, the teachers pointed out 1 of the girls, apparently she isn't sociable at all and they were shocked that she came to me and wanted to play ball. Kids obviously just love me.

After lots of photos with various members of staff we were off, we dropped Joe off and headed back to Berghof. Joe phoned to say we needed to get to our last session of the day for 6 and not 5 as 1st thought. So we had a few hours to kill, Harry had lunch while I rested my eyes for half hour. Then after checking emails and doing a few bits and pieces as well as getting the room cleaned we left. We had a rough idea of how to get there as we had been a few weeks ago but we weren't 100% sure. It was All Stars, the club we coached a few weeks ago. The under 15s that we had before were our favourites so far and we were looking forward to testing them with some more difficult drills. Unfortunately we had the under 12s, still a good group of boys and were of a good standard but they weren't advanced enough to do what we had planned. Oh well, we did a skills corridor type activity which worked well which was good. We finished with a game and that was it another day over with. We ending up talking to 1 of the coaches for half an hour and we had a good chat about English and South African football which was nice.

Tonight we had planned to go back to Yindees the Thai place we went a few weeks ago. We were supposed to go on Saturday but didn't because of my ankle. It was amazing again, and reasonably priced. I had a nice chicken curry and Thai noodles. We finished our food and headed back to catch the 2nd half of the England v Italy game, we look awful and Italy are basically playing a B team. I don't know how you can start with a midfield 3 of Jones, Delph and Henderson, I'm slowly going off Roy Hodgson. We managed a 1-1 draw but it wasn't a match to remember.

Tomorrow we have our last crèche session in Cape Town, it's quite sad really. In 2 weeks time we'll be up in the air, I'm going to miss this place, but I can't wait to get home. Tomorrow we are also handing out kit that's been donated to kids in a township we have worked with so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Joe worked it out that we have met or interacted with at least 2000 kids during our time here, that's crazy. The countdown continues.