It’s Sunday and sadly that means today is the last day of tour *sad face*, that said it doesn’t mean its all packing up and hugs goodbye to the people you’ve spent the last 48 hours with…oh no there’s still much fun to be had on the Sunday, and much fun we had. The day was full of further hockey games, a sight I had never seen before and a flying whale/dolphin.

Feeling more refreshed than I had the previous morning, I headed down to the sport club (via the supermarket… got to visit it this year which excited me as foreign supermarkets are exciting, mini worlds to explore) for a morning of hockey games to determine the fate of our teams, Purple, Yellow and Orange as they are now commonly known as, in the overall tournament. Each team had two games to play, during which the heavens opened, Matt took a ball to the head (he was ok, apart from the lump that appeared on the side of his head), there was another Redbridge vs Redbridge game in which I ‘scored’ 2 goals, one of which was a sympathy goal, as on the pitch next to our game Phil was on pitch and he had scored 2 goals! That’s right, something I had never seen before, Phil was on pitch, goalie Phil on pitch, goalie Phil without his goalie kit on with a stick on the pitch, Phil on the pitch. And not only was he on pitch, in the one game he was on pitch, he managed to score 2 goals.. that’s 2 more goals that I had scored all weekend, so hence I managed somehow to ‘score’ 2 goals in our game so our goal count for the tournament was even. There were also reports from the other pitch that Tom had been beaten up by a 12 year old...now I’m not sure if that means actually physical punches or just beaten at hockey, but don’t worry about it Tom, you’ll get your dignity back soon.

With the games over, surprisingly none of us had made the final, it was time for lunch, and that meant time for steak, ah nom nom nom, and not for an vegetarians out there or those that like rare-ish meat. With steak, came a few more beers (not for those driving us home though), interaction with Noah and more of the foam machine. After lunch, it was time to get packed up, watch the final (which was won by the home team St George) and complete a rescue mission for Charlie. You see somehow Charlie, the blow up mascot of the tournament, had managed to get himself up onto the tower-score shouting out- thingy and seemed to be stuck. So Danny, who was in no way responsible for Charlie getting up there the night before, had to go rescue him. Danny climbed up the ladder, greeted Charlie, and then helped Charlie become the most airborne whale/dolphin in Belgium as he threw him off the tower and onto the pitches below…it was a glorious moment.

The award ceremony revealed that as a club Redbridge had come 13th, 12th and 11th this year, improving from the last and 3rd from last places of 2013. Hands shaken, poor French attempted, an appearance of Mexican Wolverine, and quite a bit of clapping at songs we didn’t understand later, we were in the cars on the way to the ferry to head home. Now on the way to the ferry, our car learnt 2 very important lessons,

Once you’ve attempted to learn the lyrics to ‘The very model of a modern major general’, you’ll still be able to repeat the 3 verses you learnt 3 days later (we must have got stage fright on the Friday evening)

And

When following another car, still make sure you’re keeping up with the directions you’ve been given, and make sure the person with the first class honours degree in geography isn’t given the directions (it’s ok though as we all got the ferry port in time to all get the early ferry)

On the ferry, it was time for the kangaroo court, and what a way to end the 2014 tour than to let every tour virgin graduate.

So that’s it diary, the end of another wicked weekend in Belgium, a weekend of hockey, socialising with club members you usually wouldn’t see on a Saturday, laughter and most importantly cherry beer and beer. As I put my pen down (aka stop typing) until next year’s tour (theme ideas – 90s, ‘when I grow up’, cartoon characters, the life of Beyonce) I’ll leave you with some of the highlights of this year’s tourers.

Adios,

Amy

Tour highlights for the tourers by the tourers:

Phil
Everyone getting home alive.
Having to explain to Max that left and right were still the same, despite being abroad.

Mea
Seeing everyone in their fancy dress.
Taking down an International Welsh player.

Tash
Joe religiously doing his press ups for every short corner.
Having Charlie join us on pitch during games.

Jolins
Being woken up by Mrs B with chocolate croissants.

Vicky
Spreading the game of Perudo.

Max
Telling everyone her ‘secret’ (which turned out to be a not so secret secret).

Meenal
Winning a game against kids (who were surprisingly good).
Phil scoring 2 goals.
Being the top of the human pyramid.

Pritpal
Not being a tour virgin, so he could chill and not be told what to do.

Danny
Putting Charlie at the top of the tower, making him the most airborne whale in Belgium.

Jess
The steak.
Mexican Wolverine.
Noah.

Ryan
Aaron’s Mexican accent.

Joe
The baby.

Lucy
Aaron wiping out in the smoke.

Ian
PG version – Hockey, fairplay and the spirit of good competition.
Real highlight – Danny getting his bum waxed with gaffer tape.

Elliot
Making everybody laugh.

Adam
Showing Matt how to umpire properly.
200 pints in an hour.

Ruth
Mexican Wolverine.
Joe in the bush.

Aaron
Konrad falling asleep in the shower.

Tom
‘Going big’ at everything.
Looking for Charlie in the dark with just a lighter.
White Sean Paul.

Konrad
Aaron.

Sean
‘Shuffle pains’ aka pains from excess dancing, and not pains from hockey.

Marc
Getting to play alongside Tom.