After packing and repacking to make sure that all my creature comforts were well stocked in my bag, I was ready to vacate the nest and start the much-anticipated journey from Perth to London.

A respectable time of 1pm saw the Australian Women’s Hockey Team gather at the Perth airport surrounded by sponsors and friends, all congregating to send us off in a fashionable style. The journey on the plane was smooth sailing and I even managed to walk away from the flight with reasonably sized ankles, compared to the cankles (chubby ankles) that usually ensue from a days flying.

Our trip to the village took some time thanks to London traffic, and the slight detour through the village and out again by our lost bus driver. With some persistence, double security checks and quality back seat driving we arrived at the Olympic Village at 8:30am.
In order to prevent the group of over tired girls sneaking off for a quick nap, there was a vaste array of events scheduled to keep us deliriously awake.

In true athlete fashion we followed our noses directly from the drop off point to the food hall. Thankfully we are only staying in the village for 2 weeks as with so much delicious food on offer, I don’t know how much I can restrain myself from devouring everything on offer.

After a quick bite, it was onto what many of the girls had been looking forward to most …..uniforms! With two full bags of Adidas clothing we were in every womans dream with free clothing coming out of our ears. Favourite items included the preppy walkout blazer and old school Dunlop volleys.

Food Hall – Slightly empty (not for long)

Post uniform fitting it was time to settle into the our apartments that we would call home for the next 2 weeks. Located near the transport, dining room and shopping centre we were happy with the Australian Building location.

The Australian Olympic Comission had gone to town decorating the building with flags, letters from home and 3 random emu statues. Such passion and effort into making the accommodation an Aussie mecca, certainly made me proud to belong to such a great sporting nation. 2 apartments were allocated to the women’s hockey team with 8 athletes per apartment (4 rooms of 2 people). I am fortunate to be rooming with the ever mischievous Georgia Nanscawen who immediately draped the Aussie Flag across the wall to commence the unpacking proceedings.

Olympic room and bed spread

A light training on the Olympic pitch that night completed a very long first day. Although it was difficult to get the body moving after a long flight, it assisted in ensuring that we were physically ready to train hard the following morning.

Although we have been training, eating and sleeping the majority of time since being here, we have managed to fit in a few extra curricular activities. Our room has decided to bond over the frustrating yet highly addictive activity of puzzling. Armed with a one thousand piece jigsaw puzzle of Sydney Harbour, we have put in a good innings over the last 3 days to complete it. It has bought out our competitive nature and we really are struggling to go to bed with ‘just one more piece’ mentality featuring heavily in our psyche. Fortunately after a trip to the souvenir shop we were able to locate a new puzzle of the Olympic Stadium to move onto for our next challenge.

Something to pass the time

Finally today we took the Olympic Pitch for our first hit out (practice game) vs the locals Great Britain. Full of beans and excited to play after a few days training it was a good first game by the team. A 2 nil win over quality opposition was a good way to start the campaign and something to build on over the next few trainings. Sporting heros and local legends Layne Beachley and Laurie Lawrence were there to cheer us on also.

Post practice game photo on the Olympic Pitch

Next up for the team is a trip to Kent for some relaxation time before really commencing our Olympic campaign. By the time we get back I have my fingers crossed that more athletes have arrived to the village for some more star spotting. Much to our disappointment we have been informed that Rodger Federer will not be staying in the village and Rafael Nadal has had to pull out . After having breakfast with Steve Waugh the other morning (as you do), it has hit home that this is going to be an unique and surreal experience.

This post originally appeared on ashleighnelson.org