Dumfries Day 5

Written by Cam Gaskell

Nothing like starting today with a 1 hour on ice session at 8am in 8 degree temp. After a really productive and successful session we then went to Edinburgh for the rest of the day starting at the castle car park we wandered the shops and then explored the sights of the Edinburgh Castle followed by a nice warm meal in a pub. Followed by returning home to our keys locked in our rooms , thank god for the spare key :)

Dumfries Day 4

Scotland – Day four (April fools!) Free morning this morning! The sun was shining (a rare occurrence!) and some of the team ventured into the city centre. Everything was so much cheaper than Australia; the one pound store was a dream and they weren't kidding when said a large latte!! After grabbing a quick subway lunch, we returned to the B&B for video analysis followed by a trek to the rink. Despite being extremely sore from yesterday's gruelling fitness session, we managed to push through the pain and pull out an amazing training session :) After dark we conducted a team meeting in room 7 to plot the traditional FOI April fools prank. We decided to completely vacate the house in hope of the coaches freaking out and sending out a search party. At 8pm, the team rugged up warm and snuck out the window of room 7 to hide just up the road. After waiting for what seemed like forever we sent our youngest skater, Courtney, back to the house to trigger a reaction. However, this did not quite work out the way we planned, so after taking many photos trying to pass the time, we assembled ourselves outside the house and sung the national anthem at the top of our lungs to get their attention. Our plan back fired as they were one step ahead of us; they had locked us outside!! When we finally were let back inside, we trooped back to our rooms and settled down until someone noticed one of their skates was missing. Before too long it was discovered that everybody had one skate was missing!!! They got us back good! After the boots were recovered from under Jo's bed, we collapsed on our beds to rest our bodies for the coming adventures of tomorrow. Love from Scotland, Jade and Blaise

Our Manor House in Dumfries

Dumfries Training Camp Day 3

So today was our 3rd day in Scotland and the temp was around 7 degress. In the morning Kristina Fritz took us on a really really really long run....we died lol. Then after we got back to the manor we changed out of our running clothes and got ready to go play put put :) when we got there we relised the place was made for 4 year olds... But as we are all 4 year olds at heart we decided to stay and ...play put put anyway. We divided ourselves into teams according to age and it turned out that we had loads of fun. After a fun day of put put we all headed back to the manor to watch our long program video and then of to training. Training was long and hard but in the end worth every bit of sweat and pain. I personally am having the best time in the world with you guys and hope this trip never ends xoxoxoxo Courtney