ChengDu Aug 4th to 6th 2006; Back-ally hotels, intense alcoholism, KTV, cop shops, dancing on lorries, passing out, male on male lap dances and Limerick lassies lashin¡¯ out the love!...a few things off the top of my head that partially sum up our week end on tour.

So we arrived in ChengDu to a hotel that didn¡¯t exist and a deposit that had been back-handed to a delightfully tacky back street hotel, (Under Pete¡¯s regime this could never have occurred, things change so fast) none the less we dropped our bags and started the week ends real sport at the Shamrock bar

 After numerous trips to Shenzhen airport Ronan realizes he needs his passport and follows us on a few hours delayed, in the meantime Donald is in ball order with golden locks flailing in every which direction creating a sweaty ginger goddess type appearance. He played a blinder all week-end and even made an appearance on the pitch. Saturday¡¯s football was great¡­¡¯nuff said. We all got legless on Saturday sang our hearts out in KTV, Pete smooched and slick his way around the clubs, Sonia & Nubia as per usual ended up in the cop shop while some of us snoozed on various pieces of vacant floor available in the local clubs and KTV. On Sunday Niamh thinks she saw some Panda¡¯s, but unfortunately just as with the Great Wall¡­she can¡¯t quite remember.

All in all a great week-end and great craic with the Shanghai crew, who as ourselves are now concentrating on ¡°Focus¡± for the upcoming games!!

DJH

Saturday 29-Jul: More interested in the chance of being on TV than in football, last Saturday¡¯s Discovery Channel shoot at training attracted many former greats to once again lace up the boots and brave the wet pig-shit-filled pitch. Over two hours of mud-wrestling ensued with Discovery host (and HK movie legend) David Wu mixing it up with the Celts. Great performances from all Celts including a very theatrical Daniel, and Alex going down like a prom-queen-on-prom-night made for great entertainment and will be screened later this year¡­¡­. The evening continued at the SZC Headquarters (3D) which saw a half naked foot-loose dance exhibition from the G man.

Wednesday 2-Aug: After the dizzying heights of last week¡¯s turn-out, we were brought crashing back down to earth with last nights mid-week turn out of (ahem) 5!! Mid-week training is temporarily cancelled and will resume towards end of month.

Friday 4-Aug:Back on the road as of this weekend, it should be great craic, even if Darragh is going!!

Wingman