The Touraid Adventure begins

Saturday/Sunday 18/19 June

Ready for take off !!

The Lomas accompanied by their families arrived at Phuket International airport to be welcomed by Alan Cooke MBE the main sponsor of the Lomas Rugby youth program and the Phuket Gazette as they prepared to set off on their adventure. Dressed in their tour kit of T Shirts & hoodies co sponsored by the Aussie Bar photos were taken and good byes and hugs from the family given then off to departure lounge for the 1^st leg of the journey to BKK,s Suvanabhumbi airport then Etihad Airlines with a stopover in Abu Dhabi then straight on to Manchester.

All the kids having never flown before it was a slightly strange experience and some turbulence had them all a bit nervous. Once on the Etihad flight it didn’t take them long to become experienced travelers by mastering the use of the flight attendant call buttons and the in flight games & not much sleep was had as they ate the plane out of pot noodles & and beat all comers on the games console.

The 2.5 hour stop over in Abu Dhabi didn’t dampen their spirits and we met up with the South African Kids & Chester Williams who were traveling on the same flight.

Abu Dhabi Airport

Arriving in Manchester we were met by the Mayor of Manchester, Phil Clark of the RFU, Sue Whatmore from the Wright Robinson Sports college and Dan Gill of sponsor Allianze the Touraid liaison officer.

Manchester in the summer & the boys weren’t prepared for the scorching 11C temperatures and immediately delved into their bags for any warm clothing on hand. The novelty of seeing their breath had the boys asking the question “any chance of seeing some snow?” Manchester in the middle of summer anything is possible!!

Anyway into the coach & off to Wright Robinson Sports College where all the host parents & kids were waiting. A great scene as kids were paired of with smiling parents and kids to be taken home for some well earned rest.

Lomas meet host families

Monday 20^th June

All the kids went to the collage with their respective host and joined in with their normal school activity until meeting up with all the school students in the sports hall for a motivational speech by Craig Heap a double commonwealth gold medal winner & local Mancurian. The school had organized an Olympic opening ceremony with all the school taking part and representing different countries with the Lomas and their hosts representing Thailand.

In the afternoon the teams from South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago & Kulkuta arrived to join in a mini Olympic sporting activities and a great time was had by all.

As an end to the days activities the kids did an hour long break dancing lesson which was a great laugh for all concerned & a fantastic way to end what was an awesome 1^st day brilliantly organized by Sue, Sean and all the PE staff at Wright Robinson.

Tuesdays agenda is school lessons in the morning, press conference at Manchester town hall around lunch time then off for a tour of old Trafford football stadium

A great start to the tour and the kids have already made plenty of new friends