The Sevens tournament began today for us. The first day is generally a bit of a party day, although the whole tournament is to be fair. Besides the HSBC men's Sevens there are also veteran and ladies sides, kids tournaments, and Netball and Cricket ongoing throughout the weekend. You could enter a team up until a week before the tournament began I didn't go to the first day as the rest of the weekend was going to be really tough going. Si went to do a recce in advance of day two. I stayed at the hotel and chilled out on the balcony for the day preparing for the next two days.
The entry tickets are sent to your email and are then downloaded to an app as a QR code which is scanned at the entry. It also gives you access to all the info you need for the weekend. It's pretty effective when you have WiFi but not so much when you don't. Every competition is listed so you can quickly see what's on and where you need to be. The WiFi in the stadium is free but it's hit and miss. You can imagine that with thousands of people trying to log in to it it's going to be sporadic.
We were told a free bus runs to the Stadium in a short distance from the hotel. After walking for miles they did indeed find a bus depot/station, but they had drivers no idea what the gang were talking about. They then hopped on the metro to the centre and caught taxis.
The stadium is about half hour drive outside Dubai on good roads. It's a massive site as you would expect given all the things it has going on. It's very spread out and as a result there are lots of food and drink stands dotted about.
Jac Morgan, Captain of Wales was there watching his sister play and he had a chat with the gang once he realised they were Welsh. Si said he's a nice lad and really chatty. Course he is ...,He's Welsh. Duh! 🙄
Obviously I missed him but Si did send me a photo which pleased me no end. (Saddo)
There is generally a really good line up of music that is between games and continues on after all the matches are done until gone 2300hrs.
They caught one of they free buses back to the city centre and then took the metro to the stop nearest the hotel and walking the final bit.
I have no idea what time Si got in, but he had a smile on his face which is always good to see !!
Having done the recce of the site he thought we may encounter a few problems over the next few days, so potentially we would be winging it somewhat !
All relaxed and rejuvenated following my day, very much looking forward to the rugby this weekend.
Much love Flairey. X
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