Well, it's been a while since I have arrived and a lot has happened obviously so I will do my best to recap it all for you

Took off from Cairns on Wednesday 4th October and the first day flew into Los Angeles
Our flight was delayed leaving there and as I told you all I had only thirty-five minutes to connect in Fort Worth Texas and needless to say we were late

I had two typical annoyingly loud American's beside me for three-and-a-half hours and they talked non-stop
Plus, I sat in the middle seat - one each side!!
That was the longest of all my flights and it was shorter than two of the other ones!!

We eventually arrived in Venezuela

I was a bit scared about going through customs with all my bats, laptop, equipment, etc
They asked what I was there for
Said baseball - and we went straight through everything and out into the wild west!!

Also, getting my bags who did I see - Tim McClaskey - remember him from my Florida Marlin days?

There were people trying to grab our bags and carry them and grab us and who knows!!
Met a guy who spoke broken English and he gave us to a man that spoke no English!!
The one who spoke a little said go with this guy and he will pick you up at 6.00am to catch your next flight
He was supposed to take us to the hotel right next to the airport
The drive consisted of no lights while driving at night in a lot of traffic (light bulbs are hard to come by) and the engine stalling five or six times and him just starting it up again

Ten minutes through dirty scary side streets to a hole-in-the-wall hotel!!
No alarm clock and only three or four television channels in English - and no real idea what was going to happen

Woke up and took my first no-hot-water shower - because they had none - and with no light except the living room
Then got ready to leave early

The guy actually showed up to get us
Then I saw my first machine gun of the trip!! - the guy was on security at the hotel
Then we went to the airport
We had no idea what was going on there
The guy from the night before was there again and he helped fleece us of a lot of money we think!!
In a place where I can get a biggie size happy meal for $4.00, he charged me $20.00 to wrap my bat bag in plastic
But what could we do - without him we would have been screwed so I let him get me - never again though

We boarded the plane and were at the end of the runway waiting to accelerate - and then the pilot turned the engines down and went back to the terminal
We got off with a lady that spoke English and she told us they couldn't fly because of low cloud
It was a forty five minute flight in bright sunshine - she told us they almost canceled it completely for cloud!! - there wasn't any!!
We all sat for an hour and then finally took off on the smoothest flight I had the whole time!! (so you can relax, Mum!!)

Landed in Barquisimeto (one hour from our place) and went to our car - a nice car for here if you know what I mean - and took off!!
Sat on about 160-170 kph for most of the ride in two lane traffic and in and out of lanes, overtaking everything!!
Scary
And they don't care for road rules here - in the bigger towns traffic lights matter - but in my town no-one cares at all and red lights are just recommendations!!
You hit your horn to tell everyone you are going through!!

The next day we had a 9.00am bus to play a 3.00pm training game
Afterwards we were heading to our owner's ranch for a team dinner
Got to the hotel at 11.00am and there was no reservation, and then there wasn't enough rooms anyway
We all went to the ranch to relax until the game - basically sat there for two hours and did nothing before we finally went to the game
Got there and the other team were pissed because they didn't have a hotel either and they didn't want to play
But they still came!!
So they pushed the game time back to 4.00pm to try and talk them into it
Then to 5.00pm, then to 7.00pm - and we finally started at 7:45 pm
We had played four innings and every light in the place went out - so we sat there for another hour!!
They finally got them going again and then they called the game off!! - Unreal!!

So went to our new hotel and there wasn't enough rooms so half of us stayed there and some went to another hotel and some to another to shower and get ready for dinner

Finally we headed back to the ranch
It's huge place - worth over a million US dollars!!
With armed guards with hand cannons everywhere, machine guns etc

We met our team owner - he is just a twenty-three year old kid who wanted a team so daddy bought it for him!!
He's actually pretty cool
He has four body guards rotating on a twenty-four hour basis

This ranch was paradise in the middle of no-where!!
A huge pool with outdoor areas, and a huge house with six bedrooms
It was awesome!! - really worth going to see!!

When we were there in the morning we saw dinner cooking
They had killed two cows and put the meat on long wooden sticks over a fire in the ground and it then cooks for eight hours in the heat
We had dinner about 11.00pm and it was the best meat ever!!
There was so much we all had about three or four plate fulls of just meat!!
Was really good food and the best I have had since I have been here

Went home about 1.00am and everyone was drunk
I still had jet lag and couldn't stay awake and finally got to sleep

I was woken up at 7.00am to go play another training game at 11.00am and we won that

Finally got home about 5.00pm that afternoon after the longest 'two-days-of waiting' ever!!

Had workouts the next two days in about fourty degree heat before we got on our bus to drive six hours from our place straight to the Stadium for our first game on Thursday 12th October against Leones
There was about fifteen thousand people there and it was nice to start against my old team in Caracas
I ended up 0-for-2 in my first two at-bats but did turn a huge double play '3-6-1' to get out of a bases loaded jam in the third innings
I then came up to bat with 2-on-and-2-out after we had just scored three runs and they brought in a lefty to face me
I hit a double off the leftfield wall to score two more!!
The next at-bat I singled to leftfield and then I doubled to rightfield in my last
So 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs-driven-in for my first game

Afterwards to had to go to the media room for an interview with about four cameras and fifteen reporters or so asking me about how nice it was to beat Caracas and how good I played against them

Only the first game but it was a good start!!

Played the next day and went 1-for-3 with a walk and had a rain delay in the eighth inning

I was so very hungry I had a pork sandwich
My downfall!!

That night it hit me on the drive home!!
I started getting hot and feeling like crap and with a four hour trip home it sucked
So cold, teeth chattering and miserable

I went to the field the next day and had a temperature of 102.6 - not too bad!!
Thankfully they let me go home and try to sleep

Had a crappy night's sleep and went back to the field again the next day and had a temperature of 100.4 and I thought I was getting better
I hadn't eaten anything in two days and couldn't drink anything and I was starting to get a little worried and so I asked for an IV drip
They sent me to the emergency room with the team doctor who spoke a little English
I was in a room with about ten different people separated by that little curtain and was on my own for an hour or so
Suddenly someone came in and put and IV in my arm - no gloves and some blood spilled - her and her friend laughed then and left!!
It finished in fourty-five minutes or so and I kept asking if I could leave now because I felt great
They said no but whether they even understood me I have no idea because I hadn't seen the doctor in two hours now and I had no idea of the questions they were asking me
So the guy that drove me there came in and shrugged his shoulders about leaving and they finally let me leave after waiting over two hours since the IV finished - I wanted to shoot them all!!

I went back to the hotel and someone brought me some drugs that the doctor had supplied I guess and that was it
Tried to nap in the afternoon and went to try and eat something after it
I felt great after the IV but about five hours later I started feeling like crap again after I had tried to eat a little

Then I was off to try and sleep again
I woke up about midnight lying on my back with the television on
I was as hot as all hell!! - it was really bad!!
I couldn't drink any water because I had trouble swallowing so I was sipping a little at a time
About twenty minutes after each sip I went to the toilet - I think throughout the night I went about twenty times - pure misery!!
I was so hot I had a two liter jug of cold water in my fridge and I poured a little over myself - it cooled me down and I went back to bed
This process went on for about nine hours until the bus left for the field again
I had ended up pouring the whole jug over me and getting into bed soaking wet to try and sleep
And as I said, it worked for about twenty minutes then I was up crapping and or getting sick again
It was the longest night of my life!!

Well, 9.00am finally came and I went to the field
They took my temperature again and it was still 101.5 - it had been over 100 for three straight days - fun fun fun!!

They took me to the hospital to have another IV drip
I had a trainer with me and he sat with me for about four hours while I had three of them and someone took some blood
Finally I was ready to leave
I was so sick, hot, cold and frustrated!! - I was about to snap!!
A doctor came and had a feel of my stomach and said I needed an ultrasound so I went in for that for about another two hours and the lady that did it spoke English
Her first opinion was my appendix needed to come out, so that was passed around to everyone and that was the opinion for a while
The team had the owner's private jet on stand-by to fly me to Caracas for surgery because they said I wouldn't make it to Australia safely
I was not a happy camper!!
I was thinking surgery in this place - shit!!
They took more blood samples and one of the doctors that drove an hour or two in to see me (we have powerful owners!!) said it wasn't my appendix and it was an infection that was eating at my intestinal track
Thank God, no surgery but I needed to stay overnight and get some, well a lot, of antibiotics into me
Problem was that out of the ten or so nurses I had seen only two used gloves
Some blood spilled on me, on her, and on the bed - everyone laughed!!
I wasn't liking life at all - you can imagine what I was thinking
All this happened all night and I couldn't sleep again
My trainer stayed with me in the hospital overnight - we had three channel television with no English, and a very tiny bed - but at least I had my own room
Trying to go to the toilet with IV's was hard and it happened about fifteen times
That was a long night too but a little better than the previous one

Woke up in the morning feeling a little better and they took me down for an MRI and things went pretty well I think
I had an armful of IV's and drugs and my day was starting to get a little better
My stomach starting not to hurt as much and they let me eat soup for my first meal I kept down in four days!!
Was crap soup but damn it tasted good!!

I felt good all afternoon and read a book all night and finally slept for most of the night for the first time in ages
Let me tell you, it was a really good feeling!!

The next morning they finally let me go home from the hospital

I sat around most of the day - didn't have to go to the game and ate a meal again and had a good nights sleep again - two in a row!!
Finally felt good enough to go to the game and I went and watched

They then let me stay home from the two day road trip to get some weight back - overall I had lost about ten kgs in four days!!

We have a game at home Sunday and then days off on Monday and Tuesday - so I should be ready to go on Wednesday 25th October assuming all goes well

Well, I hope I filled you all in on everything

I can't wait to get out there again and to play well the rest of the season - and then to get home and book into a nice fancy hotel room in the middle of Cairns for a week eating and sleeping!!

Bye