After a long and tedious trip we finally reached our final destination Colombo, Sri Lanka only to be greeted by a tropical monsoon storm. It's the sort of rain that you need a sideways umbrella for as the wind blows quite prodigiously from the lateral side.

We have been here 3 days now and besides the one rainy day, it's very hot and humid, a lot like Durban X 2 in the mid of summer. I think the only pre-season training that can prepare you for this sort of weather is a sauna at the local health and racquet club. Pity we don't have an H&R here in Colombo so that we could have tapered off our acclimatization training.

On the plane trip over here, we passed the time with a few hands of rummy and thus I had to hand over half my first meal allowance straight from the manager to Mark Boucher. I'm sure he had a couple of aces "hidden" up his sleeves but to date I haven't managed to prove it. Perhaps we can incorporate the assistance of Judge King in this matter.

As the trip goes on I'm sure he will be found out. Watch out Bouch!

Tonight's fines meeting should be quite eventful as over the last 3 days the fellas have had to, (on the instructions of the social committee ala Rhodes & McKenzie) buy a member of the side an ill-suited tee shirt. A few have surfaced to-date with variations on size, from XXXL to XXXS, not to mention the gender variety as well. Nicky Boje took this instruction a bit more laterally and bought Roger Telemachus a 10-year olds matching pink hot pants and open-belly top. ...pink is my favourite colour!!!!

The spirit in the side is on a real high at the moment and atmosphere in the camp is quite relaxed and festive. This is really important on a tour like this, because of what has happened in the past and the fact that this is another sub-continent tour.

Our first practice was held at the SSC ground where the pitch was a little damp and played quite slowly. True to sub-continent conditions I've heard. Nevertheless, everyone got stuck in a good manner and got what they wanted out of it. The Pakistani's pitched up unannounced and wanted to share one of the 2 strips with us......clearly they had to wait and thus worked on their fielding. They were due to practice in Galle that day and our stand-in manager, "Dog-fight" Doug Russell, weighing in at a lithely 110kilos, wearing the green and yellow trunks, with skills honed from the streets of Johannesburg, came out victorious in the defense of us using the nets for our fully allotted 3 hours. Well done Doug!

The touch rugby encounter has yet again proved to be very fierce and competitive. Its been strange seeing Gary Kirsten with so much of the ball and striding out on the wing, testing the likes of Dave Terbrugge's and Nanty Hayward's defensive capabilities.

A few congrats are in order, Makhaya Ntini's fiancée is expecting any moment and......rumours have it.......Jacques Kallis is tying the knot........ or he's really under pressure to do so.

Lastly, howzit to all my mates, not to mention Jen and family. I'll detail all the coming highlights in a few days time again.

CYA, Bertie.