 On Friday afternoon the boys met up for lunch with their host families and they made their own pizzas. I heard that they made mostly chicken pizza with extra chicken toppings!! They all went off in pairs to experience English family life over the weekend. On Saturday they were taken to the London Eye. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the ride. The parents were trying to point out some of London’s more famous landmarks when Yemi asked Mark Burgess-Smith where Anfield was!! Yemi is a die-hard Liverpool fan, but unfortunately his eyesight is not good enough to see clearly for 200 miles. Yemi then continued to ask where all the other London premiership grounds were.
I heard from Tim and Rosie Lord that both Idris and Lawal got a chance to ride on their horses. Lawal, who has riding experience did very well and with a bit of advice from Rosie, managed to perfect his polo riding seat. Idris showed natural riding ability, amazing considering this was his first time.
On the Sunday we met the team at Adams Park to see the Wasps vs Harlequins game. We arrived there and had a tour of the ground where we got to see the first team changing rooms and treatment area as well as the corporate boxes. We walked onto the pitch and the boys did their Addax Hakka on the half way line. Goodness knows what Shaun Edwards thought of it as he lurked in the background preparing the pitch for the pre-match warm-up, I think he looked a bit scared!!
 The game was closely contested, Wasps narrowly winning by 29 points to 25. Ugo Monye, a London born Nigerian scored a breathtaking try from the wing which got the boys excited. During the interval the boys got through about 40 Mars bars to stay warm and Idris got through about 20 pieces of chicken!! It was great to see the Papplewick boys sharing their sweets with the Addax team. I don’t think they had ever tasted candy floss or flying saucers stuffed with sherbet. Nosa thought I was tricking him when I told him to eat one. I will never forget Benedict’s smile when he stood there with a large handful of pink candy floss.
After the game Tom Bunbury led us to meet James Haskell who chatted to the boys, signed their programmes and had his photo taken with them. We also met Mark Lambert, Harlequins’ injured prop, who kindly said he would come down with some of the team to support Addax play at Rosslyn Park the next day.
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