9h00 – 11h30: The injured amongst our party have to wake early today and go with the physiotherapist to the gym, so I am lucky because my day starts a little later today as we do and it affords me to sleep a little longer, as we are allowed to have breakfast at leisure. My first job this morning as soon as I wake up is to check the Kaizer Chiefs website and have a look at how the first day of my diary looks on hard copy, I must say that I am impressed with the way the pictures came out and I really did not know that I have such an interesting life.

While I check my e-mails and read the soccer news from around the world my room mate Shaun Bartlett arises from his slumber and checks the big stories of the day from around the world with me. After surfing the net we head for Breakfast where some of the late comers amongst the team are still hanging about the dining room, I sit down with Thabo Mooki and we begin chatting about the most important issue on our minds at the moment which is Saturday’s Supa8 Cup Final against SuperSport United.

11h30 – 13h30: Our long journey around Durban begins now, as South African Airways sends a special Bus to collect us at our hotel, which is just outside of Durban and we head to SuperSport United’s lodgings which is located along Durban’s famous beach front. Our Buses travel in convey around Durban as it is raining we are unable to move about on an open top bus, which takes the fun out of things. Any way after our trip around town we head to the ABSA Stadium, to pick up the coach and some of the other guys who along with the SuperSport coach were attending a morning press conference.

Once they are on the bus we head out of the city towards Inanda for a social responsibility programme, along the way I hear from the guys who attended the press conference that Pitso is up to his old tricks of playing psychological games again. When I initially heard about Pitso’s mind games earlier in the week I thought that we needed to counter it, at the moment the guys are joking and laughing him off and discussing ways of giving him a taste of his own medicine.

13h30 – 14h30: As we leave Durban and head towards the Amadlethu Secondary School in Inanda, the land scape begins to change I do not mean the physical landscape but more the socio economic one. We enter a Durban that we rarely get the opportunity to see, one which is far removed from the beaches and five star hotels that come to the mid of many tourists who have visited the Kingdom of the Zulu when the name Durban is mentioned.

It is clear that Inanda is a socially marginalized community going there to add cheer and land encouragement to tomorrow’s leaders is really an honour, as we near the school the bus has to travel at a snails pace as people line the streets to greet us.

Once at the school which was attended by professional footballers the likes of Japhet Zwane and current Golden Arrows player Philane Shange we are greeted by a wall of sound as the learners of the school literally go wild. What was really heart warming for me on a personal level was when I was introduced by Thebe Mohatle to the school, and the cheer I received was only rivalled by the one Scara Ngobese got when he was introduced just before me.

I was really caught off side with the reception that we received at the school and in Inanda in general. I must add that on a personal note I did turn a lighter shade of tomato when the kids were cheering for me, some of the guys have not stopped letting me know that it was only the female learners who were cheering for me.

14h30 – 16h30: We get back to the hotel slightly behind schedule and we get to have lunch and get time to rest, in between I get to telephone home and speak for a while with my brother Ryan. He actually lives in the USA now after moving there a few years ago on a soccer scholarship, he has now decided to make a life for himself in San Francisco he has been in the country for the past couple of weeks but because of the number of games I have been playing with Chiefs and the national team I did not get to spend much time with him. He wanted a couple of Chiefs souvenirs to take back with him and we make arrangements for him to get them, as he will be flying out of the country early Friday morning.

16h30 – 18h00: We leave our hotel and head for training, as we do so the sky turns from a light shade of grey to a dark dull grey colour and when we do kick off with training it is in pouring rain. The rain subsides after a while and turns into a light drizzle and disappears all together, this afternoons training is more about limbering up and getting used to the humidity and the rain. The goalkeepers train on their own when the session begins, and it is good to see the progress Emile Baron has been making since his operation in May and he is looking sharp. The end of training about an hour and a half after we started is signalled by another down pour as we all rush to the safety of the bus and head back to the hotel.

18h00 – 23h00: After returning from training we have dinner and thereafter a team meeting to discuss various issues, on top of the agenda is tomorrow’s training schedule as the coach runs us through the two training sessions we will be having on Friday. The first of which will be in the morning and the second will be at 20h10 in the evening, which is the scheduled time for kick off for the Saturday’s final.

Our second training session on Friday will be behind closed doors at The ABSA Stadium and the first one will be elsewhere. We are given the rest of the evening off, but do have an eleven o’ clock curfew a number of the guys decide to head for the bed I opt to go with a group of guys to the Gate Way Shopping Centre in Umhlanga. After having a round of coffee with Shaun Bartlett and Ryan Wuest, we make our way back to the hotel and call it a night just before eleven o’ clock, Friday is going to be a hectic day with two lengthy training sessions planned so I best be ready.