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My Diary
by Gail Emms
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Monday 11th September
Aaarghhh!! My cold is really setting in now. Not the best timing - a week before the World Championships! Oh well. I've had to play with food poisoning before so a cold should be a doddle. Right.... had to call up and cancel a B&Q day for tomorrow. Sometimes, although I have to do a lot of PR things for my sponsors, my health and being fit for major championships come first.
Luckily B&Q are really good
people to do stuff for as they know what is important. I can re-arrange as well so not too much of a
problem. I just hate letting people
down. More vitamins for me then tonight!
Wednesday 12th September
Everyone is thinking about the World Championships now!! Can feel it in the training sessions as everyone gets more nervous and talking about who they have to play and who has got a good draw. I hate talking about events before I am even there. I know now that it is almost pointless worrying about who you have to play, who could win this, if you are expected to do well or anything like that, cos it all depends on that day, on the court and anything can happen.
The standard is pretty level now at the top
and it is pretty hard to predict results. It gets to the point of who has done that extra bit of research on the
opponents, who has the extra bit of experience and who is better psychologically. That is what it comes down to.
Look East have come to film me and Nathan in the training
session. It's the 4 mixed pairs who have
qualified for the Worlds (me and Nathan, Clarky and Donna, Rob and Nat, Kris
and Jenny) playing a mini tournament against each other. Nathan and I must play better when the
cameras are out cos we were brilliant! Shows how vain we are! Ha
ha! They came to my house too, to do an
"at home" interview and a bit that might be used on BBC Sports
Personality later in the year. Luckily I
know the Look East crew well now.
I think it is really important to have a good local media
relationship. I grew up in Bedford and
learnt to play badminton there, so it is important to be associated with your
home town for community spirit. It helps
that I still go back to Bedford a lot as my parents and friends are still in
the area and I only live 20 minutes away.
Had a massage. This may sound like a bliss day, but the massages hurt!! Things ache a lot and Kevin and Liz who do
our massages are evil!! I'm sure they
love trying to make us cry while doing their work.
Thursday 13th September
Went to see Robbie Williams!!! It was brilliant! Myself, my boyfriend Ed, Jo Nicholas and Donna went together to see him and we had golden circle tickets so we could go really near the front! We got there about 7pm and Basement Jaxx were on. They were really good too! They looked like they were having a laugh on stage and just really enjoying themselves. We were dancing around like mad people!
Robbie came on stage about 30 mins later. Jo knew every single word to every single song! Very impressed! Managed to persuade Ed to put me on his shoulders as I couldn't see very well (being only 5ft 3!) and it was amazing! I was about 15ft away from him and just looking around seeing all the crowd who had come to see him was awesome! He put on a really good show - and the finale when he sang "Angels" was spine tingling.
Then he flew off in his helicopter
Saturday 15th Septembe
We're off to Madrid! Adios!!
