Greetings from Iceland!

It's been a while (almost a calendar year) since I even attempted to post something here.

That is my private shame. I had switched organizations, went back to the boys game for a brief respite... saw things hadn't changed, (I actually have two or three drafts about that experience that I never posted...) and quite honestly will never change.

Landed on my feet with my current team - had a very interesting year with that group of talented young women, got initiated and recruited to start a training branch for the Selects Hockey Group here in Canada (see website) and now one very long and rambling sentence later, find myself here in Iceland coaching a group of 96/97 young women in a tournament.

I'm not sure if my head is spinning from the sheer weight of all that has happened this past season or if the jet lag is really playing tricks on my mind and body.

It is 3:15 am GMT (11:15 pm EST) as I make this entry. Honestly - I could swear my watch said 6 am. I sit in front of my computer and type wondering how I am actually going to last through such a long day.

The agenda itself is a killer for the kids so, just think of yours truly limping along behind.

Iceland - Day 1:

We land in Reykjavik at 6 am local time (four hours difference for you keeping count!), get out luggage, pack onto a bus and head to the hotel. We are instructed to shove some breakfast into our faces as we are on a non-stop odyssey from here on in today. They were right.

We hit the ice at 10 am with a group of players I have never met and no nothing about. This should be fun. Nothing overwhelming, let's just get moving. Put them through some drills that will show what level their skill is. Not really a fair assessment as they are probably as stiff as I am.

They warm up and start to look better by the time I let them scrimmage for a few minutes at the end.

Then back to the hotel to (hopefully) check in... easier said than done. Some of us are successful, some not. That's unfortunate. Everyone seems in good spirits though.

The rest of the day is blur - a buffet lunch which included an a-la-carte choice of Horse Tenderloin - we chose the buffet for those wondering with pork, chicken, pasta and salad. There was this delicious Fish Stew as a side that was almost worth the price of admission.

Back to the bus... not quite, a couple of girls have wandered... track them down - then get on the bus and travel back to the hotel to finish checking in... then off to the Geothermal bathing pool. Outdoors in April in Iceland... sorry not this cowboy, not this time. I intend to survive this trip (if it kills me!).

Reykjavíkurs get very upset by dirty tourists in their nice, clean pools (for good reason - the city's pools are free of chemicals). To avoid causing huge offence, visitors must wash thoroughly without a swimsuit before hopping in.

Please note, these are girls, 13-14 years old, some from Canada, some from the US and the tradition and ritual took them by surprise... one player passed her story on quite dramatically which made it even more funny to me... Random, off-beat and often off-colour - that's me, they'll get to know that before long...

Tried a hot dog from a local stand outside the pool... it was good but certainly not like the street meat from home. Ah, good old Spyros and his "dollah-50" hot dogs... mmm mmm good!

Back to the hotel... lay down for 15 minutes... get up - back on the bus - back into town for a quick dinner and then thankfully - bed. The rest as they say is now history...

I had a good sleep (passed out) and thought I awoke refreshed... this is true, unfortunately it is at 2:30 am - not 6 like I thought... oh well why change the routine now? Breakfast is in 90 minutes, I am shaved, showered and ready to go...

Why isn't anyone else?