We arrived in Matale and set about calling Buddhi's uncle. We tried to use the local phones but that didn't work so I bit the bullet and did what I had dreaded - calling him using my (British) phone, at 1.50 pounds a minute. It was worth the sacrifice as he collected us 5 minutes later. It was great to see a familiar face - with the myriad of different Diases we weren't sure who would be picking us up but it was Buddhi's uncle Thathinda from Colombo, who had been so welcoming to us last time. 'Are you hungry?' 'Yes!' 'Okay, lets go'. He whisked us off to a restaurant where we had some rice and curry (surprisingly!). It was delicious, and I was charmed when he said 'One of you likes spicy food' - always nice to be remembered! We finished, or almost finished, our mounds of rice and were absolutely stuffed when his uncle said 'What do you want for desert...come on, its my treat.' The return of the Sri Lankan hospitality. Though reluctant, we got talked into having some ice cream 'as a means of aiding digestion'.

Having finished, we drove round to the school, St Thomas's. When we got there, the security guard didn't know who we were, saying it was his first day. Buddhi's uncle said 'I am the principle' and we were let straight through. Lad. We met the Vice Principal and the PE teacher, the Principal being out of Matale. Both were friendly, though the Vice Principal was the more talkative. It was funny to hear them all converse in Sinhalese, especially when the odd English phrase cropped up. My favourite was da da daa da da 'no hard and fast rules' da da da. Really reminded us of the Harry Enfield/Paul Whitehouse sketch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmX4puDgTlg&feature=related)

We were shocked to head that the kids had been told that we were 'International football coaches' and that we were expected to have routines prepared. Especially as Tom didn't even have shoes. Afterwards, Buddhi's uncle helped us sort out accomodation. He said that we could stay in the annex of the family house, but it would be quite a long walk every day - perhaps we would like to see some of the nearby guesthouses. He took us to one, the owner took about 10 minutes to come out and then charged a ridiculous price for an average room (3500 rupees) when the place was empty and we were going to spend 12 nights there. Afterwards we chatted to Buddhi's Uncle, trying to say that we wanted to stay at the family house - as long as it was no problem for them. That was fine by him and we drove back to the house, picking up some essential supplies (tea, ginger biscuits, bog roll) on the way.

We were told not to leave food out or wild animals would get it. We weren't sure whether he was joking, but the next morning we found that something had eaten half our butter. 1-0 them. The last tennants had left the place in a rather shoddy state, so we got to work clearing it up. By the time we had finished it was hospitable and cosy - a real home from home. After 2 months travelling from place to place it was nice to have a place to call ours, even for a short time.

Buddhi's uncle took us down to the food shack at the end of the road so we could meet the locals. He introduced us to a couple of people, both of whose names we are still unsure of - I think they were called Upthala and Salman. Upthala remembered us from last year when we had climbed to the temple overlooking the house. He spoke good English and seemed friendly. Next, Thusitha (Buddhi's Uncle) took us to the next shop along a mini minimart. He chatted to the worker in Sinhalese and told us 'If you need anything, they might even give it to you for free'. I noticed he didn't say it in Sinhala. Before leaving Thusitha stayed to chat for a bit and told us a story from his time in Scandinavia (he got his PhD in Sweden). Apparently the Swedes are very reserved, hard to get talking. Hard like trying to get a girlfriend in Sri Lanka. He said that even if they have a share bag of sweets, they wouldn't offer them round. However, if you become friends with a Swede, then you're friends for life. He said that the Danes are the total opposite. If you are standing in a queue, they will strike up a conversation with you and offer you whatever they have. Usually a beer. At 11am. I'm sure this isn't totally true, but he told it well and we didn't have any complaints.

After he went we played our Vietnamese card game for a while and Tom had some cheese and crackers but wasn't a fan of the 'Happy Cow' cheese we had bought. We wrote for a bit before heading to bed.

We woke up fairly early and dozed for a while but couldn't get back to sleep - the workmen were in. Tom had been up since 6.30. The water delivery hadn't arrived so we couldn't shower. Instead, we had a cup of tea and some ginger nuts and headed out. The walk to town took just under 30 minutes, less than we had expected and we bought some gear for the training (football shirts, trainers for tom and a football) before getting some lunch. We had byriani again and chatted to the owner, who was pleased to try his English. He had lived in Hong Kong for a long time and had only been back in Matale for 6 months; he said Sri Lanka was really dirty and couldn't wait to go back!

We got to school at 1, our allotted time, where we were stopped by the entrance gate. We had to argue with one of the teachers for ages to let us in, at one point he started saying 'you are wasting your time' but we kept on saying we were there to see the vice principle and after the tenth time he relented. We saw the sports teacher and went to his office, he told us to run drills for 'heading, ball control, inside pass and outside pass'. We scrambled to think of drills and went out. There weren't as many kids as we expected, thankfully only 25 rather than the 60 we werepredicted. They were of varying age and ability, with a couple of really talented players and a few that struggled to kick a ball. Tom ran the warm up, I got everything ready for the first drill and we were flying. The session went really well and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

After we finished, we stopped to chat with the Vice Principle and the P.E. teacher. All very friendly, though conversation was slightly strained. Another P.E. teacher came over, asked us if we had heard of an Ann Pope, an Olympic organisor or something. Had never heard of her, asked him if he knew her and he repeated his original question. Tricky. The school's former Sports Captain came over and we chatted. He was No.2 at Javelin in the whole of Sri Lanka. 'How far can you throw the Javelin?' '69.70 metres' 'Oh, Tom can throw it 71' 'Really' 'Nope, I couldn't throw it 2 metres!'