Today (Sunday 5 July) we had our final get-together in the UK before we jet out to Israel on Tuesday. We met in a pub in Oakwood and Brad set some tasks for us to do about what we have learned from our training and our goals in Israel. I think by the end, excitement was really setting in and we all left on quite a high.

At the end of the meeting JoJo's dad arrived with a huge good luck banner with a massive picture of the team on it. If you go and watch the opening ceremony at The Village Hotel in Elstree on July 13, you will see it hanging from the rafters. Jo's dad can't make it out to Israel, so we won't be able to have the banner with us which is a shame, but what a lovely thing to do!

On Thursday we had our final training session at Rowley Lane. It was pretty hot still so it was good practice for Israel. Once again, the session was fun and useful and we left Barnet in good spirits.

Alongside our pitch, the Maccabi Lions were doing their first pre-season training session and as I watched them gasping and sweating their way through their programme, I was glad we are past all that gut-wrenching running and fitness training and are now just focusing on keeping healthy and playing games.

So that's it... all the UK preparation, which started 18 months ago, has been completed and that long journey is over. On Tuesday another one begins at 7.30am at Heathrow airport. It's going to be an incredible 18 days, we are determined to make the most of it and can't wait to get going.

Our first stop will be from our pre-camp in Jerusalem, so my next update will probably be on Wednesday.

L'hitraot!