Gail Emms' Blog by Gail_Emms

Hello! Hope everyone has had a good week? I know last week I was writing about my health binge before Christmas starts, but I forgot about Halloween. Obviously I had to have lots of sweets and chocolate in the house for the trick or treaters knocking at the door, and maybe I went a little overboard...!! We had a few people knock - about 20 in total, but there was a lot left over and that is so annoying when you are making a mid-morning cuppa and there are Milky Ways just staring at you! I am resisting now, but I have had 3 days of eating chocolate and so I am a bit over it now. But then my mum's friend sent some Swiss cheese over from Geneva and I can't resist cheese, so that hasn't been good. Okay starting again this week!

I have been okay with the exercise though and I have been for some jogs with the dog, and I also got a chance to play hockey for Harpenden first team. I love hockey and really miss it, but it is really hard to commit when I work some weekends. I was able to play because I was free and the team were really short, so I grabbed the chance. We play at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield and we had a great match against Hertford. It was tough and very physical, but the girls at Harpenden have really improved this year, mainly down to the new coach Jane who has got them much fitter and so they are playing really well. I played up front and within 5 minutes I scored! How good is that?! And then we carried on the good work into the second half and then we got 2 more goals and I scored one of them! Woo hoo! So we won 3-0, Harpenden are top of the league and I scored 2 goals and got man of the match! Right... London 2012 here I come!

I am so happy to have played and done well, as I don't get the chance to play much so it is really nice to do well when I do. Problem is, I want to play more now and I have lots of work coming up on weekends! Damn! I am a little bit tired writing this as I had a bit of a late night the other night. I was up in Sheffield to be part of the "Question of Sport Live" experience! I did 2 shows in Sheffield last year and the tour went down really well, so they have done it again this year. I was on the show with regulars Sue, Matt and Phil and then guests, Michael Vaughan, James Toseland and Robbie Savage. Robbie is of course doing Strictly Come Dancing and I can confirm he is very spray tanned! He even took his top off in front of me and it is all over spray tan as well! He is really enjoying the experience, but he was a little stressed over the complaints about his hip thrust from the previous show, because he didn't intend to cause offence.

He showed me clips of his waltz that he was practicing and it was so good! Then Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell (who have both been on the show) started giving Robbie tips. So in the green room, before a sports show, with ex cricketers, rugby players and footballers, the talk was all about dancing and heel toe, toe, heel, toe, toe!! I was staring at amazement as the three of them were chatting away, pointing their feet and talking about arm holds, so I just sat back and had a beer! Bit of a gender role reversal maybe?!! Anyway, they snapped out of dancing mode and then the competition on stage began! I was on Phil's team with James Toseland (very gorgeous and so talented at music) and we stormed into a 6 point lead by the halfway point. Then it started to go a bit wrong.....! I don't really know what happened, but we didn't get the mystery guest, Phil lost the captain’s challenge and then Michael Vaughan was awesome at the buzzer round, so we lost! Damn.

Never mind, I will get my revenge next time! If you have tickets for one of the shows around the country, then you are in for a treat. Sue is fabulous as always and the banter is flying right from the start so you will have lots of fun. Last week I attended The Telegraph and Aviva School Sport Matters Awards, to show my continuing support for school sport. I judged the Female Student of the Year category which was awarded to weightlifter Zoe Smith and it was just a great celebration of school sport. James Cracknell, Iwan Thomas, Sally Gunnell and Lee Dixon were also there to show their support for school sport too. The students were so proud to be there and hopefully they had a really good time like I did. I will support school sport for a long time as I still believe there is so much more to be done and it needs to start being a regular on the curriculum along with geography and science etc.

We need to support our talented young athletes but also make participation in sport much more of a priority than it is. And finally, my ratings have gone up with my radio show "Road to 2012" on BBC 3 Counties and I am so chuffed with that. I am trying really hard and always learning, but the main thing is that I love it. I love talking about sport and of course the Olympics, so really I am in my element! Luke Ashmead produces the programme and he has been fantastic to work with and is guiding me all the way. He is challenging me to all the sports on the Olympic and Paralympic programme but he is losing badly and is in desperate need of some more points on the board! What can I say?! If you challenge me, prepare to get beat! See you next week!