When I met up with the boys at Birmingham Airport it was good to see the grinning face of Matt Murray in their midst. Our luckless keeper has missed the last three pre-season tours through injury and although he won't be playing against Bohemians on Saturday, it was still great to have him around again.

His smile was even broader when Christophe Berra was foolish enough to open his travel bag in front of the other lads who spotted that he had included some hair straighteners in his luggage.

Otherwise it was a fairly quiet and uneventful wait for our flight to Dublin although the golf tournament that took place on a putting machine in the airport lounge was the source of both merriment and cursing.

The competition was won by Kevin Doyle who described the showing of Stephen Hunt as 'poor' as the recent signing came home in last place.

Then it was time to board the plane and, as some of you may remember, flying isn't my favourite mode of transport. I usually look for some support from my fellow passengers and after picking the short straw with Sylvan on the trip to Australia last year, this time I had another fellow nervous traveller sat next to me - Karl Henry.

True to form it turned out to be a bumpy flight and Karl decided to berate his Irish team-mates.

"That's three times that I've made this trip and it's always bumpy," he lamented.

The landing wasn't the smoothest either and one of the other new boys, Jelle Van Damme, commented that it was the worst he had experienced. By this time the Wolves skipper and I were gibbering wrecks.

All was not lost though for upon arrival at the team's hotel I was able to sooth the old nerves with some of the delicious black stuff with the creamy head. It certainly went down a lot smoother than the plane did!