GUEST BLOG: GB beach volleyball player Shauna Mullin

By Shauna Mullin, GB beach volleyball player

SO THEY think this is glamorous! Our last two events of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - the most tropical/exotic on tour - involved disappointment, dodgy burgers, downpours and one very painful defeat by the Germans.

WHISTLE-STOP: Shauna Mullin (R) and beach volleyball partner Zara Dampney have been globetrotting of late

But my partner, Zara Dampney, and I will take all the lessons and fully intend to come out again fighting next year.

Our first event was in Sanya, China, which is mean to be the Hawaii of the East. 

The courts were set up right outside the hotel, next to the beach and rent-a-crowd were brought in so the atmosphere was electric, especially when playing against China. 

Due to our all-year-round ranking points we had a bye in the first round, and then beat Vanuatu in two sets, to qualify for the main draw.

That was great news and we could see that our hard work while training in Brisbane was paying off. 

Our first round match in the main draw was against Nystrom/Nystrom (Finland) who we have previously beaten, and although we had trained with them in Athens earlier in the year, we struggled to make many points against them and lost the match. 

Our second game was against a Ukrainian team, and was a good opportunity for a 17th or better finish, but it was very disappointing and we lost that match. 

On a more personal note, the food is always a hot topic for discussion, and since we've been focusing more attention on our nutrition, we planned ahead and packed lots of food before leaving Australia. 

However, the joys of eating suitcase and hotel food for six days, and sitting next to a people who used chopsticks to slurp up fried eggs - which believe me has to be seen to be believed - drove us out on our last night in search of Western food. 

This resulted in a bit of a dilemma when presented with the better option a ‘Sanya Burger' as to whether we really did want Western food.

We left China on Sunday around lunchtime and although there is only a one hour time difference, we didn't arrive at our last stop, Phuket, Thailand until midnight.  

We had a long lay over in Hong Kong, which wasn't that bad, but desperation was setting in to find some other type of food. 

We arrived into Phuket to thunderstorms (we are beginning to believe that this weather follows us around) but it couldn't dampen our excitement at being back in Thailand.  This is our favourite event on the tour.

On arrival at the hotel, we checked in, signed up for training and headed for bed. 

The joy of being on a sprung mattress after the wooden beds we had slept on in China meant a good night's sleep for everyone. 

The weather however was not looking great, and didn't really clear up for the next two days.   We trained in torrential downpours which didn't really affect us that much, but then the sun came out on game day.  

It was pretty hot, but due to our training in Brisbane we handled the heat well.  Our first round match was against Japan and we took the lessons we had learnt from our losses in Sanya into this match and played a solid side out game and picked up points in transition to take the match 2-0. 

Our opponents in the qualifying match were Germany, one of the better teams in the draw.  We played a first solid set and won 22-20, we knew this was going to be a battle. 

In the second set one of the German girls started bombing her jump serve, hitting all the lines, which gave their team the momentum. 

It was time for the battle to start in the third set.  We had a shaky start to the set but got back within two, but then struggled to make up those couple of points and lost the match 11-15 in the third. 

This loss really hurt and it was even more disappointing because we weren't going to get the opportunity to compete again until April 2011. 

We are back now in Brisbane for five weeks of training before heading to the UK for Christmas with our friends and families.  

I must say that though, when landing into Brisbane International Airport, I wished we had been landing at Heathrow, but we are now settling back in to our apartments in Broadbeach, and getting back into training. 

I know the next five weeks are going to fly and we are going to have the chance to strengthen our game, but roll on Christmas.