YOU'LL NOT SEE NOTHING LIKE THE MIGHTY QUINN.

It is sometimes a challenge to keep up to date with this blog, especially when travelling. I might refer to Wifi access, a lack of sensible amounts of electricity coming out the walls, a lack of ideas, too many foreign attractions deflecting me such as Chinese New Year. But today, having published the Ashbourne game late, I found an abundance of ideas in Hong Kong especially at Stanley Bay and in the Daily Mail at the airport (Business Lounge, naturally).

We went to Stanley Bay today with good friends who live in the region. While the ladies shopped, the chaps spent some HK dollars in the Smugglers' Inn, (actually I didn't, Gerrit paid), a British pub overlooking the sandy beach and calm sea. There were plenty of healthy snacks, such as potatoes and tomatoes in liquid form, loaded with vitamin C and to fulfil the five a day requirement we had health giving lagery beer. It looked as though a few ex-pats frequented the pub and there was a photo of their football team on show, a bunch of lads who must have done something special at a recent Phuket FC Tournament. Sounds a bit like a jolly pre-season tour to me! 

Outside the pub my travelling partner claims he saw Nial Quinn taking in a view of the bay. He said it was, I wasn't sure, but "Niall" was a big lad and had bandy legs, so he could well have been a old footballer or just suffering with rickets. "Niall" was too big to sidle up to and politely ask if he was the famous Irish hero.

As coincidences go, Martin Samuel writes today in the Daily Mail that with only 0.73% of the Chinese population speaking English, our pioneer footballers, thinking that they might join the rapidly growing Chinese League, may have communication issues. Mind you, since football is a universal language the lads might let their feet do the talking. 

Not all the Super League clubs are based in the well known and attractive cities, if you can call Beijing's pollution attractive. Chingqing Lifan have only been in existence under this name since 1995. They play way out south-west in Sichuan province which is hardly the centre of the universe. The climate there is not conducive to tiki taka and there is not a lot to do for a young player, making his way in the sport. The Lifan group make motorcycles but two wheels are not much help with thousands of miles to travel to fixtures.

With many hours a day of spare time to kill and sometimes a full day or more, boredom could be a problem. Travelling to away matches, to Chingqing or Yanbian Fude in Yanji, another small city in the north of the country, will certainly eat up the hours, but such journeys are exhausting, as I am finding out. Now where's the Prosecco?