There were many goodbyes to say over in Australia as this was the last stint I would be spending out there for a long time. Many of the guys I went to school with came and waved us off.

I only had a few days back home before I was off to Liverpool, in preparation for racing. It was great to see all the guys whilst training back at Hatfield.

They had organised a suprise before I went to Liverpool and decorated the pool in red white and blue for a short presentation to me and the other qualifier from our club, Adam Brown.

It was all relaxed and great fun. My coach Nick Juba presented us with gifts. Afterwoods we signed autographs and had pictures with the younger kids.

I was in a critical stage of my training whilst up in Liverpool and went into the meet tired. I did seven races over four days which is the most I've done in such a small time span but was still in full training, doing max effort swims in the days leading up to my events.

Despite this I was still able to pick up a silver and a bronze medal, in the 800m and 1500m freestyle respectively, behind the British No.1 Dave Davies who won in a British Record time.

Other positives included more signs of speed, doing best times in both the 100 and 200m freestyle.

Whist up in Liverpool I also participated in several Olympic team building exercises including ballroom dancing. We all had a partner and once we had learnt the dance, would move round the room practicing with each member of the team. I picked it up quite fast and believe that there may be an opening for me when I retire from swimming!

Following the completion of the meet I have returned home for a week to train at Hatfield with my coach Nick Juba. On Monday I went up to Birmingham to receive my Olympc kit.

They warned us that we would need a big car and weren't joking. I had a two hour fitting session and am looking forward to scrubbing-up, putting on the GB jacket and giving it my all.

Unfortunately news has been released that the Offshore Centre where I have been training for the last three years is due to be closed at the end of 2009. I was disappointed to hear this but will be moving on and taking the many memories with me.

I fly to Osaka (Japan) for the holding camp next week and from there we go on to Beijing.

Three weeks and counting

Richard