Hello everyone,
I've had a busy few weeks with West Ham United and New Zealand. I've got used to all the travelling with my national team now, as I've been away a lot of times.
It can be physically and mentally demanding spending hours at airports and on planes, but it is all part of the job of being a national team player and, in my case, captain.
Obviously it would be best for the Club if I stayed here and it is tough, but you have to go away and come back and be professional and I've got no excuses for my performance against Manchester City because I was OK.
During the international break, we played a training match in Los Angeles, then travelled to Trinidad and Tobago for a friendly international. While we were there, we found out we would be playing Mexico next month in a two-legged Intercontinental Play-Off, with the winners going to next year's World Cup.
It's going to be difficult against Mexico because they've been to a lot of World Cups and we have only been to two, so it's not going to be easy. We're going to go there for the first leg and hopefully we can get a result, then take them back to New Zealand and do the business there.
Obviously Mexico will not be the same as they were before, but they are still going to be a good side and we're going to have to be up for it, give 110 per cent and see how far it takes us.
We play them at the Azteca Stadium, which is going to be good and exciting to play there, but the most important thing is for us to get to the World Cup. We play the first leg away from home, but we'll have to wait and see if that's an advantage. Either way, it's going to be tough.
My travel itinerary is pretty interesting! I fly from London to Los Angeles, then Los Angeles to Mexico City, back to Los Angeles, then to Auckland for the second leg in Wellington. On the way back, it's the reverse, flying from Auckland to Los Angeles and then on to London. I'll definitely get some Air Miles for all that!
Before that, we go to Swansea City on Sunday and they have got a good team and finished well last year. We've got to do better than we did against Manchester City and up our levels.
Looking back at last weekend, at the end of the day Manchester City were a better side than we were and we didn't play up to the same level as we did at Tottenham. They were simply better than us.
Every away game is tough but, to be fair, I think the boys have done well away from home this season and if we can keep those sort of performances up, we can take something away from Swansea. It will be tough, though, because they're a good side.
Swansea did really well to win the Capital One Cup last season and qualify for Europe, so credit to them. For us, we want to climb the league because our start hasn't been the best. Hopefully we can kick on in the next couple of games.
Swansea's manager Michael Laudrup is a legend back in Denmark, where I grew up. He's the biggest player they have ever had and he played for a lot of big clubs - Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Ajax - and did well for the national team as well, particularly at the 1986 World Cup.
He is always going to be a legend and there are a lot of Danes who follow Swansea because of him. I never tried to be him in the school playground, though, as I always stayed at the back as a defender!
I wish a safe and successful journey to the Hammers fans travelling to Swansea on Sunday and hope all of you have a great weekend.
Come on you Irons!
Reidy
