If the players go Christmas shopping, it's not ideal preparation. It may sound silly, but having to fight off the crowds in a busy shopping centre or having people visit can be demanding.
I can't go shopping like I did before I was famous. It has to be planned now. I can't walk around a shopping centre. Even when I have four security guards with me, shoppers run towards me. It's fun, but it's difficult when you're trying to get your bits.
I told you I try not to live in the past and nothing could change the fact that my mum was gone. But I’m a liar. The truth was, I’d had one dream ever since I was six: to see my mum again. To actually get to know her, talk to her, go shopping, do anything. Just be with her once so I could have a better memory to hold on to.
She was just my mum, end of story. She was just the mum that wakes up in the morning with a sleepy head, who helps you do your homework, picks you up from school, takes you shopping for books and socks, and cares for you when you're sick.
For a while, I didn't want to leave the house. Eventually, I just got sick of being indoors. Now I take steps not to be noticed when I don't want to be. For instance, I live near Westfield shopping centre, so I won't go there at the weekend.
Once I was in a shopping centre with some Western Sydney Wanderers boys and this kid came up to me and said, 'Hi I'm a Kuhlman, we have the same dad and my mum's got photos of you as a baby.' I was shocked, lost for words, really uncomfortable. I knew he'd had kids but no idea how many or age.
My little sister, the first thing she said was, 'Can we go shopping?' I said, 'Just because I am gay does not mean I want to go shopping!'
I don't think I really do go shopping. Somehow clothes just kind of end up in my closet. I do not like shopping; I'm not into it.
I wanted to be the best mum I could be. I just wanted the means to be able to help myself. And, luckily for me, I had a Sure Start centre and I had adult education I could go back into.
When I was switching around in my early stages, people underestimated how difficult it was just to go from playing centre midfield to right-back to centre-back to right-back to centre midfield.
My Mum was the main reason why I became a chef. She influenced all of my family to feel free in the kitchen - it was the centre of our home and I have wonderful memories of helping Mum cook and experiencing the love and patience that went into the food.
My dad got me my first pair of boots. It was a big occasion for us to go to the shopping centre. It was an exciting time to make sure you got the right ones.
The self is not only the centre but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of consciousness.
If you go into a shopping centre, there are phones and cameras everywhere, and if you're doing the wrong thing, ultimately you're going to get found out. So it's important you're living your life right, and that's hard for a young player.
When I was a kid and the carnival would come to the shopping centre, I'd go down and talk to all the people running the rides. I like that whole lifestyle, moving from town to town in a nomadic existence.
If I have free time, I want to go to the beach, walk around a shopping mall, go grocery shopping. Live a little bit of life.