Dani Parejo Updates His Blog: Loving London - Weather Excepted; Still Adjusting to English Championship Football

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Dani Parejo Blog/ GuillemBalague.com - An elevator, a cup win and even more rain

My blog this week comes all the way from Spain. I'm currently on international duty with the Spanish U21's down in Murcia.

I didn’t play at the weekend but its still great to be with the squad, Spanish football is on a bit of a high at the moment and the talent - even amongst this group of younger players - is just incredible. I must admit as well that its good to back in Spain for a while and amongst some of my old mates.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm settling in well in London and absolutely loving the City, it's one of the best places in the world. Apart from the weather. I know I went on about the weather last time, but I've been in England for four months and it hasn't stopped raining yet. Although I hear the sun came out as soon as I arrived in Spain the other day. Typical.

I've not been missing home though as I've had lots of mates over from Spain since I've been in London, my cousin has been staying with me for a couple of weeks, my sister is coming over to learn English soon and my parents are with me the whole time.

I haven't spent all that much time at our new house in Brentford as - when I've been in London - we've been doing lots of stuff in the City, visiting the tourist attractions and showing my mates around. My cousin isn't going to forget his trip to London in a hurry after we went to a drinks thing at QPR one night. A word of advice, when the person operating the elevator tells you that the it has a maximum capacity of 10 persons, it's probably best to listen to them. We spent 15 minutes trapped in a lift with 13 people and while we got out alright in the end, my cousin and I lost a few kilos in the process, it was like a sauna!

At QPR the league results have gone against us since my last post, we've gone three games without a win, but we'll bounce back I'm sure. We're not playing badly so everyone remains confident and we're due a win in the league, starting against Nottingham Forest this weekend. However, we had a great win in the Carling Cup and beat Aston Villa 1-0 up in Birmingham. That has set us up with a massive game in the next round up at Manchester United, which I'm obviously really looking forward to playing in.

I haven't been to see a Premiership match yet, but I'm good mates with Fernando Torres and he's told me all about what it's like at Liverpool, he loves it. He been going on about the incredible support at Anfield and the way the fans live for their team up there. I'm hoping to see the game against Atletico Madrid if I get the chance, that's going to be something special.

I'm fairly pleased with how its going for me personally, I'm doing my best to learn the ropes here and to give my all for the team. I started out as an attacking midfielder , as someone who likes to play behind the strikers, but I'm developing my game in the centre of midfield as well and have been playing in both positions for QPR.

I haven't scored yet, which is disappointing for me as I'm a midfielder who likes to get on the score sheet: I scored 8 or 9 goals last season, as I do most seasons, so I'm aiming to help out with at least that many for QPR. I'm not putting myself under any pressure though as I have had around 7 or 8 assists so far this season - including the ball for Damion's header to give us the win against Aston Villa in the Cup.

I'm still adjusting to the football played here. It's almost a completely different game to the football played in Spain, it's so much more physical and I'm having to adapt to spending a lot of time battling for the second ball. It is a fantastic experience for me and I'm learning a lot as a footballer and developing another side to my game. I have always been known for my touch and technique, but playing here is forcing me to develop a more physical side - as well as teaching me a lot about hard work and a more aggressive, committed way of playing.

I'm learning about what it means to give everything for the team and to get stuck in, to not let your head drop out there on the pitch. It's an experience that is going to improve me and my time here is going to make me a much better all round player. Guillembalague.com


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