Dear Diary, because training was pushed back to 5pm today I ended up sleeping until about 9:30am. I try and look for about 9-10 hours sleep a night – especially when we’re training hard – otherwise I get a bit tired.

I’m rooming with Luke McAlister this week and because the Auckland guys can stay at home he’s been with his family and I’ve had the room to myself.

Luke and I are around the same age and we played against each other in age-grade rep teams and played together in the same Colts team, where we both juggled in and out of first-five.

Breakfast consisted of a plate of fruit and a couple of poached eggs on toast followed by a pineapple juice. I’m lucky that I can eat whatever I want and not put on too much weight. I used to eat a lot of take-away food but I have cut right back on that sort of stuff.

After breakfast I checked my emails and it was pretty light – only the one and that wasn’t very interesting. I then answered a couple of text messages.

I love my phone and love texting – it’s what I do if I get bored – send texts out to my mates and girlfriend.

With phone calls I never answer a call if I don’t recognise the number; if it’s important they will leave a message and a few players are like that. You wouldn’t believe some of the people who get hold of our numbers and think it’s a bit of a joke to ring through and it can get pretty annoying at times.

I’ve had to change my number a couple of times and it’s a bit of a hassle, but there’s nothing else to do if the wrong people get hold of your number.

I shot back to my room and showered and dressed up for a photo shoot for Fashion Quarterly magazine.

It went well and it only took about half an hour. I’m a pretty cheerful sort of guy so my standard look is to chuck out a cheeky grin but it was more of a serious shoot today so I went for the semi-Zoolander look.

Personally I think that Mils Muliaina with his new hairdo or Jimmy Cowan would look good on a magazine cover.

Sarah Tetro from 62 Models looked after me and I was quite hungry after the shoot so we grabbed some Japanese afterwards and then headed to Newmarket.

I checked out a few new clothes shops that have opened – no purchases though, I think I’ll wait for the summer collection to come in.

I wasn’t recognised much in Newmarket, maybe because I was wearing a hoody. I tend to dress in what I feel comfortable with and while I might I hold my head down a little more than I normally would, I don’t go out of my way to avoid being recognised in public.

I then had a short meeting with my agent and we talked about projects in the future and had a general catch-up because I was in Auckland. I’m not a person for small details because I trust the people around me to keep me informed with what I need to know.

After that – yip – I was hungry again so I found a tin of spaghetti in the team room and took some bread back to my room and cooked up spaghetti on toast.

Training was at 5pm today at Eden Park, where we are playing the Wallabies this weekend. I’m marking Steve Larkham again and he’s a guy I hugely respect.

They will come out all guns blazing after losing the first two games but we’ve been given a licence to throw the ball around so it’s going to be a good spectacle and something I’m really looking forward to.

One part of the game I love is tackling, and that’s because I was always the smallest in the teams I played in growing up. If I didn’t bar up in the tackle they would just run over me so that’s where it all started. Tackling is a big part of today’s game no matter which position you play.

I finished the day with dinner and had a think about what I’m going to do after the Philips Tri Nations. I’m shooting to Rarotonga with my partner for 10 days and then have a bit more time off. I finally got to bed around 11pm.

Cheers guys, DC