Varese, Italy

I'm currently in Varese on training camp. Living the dream of afternoon coffees with Italian supermodels*.

*some or all of this statement may be false.

A few things have gone on while here -

• I turned 24 a week ago today. Sadly nothing too exciting went down, I had three session in my single scull and had happy birthday sung to me 5 times by the exact same group of people. I will always remember my 24th b'day though, as it was the first day I noticed I had a grey chest hair. I must be getting old!

• Training has been going well. I'm feeling much better than the last month and have been getting some good training done in my single. It means I've been in a boat on my own, which can be less exciting, but also gives me freedom to work on my things. It has been difficult to work technically on things as we have had quite strong rolling cross waves which has made things challenging, but I'm pretty happy with my base skill and looking to develop my efficiency and proficiency at closer to race pace.

• Today was the flattest and sunniest day we have had here - cold, wind and rain has been the forecast for the past two weeks. So there I was, part way through my session - enjoying some really good paddling - when crack, splash, bang. My oar randomly snaps in the middle of the lake - nowhere near anything, it 'crabs' (flips round) and throws my boat over. I'm then upside down, under the water trying to undo my feet. I get free and find part of my oar has sunk to the bottom. Thankfully I was out with others and there was a coach to pick me up and take me back to our boathouse. The other guys loved it, nothing like someone else's misfortune to cheer you up!

In a couple of weeks it is the first World Cup race of the season, sadly I won't be racing this time - but expect strong performances from all the GB boats.

You can follow me day to day on Twitter @nrod2012 - please feel free to ask questions or leave comments!