Scotland's most famous tennis mum blogs from Rome.  She is currently at a Tennis Europe 14U event with 4 Scottish junior players.

"Well it's been a day and a half. Seriously. Got to Rome late on Thursday night with four 12 year olds - so happy that Ryanair fly direct (and cheaply) from Prestwick  to Ciampino airport.

Going via London or Amsterdam is a major drag. Arrived on time at 21.30 and have to ask... Why is it that people start clapping when planes land? Isn't that what planes are supposed to do?

The taxi we had booked, didn't show and we had to squash five of us into a four seater in order to get to the hotel. That's one of the biggest drawbacks about travelling with a team of four kids. Taxis that can only take four passengers, because there's no way you will send any of the kids without adult accompaniment.

So that means pre-booking a bigger vehicle or wait forever for a 6 seater to show up. Been there, done that. Well, our driver clearly thought he was Jenson Button and got as high as 140 kmph on the way to the Hotel delle Muse which you won't be surprised to hear is the Museum Hotel. No, it's not modern.

The receptionist was apologising to me that my room was very small. No problemo, as they say over here. Except that it was actually a walk-in cupboard. I couldn't get my holdall in unless I turned it on its side. Literally a foot between single bed and wall. Nice. Well, not really. Lucky I'm not claustrophobic.

Grabbed another white knuckle cab to the 5 star Parco de Principei hotel after breakfast on Friday morning. That's the Masters Tournament hotel and Andy wanted to say Hi to the kids - Anna Brogan, Maia Lumsden, Vincent Gillespie and Ross Wilson - before he flew home. He came down to the foyer in the saddest hotel slipper things. Totally uncool.

The kids eyes were out on stalks watching the players coming and going and they managed to get autographs and a little chat with Rafa and Verdasco, as well as Djokos fitness trainer Milan and Alex Corretja. They saw Tsonga, Hanescu and Monaco too. Ok I had to tell them who the latter two were!

Just when they thought it couldn't get better, Andy said he'd ordered a tourney car to  take us to the Club Parioli and some tickets to watch the tennis in the afternoon. Marvellous.

The Club is outrageous. Over 20 red clay courts and a state of the art clubhouse with swimming pool, saunas, snooker rooms, restaurant and so much greenery. It's beautiful.

So nice that the women are preparing here for next weeks WTA event. We saw Ana Ivanovic strolling around the player area, watched Dementieva hit with Kudrayatseva and later saw Venus training with a hitter and her dad. I thought the kids would be gobsmacked by the size of her serve but their main talking point was actually the size of her bum. So funny.

After two hits and a lunch at the pasta buffet, the kids went to sign in, paid their entry fees, picked up the player goody bags and we went back to the hotel to change before white knuckleing again to the Foro Italico. Arrived in time to see Ferrer polish off Tsonga and then watched Rafa v Wawrinka. Tight match till 5-4 first set then our new best friend steam rollered the Swiss No. 2!

We were starving by that time, despite the box of crisps we bought from the vendors who climb through the aisles during play selling food and drinks. I liked that idea, it means you don't have to leave the match to get fed or watered. Had some dubious and expensive pizza on site before we joined a ridiculously long and unruly taxi queue where one older Italian gent asked me if I was "Murrays father" :). We were given ticket No. 117 and they were currently on 74. Groan. Made it to the front eventually only to be given the 4 passenger rule and we had to wait even longer until a bigger cab came around.

But it's not over yet. Back at the hotel, we checked the tourney website for the order of play for tomorrow, only to find that our 2 qualifiers were not in the draw.

I called the tourney desk and were told they hadn't signed in with the ref. Explained that they had paid entry, got goody bags etc etc. A major breakdown in communication between tourney desk who told us we didn't have to do anything else after paying entry fees. The only 2 people at the desk were the entry fee man (who we mistook for the ref) and the goody bag woman! The Tourney Director had introduced himself to us on court earlier in the day and knew we were all here.

So we have a problem, Houston. Tomorrow we have to go to the Club early to try and find a solution as the draw and schedule are made. Very disappointing end to a fabulous day. Fingers crossed we can sort something out."