Anyway, it all got confirmed the other day. We fly out on December 27th and we'll be back on the afternoon of New Year's Eve. Given my fear of flying, I will probably either be a nervous wreck and in no fit state to party that night, or completely hyped and seriously ON IT!

I'm just a tiny bit anxious about going to Israel...it ain't exactly the safest place in the world. It was funny actually...when the woman first phoned me she said "the event is taking place in Tel Aviv" and before I could even say anything she blurted out "but it's really safe here!!".

I was checking out the Foreign Office advice on travelling to Israel. Obviously it says you should completely avoid Gaza and parts of the West Bank, but it also says there's a "high threat of terrorism" in Tel Aviv.

Nine people got killed in a bomb there last year...but, then again, 52 got killed in London on 7/7....I guess you can't live your life in fear....plus all the guys have been to Israel over the last year doing stuff for And1 UK - and they all loved it.

Tayo flying high in Israel last year

Now here's the biggest recent news - from January I'm going to be producing and presenting a weekly basketball programme for UKTV.

Going out on UKTV G2 (Sky 111, Telewest 125, NTL 830) on Sunday mornings (11am) the show will mainly focus on the Euroleague (which UKTV have bought the rights for).

It's a bit daunting, considering I've never followed European basketball...but I've been watching and studying it for a few weeks now and the level of play in Euroleague is SICK.

It's basically like the basketball version of Champions League - the best clubs from around Europe competing against each other. There's BARE ex-NBA and NCAA players in it. And there are mad highlights too - it's not all just skinny guys hitting threes!

There are a few UK guys reppin too - such as Andrew Sullivan, Andy Betts and Robert Archibald at Badalona and Nick George at Treviso. Hopefully we'll really be able to get British basketball fans into it.

But don't wait until January to find out. Sign up NOW at UKTVSLAM to watch live full games and highlight clips.

I'm also going to be doing some features on British basketball on the programme. If anyone has any bright ideas for stories we could do, hit me up.

In other news, me and former Hollyoaks star Luti Fagbenle played our much-anticipated 1 on 1 the other week. He wanted to play at Hendon, so we did...and I lost! 11-8, 11-8.

However, I ain't going down that easy. I want a rematch on my court (I was NOT happy with the ring at Hendon) and I'm pretty sure I'll beat him. I felt a bit guilty after the game though - I cracked Luti in the jaw with my head during one of the games and he came away with a fat, bleeding lip!

We've got a cool little feature coming up in the next few weeks. Nike sent Tayo over to New York on a special mission for SBUK a while ago. It was all part of a publicity campaign to mark the 25th anniversary of the legendary Air Force 1 sneaker. T met some current NBA players, some former stars and various other people and had a mad time. His diary should be deep.

Anyway, stay tuned for more news and updates...Streetball.co.uk has a busy year ahead of it!