Bad Timing.

A few months ago I was congratulating myself on my fantastic planning abilities.

The scare stories commenting on how appalling London was going to be during the Olympics had led me to believe we were going to be in permanent lock down, with transport chaos and the world laughing at our silly little island in the North Sea crumbling under the pressure of holding a big event.

To this end, we decided to 'endure' the first week of events and then "get the hell out of Dodge", to enjoy a sunshine break.

This last week has been fantastic. My bum has barely moved from watching the games.
I've either been at events in person, sobbing in front of the television or enjoying one of the fantastic communal viewing areas dotted around the city.

Today we head off to Crete.
I've been looking forward to this trip for ages but somehow, now we are off, I really don't want to be leaving this Greatest City in the World.

We will be enjoying our plastic lasagne, eaten with plastic cutlery, served by women with plastic smiles as the 100 metres semi and final are taking place.

Doh!

It seems wrong.
Greek television had better be pretty good or I'm going to be using up ridiculous amounts of data over the next few days.

Yesterday will go down as one of the greatest days in British sport.
Six gold medals, (plus a couple of other near misses), was beyond the imagination of most of us.

Kids all over the country will be looking up online the details of their local rowing, running or cycling club.
Even as an old fart, I'm feeling inspired to get back to my fighting weight and play more of the sports I lived for only ten years ago.

One final thought.
I'd love it if a new generation of youngsters now looked up to our glorious athletes rather than those muppets from TOWIE and Big Brother.
That would be a success to me.

Has anybody seen ITV over the last week?
Didn't think so.

We were there ....

My own Olympic marathon in front of the television continues but my attendance at events has now ended.
My previous post mentioned our visit to the Gymnastics at nearby North Greenwich Arena.

On Monday, I met my niece Daisy at Victoria train station and then we headed over to the Olympic park at Stratford.
We sat out on the grass, watching the big screen and enjoying the atmosphere.

Daisy was most excited when BoJo strolled by.
Her scream and jump made him smile.
I was more impressed when Dame Kelly Holmes walked near us, waving at the adoring public who broke out into spontaneous applause.

We had tickets for the Women's Basketball and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

We saw Canada narrowly beat GB and then USA beat Angola.

On Tuesday, it was my nephew Jack's turn.
 I met him, again at Victoria, and we headed off for a boys day out, involving a ride on the cable car running over the Thames.

In the evening, we went over to Earls Court to see GB play Australia at Volleyball.
Despite the event being held at Earls Court, there seemed to be as many Brazilians as Aussies in attendance. (Brazil were playing in the game afterwards).

Great Britain were quite royally stuffed by Australia but we didn't care, it was just fun to be a part of the event.

The Greatest Show on Earth.

Last night we went to see the Gymnastics at the O2, (AKA North Greenwich Arena as O2 aren't one of the Olympic 'family' of sponsors.)

All I can say is it was a joy from beginning to end.

Living just around the corner, the subject of transport hadn't really been much of an issue.
However, we were most impressed with the free service offered direct to North Greenwich from outside Charlton station.

We had planned to catch the 161 bus from Woolwich Road but once we'd spotted there's a non stop Olympic shuttle to North Greenwich, we jumped on that instead.

My top tip to anyone who lives locally and needs to travel via North Greenwich, even if you aren't going to an Olympic event, is to use the shuttle as it's speedier than the regular buses and you don't have to use up any credit on your Oyster card.

The buses, all decked out in just the right shade of Olympic pink must have cost a fortune. We counted a fleet of at least 8.

Once through the airport style security, we ambled about, dodging the crowds and watched people spend a fortune on Olympic tat that is for sale without queuing, and much cheaper, in all our High Street supermarkets and Sports shops.

Something has happened to London.
People are smiling and wishing each other good cheer.

All the greeters, helpers, security personnel, TFL workers and food outlet staff are currently trying to out do each other over who can be the most amiable.
The crowds are good natured and very, very different to my usual football experiences.
I like it.

I'm not someone who knows much about gymnastics so I really appreciated all the films shown on the big screen, explaining what to look out for and how the scoring works.

I was amazed at the little rubber people and what they can do with their bodies.
I came away a big fan of Romanian Catalina Ponor.
At the age of 24 she's quite 'mature' for a gymnast but her work on the beam was incredible.

London knows how to put on a show and last night was no exception.

It's basketball for us tonight, over on the 'other' side of the river.
I've certainly caught the Olympic bug.