Aug 12, 2012 - A final Olympic hoorah

Tonight most of us from the Essex Olympic village have decamped to a Holiday Inn near Heathrow. We will gather to watch the Closing Ceremony tonight in a bar downstairs and then we leave for Italy early tomorrow morning. Big night yesterday where we went to the women’s basketball medal matches (well some of us did, the others got waylaid at a bar after the bronze medal match). We went to an extremely westernised Chinese buffet for dinner at the Millennium Dome (as I insist on calling it). Unfortunately I got food poisoning so while the...

Aug 11, 2012 - Best of British

Today is our last day at the games - medal matches for the women's basketball. There was a lot of talk when we arrived that the British people were really negative about the whole Olympics and not going to get into the spirit of the thing, so I've posted some photos gathered along the way that give an idea about how into the games the public have been. The British people have really enjoyed hosting the games and have got right into it. Doing so well obviously hasn't hurt either. Yesterday we went to Oxford and caught up with Sue and David...

Aug 10, 2012 - Dos and Don'ts

Have been to a couple of 'dos' over the last couple of days. One for a Bulleen Boomer sponsor and then yesterday we went to GB house (each country has a place for their team - the Kiwi one had the police called the other day as their BBQ caught on fire LOL). This was an impressive place. It overlooks Olympic Park and you can see the Police snipers on the adjoining roof (took a photo of that). We went for a drinks and nibbles party from 12pm-3pm. However after drinking and chatting to all the GB people we moved into the main room and ended...

Aug 7, 2012 - Becca and Tom

Last time I was here I nannied (is that a word?), for a family in Oxford. I have kept in touch over the years and Becca who was 9 when I was with them, spent time with me during her gap year when she was 19. She has now just turned 30 and I caught up with her and her fiance Henry at Olympic park last Sunday. As Becca noted, we catch up about every 10 years. Can't tell you how lovely it is to see her each time we do catch up. When she came to Australia I introduced her to Margaritas which she had told Henry about. When she was little I made...

Aug 4, 2012 - 'ello 'arry

This is really just for fans like me. I recognised the bridge when we were on the cruise and Kings Cross station has a set up for photos permanently in place. Other than that we went to Warner Bros studios near Watford and went on the Harry Potter tour. If you are a fan (even only sort of), you have to go to this place. It is chock full of the actual props, sets and costumes from the 7 movies over a 10 year period. They have filled 2 huge sound studios with just all sorts of 'stuff' I took a lot of photos (more than of anything else to date...

Aug 4, 2012 - The state of play

The GB vs France game last night was by far the game of the tournament to date. It was so exciting and so disappointing that GB lost by 3 points in overtime. Bloody French captain shot 2 x 3 pointers for the entire game - 1 for the draw to take it to overtime, and the second one 2 seconds before the end of overtime for the win! Who does that??? Another late get together with the GB staff after the game. Earlier in the day we attended the Opals v Russia game and saw the dunk! Liz said she just saw the gap open up in front of her and just did...

Aug 3, 2012 - Its a marathon, not a sprint

I had to ask what we did over the last few days - something along these lines... Been to Olympic park every second day - GB girls going great despite not winning. They are a bit of a revelation in this country, and it feels like GB is starting to go "ooh look over there". Opals - well, lets hope they continue to improve on their teamwork (say no more!). Been to Mexican with a group of GB basketball & Opals coaching staff. Chris Spice is the Manager of GB - if you are into hockey you should know his name (that was for you Bergs). He was a...

Jul 31, 2012 - Well.... didn't see that coming

First of all, a couple of nights ago we went to a ‘friends & family of Australian basketball’ function in a pub in London somewhere. It was for both the boomers and opals but no players attended. It was a nice idea and good crowd. Hilarious when one of the boys fell completely asleep in the window leaning up against a blow up kangaroo. Just about everyone took a photo and I suspect it may be on Facebook by this stage. Someone had the bright idea of writing name badges for everyone to help the meet and greet, however they decided to put...

Jul 29, 2012 - First day at Olympic Park

In case you are wondering, this is the vital information everyone here wants to know. It's a walk of only 5-10 minutes from the Stratford Railway to the security area, then its pretty quick going thru' security - they aren't being too overzealous which usually happens in the early days until they sort things out. All good so far, just need to walk from the front entrance to the basketball arena - holy hell! Its a solid 30 minute walk once you are inside just to get to the basketball. This place is BIG. I have been to the Olympic parks in...

Jul 28, 2012 - Frankly this is all about food

This won't be the last entry only about food - just so you know. Went to lunch at Ottolenghi's in Islington. You can't book and there can be long queues to wait. We got there for a late lunch so only had to wait about 5-10 mins max. However, even a long wait would have been worth it. We shared our meals and so got to taste 6 different salads and 3 mains and absolutely all of it was divine. Such a small place, but absolutely confident in the quality of its produce and cooking. We have also been to a place I found on a blog, called Sketch....

Jul 27, 2012 - London before the games

Have been touristing for the last few days. Its been magic weather and the parks are full of vitamin D starved Londoners. Its been a little bit funny listening to all the comments about "the heat". Must say that the trains are a trial but only because none of them are air conditioned and there are a lot of bodies crammed into a small space. Went to the concert at Hyde park last night - don't know who any of the acts were but it was really good fun. One of those outdoor concerts where people of all ages go and just enjoy themselves. Stayed...

Jul 24, 2012 - "friendly" last night

Went to see a pre- olympic 'friendly' between GB and Russia last night. I'm not saying it wasn't friendly, only that there are a few more definitions of this term than I was aware of. All I'm saying is that there were more elbows than in a Jackie Chan movie, and one of the GB girls got a black eye so nasty we could see the damage from the other side of the court. The impressive thing was that for a team that didn't even exist a few years ago, the GB girls were clearly not intimidated and didn't waste time appealing to referees or getting...