A tourist-y type of day and an Opening Ceremony

My day yesterday basically consisted of me being a completely unashamed Olympic tourist, just minus the massive suitcase which there seemed to be a lot of around. I got the train out to London Bridge, accidentally forgetting that the torch relay had taken place there... So ended up in a massive crowd of people who were waiting for the torch (which had actually been through already, but I let some policemen break the news to them instead).

I walked along the Thames for a bit, finding the Wenlock models on the way, and there seemed to be a lot more athletes than anywhere else I've been yet, so because I was without uniform, the camera very much came out and I now have a heck of a lot of pictures of the backs of a lot of tracksuits! So much picture-taking was such tiring work (or just an ok excuse), that I then had an afternoon nap in Jubilee Gardens before heading to Trafalgar Square. Not only is Trafalgar Square my favourite place in the country, but yesterday I think that it may well have been one of the busiest places in the country. The oh-so-British queue for the countdown clock had dissolved into a bit of a push and shove crowd situation, but I found a less push and shove-y type person to take a picture for me. There was a massive buzz in the Square and, when the clock neared the 5 hour mark, the whole square began to count down, which was so exciting, and made it very hard to motivate myself to move from Nelson's Column.


Eventually, though, I did move, and I did find Waterstones, which was the whole reason that I had even been in in the first place! And, when I arrived back at the flat, I found a GB cyclist outside the front door (and the camera was whacked out again)!

We BBQ-ed in time for the ceremony, which, despite us laughing about how British it was, was actually amazing and fantastically thought out. Also, to my delight, the guy from LOCOG HQ (who will remain unnamed) who I had met on the train the other day, and who had told me a lot about the ceremony and showed me a lot of pictures, actually hadn't told/ shown me everything, so I was pleasantly surprised that some of it was still a surprise!

Anyway... I am now off to go and climb out of a window, sit on a windowsill and watch some cyclists whizz past! If you watch the cycling on TV: look out for the window with an English and a German flag.

Also, if you're going to the badminton/ Wembley: the hall is absolutely boiling, so don't wrap up too much!

A dress rehearsal for a dress rehearsal. And a casual bit of Lee Chong Wei.

First things first, despite not getting my letter, I did find the entrance to Hogwarts today. Or at least the trolley in the wall at King's Cross.

Today was my first day in uniform and I have now realised that this means I probably need a better obscure train station knowledge... Luckily I am turning into a bit of a beast as far as the map of the underground in my 'pocket guide' goes, however I don't know any of it from memory, so my apologies to quite a lot of tourists who expected a quick answer, but I tried my best and I hope that you got there!

I arrived at King's Cross quite early, so sat around for a while, but was kept amused by the Great British weightlifting team , who were told off by a man for walking through the picture that he was trying to take of Platform 7!

I got to Wembley early-ish and managed to find a shop that sold flags for when the cycling comes past the flat at the weekend. I also found a newsagent's which sold cow's drink. I assume that this is otherwise known as milk?! I then got to the Arena, went through security, collected my meal card and, whilst searching for my Team Manager, managed to find Lee Chong Wei instead. 

All of the courts are set up now and each of the nations have an allotted training session to have the opportunity practise on them. Our team (which has possibly the best abbreviation: FOP) met up and had another tour of the Arena and the practise halls to orientate ourselves a bit, because things have changed since we were last there. We then had a bit of time to kill before the rehearsal, so we went up to the stands to watch the training. Malaysia were there for a bit, as were Denmark and Finland, and Thailand came at the end as well as Sri Lanka (yes, Pete Higman!). I did take a lot of pictures, but I can't put them up until the venue opens properly, so for the moment, here are the backs of the some of the Russian team walking through Wembley (!):


Our rehearsal, we found out today, was actually a dress rehearsal for tomorrow's dress rehearsal when the broadcasters arrive (presumably so we give a good impression tomorrow). We did a lot of walking on and off court with all of the line judges and umpires to work out the best ways of getting on to the courts, and my job was made all the more interesting by the fact that there, at the moment, appears to be a billboard in front of my chair, so at the moment my court mopping will be accompanied by a jump and a leap! The rehearsal was also made more comical by the fact that there were no players, so people were having to act on their behalf!


The umpires had arrived later in the afternoon than we had, so we were allowed to leave before 11, which means that tonight is a slightly earlier night/ journey back than   anticipated, which was good, because tomorrow is a full rehearsal and I imagine it will be quite extensive!

Olympic spot of the day: Zoe Smith in King's Cross.

My ever growing to-do list...

These are just some of the over 80 sculptures of the Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, that have been put up around London for the Games. They are near many of the main attractions and, after finding out about them yesterday, they have made my to-do list for the next couple of weeks just 80+ objects longer...

In other news, the Olympic torch is now in the capitol... After abseiling from a helicopter, past Tower Bridge and into the Tower of London! A lot of 19th century workers were also seen in Stratford heading towards the Olympic Stadium this morning... I'm led to believe that this is for rehearsals and is not the result of any sort of bizarre time-machine malfunction.

The Opening Ceremony is a slight sore-spot for me at the moment, as I found out a couple of days ago that I had been offered tickets to the rehearsals as a reward for all of the Games Maker-ing I've been doing. Due to a fail of pretty epic proportions on the part of Family Salisbury,  though, I didn't actually get this email until after the deadline, so, as a result, am not going to see the ''menagerie of animal performers''... (I am here quoting the Daily Mail to make this seem slightly less devastating). I did send a pre-9AM-tiredness-induced cranky email to LOCOG (sorry, Seb Coe) (not-so Olympic fact: my mum was in his maths class at school and he used to run with my uncle), but I've yet to receive a reply, so I'm debating buying myself a cheap ticket to Wicked in the West End for that night instead (I feel that £17 is more socially acceptable than quitting University to fund £2000+ for the Opening Ceremony)... However, on the plus side, I did see today that the Spice Girls have been confirmed for the Closing Ceremony, so I remain to live in hope that Ginger Jenny may get to see Ginger Spice at some point. Assuming, of course, that I check my emails...