Free ice creams and the first Victory Ceremony

The air-con-and-free-ice-cream combo of South West Trains pretty much made my morning today. So much so that it even made up for the fact that I got on the 14-stop-tube again (note to self: use. the. Met. line!)

Anyway, 14 stops later, I made it to Wembley Arena. I was a tad later than expected but was sped along quite drastically by the Miley Cyrus song that iPod shuffle decide to select just as I went down the steps to the 'last mile'. Despite the fact that this is horrifically cheesy and I should probably be mortified at the fact that it is on my iPod in the first place (and potentially even more mortified that I didn't skip past it...!), in true Disney-montage-style, the mopper made it to the ball/ Arena on time. Even though the mopper was today on her first ever day off and so was, therefore, not actually mopping.

For some reason, the seating arrangements for us had changed today and we were designated to the 'Olympic Family' stand. This didn't seem to be the easiest place to gain access to...

In the end we made it in (this makes it sound as if we gatecrashed, but we were actually totally law-abiding, accreditation-showing Games Makers) and we ended up on the front row, so I was pretty set for the day (other than the minor issue of neither having got food nor gone to the toilet).


Today I saw:

Men's singles semi #1: Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia) vs. Chen Long (China)
Men's singles semi #2: Lin Dan (China) vs. Lee Hyun Il (Korea)
Mixed doubles final: NL. Zhang & YL Zhao (China) vs. C. Xu & J. Ma (China) (surprisingly, China won this match)
Mixed doubles Victory Ceremony: NL. Zhang & YL Zhao (China- gold), C. Xu & J. Ma (China- silver), J. Fischer & C. Pedersen (Denmark- bronze) (yes, Europe!)

It was fantastic to actually be there and be watching an Olympic final (big tick next to that on the good ol' Bucket List), although it did make me feel like a right old codger, because it meant that it had been 8 years since 'back in the day' when it was Gail and Nathan playing that match in Athens. (In totally unrelated news, this also means that it is also 8 years since I last owned a pet hamster).

After the Victory Ceremony I made full use of the 'Field of Play' access part of my accreditation, and jumped over chairs and ran down corridors (Jess Ennis, watch out) to go to get some pictures of the players whilst they were being interviewed. Contrary to attempts over the past couple of days, this picture-taking was actually all done with a sim card in my camera...


My parents had tickets for today's matches (meaning that they will never witness my mopping ability live on the international stage, only on TV or in the kitchen). (Hi mum and dad if you're reading! It was great to see you and I hope that you had a great Games *big Games Maker smile*, but don't think that you're getting completely off ever cleaning the kitchen floor...)


Anyway I have a 6AM wake-up call tomorrow morning, so I am going to go to sleep (which is something that I do very well) so that I can get up in the morning (which isn't one of my strong points).


Olympic spot of the day: Xie Xingfang in the stand opposite Lin Dan during his match (if my long-distance-athlete-spotting-skills and my camera's optical zoom and are anything to go by).

Lin Dan

I am quite proud of our synchronicity here (although spellcheck tells me that it is, is that even a word?!)

After a morning shopping in Camden, I packed up my stuff and did another flat switch. Luckily, I managed to avoid all contact with the underground, so I just about survived the long trouser, hoodie and lots of bags combination without any air-con-less situations.

I then did the quick-change into uniform that I've become an absolute ninja at, before getting the train. Only to forget which line to use for Wembely at Waterloo, and end up on the slower one which involves about 14 stops. On a dying iPod battery, this was obviously a very tense journey.

(Please note: I am normally a very sociable Games Maker on trains, but I think the free energy drinks may have got the better of me and I was k-n-a-c-k-e-r-e-d).


Today's matches were mainly the men's singles quarter finals, and I may or may not have requested to mop for Lin Dan... (ok, I did).

Today I mopped for:
Lin Dan (China) (defending Olympic Champion, might I add) vs. S. Sasaki (Japan)  (second player to thank me for my mad-mopping-skills. Boom)

Before the match, the umpire took us moppers to one side, and explained that we would have to keep playing really close attention to when and where he asked us to mop (I told you that mopping was a technical business!), because we would be pretty much playing musical chairs for the duration of the game. I think that this prediction was pretty bang on, and both players dived to the floor pretty regularly, leaving us very busy.

FOP Team

At one point, Lin Dan dived to the front left hand side of my side of the court, only to somehow manage to get up and dive to the back right (mopping dilemma #1: where are you supposed to start?!). I watched the TV footage back last night, and you can actually see the line judges look at me and laugh! Both players were also using talcum powder to prevent their rackets from slipping too, and that meant that every time they touched the floor, they left mini snow-angels behind as well. So much mopping, so little time!

We did, however, receive a court mopper chant at one point during the match, which was probably a highlight of my life. The Chinese normally chant ''*insert player's name here* jia'', but they switched it to ''court moppers jia'' during one of the breaks (apologies if I have just spelled the Chinese word totally wrong and warped the meaning of anything!). We also got thanked by the umpire at the end of the match for being on-the-ball/shuttlecock, which equalled my second umpire compliment of the week. These mopping compliments will probably not make it onto my CV, but I was pretty chuffed anyway (also, thanks to those travelling on the train from Wembley to West Hampstead, particularly to the family from Chicago and their child with a ribbiting frog alarm clock, you made my night).

In other news, I am developing two mopping blisters. I am not sure whether laughing or crying is the best option here.

Also, upon listening to the BBC commentary of the match tonight, something along the lines of this quote was said:

''Lin Dan has changed the shuttle and now he's doing some cleaning. His wife must have him well trained''.

I'm sure that Xie Xingfang's totally awesome and all, but I am going to claim responsibility for the cleaning part.

We took a team photo and then I went out for tea courtesy of the Robsons! (Thank you so much for some warm food, and I hope that you have a great rest of the Olympics!)

Olympic spot of the day: Anthony Clark and Adrian Christy in TGI Friday's!