The Olympics!

As an aside, I hate the official Olympic ticketing website with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns.  Over the last month or so, I've been periodically (my wife would say "obsessively") checking the site to see what's available.  The list of what's available has been constantly in flux, I assume as they finalized seating arrangements and people sold their tix back.

Every single time the site has showed tickets available for an event and I've gone through the 3 or 4 steps to get to the "request these tickets for purchase" step, I get a final message saying "Sorry, the tickets you requested are no longer available."  Every.  Single.  Time.  It's beyond annoying.

The same thing has happened to us several times with that site.  I've found the whole ticketing system just unbelievably frustrating.  We did the lottery a year ago and applied for lots of different tickets and all we got was a random football match in Cardiff.  I'm pleased because it's the only Olympics we're likely to see, but for all the time and effort we've spent checking the site and trying to get tickets to hockey it's so disappointing to almost get them time and time again only to fail at the last stroke.  And then to see the empty seats on TV...grr.

Ok first complaint....women's gymnastics medal ceremony wasn't shown. They shut the coverage off completely after the scores were announced. I really wanted to see the ceremony. Guess I'll have to find it somewhere online tomorrow 

Chad Le Clos just beat Michael Phelps to win the gold medal in the 200 butterfly.  His dad Bert did an interview with the BBC, and it was excellent.  Enjoy:

http://deadspin.com/5930604/this-bbc-interview-with-chad-le-closs-father-is-the-media-moment-of-the-games-so-far

Chad Le Clos just beat Michael Phelps to win the gold medal in the 200 butterfly.  His dad Bert did an interview with the BBC, and it was excellent.  Enjoy:

http://deadspin.com/5930604/this-bbc-interview-with-chad-le-closs-father-is-the-media-moment-of-the-games-so-far

   Thanks Camoscato!

Anyone else caught Wiggo fever? I loved watching him during the Tour de France and then again today.



small edit so that the sentence made sense.

Any else caught Wiggo fever? I loved watching him during the Tour de France and then again today.

I definitely have! 

Is it just me or does seeing these incredibly muscular men's bodies under baby faces give other people the heebie jeebies?

Being pregnant, I'm rating sports for what my child could be encourage to pursue (obviously personal preference will be the deciding factor) on a scale of how beat up the athletes look and both diving and gymnastics are right out. Those cyclists don't look too safe, either, though those injuries seem less likely to leave them cripples by 40. Archery, swimming, and table tennis seem good. Archery at least would be a post-apocolypse skill.

We're going tomorrow to see Fencing, and next week to see Sync Swimming.

The tickets were darned difficult to procure, involving several attempts and getting up to be logged on the website at inhumane hours.  Really, I was less than impressed with the whole ticketing system. 

Archery at least would be a post-apocolypse skill.

Plus, it's super fun.  I did a bit of archery as a kid, and I LOVED it.  Joining a group here is on my wish list for the future.

We're going tomorrow to see Fencing, and next week to see Sync Swimming.

The tickets were darned difficult to procure, involving several attempts and getting up to be logged on the website at inhumane hours.  Really, I was less than impressed with the whole ticketing system. 

Plus, it's super fun.  I did a bit of archery as a kid, and I LOVED it.  Joining a group here is on my wish list for the future.

I did it very briefly in middle school gym (for posture - we also did line dancing for coordination). I liked it. My child would obviously also need to learn fletching and bow making or it won't do well once it runs out of machine crafted arrows.

I did it very briefly in middle school gym (for posture - we also did line dancing for coordination). I liked it. My child would obviously also need to learn fletching and bow making or it won't do well once it runs out of machine crafted arrows.

I did a course of Archery earlier on this year and LOVED it, it's super fun. I love the focus of it.

Is it just me or does seeing these incredibly muscular men's bodies under baby faces give other people the heebie jeebies?

I certainly felt like a dirty old woman watching Tom Daley squeezing all those muscles into those teeny tiny pants! The wee pre-pubescent Tom Daley I remember from Beijing is most definitely big post-pubescent Tom Daley now, and it's a bit disturbing!

I certainly felt like a dirty old woman watching Tom Daley squeezing all those muscles into those teeny tiny pants! The wee pre-pubescent Tom Daley I remember from Beijing is most definitely big post-pubescent Tom Daley now, and it's a bit disturbing!

He's 19, which is plenty old enough to admire as an aesthetically pleasing work of creation and potential model for marble statuary, but his face is that of a 14 year old! Not sexy at all.

We're first in the medal count. Yay!

We get the live feed from the IOC here in Singapore (am on holiday). I am SURE I woke the people up in the next room (okay, possibly the floor) when Jessica Ennis won. YAY! How much fun is this? Everyone involved must be so happy with how well it is going...

I'm loving it! I went to Eton Dorney last Wednesday and saw the GB women (Helen Glover and Heather Stanning) win the rowing! Not only that, but it was our first gold of the games. And not only that, but Helen Glover is a local girl from down this way - her family has an ice cream shop that we all love. So that was absolutely brilliant.

I was nearly in tears when they won, and then actually in tears when they played the anthem during the medal ceremony. (This Olympics is costing me a fortune in tissues!)

The Royal Mail is painting a postbox gold in the hometown of every gold medal winner, so I took a pic of Helen's in Penzance this morning: