Day 11: Loin-don

Day 11: London

Quote of the day:

I said, hey! you! get off of my cloud
Hey! you! get off of my cloud
Hey! you! get off of my cloud
Don't hang around cause twos a crowd
On my cloud

Hey! you! get off of my cloud
Hey! you! get off of my cloud
Hey! you! get off of my cloud
Don't hang around, baby, twos a crowd

Weather: Mostly overcast, breezy, the usual hint of rain and a few drops, low 60s at T&F evening session

Pics: T&F, Team Handball players and fans, Bolt Medal Ceremony, on the grass outside Copper Box, not the youngest baby we’ve seen though close

Book review: Coral Glynn, Peter Cameron; novel that takes place in 1950s England (and a bit in London) though it just as well be the 1850s given the style and tone. Very fast read (1.5 commutes to the games?), a bit of a surprise as a young, very naive nurse follows her sexual heart and finds a good match.

Up early (too early…THB is on his home schedule of waking up at or before 6am and his London schedule for going to bed at or past midnight; it’s a marathon, not a sprint, right?), skip breakfast for pastries and fruit at M&S (yes, the other days THB has grape nuts AND pastry) . Amazingly, this is the first day that THB and KHB have left for an event during the morning rush hour. The train is full of people going to work, very full. The O attendees are outnumbered dramatically. We do not get seats. There are a few people talking on cell phones, one fairly loudly. KHB things they are dressed nicer than a Bay Area commute. A bit of a shock to THB’s system, he is very glad he is no longer a daily commuter.

Not shocking enough to keep him from buying pastries (blueberry muffin, currant scone, chocolate twist, etc.) and we share the choc twist while walking into the OP. THB has now concluded the Brits like their pastries sweet rather than substantial. Or, maybe not, THB might have to extend the test. Total $15. While THB heads to the seats, KHB stops for coffee for us and returns to report they are out of milk at this stand (and, if THB remembers correctly, possibly out of coffee and KHB gets directed elsewhere), so we use creamer tubs. They like their coffee week, and if it is caffeinated we sure can’t tell.

T&F morning session, and we have great seats, opposite and exactly parallel with the finish line. The stands are packed. As the morning goes by, it is becoming more and more noticeable: the music on the speakers is toned down, unobtrusive, and never on when the announcers are talking. If only this could catch on elsewhere! And, the announcers are off their game: in one heat, they highlight an American runner and show her on the scoreboard (they only introduce all the contestants in a final, and sometimes not even then if there are more than 12), she goes on to win the race, and the results are then quickly posted, incorrectly, with a Colombian first (in a similar outfit to the American) and the Brit announcer reads them off the board as if the Colombian won rather than realizing he has just called the race with the American winning (very short term memory loss, it’s a 100m heat). Bizarre…read the board instead of using brain.

The American announcer (he handles over half the job) is a guy who has been doing that for many Os (always solo) and is terrific; the Brit is noticeably more of a cheerleader type and not near as effective. Maybe he’s a rookie, so this level of mistake is more from inexperience and nerves than ineptitude.

And, again, there are a lot of kids and babies. THB has figured it out: tix had to be ordered 16 months in advance and you found out if you got any of what you ordered about 12 months in advance. For those couples lucky enough to get tix, it felt like they had won the lottery (they had, less than half the British orders resulted in any tix being received) and celebrated accordingly. .and now the games are on and it is not easy to find babysitters (they are at the games too).

Oh, and T&F is again very exciting (a theme of all O’s).

Lunch of leftover pastries and fruit and Diet Coke on the grass outside Handball, and THB’s first between sessions nap. The matches are both duds, except we are again in the front row, right behind one of the goals (so close we duck when an errant shot come our way and gets caught by the screen, just like at a baseball game). Unfortunately, THB (not for the first time) leaves the cap loose on the Diet Coke and it puddles under the seat. THB needs a mop!!!!! First KHB tries to get someone to help clean It up and then THB spends 15 minutes making sure someone comes down. Everyone very polite, nobody particularly efficient except the guy who finally shows up with enough towels.

Denmark 36, Korea 24. Eeeeshlund 41, GB 23. The end of our Team Handball, from now on it is just Volleyball and T&F.

Before we go back to the stadium for the evening T&F session, we opt for baked potatoes for dinner. The line is long, so THB goes off to get a salad for us to share while in the potato line. When THB reappears, KHB is telling a father/daughter pair that our experience is that the concessions are always out of what we want, and since this is a stand that only serves potatoes that will be a disaster. As we approach the cash register, the line is being held up: they are down to the last few potatoes (THB goes up to the stand and looks down, and starts counting down: 8….5….4….) and just as they hit zero someone comes out of the back with a full tray of potatoes, the checkout people start ringing up sales and the potato guys start loading them up. Salad and one potato: $18.

We are in row 71 (of 75) right over the 50m mark of the backstretch (great sightlines) and there are real, yes real, cushions built into the seats! And, there are empty seats around us and in the stands in general. Mornings full, evenings the usual smattering of empty seats, the opposite of Beijing.

And, THB has an out-of-body experience: It’s a new Olympic Record (OR) and possibly a World Record (WR). Just as the session is starting, a couple sits down right in front of us. He’s about 40, she might be a big younger. She’s wearing a cocktail dress, leather mid-length leather jacket, lots of jewelry, and THB thinks speaking British with a bit of a Slavic accent. THB should be able to figure it out: she does not stop talking and waving her hands and arms the entire 3 hours. At first, THB thinks it is a first date (olympcsmatch.com?): there appears to be an exchange of information that implies she doesn’t know anything about him. She pours them glasses of red wine. She laughs or smiles at his every (few words, since she barely pauses). She does not stop looking at him with amazement and amusement. It finally dawns on THB: this guy has hired an escort as his date (or, he is so loaded with money that she knows a good thing when she meets one).

On, and on, and on. As they appear to become more enamored with each other, she starts waving her arms more and more often, more and more. They chat away during Medal Ceremonies and national anthems. By the end of the evening, they don’t even bother standing for the anthems, they only have eyes for each other. Are they talking about T&F: nope. Is the hand waving to anything to do with the events: nope. All them, all the time.

Oh, sorry, THB would also like to report that there was a lot of excitement on the track, the field events are finals including Suhr winning a gold fo USA in Women’s Pole Vault (another one the announcers struggled to get right), when the Russian favorite missed an early vault and never got going. The races continued in a pattern: near the end, someone explodes away from the pack and wins by a big margin. This is a long-time pattern: few races are decided in the last few meters. The Men’s 400m finals featured three teenagers and no Americans, must be a record.

Easy commute home; as always, though, there are commuters on the tube and train, even at 11 at night. Back in by 11:15, and arly night for us.