Day 8: London

Day 8: London

Quote of the day:

In the middle of the road you see the darndest things
Like fat guys driving 'round in jeeps through the city
Wearing big diamond rings and silk suits
Past corrugated tin shacks full up with kids
Oh man I don't mean a Hampstead nursery
When you own a big chunk of the bloody third world
The babies just come with the scenery

Oh come on baby
Get in the road
Oh come on now
In the middle of the road, yeah

Weather: Another perfect day: sun, a hint of rain, breezy to very breezy, and in the 60s

Pics: Prius, Mascot pair, Water Polo, OP utility boxes, various outfits in the OP, flowers

Warning to Blog Followers: those of you who are tech savvy and don’t need an e-mail to let you know that the latest entry is out there, yes, you, the few and savvy, occasionally miss out when THB cleverly cuts down on the length of the blog by putting 500-1000 words in the e-mail…imagine what THJB can do with something like that! On other hand, you don’t get 475 to 975 words of repetition either.

Warning to Blog Followers who need an e-mail reminder, an alarm, some catchy subject line, or who suffer from a sense of guilt: no need to read the above paragraph, just skip it altogether, give it a pass, and feel lucky to have some form of ridiculous redundancy built right into the THB blog…JUST FOR YOU!

Toast, a cardio-walk, grape nuts and fruit, and the off we go to OP. This was the first day of Track and Field (aka Athletics in O terms), and though requested we did not get either morning or evening sessions. Thus, in the re-order period, we ended up with the afternoon session of Water Polo.

And, as this was the first day of T&F, they have re-oriented the entry from Stratford: if you go into the mall then you have to go upstairs and back around and down to leave the mall on your way to the OP. Good news: after lunch at M&S (1/2 chicken and potatoes, sourdough roll, fruit, drinks, walnut bread, $20 with chicken left over), the route through the mall is even closer to security where there is NO waiting to get through…and after we’re through we are amongst thousands of people (all with tickets, though some may have bought a special OP entry ticket) wandering around. When THB says thousands, make sure you envision something like 25,000 wandering around, possibly more (T&F takes in 80k by itself, and between sessions that can mean probably 140k plus all the other events…it starts adding up to 200k if nobody is in a venue).

We’re early, so we decide to go shopping (Hey, THB has brought his personal shopper). Damn, what a shame, they are announcing on bullhorns that the Mega-store (real name) is closed and please visit the sister stores at the far ends of the OP…may as well be the far ends of the earth, THB knows a sign from the Gods when he hears one.

Off to WP where THB forgets that this is a session purchased on the re-order! Hence after shouts of see you in the seats and our respective potty breaks, THB sits for a few minutes in his seat and them people come and fill up the seats on his right and someone sits in the seat on his left and ONLY NOW does THB remember that for all the re-order sessions, our seats are not together! ONLY NOW! Hmmmm...there are 5000 people strung out in 50 long rows of a 100 seats each. Hmmmmm…THB stands up…he goes back down the stairs and crosses over to the other side of the center section….no sign of KHB. He then goes back down the stairs (these are getting to be LONG stairs) and stands around looking and finally, finally sees a figure on the far end of a row near his (so at the far end is like 40 eats and three sections away). Climbs over seats, past people (and THB thought the stairs were long…these rows are killers!).

Takes a bit of re-arranging, and we find two seats together near KHB’s original ticket. We’ve been to WP before, and now THB can report with authority: the scoreboards are truly useless no matter where you sit, and the PA is really only barely clear if you have seats down near the pool.

Enough! You want to hear what happened at Women’s Water Polo: Spain hung on to beat Hungary 13-11, with Spain’s coach getting a red card (ejected) with his team UP by 3 goals (they immediately gave away two) and Hungary has the ball and a chance; they don’t get off a shot!

In the second match, Australia vs Russia, the game is so slow paced and so little scoring, we begin to wander off. In the third quarter the team’s combine for one goal. So, with total agreement, we agree to leave and give the Mega-store another go. It is actually open now.

The queue to get in extends for quite a ways away from the store…OH NO! Turns out they for some reason are not using the up/back version right out the store and instead a huge amorphous snake is forming and churning. It move surprising fast, we’re in the store in under 10 minutes and KHB knows right where to go to capture T-shirts and assorted gift items, she is going for gold and easily outdistancing her competition.

We then wander around for a photo shoot opportunity (see pics and THB as model) and take a new Underground exit, a route opened especially to handle the crowds now that T&F has started. Well, they’ve figured out one thing: since it is THIRY FIVE minutes of fast paced walking for us to reach the station (well over two miles, we estimate), they’ve stretched the crowd for miles outside the OP. We’ve learned our lesson, tomorrow we’ll go back to using the Stratford station.

Back to Raynes Park for a home-cooked meal, a chance to actually watch some track (women’s 10,000m race) and for us on the trip a very early bed-time.