A Day at London 2012

Yesterday I went to see Olympic Wrestling... Yep...

Well, there's a bit of a story behind it all:

Both my husband and I made no secret of declaring our apathy towards the Olympics, our disdain for the vast amount of money spent, and our disinterest in the torch passing through our town.

It was sad, because when London won the bid back in 2005 I was very excited. I expected that I would look forward to the games being here, because I've always held some vague interest in the Olympics, and have always loved watching the gymnastics. I also remember moments during Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, finding my attention grabbed by swimming, cycling, and the athletics. I would always be reading a book in the living room, whilst my brother was watching the games, finding myself looking up every now and then, and eventually allowing myself to be gripped by the races for gold.

Maybe I had just been suffering some Olympic fatigue, because for the past year it's been in our faces everywhere, and we don't even live in London.

We were at a barbeque when the Opening Ceremony took place, and the majority of the party were squashed into the host's living room to watch it. My husband and I preferred to hang out in the garden, chatting to others who felt the same as we did.

It was only a couple of days later when I joined a colleague to sneakily watch James Bond taking the Queen onto a helicopter on BBC iPlayer that I realised that maybe I'd missed a good show. And then it wasn't long after that, the TV playing in the tea room at work during the lunch break, when Heather Stanning and Helen Glover won gold for the women's pair in Rowing that I began to grow excited again.

Suddenly Team GB were doing amazingly well, and it was impossible for my attention not to be caught. It was great to see the highlights of Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, the Brownlee brothers, Beth Tweddle, and others winning medals, and I found myself watching all of the Artistic Gymnastics competitions on BBC Catch Up, regardless of whether or not Team GB were competing.

It was amidst this furore that my husband suddenly declared that we should try and get tickets to see something, admitting we were wrong about the "bloody Olympics". Thus began a battle with the ticketing website to actually be able to see something. I won't bore you with the details here, but basically it would appear that tickets were available but when you put them in your basket and then tried to buy them it would transpire that they were not. So I was shocked when I got through all the way to purchasing tickets to...Wrestling! Not, admittedly, my first choice of sport to watch, but my husband was happy with it, and finally we had tickets to go to London 2012!

So yesterday morning we made our way up to the ExCel Centre in London Docklands. We arrived in plenty of time to pick up our tickets from the box office, with no trouble on the public transport network at all. There was a great atmosphere at the Docklands with plenty of volunteers around to help, and lots of excited fans milling about. There were no Team GB entrants for the Men's Freestyle Wrestling, but it was impossible not to be caught up in the excitement of other fans from around the world, notably from the USA, Mexico, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

Once inside the centre we were able to find a place to grab a caffeinated beverage and then to sit and eat our picnic before entering the Spectator Zone for the Wrestling, and on into the arena.

We were sitting very near the back, but we still had a great view, head on with Mat A where the 60kg wrestlers would be battling it out. We could also see the two mats for the other two categories pretty clearly as well, but once the fighting began our attention was most easily caught by those directly in front of us.

We saw the 1/8 finals, quarter finals, and semi-finals. It was a shame not to have managed to get tickets to a medals match, but we were just pleased to have got any tickets at all, especially having decided so late in the day that we would like to go to one of the events.

The fans for other countries were so excited, which made for a great atmosphere. I often struggled to understand the rules, and a lot of the moves looked pretty painful to me, but it was still surprisingly fun to watch, and my husband definitely enjoyed it.

USA vs Azerbaijan Semi-Final 60kg Category

After this fantastic spectacle it was a relief to stretch our legs and then make our way out of the arena, just in time to see Hulk Hogan* getting into trouble for breaking through a barrier to get out by a different route.

Then it was off to Piccadilly for to meet a friend for a coffee. Piccadilly was actually far busier and more hectic than we had expected. Outside of the Olympics the rest of London was said to be a bit quieter than usual, but that didn't seem to be the case yesterday.

It was with great relief that we escaped the mania and found a small French patisserie down a quiet side street. Having quenched our thirst and calmed down from the commuter-zone frame of mind that London crowds are prone to put one into, we walked our friend to his bus stop before continuing through the posh streets of Mayfair, and onwards to Hyde Park to investigate the BT London Live festival therein.

Once we finally got to the entrance of the festival we had to queue for about half an hour, which didn't bode well for the volume of crowds inside. We were both feeling tired, hot, and thirsty; the latter not helped by the strict ban on bringing food or drink into the site.

When we finally made it through, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that whilst there were lots of people, there was plenty of room to mill around at leisure. We wandered aimlessly, sitting for a while to watch the Women's High Jump at one of the big screens, but our view was frequently blocked by people standing up and walking around. So we continued on to the big screen over the stage, just in time to see several Team GB athletes parade out and wave to everyone. We were quite far back, but we saw them  nevertheless!

By this point we were getting hungry, so we decided to head to Victoria to find somewhere for dinner before going home. We were just delicately making our way through the crowds towards one of the exits when we heard the announcement that the Men's 5000m was about to start. Ignoring our rumbling tummies for a moment, we decided to stay to cheer on Mo Farah, and I'm very glad we did.

The atmosphere was epic, with everyone getting really excited as the race began, and cheering like crazy. The tension and the shouting collectively rose as each lap was ran, and by the second to last lap we were all screaming ourselves hoarse, cheering on Mo as though he would be able to hear us all the way over in the Olympic Park. And he won the gold! He did it again!

Lots of hugging and dancing ensued from the crowds, all of us thrilled with Mo's performance, and that Team GB have done so wonderfully well this Olympics.

Snapshot of Mo, post-win, on the big screen at Hyde Park - go Mo!

We then headed off into the comparatively peaceful surroundings of the rest of the park, and onto Victoria to a little Mexican place for food, where we were able to toast Team GB's success with cocktails, and chatter about how we could photoshop chairs into some of our wrestling photos.

I'm really glad that we finally let the atmosphere of London 2012 win us over, and that despite difficulties getting tickets and then a nightmarish train journey home, we had a great time and now have a few more stories for the grandchildren.

*Sadly not the real Hulk Hogan, but a very good lookalike.

Photos my own.

An Adventure to London's Wildlife Haven

My husband's birthday treat was a trip to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust in Barnes, London. Having gone to the one in Arundel for my birthday, I chose Barnes as it is a prime location for bird photography. Now that my husband has his very own fancy camera and has become pretty good at wildlife shots I thought he would enjoy spending a day at a place renowned as a haven for birds, as it is the largest wild green space in the capital.

Our adventure began much the same as usual - a large tea at the station before hopping on a train. We had to change at Clapham Junction, and then it was a ten minute walk from the station in Barnes to the wetlands.

We were thirsty on arrival so headed straight to the cafe for a cup of tea and a cookie, which we enjoyed outside on the water's edge, admiring a range of waterfowl splashing about. Of course, my husband had his camera out immediately, bravely ignoring the monstrosity belonging to the serious birding couple on the table next to us.

Our first stop after tea, however, was not to see more birds. It was the otter enclosure. The centre has recently introduce a family of four Asian short-clawed otters and I was eager to see them. However, they were nowhere to be seen in their specially landscaped area of rocks, waterfalls and pools. We peered through the portholes into their sleeping holt but they weren't in there either.

Not to be discouraged, as the day was yet young, we continued onto Wildside where native flora grows in abundance to create a habitat resembling an untouched area of English countryside, a far cry from the concrete jungle that is London. Indeed, the only reminder that we were in the city was the view of roofs beyond the main lagoon, and the occasional wail of sirens in the distance.

As soon as we entered through the tall double gates we were greeted by the musical trumpeting of marsh frogs. We scanned the reeds, attempting to make them out, and eventually we saw one out on the water and watched , fascinated by his bulging vocal sacs as he croaked. Eventually the peace was disrupted by a group of 'jolly hockey sticks' types on a tour, so we decided to disappear up a footpath into the relative tranquillity of the reed beds, after first attempting to photograph a rather majestic grey heron resting on a bridge.

We kept our eyes pealled for water voles but they were far more elusive than at Arundel, and unfortunately we didn't see any. There were plenty of brightly coloured damselflies and dragonflies flitting about however, which made me somewhat nostalgic for our honeymoon almost two years ago, as we'd several on our stays in both Devon and on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

We continued on to one of the many bird hides for some peaceful twitching until we became hungry. We walked back to the main picnic area with a quick diversion to the otter enclosure - they were still hiding.

After lunch we visited the other side of the wetlands, meandering through lush gardens full of brightly coloured June blooms. Eventually we stopped for a rest on a bench where the foliage thickened around one of the lakes, when my husband's eye was caught by a pretty little bird fluttering about the tree opposite. He got up to take a closer look and realised it was a long-tail tit feeding her six chicks all lined up on a branch. We were captivated by them for some time, and my husband began to take numerous photos. After a while I walked on ahead to practise my own photography in a slightly less committed manner, playing with the aperture and the macro features.

After some considerable time I managed to tear my husband away from the incredibly cute long-tail chicks and we continued on, visiting a few more bird hides, where we spied many birds from visiting Egyptian geese raising their young to sand martins flying back and forth on their hunt for food for their young.

It was then time for more tea, so we went back to the cafe, arriving just in time to see a greedy jackdaw demolishing the sandwich of one of the workers - occupational hazard I guess, tee hee.

We tried to see the otters again but they were still hiding, so we wandered around World Wetlands, looking at different wetland species from all around the world. My favourite was probably this puna teal, native to the Andes, because I think his blue beak is cool!

We did another circuit of Wildside but the water voles were still hiding, and even the dragonflies had disappeared as the sky grew greyer and the wind grew stronger. We decided it was time to head home before the rains hit, with one final stop by the otter enclosure on the way out.

This time they were there, hooray! They were playing in the water and on the rocks, clambering over each other and splashing about. We had unknowingly arrived at the enclosure just before feeding time, and so we watched as they excitedly scrambled for the food that the staff tossed into the water. It was definitely worth the wait to see them!

We then proceeded homewards, squished onto a commuter train reminiscent of both our days working in London. It was a relief to get eventually get off of the train, even into the torrential rain that had now hit. We hurried through town to our favourite Indian restaurant for a delicious meal to round off a lovely day, with a great deal of wildlife photos to show for it.

Photos my own.

Tower Bridge

So continuing my theme of historical buildings as part of this blog (maybe I should set up a specific historical sites blog and work on my travel-writing skills? *shrug*)...this time I am talking about a bridge, possibly one of the prettiest bridges that there is in the world.

On Saturday we battled our way through crowds of blue and white painted Gillingham supporters on the underground to get to my best friend and her husband for lunch in central London. It was a humid, overcast day, but after lunch we decided to do something touristy that might give us some respite from the heat. We headed up to Tower Bridge, none of us ever having gone up it before. It's one of those great London monuments I take completely for-granted. I've always liked the look of it. I was impressed when, in my first year at university, I was at a cocktail party aboard the Dixie Queen for the James Bond Appreciation Society, and the bridge lifted to let us through. I found it highly amusing when I was a teenager walking along it to get to HMS Belfast with my scout troop when I heard an excited American tourist loudly exclaim, "Wow! So this is Tower Bridge!" And when my old uni housemate and I took our Canadian friend to see the Tower of London, I got lots of pretty pictures of the bridge, taken from the tower battlements. But no, perhaps in true British resident style, I hadn't actually been up one of the towers itself, and neither had my companions.

So, we climbed the many stairs to the top - not the most sensible of choices on a particularly hot day when our water was in short supply - at least it was cool in the tower. The galleries were worth the climb (except the freaky barrel organ music playing the background - I mean seriously, what is that about?). The views up and down the Thames were stunning - Canary Wharf on the one side; St Paul's Cathedral, HMS Belfast, City Hall, and the London Eye on the other. We stayed there for some time, practising our panoramic photography skills, and enjoying the cool breeze that drifted in through the open windows. I must say, much of the exhibitions on the history of the bridge and its construction, on bridges around the world, and on the bridge hydraulics etc were lost on us, although my fiance indulged in the sciencey stuff. Sorry to say I let down the history side of things, but personally I was more taken with the view :)

We descended from the opposing tower to the one we had climbed - don't ask me which is which, I have no sense of left or right, or north, south, east, and west :P I am good with directions though, go figure! I digress... So, we then followed the exciting blue line along the pavement to the engine rooms, which were vaguely fascinating. At least, my fiance and my friend's husband seemed pretty interested in all the old equipment. My friend and I were disappointed with the lack of hands-on displays and toys to mess around with - the Science Museum it ain't, bah! Although there was some hands-on stuff right at the end, hooray! And to be fair, it is a fairly small museum.

It was then on to Mr Whippy ice-cream cone complete with flake by the river! This was a new novelty for me, as having grown up on the coast and near forests, I always associate Mr Whippys with those places. It's just not a London thing. Ah well, it was fun to be a London tourist for a couple of hours. We then reverted to the less touristy activity of a drink in the OXO Tower, looking across the river, and watching the world go by. I guess it's technically still spring, but hooray for beautiful summer afteroons spent with best friends :D As much as the city generally stresses me out on this occasion I couldn't have felt more relaxed.