Olympics 2012

 This story was written by my niece and included some superb photos, but I haven't worked out how to copy them from adobe. Help.

                                                                                  Oh Wow!!!

Before I even start my story, I must give my utmost thanks to Imad for letting me take a couple of

hours holiday, and to Bren for getting the tickets in the first place, and making one of my all time

dreams come true!!!!!

Mmmmmmm……….How to start?

Well, as you may know………………and if you didn’t before, you do now……….. I was born on 29th February, Leap Year, and as you are all aware 29th Feb only occurs once every four years, as does the Olympic games. Putting this together (I was only quite young at the time) I worked it out that if the Olympic games were only held every 4 years and that was in MY real birthday year then they must have been put on just for me. Perfectly logical when you think about it! Anyway, as this year (2012) is both my

real birthday year and the Olympic games are also being held; you see I am right!!!!!!!

Thursday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and after showering and dressing drove to work for

yet another long day at the office! Well, it should have been a long day at the office, but after

pleading with the boss I managed to prevail on his good nature and get him to let me take a couple of

hours holiday and so leave early for the day. Didn’t go quite as I’d planned but I did get home earlier

than usual, and after getting ready I drove round to Bren’s house to pick her up, for that evening we

were on our way for the BIG adventure…………………..we were going to London 2012 to watch the

Olympics!!!!!

Stuffing the car full of pillows rugs and other bits and pieces, we started our drive down to London

to meet with Bren’s nephew to pick the tickets up. We made good time and at obout 9 o’clock arrived

at Notting Hill for our meet. We did have look around whilst waiting for the nephew to arrive but

didn’t meet up with Julia Roberts nor Hugh Grant. We stood outside a church in the dark waiting for

the meet, two shady looking characters we must have looked. “I recognise that walk”, Bren suddenly

piped up…….we walked towards the man walking towards us……………..Nope………..it wasn’t the nephew, but it was a male, so at least she’d got that bit right! A couple of minutes later, out of the dark haze of the night (poetic license here!) we saw another figure looming out of the smog (OK so it was a

beautiful summers evening, it was in old London town!) Déjà vu……….” I recognise that walk” says a

voice beside me and all of a sudden, this young man with definite shades of the Williams gene walked

into view, an envelope in hand.

Hugs, introductions, more hugs and goodbyes and me, Bren and the tickets were on our way

Ohhhhhh Yes!……….…Tickets!……………

We made our way out of London and on to the M4 where we found the Heston Services. We had a

drink and some supper, whilst having supper, I made the most of the Free Wi-Fi and did a search to

see if we could find any Olympic Park tickets up for grabs. No such luck, but with tickets already

clutched in our grubby little mitts we didn’t really mind too much. By now it was gone midnight and so

with a very early start in the morning, we made our way back to the car to get some sleep. Yes, we

could have stayed at the Travelodge at the service station, yes, we could have stayed at any other

B&B, hotel or anywhere with friends or family……………….but Hey……..where’s the excitement in that,

when the alternative is to stretch out on reclining seats in the comfort of your own car! I always

sleep well in my car………………Hmmmmmpf……..not this time though! My restless legs were practising

for the Olympic high jump or long jump…….in fact, more like the triple jump! But eventually I got

comfortable and just started to doze off when a particularly spectacular ‘jump’ on the part of my left

leg started the car alarm off. Well Damn me…….I honestly never knew I had a car alarm…………..but at

least I know now! After a few minutes fumbling with the car keys, I managed to switch the thing off

and so settled down again for a night's sleep………………I would just like to say, that I know Bren said

she heard the alarm, but believe me, she never even twitched when it went off, same steady snoring

throughout!!!

A couple of hours later it was time to get up and start the BIG adventure of the day. We nipped

back into the service station and got a quick wash and then, with the excitement building, we drove on

to the start of our Olympic journey, Upton Court Park and Ride!

There were only about 50 cars in front of us so parking up was quite easy, we then got what we

wanted to take with us and made our way to the buses ready to take us to

for the Rowing.

After a short bus ride, one which when looking out of the side windows took us past Windsor Castle,

I did try to photo the castle, but not timing it very well I managed to photo clumps of trees…..well, I

never did claim to be a photographer!.........we arrived at Windsor Racecourse which was to be the

start of our walk to the Olympic grandstands.

The walk from the buses along the racecourse was our longest walk, but it was such a well organised

walk with volunteers cheerily calling good morning and thoroughly enjoying themselves it didn’t feel

long, and in the lovely early morning sun we wandered happily along seeing boats moored on the river,

and other bits and pieces including Wenlock, arguably he worst Olympic mascot ever designed!

Guess which was Wenlock?!?!?!?

We got to the food area about half an hour before the gates to the stands were opened (races

started at 9:30) so joined in with the huge queue and stood in line for breakfast baps.

Feeling much refreshed after our breakfast and with the gates now having opened, we made our way

into the viewing area, a short walk away. Here there were lots to see and do with more food and

drink stands, souvenir stands and other interesting things to look at, buy or do. I also feel it’s worth

a mention of how clean the whole site was/is and more importantly, the unbelievably clean loos. 10 out

of 10 there! Here are a few images of what we could see before we took our seats in the stands.

We took our seats in the Grandstand…………………and what seats…………..we were overlooking the finish line! Better seats just couldn’t have been found.

And then it was the start of the races. First up battling for 31st 32nd and 33rd place in the single

sculls were Niger, Cameroon and Tunisia. Niger came in last by over a minute and a half, but the

cheers that went up for him you’d think he’d won the gold medal. By the way, the diagonal line

running across the water is the finish line.

The next couple of heats for the single sculling went on, but then a cross wind got up, so they decided

to put a hold on the racing for half an hour, so we thought we’d stretch our legs a bit and go for a

walk along the whole course. Some of the races did take place whilst we were walking but we were

back in our seats for the Team GB Medals.

Our first medal came with a Bronze in the Men's Pairs, our men just being pipped into third place

It was now time for the BIG race of the day……….well, the BIG race of the day for Team GB anyway.

I can honestly say, that after this race, I wasn’t sure whether I’d just lost my voice from the

shouting, or whether I’d gone deaf from the cheering! What cheering there was. It was amazing, if you can imagine a 2 kilometres line made up of thousands of people and at the far end is the race

start, as the boats get under way, the cheering starts, it then works its way along the line rather like

a Mexican wave, until all of a sudden, the boats are in sight and are racing hell for leather to the

finish line, the cheering has now reached us, and the crescendo is phenomenal. What an experience,

if cheering and willpower alone were enough, every race would have been a gold medal for Team GB!!!

But for the big race to the victor goes the spoils and these girls deserved every bit of their gold medals!

And then, the very last race, the last heat of the men's single sculls, Team GB got another Bronze

medal. This time, I’m sure the cheering and shouting carried Alan Campbell over that line into third

place.

What an absolutely fantastic, magnificent……..words totally fail me to describe the experience of the

day. Why, oh why, did I decide when the tickets first came on sale, that they were too expensive

and that I didn’t want to spend that amount of money when I probably wouldn’t see anything anyway.

Who cares, the atmosphere makes up for all of that!!!!!

Just look at the crowds……….and who though patriotism was dead!

A HUGE thank you to my best mate of the moment BRENDA WILLIAMS