Cousins/Cousines

Name:  Ruth

Blood Connection: third cousin - her great-grandfather and my great-grandfather were brothers - slate workers in Wales, the best of friends, and sad to part, one for a better life in the new world and one to remain with the familiar.

Personal Connection: I met her when I was a teenager, she became my theatre partner during all the years I lived in London.

Visiting Activities:

Watching the women's marathon

channeling our inner athlete



cheering on Team GB



walking along the Thames



at France house

Names: Toby and Laura

Blood Connection: third cousins once removed - the children of Ruth's brother and sister-in-law

Personal Connection: I remember them as babies and children on my visits to Yorkshire and theirs to Canada

Visiting Activities:

no longer little children



at Potters Fields Park watching the big screen

Toby the only one who could actually see above the crowds

Name: Hilary

Blood Connection: first cousin once removed - along with the lovely Ema, daughters of my only cousin on my mother's side
Personal Connection: have been intimately involved since birth



view of O2 from the AirLine

Emirates AirLine

Visiting Activities:  

At Women's wrestling in the ExCel centre

Hilary gets her Olympic experience

Team GB Fashion Choices

One thing that stuck me (and I mean that in a literal, what the ?, head-smacking kind of way) were the, shall we say, original ways the Union Jack design was used for draping supporters' during the Olympic Games.

  

Using the flag as a cape - well that's a no-brainer.  Not much originality there.

As a t-shirt or in a hat - a bit more interesting, but still rather tame.

I liked the man's bowtie I saw when standing next to him on the tube, a big boisterous man who had had a little too much Pimms and laughing very heartily with his colleagues for 2 stops before they went off to find another bolthole I suspect.  I wasn't in a position to photograph the tie, but I did think it was quite natty, if I might use such an archaic term. I do think a bowtie earns usage of such a word, especially when displaying two little flags in either side of a rotund set of chins.

But where the actual design of the Union Jack is deconstructed, then it got interesting.

It started with the athletes' costumes themselves, designed by Stella McCartney.

It looked wonderfull for little girl's dresses,

a little less so for bigger girl's dresses.


unless it was in a 1960s Carnaby Street mod kind of way in which case it worked just fine.

 

But it was absolutely ghastly for tights, especially when in a large font.

unless it's in a large font and worn with gold hotpants because that surely has to be worn tongue well planted in the cheek-like area. 

My thought is, if you are going to do it at all, do it with irony and do it proud.

Olympic Event #6 - Athletics/Track and Field

The seats were high, on the opposite side to the finish line and the hot sun blazed straight in our eyes.

It was great!

Olympic stadium is a huge creature, and some of the events we saw were like watching very strong and flexible ants doing odd things for ants. 

We saw Women's hammer final, Men's pole vault final (Olympic record), Men's 4x100 heats (Canada got into the final with the third fastest time, just behind Jamaica and USA - no one was more surprised than I), Women's 1500 , Men's 5000, Women's 4x100 final (a world record absolutely shattered by a full half a minute). 

But the prize has to be the Men's 4x400 final: the Bahamas beat the USA to win their first gold medal in track ever, a man missing both feet ran in the able-bodied Games  (Oscar Pistorius of South Africa)
Britain so very close to getting that 3rd place finish - the crowd was one huge roaring monster throughout.  And a couple of medal ceremonies, too (although for teeny tiny ant-like athletes)

Break out the magnifying glass -
women's 4x100 medla ceremony

hot enough in the sunshine - happy we didn't sit near the cauldron!

We even saw Waldo!

It was fitting that we watched the sun go down into a gold washed sky as the sun went down on our Olympic experience with Britain overachieving spectacularly.  Well done Team GB.

Olympic Event #5 - Diving

I jumped off the tall tower at my local swimming pool about 5 times in total, and never after the age of 10.  It's not that I am afraid of heights exactly - it was more being able to imagine far too vividly whatg could go wrong.

In each case I crept to the concreteedge nervously, holding my hands to my chin, looking down atthe water at least 100 feet down, and hesitating until the shame of not jumping moved me to the inevitable closed-eye drop, the inelegant splash and the desperate kick up to the surface before my lungs died of air deprivation, the large amount taken in having being removed the minute I hit the water.

It was only the feeling of exhilaration and the pride of having done it and survived that had me do it again at all.

Teeny Tiny Competitors for the Women's 10m Platform Diving Olympic Final

It all came back to me as we climbed 8000 stairs on a warm, muggy night, the smell of chlorine hitting my nose. Especially when we finally reached our seats and looked down at the high diving board at the Olympic pool, a board that looked as far away as the water had looked to me all those years ago.

Our seats!

That these woman can do what they do in about 2 tiny seconds again and again is heroic to me.  I will applaud their talents and stick to doing laps.

Olymic Rings under Water

There's Waldo

If anyone wants to know where Waldo is, he was spotted in section 233 at the Olympic Stadium in London, England on Friday night.

Carol Huynh waved to me!

Months and months and months ago, whenever there was a new block of Olympic tickets released, we would immediatley log on and see what was available, how much it cost, and did we want to see it.  The day Women's Wrestling came up our first thought was 'no, not interested'.

And then we remembered - BC girl Carol Huynk was the current Olympic gold medal holder and would be in London to defend her title.

That win of hers in Bejing 2008 was memorable, being Canada's first gold that year, but also for her genuine surprise and delight.  In every interview she was utterly charming. 

But it's her back story that really brings her to the foreground of our memory.

Carol's  parents were so called "boat people" who fled Vietnam and arrived in Canada as refugees, settling in small town New Hazelton because members of the United Church there sponsored her.  Those members were a Dr. and Mrs. Muir.  And Mrs. Muir was my adored grade one and two teacher!  I only found this out by accident about a year and a half ago when Dr. Muir received his Order of BC award.

So - Carol and I are practically sisters!

The end of this chapter is we saw her earn an Olypmic Bronze medal for Canada. As she left the award ceremony she waved to the clusters of Canadian flags and "Go Carol Go" shirts.  We were sitting apart from these, but as she passed she looked up and saw my Canada t-shirt and waved  to me, smiling that radiant smile of hers.

Olympic Event #3 - Football

One of the reasons I love the Olympic Games is that a Canadian can watch a soccer game in England between Mexico and Japan.  And cheer for both.

A capacity crowd saw this semi-final in the new Wembley stadium - which an insightful friend has dubbed the (shopping basket). 

It's the first time I've been here and it is a vast space, seating more than 82,000, and its size is particularly impressive when viewed from a low seat at one end.

A good tight first half, but Mexico clearly had more gas in the tank in the second half and won 3-1.

Another reason I love the Olympics happened after the game, as we continued to sit in our seats to let the crowds disipate.  I saw a Mexican supporter, done up in stereotypical poncho and sombrero and with huge but very real moustaches, pointedly crossing the row of seats to get to two young Japanese supporters, also clothed in stereotypical Japanese garb, and shake their hand, then give them a hug.  The Japnese bowed and shook hands back.  Photos were taken.  More hugs and big smiles from all. 

 

And that, Charlie Brown, is what the Olympics are all about.