Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Opals go down

I got up at 5.45am yesterday and did another 15kms along the Thames, my hotel (City Hotel) is only 1.3kms from the river, I will run either bank and change directions each day. I walked to the Westfields shopping centre about 6k from my hotel, to meet david from NSW Institute of sport who had a tiket for the Opals game, I hope to get a few more tickets thru him. I then went thru security to get into the Olympic park where there about 9-10 venues, Swimming, basketball, cycling etc. You can't get into this area unless you have a ticket. I managed to but a nice blue polo Olypic shirt from the sore here. I still had to walk about 3-kms to get to the basketball stadiu at the top of the park. TheOpals match was at 2.30pm, I got in about 2pm, the stadium was about 60%full, but a sell-out, the tickets issue is just terrible, empty seats but you can't buy tickets. I sat in a area with about 15-20 other Aussies, Andy from the Hamish& andy show was there, a really nice guy, he wanted a photo with me and I obliged. The game - the Opals were there own worst enemy today, they had a shocker against France, turnover after turnover, their foul shooting kept them in the game, at one stage 17 from 17, there was no cohesion in their play, Lizziw cambage had a good spell late in the first half, but teh 2nd half, she was just not into the game. Then Belinda Snells miracle shot back from halfway put them into overtime, after twice France should have iced the game. With Lauren & Liz fouled out, they were going to struggle in the extra 5 mins, and they did. I think Carrie Graf needs to go back and have a look at her Match ups and her player rotations, she was out coached today. I might be able to get tickets to a couple of the mens basketball game but maybe not until saturday, I may go and watch the womes tri saturday and marathon sunday.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Olympic Tennis

I went to Wimbledon today to watch the Tennis, the weather wasnt looking good, I had a ticket for Court 1, only the Centre court has a roof. The first match on court 1 was Djokvic V Fabio Finggi... of Italy, it started late after some early rain, we managed to get thru 6-7 games before it rained again, they were off an hour before they camw back then we got to 6 all in the first set and 7all in the Tiebreak ebfore rain stopped play again, about an hour later they were already to start again after it stopped raining for awhile before it started again. I went home at 6 after it didn't look like they. With the Tennis, it officially became the 7th Summer Olympics in a row that I Have been to and watched sport at.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Made it to London

After a great 5 days in Hamilton Island, I flew out from there to Brisbane on friday, then had an Emerates flight via Dubai. At Dubai it was pleasant inside the Airport but outside it was 38C at 5am, thats hot. I landed in London Heathrow today (monday) around lunchtime, I was picked up at the airport by a driver and then taken to my hotel - City Hotel just around the corner from the East Algate Tube station, about 7kms from the main Olympic area.