London Olympics 6 August

It was an early start for our basketball session at Olympic Park at 9 am. There has been so much press about queues, and how busy public transport is, that it is going to be that it is hard to know how long it will take. We set off at 6:45am somewhat bleary eyed and picked up coffee and sandwiches before catching the train. Everyone who has Olympic tickets also gets free transport tickets which worked very well. It was 2 tube rides to get there, very straight forward and despite all the announcements on the train how busy Stratford station would be everything moved through very quickly. Going through security was like entering an airport. No liquids were allowed in and bags and people went through full scans. The army had been called in to take over the security as there were problems with the company supposed to be doing it. Having said all that, the volunteers and army were all very friendly and welcoming and at no stage did anyone feel unsure about where to go or what was going on. We had tickets for the basketball and were lucky enough to have Australia playing Russia. It was a crucial match for Australia, they needed to win and also score reasonably well, or they would be playing the USA in the next round. Russia hadn't lost a game yet and were on the top of the ladder whilst Australia having just lost to Spain and Brazil were 4th. The basketball stadium is a big white inflated square bubble, quite a walk from the gate. The main athletics stadium is the first thing you see as you enter the park with the big red lookout tower on the left. The other venues include the velodrome, hockey, swimming, BMX and handball centers. Its all very well laid out and sign posted. Beautiful flowers line the streets, all fairly wild looking and in the middle of the village in the river is a huge screen from which people can sit on the banks and watch events taking place live. The biggest McDonalds in the world is there as well as other eating and shopping venues. There are further security checks before we pass through into the basketball area. Inside is like the Rod Laver area with the court in the centre and seats all around it. We were mid way up behind the goals but could see very easily. Russia and Australia were both warming up and the commentators were giving outlines of the players and the teams and the rules of basketball. The Australian team looked quite small against the Russians. One of our players doesn't reach 6' and Patty Mills apparantely the best player is only just over 6'. There are 4 x 15 min quarters and the game starts right on time. Australia scores first and manages to retain the lead all the way through the game,except for once briefly, but it is a very close game and very exciting. During quarter time and time outs they have a presenter doing activities with the crowd who is very good. During half time they have some trampolinists doing tricks bouncing off the trampolines and scoring goals which is very impressive. During the last quarter, Australia is winning up until the last minute, but they have had 5 fouls which means that every time a player fouls Russia gets 2 shots. In the last 12 seconds, an Austalian player fouls and Russia scores both shots putting them one point ahead with 4 seconds to go.... Somehow Patty Mills who didn't seem to have a very good game managed to score a 3 pointer on the last second making Australia the winner by 2 points. An incredibly stressful but exciting finish. We couldn't have asked for a better game to watch. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to move Australia up the ladder and they still ended up playing the USA in the next round. The next match was Lithuania, number 5 in the world vs Tunisia. It wasn't as good a match, surprisingly Tunisia was winning up until 3/4 time when they then fell apart. Lithuania had a huge crowd supporting them which seemed to help them through. After the games we wandered around the village a bit, but it had become hugely crowded so getting into any of the activities involved huge queues, which we avoided. We had a picnic lunch before heading back to London, using a different route after some misleading information which then meant a very large walk. In London we met up briefly with Julie at Liverpool Street before heading to the London eye. This week London seems much busier and there were quite big queues for the eye, but Chris was not going to be put off. There is a 4D show about the eye before going on which the boys enjoyed. The eye itself provides spectacular views of London, including the Olympic venues and takes about 40 mins to go around. The weathers had cleared and it was now quite a clear late afternoon and the views are good. Another successful outing. Were all pretty tired by ghen but there is a playground nearby that the boys want to try out before heading back. We are back at Tooting by 7 in time for Deirdre's risotto and another night of Olympic viewing.

Location:London