Olympic Feast!

Following my Olympic debut in Coventry to see women's football i headed down to London last Wednesday to stay with my sister-in-law for a few days (who handily lives in East London). I had a ticket for the volleyball but also managed to get a ticket for the badminton too just before i went down. Ironically both of my events were in West & North London while i was staying East, still the Tube would be quiet...

First the volleyball at Earl's Court on Thursday. That was great fun, at school the only bit of sport i was ever any good at was serving in volleyball (though i was reasonable at badminton). It was interesting to see how different the serve is in proper volleyball to how we played at school, its served a lot faster and harder though my serves always got past the net, unlike some of these guys!

The spectator area was fun at Earl's Court, it included this rather awesome statue of a female volleyball player. I wish i could have something like this in my garden. As for the games i saw Russia vs Tunisia and Poland vs Argentina in the men's competition. The latter was a great game with a really hot atmosphere, it seemed like half of Poland was in the arena cheering their team on. There even was a Mexican Wave, which i joined in natch.

The second event was the next day and was the women's semi-finals and the mixed doubles bronze medal match in the badminton at Wembley Arena. An early start though crossing London was no problem (the tube got a lot busier later). Badminton was the sport i tried to get a ticket for in the original ticket ballot last year, i failed on that occasion but was lucky to get a ticket when some extra tickets were put up for sale last week. I love badminton so was really glad to see this event, it was good to see Wembley Arena too as i've only ever been there once before, to a Waylon Jennings concert oh... about 20 years ago...

The two singles games were good, both won by the Chinese natch. The mixed doubles match was won by Denmark defeating Indonesia though sparking scenes of joy in the arena. A full set of my photos from the various Olympic events i attended (and some other related images) can be seen here.

Everything was so well organised and everyone involved so helpful and professional, i couldn't help feeling pride at how Britain has took on the biggest event in the world and has basically smashed it.