Olympic Golf Musings

Today (Wednesday 17th August 2016) was spent at the first day of Women's Olympic Golf and a very nice day it has been too. We got to the venue a bit before 11am. First impressions weren't that impressive - a lot of gravel and a lot of sand. Further on to the actual course it was quite a bit nicer. We quickly realised this was going to be one of the quietest venues we will get to and we took some time for photos by these rings. 

We made it to the first tee for the second to last group. We were glad to see there were other spectators there. But after a while we realised a good proportion, maybe even more than half, of the people watching were wearing some sort of accreditation - we could have been in the minority for actually paying for our tickets! 

I realised quickly that this was going to be a massive contrast to basketball yesterday. There the mood was make as much noise as possible and there was a DJ mixing tunes. Here there was a list of Do's and Don'ts on the big screen including something like do applaud a good shot in an appropriate manor but don't mockingly applaud or jeer a bad shot. The upshot was that I was scared into not doing anything! But after a while I started to enjoy the quiet of the day. 

The final group came out which included the Brit we would be supporting, Charley Hull. She was also with a Swede and a Kiwi (odd bunch of food!). For some reason I didn't really warm to Charley, which is very unfair on her as she did nothing wrong to deserve my reaction and it definitely says more about me than her. Something about her seemed a bit blingy to me. Which was again odd, as I thought very positively towards the golfers clothes in general thinking how modest and comfy they were compared to other sports and even deciding that some of them I could even imagine wearing myself! I also really liked the golf bags finding them very stylish. 

Another early realisation was how hard I found it to see the ball after they had hit it! Fortunately either I got better at following it as the day went on, or I just stood in better positions for better angles. I was thinking it was going to be rather a frustrating day if I never saw where the ball went. Also, at least the sky was blue which we guessed might make it easier to see. 

There were quite a few ropes around the course so that we didn't walk on the fairway or greens. Sometimes ropes were dropped so we could pass, or ropes were held up so players could get from one hole to another. All in all it wasn't always clear to us where to go to follow the action. We were trying to get to the second green but had reached another area of scrubland beach and as the sixth green was just next to us we decided to stop there and wait for Charley's group to catch up. This turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the day. It was hot all day but fortunately there was usually a gentle breeze. We sat by the green's rope on a slight incline and it was really interesting to watch the other groups arrive, play and move on. We got to see the different size of each groups spectators and entourage. We got to see a lot of putting and also see what the games makers got up to in between groups. Their main job was to hold up the 'Quiet Please' signs as each golfer took their shot. I liked the way they lifted their arms and I had an inward titter at those who seemed to be enjoying their importance - and also their turmoil when someone was walking by making a noise but they themselves couldn't make a noise to shush them; they just had to stare and point their arms intently!

Another interesting observation while we waited was looking at the caddies. I liked picking up clues on the various relationships between caddies and players. There were some female caddies but most seemed to be men. I never did quite work out what they kept in their bib pockets. Both caddies and players got out their notebooks after each hole. I wonder if they were making notes for tomorrow's round or checking up on the next hole. 

We picked up the final group and followed them around to the end, only maybe missing a green or a tee off if there was an out and back on a couple of holes. I was surprised how often the three players would hit to within few metres of each other's balls. I guess if you're a pro and know where it's best for the ball to go then you can hit it right there. 

Charley seemed to us to miss quite a few birdie opportunities later on but finished the day three under, three shots off the leader so all pretty good. The biggest thrill of the day was the Kiwi getting a hole in two on a par four. We were where she hit it from so didn't see it go in but heard the cheer. The Swede had been leading the group for most of the time but then had a bad end to the round dropping right off. 

My summary of the day was that it was relaxed. I had to keep reminding myself that these were Olympic athletes, playing in the Olympics, as they seemed quite regular and relaxed to me. And for us it was a delightfully relaxed day. We walked a little bit, then would stop for a while for three players to eye up their shots and take them, then we'd walk a bit more and often have a sit down at a green. How pleasant! I looked at my watch at one point and was shocked to discover it was already ten to three. By the time I got round to asking John what time he thought it was, it had already leapt without my realising it to quarter to four (John guessed 2 o'clock). The next time I checked on the way to the 18th, another 55 minutes had happened and it was twenty to five. Thanks golf for a nice day. Not dramatic but pleasant!

Day One of our Olympic Action 2016

Well I didn't think I'd be blogging again so soon, but day 1 of Olympic events has been so super that I want to record all about it. 

We set off just gone 8 and it took a couple of hours to get to the Equestrian Centre, or I'm thinking of adopting the Brazilian name which seems more fun: Centro Olimpico de Hipismo. We were in time to see the first Brit performing. I remembered pretty quickly, that I don't really know a thing about Dressage. When the scores came up at the end of a routine, it was always quite a surprise to me to see how they scored - I couldn't tell at all whether a routine looked good or not. I was just happy marvelling and wondering how you ever teach a horse to dance! We did comment that we could have done with one of the two Emma's to improve our horse knowledge!

It was very hot in the stadium and we were imagining how unpleasant it will seem if it's the same for the triathletes on Thursday. Sadly for the competitors, the stadium was pretty empty. But the fact that it was unreserved seating meant we were able to move around and choose our seats where there was a bit of a breeze. We also moved sides of the arena just before the end to get a good view of the medal ceremony. 

We had an entertaining moment when we got our the Union Jack we had been carrying around South America... only to find it was actually a New Zealand flag!! Whoops!

The tension increased as the final 6 competitors took the arena, including Charlotte Dujardin on Valegra. I thought her routine looked more ordinary, but as I said I knew nothing as she leaped into the lead with an amazing score!! 

There were four competitors after her so we had a nervous wait to see if and what medal she would get and it was absolutely fantastic that she got the gold! I really enjoying the medal ceremony and we're pleased the horses were there too. It was great to hear and sing along to the national anthem at our very first event. I almost got teary when they did their lap of honour. 

We were dashing out of the stadium to get across the city to the Barra Olympic Park to get to the Velodrome. But we were stopped just outside and asked if we could do an interview for Sky Radio. We obliged and apparently Sky Radio is used by several commercial radio stations - anyone hear us?! 

We just had time to eat a sandwich before heading in to the cycling. It felt wonderful being in the arena and seeing just how steep the track is. Again it wasn't full which was a shame. I remember hearing that the velodrome at London recorded one of the highest decibel crowds but for much of today's event the noise and atmosphere was pretty low. It didn't stop is having an amazing time in our incredible seats - four rows from the front very close to the start line and next to the press. I could even see the stubble of Mark Cavendish as he came past - that's how close we were! All so exciting. 

Some Brits came to sit next to us. We got chatting and they turned out to be the friends and family of Richard Hounslow, silver medalist from the Canoe Slalom. Not long after he turns up and sits behind! He seems a very nice man and I had a very interesting time eavesdropping as he talked about 'partying with Bradley!' At the end of the session we plucked up courage to ask for a photo and he kindly obliged: 

The first several events we watched all seemed very calm and we were chatting away to our new neighbours. But then the final of the omnium came - Mark Cavendish's chance to get an Olympic medal at last. It was the points race which turns out to be the most stressful thing ever. I'm glad it was 160 laps as it took me a while to understand just what was going on but oh was it tense and then there were the guns and bells! Fortunately we had a performance of the UCI behind us who was explaining to her neighbour what was going on! There was a horrible crash and the Korean athlete was stretchered off in front of us. It was quite horrible and made me feel so much worse for the rest of the race. 

After this some new people came to sit next to John and he started explaining to them what goes on in a Points Race. I half listened and thought, 'he sounds quite like Matt Baker'. A while later John managed to sort of whisper to me, 'do you know who that is' and it turned out that it was indeed Matt Baker himself!! He said he was having a break from the Gymnastics where he'd spent most of his time. We cheered on together to the end of the race: 'don't let him catch you, lad', being our favourite Yorkshire phrase!! 

I was absolutely delighted that Cavendish got his silver medal. We got to see our second ceremony of the day featuring a Brit. What a great start to our Olympic experience!   

A funny thing about today was not knowing what else was going on all day at the Olympics and not knowing whether we were still ahead of China in the medal table! 

After the cycling we just had time to wander across the Olympic Park and get an ice cream before arriving at the Future Arena for the handball. We didn't know who would be playing but we had heard the atmosphere was great when Brazil were playing. We had... Croatia vs Tunisia. But I was still really pleased to be there and I think it's quite fun to learn about a sport while watching it be played live. It was interesting to see how the two referees worked and the rolling substitutions were fascinating to watch, especially when the goalie was subbed off when the team was attacking and then had to run back to his goal as the ball went up their end!

My limited match report: Tunisia made it much more interesting in the second half but couldn't overcome the deficit they created for themselves in the first half. 

Then it turned out there was a second match. And it was the next best thing to Brazil - it was Argentina vs Qatar which meant all the Brazilians in the audience were cheering crazily for Qatar!! I wonder if they've ever had so much support?! 

There were many chants of: O-lay, olay olay olah... Qatar... Qatar!! And plenty of booing for Argentina, although they had many of their own supporters so it made for an incredibly lovely atmosphere - quite different from our first two events. I was anxious when the anthems were sung before play, but fortunately the loudest and most raucous section of Brazilians next to us managed to shush the booing during the Argentinian anthem. 

So it has been such a brilliant day at the Olympics. I've loved it all and am home just before midnight. Quite incredible. Thanks Rio and Team GB! 

Arriving at the Olympics 2016

We are both very excited about starting the Olympic leg of our year, although sad it's the final stage. We are spending the day in Panama for flight reasons and then heading in to Rio on Sunday morning. 

We haven't seen all that much of the first week action - partly due to spending 4 days of it on the Inca Trek. We did excitedly manage to see some of the Opening Ceremony, the night before we started the trek, although it was a tricky start. We had heard the hotel we would be staying at didn't have televisions in the rooms. When we walked in though there was a big TV in the lobby, although it was pointed out that it was unplugged and indeed through a combination of gestures the lady behind the desk got the message across that it didn't work. 

Someone said that the sweet shop round the corner had a TV showing it so we lurked there for a little while until it just became weird! 

We then headed to the main square to peer in the restaurants and bars looking for one with a TV. In the corner of the square, rather hidden we found a small restaurant with a big TV whose lady was willing to switch from TLC to ESPN for us. We ordered a Sprite and a beer and she went out to buy them from somewhere else to serve to us! 

We got in a good hour of footage, making up our own interpretations of the dancing as our Spanish has not reached a level to understand what the commentators were saying. We saw the start of the countries coming out and then went to join the rest of our tour group for dinner - delightfully for us it turned out we had our own room with a tv so we could carry on watching! It was fun wondering what the name of our nation was in Portuguese to know when we would be coming out! 

While on the trek each of our group predicted how many medals their nation would have won when we were back in wifi land. We finished the trek and spent a few hours before catching the train in a lovely comfy restaurant and big sofas with a tv and four Olympics channels. It was just what my brain wanted to settle into in my body's exhausted state. 

From then on, we have caught bits of coverage on tv. We are quite up on how the South American countries are doing. We had watched quite a bit of the cycling time trial, with Chris Froome about a minute away from finishing when ESPN switched to watching Argentina in the volleyball! And can you guess who the biggest star is of the Olympics in Argentina? Well we feel it's Juan Martin Del Potro in the tennis, as seemingly every 10 minutes a banner has appeared on the screen telling us when his next match is!! Some of the South American countries seem big in to their handball so we have watched quite a lot of that which has been useful in learning what's going on before we are there watching it on Monday. 

So we arrive in Rio on Sunday morning and are going to go in search of new tickets. The stadiums don't look very full, but we are not sure how easy (or expensive) it will be to buy them there. Even if we don't get any extra we are still excited by the events we will be seeing:

Monday night, midnight UK - handball

Tuesday,  6.30pm UK - basketball

Wednesday all afternoon/evening - women's golf

Thursday, 3pm - no tickets but planning to cheer on the Brownlees in the men's triathlon (we have our Yorkshire glad ready to wave!)

Friday, 1pm UK - canoe sprint

Saturday - same again for cheering on the women's triathlon (3pm) and then we have tickets for the athletics at night (midnight UK), hoping that Mo stays fit and shines in the 5000m. 

So as it stands, don't strain your eyes looking for us too closely in the crowds on the tv! 

Then we leave on Sunday getting back to the UK on Monday 22nd August. 

Recipe - Yam Dhal

We found this recipe in a magazine in Fiji and tried it last night. It seemed very nice though also quite like JG curry which we love. We used sweet potatoes instead of yams. Thought I'd put the photo on here before I deleted the photo. 

This photo was also there so thought I'd add it too! 

Sherlock Holmes

I am quite a crime mystery reading fan. While in Uganda we watched some Sherlock tv programmes and it got me thinking about the books and I realised I had downloaded the entire books on to my England so I started reading. But I didn't want to read them all particularly and I was excited to find this on the Wikipedia entry. 

This became the list I worked through and read. 

Where I'd like to live

For some strange reasons I've started to think more about where I'd like to live in the country in the time to come. I really love the flat we live in now and Oxford is nice enough but I don't feel committed there for life. It's handily a good distance to London and equidistant to our families - all close to two hours. I remember when it came to applying for teaching jobs that it was exciting that I could go anywhere in the country (although when it actually came down to it, the 'whole country' was a bit too much to be trawling through for job adverts!). 

I was walking down a village road during our month return, looking at the houses and got a thrill thinking 'I don't know what sort of house we'll end up living in'. It was a fun feeling of not knowing what's to come. 

Here I will write a little of my house of dreams - on the understanding that it may well be a long way from reality. I love our open plan kitchen and living area and would only maybe like to add a little reception room that could be a library. How nice it would be to have a book shelf lined room with a couple of cosy chairs in it - I love those snuggler swivel chairs. Maybe even that could be a TV snug. I'd also like to have a wall in a room somewhere covered in people photos and I'd also ideally like to have a shell themed/decorated room. 

We also had a bit of a realisation on the sort of town I would like to live in. It came as we were crawling through Oxford on the park and ride. It was in stark contrast to driving through the centre of Malvern the day before with not a hold up. I started do come up with a bit of a criteria and decided that small town is the ideal size. This is what it would ideally include:

- ability to drive through the centre at most times of day

- Easy parking - no multi-storey car park - I'm thinking that might be the sign of a too big town. 

- Shops where you can buy most things that you'd want on a weekly basis. They don't have to be big brand shops but I wouldn't like to be in a shopless village I've decided. 

- Train line would be handy.

- A theatre would be awesome! 

- I'd ideally like to be able to walk in to town on the odd occasion - half an hour or so would be fine. 

- Maybe a swimming pool. 

These are the places that I wondered might fit (not that we necessarily want to live in these parts of the country, just that they maybe fit these criteria): Malvern, Evesham, Melton Mowbray and oddly Didcot (but I just don't think I'd want to live there somehow - maybe I'll have to refine my criteria!). 

So there are my little musings. I don't know if any will actually come true, or even if in the end I'd want them to come true, but they are written there so I can look back on in years to come. 😀 

County Count - to finish

Today (Wednesday 22nd June) we went to Lincoln and had a very nice day.  I was thinking that it might well be the first time I had been to Lincolnshire.  While we were travelling, something made me wonder how many counties I had been to and if it would be a nice little challenge to visit them all.  But to be honest I couldn't think of any English counties but Lincolnshire that I hadn't been to!  I thought I would do some research and make a list of times I've visited counties on here.

Turns out... it's not that easy to get a list of counties.  I found this article from the BBC: 'The baffling map of England's counties' and apparently you can talk about historic counties, ceremonial counties and administrative counties.  According to wikipedia there are 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties in England and 48 ceremonial counties and 48 postal counties.  I feel temped just to talk about cricket counties! I was going to do counties in the whole of the UK, but that now sounds rather daunting, although I think from my research that counties may be a little less confusing in the rest of the UK.  I have definitely not been to many of the Welsh, Scottish or Irish counties.  I think maybe I'll just make my own list of counties that I like the names of...

It's now (Monday 27th June) getting a little close to when we are off travelling again and I have quite of list of blog posts I want to try to write so I'm going to leave this post now and hopefully come back to it with the list in later days. 😀