The Olympics are consuming the house… tv watching, continual discussion and debate, and evengoing to the Olympics…. but more of that later.

On the day of the Olympic opening ceremony (a week last Friday), Tricia, Ellie, Rob and myself went to a wedding. Trica’s sisters step daughter (if you follow all that) was getting married for a second time. It was quite an emotional occasion, in a Baptist church in Brackley, about 30 minutes away from us. It was nice to see everybody and catch up… but we didn’t stay late as we all wanted to watch the Olympic opening ceremony. Which we all enjoyed, I thought that as a celebration of English tradition and nuances it was quite good, although I am not sure that the wider world would have understood all the subtle, and perhaps less subtle references. The march on of the athletes seemed to last forever, Robbie however enjoyed seeing all the flags!

Some pics from the wedding… Les taking Sara up the aisle, Ellie and Rob, Tricia and Lesley, and then Tricia and me.

And so to the Olympics…. The first Olympics I remember watching were the Mexico 1968 Olympics. I remember seeing tv footage of David Hemery winning the hurdles. I would have been 7. I love the Olympics. Ellie has been absolutely taken with the whole event, particularly the gymnastics – the mens team are her heroes . Rob is not really interested in sport, but even he has taken a passing interest. On Thursday Nikki and I went to see Olympic boxing…. I remember Sugar Ray Leonard boxing at the 1976 Olympics, and here I was watching real live Olympic boxing.

I worked at our Docklands Data Centre in the mornming, and then went over to the ExCel arena at lunchtime, and met Nikki, who travelled up from Bath. The organisation was very smooth, and there was a terrific atmosphere. We saw 4 lightweight and 4 middleweight bouts, including Anthony Ogogo who edged out the world no.1. Some pics from the boxing…. including me and Nikki, wearing my union jack waistcoat

Then Friday morning, Tricia, me, Nikki and Ellie all went off to see the opening morning of athletics in the Olympic stadium.  It was fantastic… bit of a crush on the Jubilee Line, due to issues on the Central Line, but we got out at West Ham, and walked the 20 minutes to the Olympic Park. Breathtaking… after years of watching Olympic athletics, there I was in the flesh watching it…. I had to work in the afternoon, but as the office was only a short distance away it was no problem, but I enjoyed every moment of it, and got to see Jess Ennis run a brilliant sprint hurdles… Tricia and Ellie went around the park looking at the venues, and I met them at Marylebone about 6pm. Nikki stayed into the evening as she had tickets to the handball. A big well done to all those who organised…. Some piccies…

In the evening Rob and I went out to see the new Batman film, which was ok (but nothing more)… Today has been a relatively quiet day at home, watching the …er, Olympics, brilliant from the Rowers, and the Cyclists, and hopefully we weill be celebrating a gold for Jess Ennis later. Off out to Pat and Clive’s for dinner this evening.