VIPs at the Library :-)

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Friday was a very exciting day in my Library. We had a visit from the Children's Laureate - Julia Donaldson!  Her term runs from June 2011 until June 2013 and she follows the six previous CLs: Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen and Anthony Browne.
She arrived a 9am with her husband Malcolm. They met while at University and he was a medic. They have had quite an exciting life together, they live in Glasgow now, but did live in Paris where they used to busk on the streets.

Julia Donaldson arrives at Silverdale

 Lots of media people arrived early too, including someone from Radio Stoke, 6 Towns Radio, The Sentinel and Liz Copper from BBC Midlands Today - with her camera crew. They interviewed Julia, Malcolm and some of the children after the event. Even I was interviewed for some online page - I'm not sure where that would appear though!

Liz Copper drinking tea in my Library!

Julia looked pleases by the display that Tracy and Silverdale Primary had put together. There was lots of the children's work, photographs and they had even made crowns for Julia and Malcolm to wear. They did oblige at the end of the session and were photographed in them, with the teachers.

Malcolm had brought his guitar and a huge suitcase full of props - we wondered what kind of performance we were about to witness!

The children from two classes (about 60 of them!) arrived just before 10am, excited and chattering - but extremely well-behaved when the teachers asked them to do anything. They formed them into rows facing down the library, a teacher plugged in a boombox and when Julia had been introduced by Patrick Corfield - a Cabinet member from Staffordshire County Council, they sang a song for her that they had learned specially. It was from her book "Room on the Broom"



Julia and the grown-ups listening to Room on the Broom

 Some of them had costumes and masks and Julia was particularly impressed with a cat-shaped cauldron bag that one of the teachers had made. In fact she wanted to take it home and use it as a handbag - but she did give it back at the end :-)

Then it was time for Julia to talk to the children. She asked them how much they thought it would cost if she took a book home for her baby brother (Picking one out of the kinder box), and horror story for her teenage sister (taking one off the shelves) and another book for herself. (Taking one of her own books off the display)

Lots of hands went up - and the first guess was £10. "No" she said "It's cheaper than that! Another hand up "£8?" "No - it's cheaper than that!" This went on until we got down to 10p. "Even cheaper than 10p" she said. At last someone put up their hand and got it right "Nothing?" - "That's right! Nothing!" Then she asked me and Tracy how many books they could take out and she was amazed when we replied "As many as you want!" It was great that she asked how many of them had library tickets - only about half put up their hands though. Maybe we'll get a few more recruits after this event!



Monkey Puzzle in action!

 She then taught the children a new song of hers called "The Breathing Song" while Malcolm played guitar and we all did the sound effects. She then got everyone on their feet pretending to be animals so that she could pick out children to act out the story Monkey Puzzle. In fact one of the teachers turned out to be the best elephant - so she got the role!

Julia is passionate about getting kids to act out the books as well as just read them. They had a monkey puppet  as well as a butterfly and the performance really brought the book alive. There was lots of chance for audience participation too! Eventually the little monkey was reunited with his mum - so there was a happy ending.



The display by the children

 My favourite story was The Wrong Kind of Bark, which involved a boy called Finley who didn't listen to his teacher properly. Julia asked the teachers who among the classes had a good strong voice. A little boy called Harry was chosen and he was great! He found the story absolutely hilarious and really played it well. What a star!

Some of the others got to play children in the story too. Julia was pretending to be the teacher setting up a nature table in the class. She changed the main character's name to Harry just for today :-) The first day she talked at length about flowers and then asked the class to bring in any kind of flower the next day. When she asked Harry what she had just said - he could only remember the last three words "kind of flower"
So the next day the children bring in pretty flowers (supplied by Malcolm behind the scenes!) and Harry come in with a bag of flour! The teacher asks him what on earth he's brought that for and he says "You said "any kind of flour!" That was our cue to say "But that's the wrong kind of flower"
The next day it is nuts - and Harry brings nuts and bolts, "That's the wrong kind of nut!"
and the final day it is meant to be something from a tree like "a kind of bark" Children bring in an apple, a twig and some bark - then along comes Harry (in fits of giggles by now) with Malcolm on all fours with a collar and lead on - barking. "That's the wrong kind of bark!!"
There was uproar at this - and everyone was laughing! It was very funny :-)
Then she taught them another song where they all had to wander round the library pretending they were pushing supermarket trolleys. It was great!


Personalised book

 She then got Malcolm to put another chair next to hers - which she called "The Question Chair" - and invited the children to come up if they had a question to ask her. There were some very interesting ones - she was encouraged to write by her parents, her teachers and especially Malcolm, She has written 165 books! We also discovered that her favourite book from those that she had written were the ones featuring Princess Mirror-belle, because she is a bit naughty!

After that she signed books for everyone who had bought one, which took a good half an hour. I got one for Nathan - Tabby McTat.  Tracy bought one too! Then the children got back in their pairs and crocodiled off back to school.



Malcolm entertains the children as they wait to leave















Julia and Malcolm then did some more interviews including one with Liz Copper that appeared on Midlands Today later in the day. They had filmed quite a lot of the performance so were excited to find out how much they would show on the telly. You could catch Tracy and me behind the counter during some of it!

She posed for more photographs then around 12 noon she left to go to Macclesfield to meet the mayor. The next stop on her country-wide tour.



Malcolm gets interviewed too!




Julia signing books



Talking to Radio Stoke

Filming for Midlands Today

What a great morning it was - and quite a coup for Silverdale. Well done to the children of Silverdale Primary School for writing such wonderful letters that Julia chose to visit here.

The display in all its glory :-)

She was such an inspiration.It is a day that none of us will forget in a hurry!

Now we are looking forward to our visit from Simon Armitage, the poet, next Wednesday :-)

Check-ups, Birthdays and Festivals :-)

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I had the faster EVER appointment at the hospital on Monday. We got there a little early - so sauntered down to the ENT Main Reception - there was no-one in there! Handed in my ticket to the Receptionist, who told us to sit down and look out for our number on the screen. We sat down and I looked on the screen and our number was already there - instructing us to go to Sub-Wait 1.
So we went round the corner - and there was one couple in there - usually there is nowhere to sit.

We sat down once more and Nathan got his Kindle out - read three lines and the nurse came out and called my name. We went in to see Mr Uppal, who is lovely and cheery, and he said "I bet you've not seen it like this before, have you?" We confessed that we hadn't - it wasn't even 11.30 yet - our actual appointment time.
We asked him what was happening and he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know. "I came through for the morning cancer meeting and it was like this - it's usually like a railway station out there!"

Anyway - he got back to asking me how I was feeling (fine), if I had any strange symptoms (I didn't) and then had a feel around my neck (all good). I didn't even need to have the camera up the nose this time - which is always a bonus when it happens :-)

He asked about my energy levels as most patients in my position complain about tiredness and lack of energy. I told him I had lots of energy and felt great. I see him again in 4 weeks time on 29th. We got out in less than five minutes - and it was still before 11.30am.

Must be a record!

As it was also Sarah's Birthday  (my niece) L and I went over to Cheadle to see her in the evening. Took her presents. Sadly N was working. He has a deadline of Friday for his Microsoft Windows 8 project - so really has to get his ap ready and perfect for verification on Friday. Having just had four days in London, he hasn't got much time left!

L and I had cake though - Sarah loves games too. Look what kind of cake she had:

Yes - a Batman Cake - yummy :-)

We had bought her a present from Eurogamer 2012 - can you tell what it is?Ten points if you said a Turret from the game Portal (and indeed Portal 2) She pronounced it "adorable" and went off to put it in her computer room.
Impressive - I'm sure you'll agree!

What a Weird Thing to Buy as a Present

On Tuesday night we'd forgotten that we'd got tickets for an event in Stone's Food and Drink Festival. It was a "Manger A Trois" which was something that only Stone does apparently. It involves going to one restaurant for a starter, then off to another for your main course , followed by a  little walk to another place for a sweet.

They are on all week and the one we chose was a "Musical Meander" which meant that all three venues had live music too.

We were told to be at Granville's at 7pm prompt to begin our exciting evening. There were 28 of us starting at Granville's - and similar numbers starting at the other 2 venues. We were given a menu so that we could choose our starter, main and sweet, and the couple who were organising us during the evening went to take our choices to the other restaurants.

Then we were served with a glass of champagne and our chosen starter and entertained by a rather energetic Irish band called "Murphy's Marbles" - they were good and played jigs and reels and some Irish folk songs that we knew.

Nathan enjoyed his chicken terrine with pickles vegetables and I loved my smoked haddock on horseradish potato salad. it was in fact delicious - even though n thinks horseradish is the work of the devil. :-)

Then we were told we had ten minutes left before we had to put our coast on and walk down the main street in Stone (Good job most of these places are pretty close together - as it was raining!) Our next port of call was The Lounge Café Bar, where I was served salmon as my main and Nathan had pork loin in peppercorn sauce. We were given loads of veg, roast potatoes and chips to share with our fellow diners.

Here we were entertained by a solo singer with an acoustic guitar who performed gentle songs by people like Damian Rice, David Gray  and Ed Sheeran. It was really nice, but they had definitely saved the best until last!


We were then whisked off to Stone Steak House in the Crown and Anchor Hotel. here we had out sweets, in n's case it was a HUGE chocolate brownie with ice cream, while I'd opted for the cheese and biscuits. Four kinds of tasty cheese, from Stilton to smoked to soft and creamy. There was some sweet and tangy fruit chutney to go with it.

In the corner was a man - in his 60s at least - dressed in a German Umpah-style clothes. You know the type - lederhosen, braces and Alpine cap with feathers in. he was sat holding a huge piano-accordion in front of a microphone.

Now by now some of our group had consumed a few drinks and were feeling decidedly merry. (I was feeling merry - but I wasn't drinking as I was driving!) and our entertainer struck up with some German drinking song and had us standing up, sitting down, leaning back, and forward, linking arms. Then he launched into some Elvis and Beatles songs and we all joined in. Then he got progressively sillier and sillier until he had us singing "She'll be Coming Round the Mountain" and even "The Wheels on the Bus" It was so funny - everyone was helpless with laughter. he just kept on all night and everyone just kept asking for more.

Our fellow diners and the Music Man in the Corner

"I am the Music Man" was another - and a rousing rendition of Sweet Caroline went down well too. Can you guess what we were singing in the photo below?

Singing in the Rain - indoors???

We had such a brilliant night - well done to the organisers. It is a great idea!

Eurogamer 2012

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Arriving at Eurogamer 2012

Had a great weekend in London. Our main aim was to attend Eurogamer 2012 - all three days of it!

With Nathan being in the business then it is important to go and find out what is happening in the gaming industry - or that's what he tells me anyway! :-) Laura (my daughter) came along too - as a big fan of Skyrim and so did Mr M - friend of N's and another keen gamer who plays everything!

It is interesting to see what new games are coming out on all the different consoles and systems and have a go before anyone else. What I find more interesting though at the "Developer Sessions" where you can go and listen to the people behind the games who give presentations on how they came up  with the ideas, made the games themselves or found backers to finance and market them. So although it was lovely and sunny in London over the three days - we spent a lot of the time in the dark inside Earl's Court.



N taking it seriously :-)




L and M contemplate Assassin's Creed III

















I saw quite an intriguing one - called Unfinished Swan which looked very arty and cool - and was a pretty unusual game. It involved a completely blank screen and you had to fire paintballs at various parts of it - and only then could you see what was there. Sadly it was so busy - and thee were only two screens with this one on that I didn't get to have a go. So - I am not sure what the aim of the game was - but it might be fun.



Beautiful - but what's it all about?

 My favourite one that I DID get to play was called Hell Yeah! and involved a dead rabbit that was out to get his photos back from the paparazzi. Sounds pretty mad - and it was - and very funny. It was cartoonish and clever - I couldn't really get into realistic killing games where you see people/aliens/animals being blown to bits in a shower of red.

Those are the most popular games though (with blokes)  - and the biggest queue every day was for Call Of Duty Black Ops - a graphic war game. I think the ratio of the sexes was 10 to 1. Ten males for every female. That's definitely more than last year though.




A friendly alien and I'm not sure who else...

 One of the most fun aspects was the CosPlay - where people turned up dressed as their favourite character from a game. There were quite a few Marios and Luigis as well as some very impressive Etzios and Altairs from Assassin's Creed. The costumes were so intricate and detailed - amazing! Shame I didn't get a photo of one of those!







Food and beer gets the thumbs-up at Belgos



In the evenings we did something different. The first night we went to an old favourite (and a place we visited at the beginning of this blog before my big operation) Belgos. I had my honey beer - I feel it has life-giving properties :-) Had lovely roast chicken with beer and apple sauce and it was delicious as ever. Served by waiters dressed as monks. What is it about London that everyone likes dressing up??

Hilarious night at the comedy club

The second night we went over to the beautiful area of Little Venice - via Warwick Avenue tube station (made famous by the song by Duffy) to the Canal Cafe Theatre. We had food in the pub underneath - The Bridge House - which was yummy. I had some of their salmon fishcakes with little gem and beetroot salad - accompanied by some of their rustic bread and oil/balsamic dip. Very, very nice :-) Then we popped upstairs to see the comedy -  The News Revue. It was four very talented actors - who from their bios spend a lot of their time doing Shakespeare. In fact one of them played Paris in the ill-fated weather-blighted production at Stafford Castle that we nearly saw. (It was rained off before Romeo and Juliet even met!)

Two blokes and two girls who did an amazing show of singing dancing and sketches all based on recent news. Extremely funny - we had a blast! I can't recommend it enough. They do this ever-changing show with an ever changing cast every Friday and Saturday night. A great time was had by all!

The tardis outside Earl's Court tube station

It is a tiny little theatre so we were sat right up by the stage. Don't worry though - it's not one of those shows where they pick on the audience - although Laura was worried that they might!

The hotel was pretty nice in Kensington and only a few minutes walk from Earl's Court - and even closer to the tube station. Although the room we had was the smallest I have stayed in. Only just room for a double bed - we could hardly walk round it. Was fine though - as we were out all the days and evenings. The two singles rooms were pretty spacious though.

Outside Earl's Court tube there was an actual Police Box - with a blue light on top! An actual working one where you could go in and use the phone to call them. It was a very handy meeting place whenever we went back to the hotel before the boys.



Fish and Chips p- Brown styleee



On our last evening there we met up with London friends Si and Heidi. In fact Si spent the day with us at the Expo. Heidi joined us for dinner at Browns down at Canary Wharf. We had a good night catching up - and enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine. I had fish and chips, the cod in tempura, with tatar sauce, tomato sauce and crushed minted peas. Tasty but not quite as nice as the meal at the comedy club - but a lot more pricey! N enjoyed his Boar Burger and M loved his venison - and although there was nothing vegan on the menu they did make a special pasta dish for Laura.

So it is a pretty good place - in a lovely waterside location in the docklands. I guess they mainly cater for those pesky bankers - so like to charge them a lot!



Heading back to the hotel after a fun evening



It was a really nice last evening in London though. Can't wait to go back.

Hmm - what should we go for next time?





Back to reality now we're home. I am off for my monthly visit to the consultant tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes...

Naked man in the Library :-0

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Heehee - thought that would get your attention. Well you won't be disappointed :-) I was working today - so that Tracy could have the weekend off. So I was on my own. It was pretty busy at times but when it went quiet I thought I'd take a few photos of my library. (In my tea break!)


At work today :-)



Looking out from the Counter



This is me sat at my counter - the public computers are over by the windows. Then there is the view from my counter. As you can see - it did go a bit quiet! Don't worry there were plenty of customers later. I am pretty excited as not only do I have the Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson coming to my library - but also famous poet Simon Armitage!

Julia wrote The Gruffalo and the Gruffalo's Child among many other things. She is coming on a Wednesday in October at the invitation of the children from Silverdale Junior School. She is going to do a reading and some singing  - I can't wait! Although she did say that she WOULDN'T do The Gruffalo. She must be a bit fed up of it by now Maybe she'll do my favourite - The Highway Rat:

'Give me your buns and your biscuits! Give me your chocolate éclairs!

For I am the Rat of the highway, and the Rat Thief never shares!'

I love him!

As for Simon Armitage - our Poetry tutor Caroline (Hi Caroline!!) knows him well and recently arranged his epic journey along the Pennine Way - where he took no money and had to barter his poetry for food and shelter. Apparently he passed a walking sock round after doing recitals in halls, pubs and people's homes. It was on Countryfile a while ago - did you see it?  

He is doing a special reading at Keele Uni in October but in the afternoon, as a special favour for Caroline he is coming to Silverdale Library to do a special session with her group of aspiring poets. They use my library every Thursday to write poetry - they are a really fun group. I wonder if he'd mind me asking him what it was like to interview Morrissey, as I only discovered today that he has done that! :-) Heehee - perhaps I should stick to asking about poetry.

How exciting will October be????



The Mystery Naked Man



As for the naked man - I have a photo of him on my wall by the counter. We have a whole range of photographs on loan from the Borough Museum, of scenes from the old Silverdale Colliery.

I have often wondered who he is - and have asked a few customers who have told me they used to work at the pit, if it is them! No-one has owned up to it yet!!

Do you recognise him??

In other news - with my other hat on as Parish clerk - we have commissioned a new Noticeboard for the village. It just happens to be positioned outside the Library! I think it is an attractive addition to the frontage. It is better than the old black broken one that was full of spiders every time I had to open it up and put some notice inside. This one is lovely - and has a metal back inside so that I can use magnets to put the notices up.



The New Noticeboard




Close-Up Version












It is almost time for Eurogamer again. Last year we went - and that is when I had just found my lump in my neck and had no idea what was in store for me.This year I am clear of cancer!! What an eventful year it has been since the last one :-)



Sunday Lunch with mum and dad :-)

 I am looking forward to it - I love going to London anytime - there is always so much going on. I'd be quite happy to live and work there. If it wasn't so expensive! Anyway - I'd miss my family - and we couldn't go out for lunch on a whim like we did last Sunday :-)

At the moment I am waiting for Nathan to get back from London - he went yesterday to go to a Dev Camp (I think it stands for Development or Developer's Camp) with Microsoft. As Windows 8 is out in October they want there to be some aps alreadyt available - so anyone who is working on one could go along and learn how to get it one there in time. All very technical! Who knows Interference might be on there by the launch! Since it was launched as a phone ap we've had loads more players and some hilairious games. You are all very welcome to join in the fun!

On a random note - I think I might have to have my hair cut soon! It is growing quite quickly now and getting a bit out of hand. I might get it trimmed - so  that it will grow back at an even rate.

Although now that the weather is turning decidedly nippy the wigs do keep my head warm!

Better call it a day there - I have to be up for work in the morning. :-)

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes.

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Ha ha - you'll be singing that song all day now :-)
Still got the tingling in my fingers - and it is in my toes a bit now. Consensus is that it is nerve damage from the chemo. It might go - in a year or so :-)

Beautiful Flowers

Still not heard anything about my physiotherapy - I guess I'll get an appointment through soon.

In the meantime I am keeping as active as possible and still enjoying work. Yesterday my old friend came to visit my library. I used to work at Staffs Uni with Phil, but hadn't seen her for years.

She had a job interview coming up (in a school library) so she wanted to have a look around our children's section. It was lovely to see her and have a discussion about children's literature.She loved my library - but then everyone does :-)

 I remember we used to both have a day out every Wednesday when we took the train to Manchester to attend the university on day release to get our Library Qualifications (Post-Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies if you want me to be more specific!). We were both lucky enough to be sponsored by the uni for two years. It was great fun!

She brought me some gorgeous flowers and cookies (Sorry we ate the cookies before I could take a photo). They are huge gladioli - we were (are) both big fans of Morrissey back in the day :-) They now look very nice in front of my fire.

I am happy to say that she let me know that she got the job too! Yay!

Catching up with my PEG Buddy

Had a very pleasant visit to the hospital today. We have taken to parking in the new multi-storey car park now - especially on a hot day like today as it is in the shade! It meant we had a cool car to come back to.

I checked in at the screen in the main atrium, then proceeded down to Reception at ENT. We sat down and I said to Nathan "What a shame we haven't seen Frank for a while." as I surveyed the waiting room. Nathan pointed behind me and said "He is over there!" So we swapped seats to sit opposite them. Frank was the chap who also has CUP and I met him when we were both in hospital at the same time to undergo the torture that is known as PEG Insertion. :-)

He looked SO much better than last time we saw him. He is still using the PEG as he cannot swallow solid food yet. He can drink okay though and has been doing more. He did admit though that if he is busy one day he needs to have a day of rest the day after. The consultant had told him it will be 18 months before he is back to full strength.

He said to me "Oh you've had your hair cut!" He was pretty surprised when I told him that it had all fallen out. His is as thick as ever. His wife told us that their hairdresser had advised him to use Baby Shampoo - so maybe that's what saved it. Mind you he only had one session of chemo - so that could be it. Anyway I've decided I should use Baby Shampoo now too - since I have very soft fuzzy baby hair growing back. :-)

I got called to the Sub-Waiting Room 1 - and we did not have to sit there for long before a nurse popped out and called my name. We'd seen Mr Fong - the smiley one - earlier so I'd presumed that that we would be seeing him. However when I got in there were two consultants I'd never seen before. One at the computer and one in the chair near the examination chair. He shook my hand and asked me how I'd been. He was very charming and smiley. I told him that I had tingly fingers and that my shoulder had been getting more stiff and sore.

He had a feel around my neck and then got out the camera to look inside my mouth. Then he said "Which nostril do you usually have this up?" I told him the right and he went ahead. He was really good though - it on;y brought tears to one eye! He had a good look around and said that everything looked fine especially my vocal chords apparently. That's good to know. He asked about the boobogram and I told him that they had only found a cluster of harmless cysts.

He said that he would organise some physiotherapy for my shoulder. The other consultant at the computer said that as I had tingly fingers in both fingers - not just on my bad side then it was almost certainll due to the chemotherapy. He said it might go - only time would tell. As my treatment was this year then there was still a chance it might go.

That chemo has a lot to answer for :-) Can't complain though as it did the business! My next appointment is in four weeks time on October 1st.

Paralympics!!!

Arriving at the Olympic Park

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I can't believe I got to go to London for the day to see the Paralympic Games!! Clever Nathan managed to get us tickets to go in the Stadium and see some athletics.

We had to set off very early - as they advised that it could take up to two hours to get through the "airport-style security" and our session started at 10am.

We owe gratitude to Nathan's parents who got up at some unearthly hour to take us to Stafford station for 5am. We weren't the only excited people getting a train to London at that time though :-)

We couldn't get lost!

We changed at Birmingham and got into Euston just after 7.30am. From there we hopped on a tube to Stratford Station. There were bright pink signs everywhere telling people where to go for the Olympic venues.

We followed a growing band of Happy people out of the station and through the Westfield shopping centre and along the road to the Olympic Park. All along the route were Gamesmakers, dressed in Olympic pink, some on foot others on high chairs with megaphones who were jollying everyone along, telling us which side to go in and asking others what they were coming to see. Some were going to the Aquatic Centre and others to the Velodrome as well as the Olympic Stadium itself.

We got to the gates in less than fifteen minutes, and there was no queue for the security. There were multiple gates you cold choose to go through and dozens of security points with x-ray machines. We were directed to one, where we had to put our belongings into a plastic box and it was sent through the machine. Meanwhile we had to step through a security archway. Exactly like at the airport. We were through so quickly! Then we just walked into the Olympic Park and started having a wander round. We were so early - it was only just after 8am, so we had time to find the food areas and have a bacon sandwich, before going into the stadium itself.



Nice bacon butty!

 We saw the shop which I'd heard so much about. It had Alton Tower-style barriers outside, as if they were expecting a queue later. So, I suggested to Nathan that we go in early while it was quiet. It was massive inside - like a warehouse- with so many t-shirt designs, hoodies and souvenirs. Since it is such a one-off event for us we decided to get something to commemorate our visit.

My Paralympic Hoodie :-)

Nathan got a black hoodie and I got a grey one. It is certainly warm!

Then it was coming up to 10am so we headed over to Bridge D (as instructed on our tickets) and into Section M01. We found out way to our row and it was still empty so we got to our seats easily. We were sat at the back of the first tier, just behind where the three flagpoles were for the medal ceremonies. It was a great view from up there and pretty soon the stadium filled up and got noisier.




It's a Big Shop

 There was a commentator telling us what we were going to see and how things would work. Our slot was from 10am to 1.30pm - the whole morning session. We saw so many events - there was never a dull moment!

There was Long Jump going on at the far side of the track where the Cuban athletes were doing some fantastic lengths. As each competitors started their run up we were encouraged to clap in time - getting faster and faster as they approached the sand pit and jumped.




The Cauldron and the Scoreboard

 Just in front of us was the starting line for the 100 metre races. We saw lots of heats of the women's - some of whom had guides to run with them to get them going in the right direction. It was cool how they ran with them (they were all men) and then made sure they got over the line first. If the guide went over first they'd be disqualified. I didn't realise that the guides got medals too - if their runner did! As long as they'd been in all the heats with them to. i guess they train as long and hard as the women themselves.

We are really there!

We saw wheelchair races and also the men's two hundred metres final featuring Richard Whitehead, where he won the gold medal and set a new world record of 24.38 seconds too. He was so happy to win - he did a whole lap of honour. The noise was almost deafening. (I had thought ahead and NOT worn my new hearing aids - as I figured it was going to be a bit loud!). We were lucky enough to see a few medal ceremonies too - including Richard's. it was very emotional to see his tears and watch the Union Jack being hoisted while we sang the National Anthem. What a moment!

It wasn't the most moving moment of the day though - that came in the men's 1500 metres when Omar Hassan, the only athlete from Djibouti, was lapped twice by the rest of the field and yet carried on, painfully slowly on his own for the last two laps of the track. We thought once everyone else had crossed the line for the final time he would have stopped and given up - but no! He carried on, on his own, to louder and louder cheers from the 80,000 strong crowd. As he passed each part of the stadium, the audience rose to cheer him on and when he eventually crossed the line it was to a standing ovation and the loudest cheers of the day. What an inspiration - even though he had hurt his ankle at the start he showed such bravery and determination to finish that race come what may!  I had tears in my eyes by the time he finished. What a hero!

You can read the full story here



The Copper Box - with encouraging message outside :-)

 We came out of the stadium at 1.30pm so happy that we'd been able to be part of it. it was a wonderful experience. Out in the park again it had got very busy. As predicted the queue for the shop was round the block and the food courts were busy, with no seats available. We wandered round, after eating some pizza standing up, to see some of the other venues. The Aquatics Centre was impressive and we walked towards the Velodrome and the Basketball Arena. Also we saw the Copper Box where the Handball, Goalball and the Fencing take place. You couldn't actually go in without a pass and they were all sold out.

We walked around the base of the awesome sculpture that is Orbit and saw lots of people going up in the lifts and walking down! It towered over the Stadium itself. There was entertainment wherever you went from some old-style clowning and acrobatics to singers with guitars and our favourites - a bunch of crazy folk who were enacting various sports through the medium of dance.

It was 4.30pm before we left the park and headed back to the station. I was so happy to have experienced part of this historic occasion. Thank-You Nathan for getting us tickets :-)

Tomorrow it is back to reality. I have to go for my next check-up with the consultant. I seem to have developed a tingling in my fingers - which is a bit unpleasant, Not sure if it is due to the tightness and stiffness in my neck. I hope he doesn't say I'm doing too much!!  He did say I had to keep active!! :-)

We will see what he says tomorrow....

Part of the Aquatics Centre