Sark (Population 600) Wins Gold
it’s not only strange to get a gold medal winner from the very small island of Sark, but in team dressage too. Perhaps Carl Hester who was born on the island, hasn’t read the Olympic book of dressage, where of course, the Germans or the Austrians always win. I suspect too, that the two other team members haven’t read that book either!
It certainly was a surprise gold.
The British Secret In The Velodrome – Round Wheels
The French are getting a bit uppity about the British bikes in the velodrome.
The British have joked that they use round wheels and the French have swallowed the story, hook, line and sinker. Read about it here in the Standard.
But I doubt, that the story is very far from the truth. Even your car from humble run-arounds upwards, has its wheels properly balanced, at manufacture and when new tyres are fitted. We’ve all been in cars, where there has been vibration because of out-of-balance wheels.
So I suspect that British cycling has borrowed from Formula One and other industries that spin things fast, and developed extremely accurate roundness and balance sensing for bicycle wheels. So they run straighter and truer than the best the French can do!
I didn’t do the work myself, but forty years ago, I worked in a department at Plastics Division of ICI, that did a lot of calculations in this area, to try to stop vibrations in chemical vessels. So the theory is nothing new.
It is the application of technology to bicycles, helmets and other things, that have given the British the edge. I doubt that cycling is the only sport to have benefited either!
Totnes Declares Itself A Coffee Chain-Free Town
I like this article on the BBC web site about how Totnes is trying to keep the coffee chains out of the town.
Perhaps, it’s because, my maternal grandmother, who was born just round the corner from where I live now, had Devonian ancestry and that’s where I get my stubbornness from.
I Can Only Take So Much Lettuce
For lunch today, I had some smoked salmon and one of Waitrose’s potato and egg side salads. I don’t eat all the lettuce, but all the others bits like tomatoes and cucumber do get devoured.
So why do we put so much lettuce in a salad? Perhaps, it’s to feed our pet rabbits? I don’t have one!
Yorkshire Would Be Eleventh In The Medal Table
Yorkshire Radio reporter, Jonathan Buchan calculated yesterday, that Britain’s largest county, Yorkshire would be eleventh in the Olympic medal table above Japan, South Africa and Australia. Since then the Brownlee brothers have won a gold and a bronze medal, so they must have moved up a bit.
If they get a couple more, they might just edge above Germany. They’re probably well above Prussia already!
A Verified-By-Visa Scam
Moneywise is reporting a scam on that stupid so-called security system, Verified-by-Visa. I’ve never liked it.
I also only ever use my Visa card on the Internet, when I have no choice. But as the Olympics will be over soon, I shall probably be sticking my Visa card somewhere, where I’m not tempted to use it on-line.
Has Murray Cracked it?
Does Andy Murray’s gold medal mean that he’ll now go on and be a more consistent player and win a grand slam tournament?
I would hope so! But then being a tennis player, is a solitary existence and does his performance in the Olympics come down to being surrounded by other British winners. He doesn’t exactly get this when he’s playing at Flushing Meadows! I keep getting drawn back to an interview given by Julian Golding at Wimbledon, which I mentioned in this post. The important part is this.
Golding said that he had been invited by the LTA, as he was encouraging youngsters in London to take part in sport. Golding disclosed that he had been a promising tennis player, but had found the life very lonely, when travelling to overseas tournaments. So he had turned to his other sporting asset, athletics, mainly because of the cameraderie of his fellow athletes.
So did the cameraderie effect help Murray in the Olympics?
Technology At The Olympic Venues
One thing that has dissappointed me has been the information at the venues about what is happening elsewhere. For instance, I really didn’t realise yesterday how we had won the team show jumping until I got home.
Perhaps it’s because everybody relies on their smart phones. But I don’t! I would have paid for a medal update text alert. But I couldn’t find one.
C Gets Stuck To Me!
When we went to Cardiff, it appeared that I lost one of the return train tickets. In the end it turned up in the back pocket of my wallet, stuck in there by an old Post-It note. I was a small one and written on it was an 0208 phone number. The writing appeared familiar at the time and only now, am I sure that it was C’s. In any case it wasn’t like any other of the usual suspects, who might have given me a Post-It note with a phone number on.
So has that note been looking after me, these nearly five years since she died? Who cares? I’m still here! Even if there is a touch of the just-abouts to it.
A Night At The Athletics
I went to see the athletics at the Olympic Park last night.
It was a gold-less night, but at least others have repaired some of damage Gordon Brown did by selling off our gold reserves too cheaply.
The Park and stadium are magnificent and hopefully will remain so, unlike Athens, Montreal and Moscow, which are the only Olympic stadia, that I’ve visited. One of the lasting memories in my mind, will be the glorious flowers. In Athens, all that’s left is weeds.
In fact this post could be titled something like Trees, Flowers, Water and Steel with a Few Sporting Events Thrown In. Only the British and perhaps the Irish, Dutch, New Zealanders and a few others would say that the legacy for the Games needs to be another park. Especially in a city like London, which is already endowed with many large and magnificent parks.
On the other and there is nothing worse in life, than tending a garden. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them!
The Anonymous Widower 