Beach Volleyball At Horse Guards Parade
Yesterday, I spent a pleasant afternoon at the beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade.
Note :-
- The advert for New Zealand on top of New Zealand House.
- In four hours, we saw four matches. The Netherlands won two and Venezuela and Italy one each. Sadly the British women lost to the Italians. But the Dutch beating the Germans was probably very satisfying for them.
- The food was no better than at the Lee Valley.
- The weather wasn’t good, but everybody carried on regardless. Even the Italian and Australian girls, who obviously train in the sun!
- I’ve put most of the comments in the pictures.
In some ways the stadium itself is a star. It just shows how with careful design, you can build a temporary 16,000-seater stadium. How many other sports could put on a championship in such a stadium? It would be ideal for tennis, some equestrian sports like dressage, boxing and martial arts, to name just a few. The only problem in the UK would be the rain.
Canoe Slalom At The Lee Valley – Video
I made up this video to give a view of what it is like at the Lee Valley White Water Centre.
It should be up later today. The trouble with video, is I can only make it on my old computer. And guess what M$ have upsexed the video maker, to make it more difficult to use. I want my old one back. When something works well don’t mess about with it!
Canoe Slalom At The Lee Valley – Food
Inside the venue, there was nothing I could eat, but I did bring a salad from Waitrose and I ate that outside in the Park, before I went in. These pictures tell the story.
There was a stand selling what they said was healthy food. But it was vegetarian and not gluten-free! And there were no salads!
So luckily, I got it right, but then I always assume there is nothing for me inside a venue. Soft drinks weren’t a problem and I didn’t feel that £2.30 for the standard bottle of diet Coke was over expensive.
Canoe Slalom At The Lee Valley
These pictures show the general view of my journey there, the venue and some of the competition.
I’ll post a separate one on the food and some video later.
I should say though that everything was very well-organised. Here’s a few points.
- My friend, who cycled all the way from Kingston, even found that the bike park had guards and was very secure.
- I only got my tickets on Sunday night, and it would appear that this was because, they did a nifty bit of rigging with the stands and created some more seats.
- There didn’t appear to be many unoccupied seats.
- The ticket collection worked very well and I was also able to collect my athletic and boxing tickets, I bought on Sunday.
- The view was excellent, as you can see from the pictures.
It was an enjoyable day and I’ might even go again in a couple of years time, as I believe they’re having a World Championships here.
Olympic Travel Directions
They do seem to be written for those, who have no idea where they are going. I’m going to the Canoe Slalom today and they recommend going to Cheshunt and then have a 28 minute walk.
In May 2011, I did a recconaissance and found that it was just as easy to get there from Waltham Cross as from Cheshunt. Not sure yet how I’ll go, but I could go to either, as it is pleasant walk along the river from Cheshunt and I have tickets to collect.
The guy I’m going with, is actually cycling from Kingston. He’s also stopping off at his office in the city.
It does strike me though, that some of the directions they’re giving aren’t the best. They were talking on the radio this morning about going to the equestrian events at Greenwich through London Bridge. I would take the DLR from Bank to Cutty Sark station and walk up.
I was on the DLR yesterday at lunchtime and it wasn’t very busy. Cinderella is certainly going to be the star of this ball. Who’d have thought this stop-gap railway built on the cheap would perform so well? I did, but then I’m a fan of London’s forgotten railway. I’ve always said that no visit to London is complete without a ride on the DLR. After all it does go to some very important venues and tourist sites.
The Germans And A Few Others Have Landed
There were quite a few ships around Canary Wharf today.
The Deutschland came in last year. The Octopus is owned by Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft.
Shouldn’t the latter have had a blue hull?
Note the floating gangway across the dock to the yachts. When I first saw it, I thought it was a version of a floating gangway, I saw some years ago in the South of France, which consisted of a series of hexagonal chambers linked together. I don’t think it was though.
BTLondonLive At Victoria Park
I did pop in briefly to the free BTLondonLive event in Victoria Park.
The only gluten-free food I could find was the paella, which wasn’t labelled as such, but as far as I could tell didn’t contain any gluten-containing ingredients. Note that they don’t let you take in food and drink. So for a coeliac, it’s paella or nothing.
I left fairly soon after I got there, as they weren’t showing the cycling, which of course, I could view at home. But as it was only a short bus ride from the end of my road, I wasn’t really bothered.
Red Arrows Over Haggerston
Looking at my pictures, I did at least photograph the vapour trails of the Red Arrows over Haggerston station.
If you look can just about see the vapour trails.
The Red Arrows came over my left shoulder, when I thought they would come from my right.
The Scandal of the Empty Seats
The BBC and most of the newspapers are complaining about the empty seats at some of the Olympic venues. Here‘s the BBC on the subject.
No-one is sure of the reason, but it would appear to be mostly expensive tickets, many of which went to corporate sponsors.
Could it be that when those with the tickets, found out they’d have to slum it on public transport as there is no reserved parking space for the Bentley, they have decided to forgo the privilege of seeing some of the best sport in the world?
I’ve just checked one of the world’s luxury hotel group and there are still rooms available at an affordable price for those who could afford it, like a corporate sponsor. C and I used sometimes to stay in the world’s best hotels and then use the local public transport and I know quite a few Americans, Europeans and Aussies, who have or still do that regularly. But if you’re on expenses paid by a corporate sponsor, you can’t even use a taxi in London to get to Stratford.
I also wonder if the organisers got their ticket allocation wrong, with too many expensive tickets. And given the current state of the economy, even the rich are feeling the pinch.
I live in London N1, which is an affluent area, close to the City, and I’ve never seen the buses and the streets so empty. Lots of people have gone on holiday. A friend, who works at a high level in one of the sponsors, who I thought could expect tickets, has gone away.
It’s a real conundrum, but it’s not as simple as some have said.
The Anonymous Widower 