London Life, Olympic Moments

Being in London for the Olympic Games has been an amazing experience. The photos in this blog recollect just a fraction of the memories that were made whilst we attended three sporting events, or watched the online coverage with friends over drinks; cheered in front of a laptop with colleagues (usually for Team GB) or on the iPad at home. We saw some magical moments - Sally Pearson's gold, Usain Bolt's triple gold, Mo Farrah and watched the Boomers take action against the Team USA at North Greenwich Arena.



London Life during the Olympics
Like many locals, we too had our doubts about how this city would cope during the Games that were held only 12 months after the city's riots. Public transport fears on the Tube led to Mei walking to and from work, after an observation of the not so organised pre-Games 'chaos' of London Bridge station. There was the frustrated moments of waiting for the London 2012 website to refresh to buy tickets. And then there was the rain - would the sun eventually shine on this city?

Tickets finally arrive

Yes indeed. After a soggy, slow start (watch footage of the women's marathon to get an idea of 2012's London summer), the sun beamed onto Britain and even colleagues that were booked in to work from home for the entire 2 weeks, decided to have a go at commuting into the capital. London city went from a lifeless ghost town on the first Monday; to a place with a palpable buzz and air of excitement by Week 2.

The sun came out

Olympic Rings

Tower Bridge was the home of the Olympic Rings that neatly folded up whenever bridge opened to let tall water traffic through.

Tower Bridge, photo from Queens Walk

Tower Bridge - photo from London Bridge

Tower Bridge from Potter's Field Park

Supporting Australia
Olie, Mei and an oversized Boxing Kangaroo.

Go Boxing Kangaroo

Supporting the Aussies

Olympic Park
Helping us get into the spirit of the Games, were the sights and sounds of Olympic activity. Volunteers using the PA systems to motivate the crowds; Coca Cola Future Flames ambassadors dancing around recycling bins at the Olympic Park, cheering on patrons that correctly placed their piece of refuse into the right container.

Coca Cola Flame personnel

Olympic Stadium at night

Team GB

The Team GB bandwagon rolled through the city like a red, white and blue Union Jack waving freight train - you couldn't help but be involved in the celebrations.

London cupcakes - thanks Meei-Lin and Rob

Olympic Volleyball
Our first Olympic event kicked off on the morning after the Opening Ceremony, at the Volleyball Stadium located in Earl's Court. Regulations meant that whilst food could be brought into the event, drinks (empty bottles exempt) were not allowed. We stopped off at McDonalds for a classic McMuffin meal before loading up on supplies at the local Co-op. When we entered the stadium (after another in-depth examination by Army troops with metal detectors and body scanners), we found our seat was located near the court and a couple of times we could see ourselves clearly in the background of the TV broadcast. On court, the action was between Algeria v Japan; and Serbia v China and we were amazed at how tactical and fast the matches were played. A group of young cheerleaders and an over-enthusiastic MC kept the crowd entertained during breaks.

Outside the security checkpoint

At our first event

China v Serbia

Cheerleaders

Women's Basketball

Our second event took us right to the heart of the action - Basketball Area within Olympic Park for the evening session that coincided with the glamour event of athletics - men's 100m final that was on at the main stadium.

Orbit

Orbit and Olympic Stadium

Basketball Arena

The atmosphere around the place was electric but so many people were caught up in trying to watch the event live on their phones, that the network crashed to a halt. Lucky for us, a fellow patron in the arena had bought an official connection with BT and was displaying it on his iPad with about a dozen of us huddled around to watch. 

Big TV screen

Portable bar

The first game - Croatia v Turkey was filled with missed opportunities by one team. The crowd only seemed partially interested in what was going on, distracted by some talented cheerleaders from Ukraine. 

However, despite a very late start of 10pm, the next game of Team GB v Brazil got the crowd to its feet and the Union Jack flags fluttering. Sadly the game wasn't a highlight for the locals and we left at three quarter time to escape the crowd. Public transport held up well, with trains running late in the night and so did the Westfield Stratford shopping centre, appearing to be business-as-usual at 12:15am

Team GB women's basketball team

Men's Basketball

The last event we attended was held mid-week at the stadium also known as the O2 in North Greenwich. It was a quarter final match and the path to the venue was lined with people desperate for a spare ticket as the USA (clear favourites) were playing Australia in the second match, with the first game billed as a local derby of South American rivals: Brazil v Argentina. The first game was a thriller but the biggest applause turned out to be for a group of USA basketball players that decided to sit in the crowd and sign autographs whilst the first match was on. 

Spanish team - had to go through security with the general public

Big names sitting with the public

Blocking out the crowd

Signing autographs

The next game started with the stands filling up with green and gold - the Aussie swim team showing support for their fellow athletes. A number of other athletes from Denmark and Team GB were in the crowd, and everyone looked forward to a night of entertainment - we even had a cameo spot on the big screen during the 3rd quarter break.

Starting line-up of stars

Team USA - worth $'millions

Getting physical

Spot Olie's face in the crowd near the elbow of the ring stand

The Boomers put on a good show, Olie taking a number of action shots from our seats right behind one of the rings.

Celebrating the Olympics with Friends

As part of Mei's birthday celebrations, we had reserved an area at Village East in Bermondsey Street for a night of drinks and watching some of the Olympic action on-screen. We watched Mo Farah and Usain Bolt star on the track; and met Australian Olympic weightlifter Seen Lee, whom in this small world, shares many mutual friends with us.

With Australian weightlifter Seen Lee

Surprise strawberry cream cake

Closing Ceremony

And then by Sunday night it was all over. The Closing Ceremony put the lid on the Olympic party until the Paralympics kick off later this month. London sort of returned to normal on Monday morning - no volunteers in their purple outfits on the street corner trying to usher tourists to their right destinations. No barricades forcing one-way pedestrian traffic around the station - it was almost back to the way it had always been except Londoners woke up to sunshine and a big smile on their faces for a job well done.

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