Sochi Fail...

In 18 shorts months I've gone from loving the Olympics to hating it. Homophobia isn't cool. #SochiFail

Demo Today to Support LGBT People In Russia...

• Russia is rated most difficult country in Europe which to be gay by watchdog Ilga-Europe.
• Legislation passed in June imposes fines for "propagandising of non-traditional sexual relations among minors."
• Gay Pride events effectively banned for 100 years by a court order.

In 1936 Hitler saw the Olympic Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy, and the official Nazi party paper, the Völkischer Beobachter wrote in the strongest terms that Jews and Black people should not be allowed to participate in the Games. However, when threatened with a boycott of the Games by other nations, he relented and allowed Black people and Jews to participate, and added one token participant to the German team - a German woman, Helene Mayer, who had a Jewish father. At the same time, the party removed signs stating "Jews not wanted" and similar slogans from the city's main tourist attractions.

Boycotts work. Demos work. Good luck today everyone.

Modern Pentathlon...

The Modern Pentathlon is a bit weird isn't it? Pistol shooting, fencing, 200m freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3km cross-country run. The Modern Pentathlon is unique as the only sport created by the founder of the modern Olympics specifically for its inclusion in the Games. And the reason for those sports? Well, it was the skills you might need if you were a 19th-century soldier caught behind enemy lines. I wonder what the equivalent would be for the 21st-century soldier?

Olympics Diving 10m Platform...

On the penultimate night of the Olympics we got a chance to go and see the Olympics Diving 10m Platform Final. Tom Daley was the star we'd come to see and the boy done good. Though not quite good enough for gold medal on this occasion despite leading as he went into the final round. The bronze medal was well deserved though and he dedicated it to his recently departed father. It was an electric atmosphere in the Aquatic Centre with most people barely able to contain themselves. Us included!

Olympics Handball Aug 2012...

On Friday night Stu and I went to watch the Olympics Handball semi final France vs Croatia. Exciting sport, fun to watch but the bad behaviour of the French fans rather spoiled the atmosphere for us and many people around us. Throwing beer, booing the opposition and frightening the children near us. Shame on them.


And look who we bumped into on the way home!

London 2012...

The Greatest Show on Earth came to town. It was happy, joyful & exciting. Simply put it's what life is all about. Culture, sport, London.

Morrissey vs The Olympics...

I think Morrissey is entitled to his opinion. I don't necessarily share it but then I'm acutely aware that no one likes the truth when they hear it and an alarm bell has rung with me for just that reason. So if something makes me feel uncomfortable (and this does a little bit) I have to ask myself whether there might be some truth in it. Yeah, I know Morrissey is controversy-loving and can be a bit of knob but we need the mavericks, the comics and the jesters in society to speak out. We can dismiss them when we want - but sometimes they might tell just the truth. He's wrong in this case *obviously* but I'd not criticise him for saying what he thinks.

His statement :- “I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The ‘dazzling royals’ have hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs. As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP, WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP."

Olympics Greco-Roman Wrestling...

Last Sunday afternoon we went to the ExCel Centre to watch the Olympics Greco-Roman Wrestling. There were two weights being contested: 55kg and 74kg. My word what a sport that is! It was fantastic. They seem to have to 'present themselves' like chimpanzees on heat.

Olympics Judo...

We went to the ExCel to see the Olympics Judo on Saturday morning. It was in equal measure exciting and slightly baffling. The scoring took a bit of getting used to. But very easy to get behind someone. And there were some real characters - all shapes and sizes as it was the 100kg+ men's and 78kg+ women's. It was also an honour to see the first Saudi women compete in the Olympics.

Olympic Park...

The Olympic Park in Stratford is simply amazing. It's huge, colourful, fully of green areas, wild flowers and cool things to do and see. It obviously houses many of the Olympic venues - each of which is a bit of an architectural marvel. I especially like the Velodrome with it's brown mantaray-like curves.

Olympics Beach Volleyball...

Blimey it was mad at the Beach Volleyball on Monday night. A beautiful setting in Horse Guards Parade, a great arena had been built, lots of singing, stamping of feet, clapping, dancing, and such a great atmosphere. Oh, and fun to watch the sport too!

Olympics Orbit...

On Sunday we also went up Anish Kapoor's red twisty steel masterpiece the Orbit next to the Olympic Stadium. Great view and lots of fun.

Olympics Basketball...

On Sunday night Stu and I went to our final event of the weekend - to watch Russia take on Team GB in the Basketball Arena. OK, Team GB lost but with dancing girls, impossibly tall men and at times cryptic scoring it was a fun night.

Olympics Weightlifting...

We went to the ExCel to see Olympic Weightlifting on Sunday. We saw a guy lift over 3x his own body weight - only the 5th person in history to have ever managed that. Amazing! Oh and I met David Miliband!  He was charming, friendly, funny and quite fit. #newlabour #hottie

Olympics Opening Ceremony...

Here are just a few memories of our night at the Olympic Stadium, It was simply the best thing I have ever seen. It was bonkers, funny and spectacular - like Play School on acid! Everyone on the stadium was in such good spirits knowing that the eyes of the world were on them.

Olympics Tickets...

It's tickets! It's madness! It's ticket madness! For seven years I have been looking forward to this day - the start of the Olympics Games. And as you can see, London 2012 has done nothing to sate my mania for buying tickets! I bought them all in the last month or so when they went on general sale. Last year I go one event in the ballot - just beach volleyball.

Last night I was too excited about Olympics to sleep. I was lying awake for hours. It's a once in a lifetime event. And the eyes of the world on our fair city.

In 1948 my grandfather bought a block of ten seats for ten days. My mother went down with my aunt every day after school. She said it was the most amazing thing of her childhood and helped her forget about the war. I remember her telling me that story when I was a child and thinking that I'd have done anything to have been there with her at that time.

As her 75th birthday present I'm taking her to the athletics at the Olympic Stadium on 9th Aug so she can see the same event she saw when she was a girl watching in White City all those years ago.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner...

Very proud of my home city today. The London 2012 Olympics have started good and proper. Let's hope some of the moaners get behind the Games and think more about the winning rather than the wining. But if they don't, sod 'em, we'll enjoy it all the same.

And this morning I got a seat on the tube, my local station was fairly quiet and there are few cars on the streets near where I work. Hey, maybe the moaners have all left the way they promised! Result!

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I love London so
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I think of her wherever I go

I get a funny feeling inside of me
When walking up and down
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I love London Town

Olympicnic...

Tim organised his fabulous annual picnic in The Regent's Park yesterday.  This year it was rebranded as the Olympicnic in honour of the forthcoming Games.

The weather was gorgeous as were the people who attended. We retired to The Black Cap afterwards for a small shandy or two to round the day off. Such fun. More pictures here.

#OlympicsBashing...

The Olympics athletes started arriving in London yesterday so inevitably the usual suspects started with their Olympics bashing. Yes, step forward peddlers of negativity Evening Standard and BBC News London.

All they could come with last night was (a) the Australian team's boat sails were delivered to the cargo rather than the passenger gate at Heathrow resulting in a slight delay. Oh the humanity! and, (b) the Canadian team's bus driver got a bit lost driving from Heathrow to Startford and took the scenic route via Buckingham Palace. Will no one think of the children!

It prompted me to tweet the following two messages mentioning them:-

Oh #EveningStandard is that the best you can do? Not even got the word 'chaos' in #OlympicsBashing non-story front page! Please try harder.

Oh #BBCLondon is that the best you can do? Not even got the word 'chaos' in #OlympicsBashing top story! Please try harder.

That told 'em, huh?

Olympics Tickets...

I'm a big fan of the Olympics coming to London. I don't care about the cost (we can afford it), the sponsors (it keeps what costs there are down) or the disruption (I go to the footie and experience every fortnight first hand 60,000 people descending on a stadium - it's no biggy.)

I was excited when London applied. Excited when London got it. And have grown more excited as the time approaches.

Now all I needed to do was try for some tickets.

So I registered my interest last year and applied in the first round of ticket sales. I'd chanced an arm and applied for a dozen different sessions, all the sports I wanted to see, and came away with just one - Beach Volleyball. Worse still, winning those tickets made me ineligible to apply again in the second round. I did log on for that second round but on my parents behalf to get them some tickets (they had missed out completely in the first round and didn't fancy getting up at 6am to try again) and was marginally more successful for them.

However I had to wait another 10 months until last week for the chance of applying again on my own behalf and after missing various other rounds of sales wasn't expecting much luck. I logged on at the appropriate time at 11am on Wednesday 23rd May (oh, I'd had that date in my diary for weeks) and imagine my surprise when I discovered that there were loads of tickets still available. Almost every event and venue I wanted to go to from last year still had tickets to buy. So I selected all the original events that I might have possibly wanted waited. And waited. And waited. The London 2012 ticket web site was working but had a really annoying queueing system that counted down from 15 minutes before it could confirm whether you'd been successfully or not. The first few came back with the frustrating message, "No tickets found." Grrr.

But I persevered. Trying again and again. Like those Olympic athletes I wasn't going to give up. For some events I applied 8 or 9 times in a row - getting slightly more disheartened with each failure. But after an hour or so I got my first event. A diving event. Yay! So I tried again with another event - this time Artistic Gymnastics - and sure enough that came back too. I was on a roll. I repeated again and again often getting the "No tickets found" message but I had the bit between my teeth.

Eventually they all started coming back as winners. In fact after almost three hours of trying I had secured tickets for all but one of the original sessions I wanted to go to!

Success!

So now I'm going to watch 11 different sports in 13 different sessions at numerous Olympic venues - two being diving finals, one being the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony and a few trips up the Orbit to boot.

Can't wait.

PS: As of today there are still Olympics tickets available! Check out.