Last day of Holidays

Today was my last day of holidays, I did a 9km run around the local parks - Ealing Common and Gunnersbury Park, I checked out of the Lodge and then left my bags there for the day, my flight is not until 10.15pm tonight with Emerates. I decided to just do a bit of last minute shopping and some wandering around the city.

Dublin

I went to the Hurling Sunday afternoon, Kilkenny beat Tipperary in the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior semi-final, it was a close first with Tip holding a 1 point lead at the half, but we're overrun in the 2nd half by the Kilkenny boys, score 4 - 24 36 points to 1 - 15 18 points , there was 50,000 there, a very interesting sport. I decided yesterday to go the Ireland national Museum and the Guinness Brewery, I went to the Museum first except when I got there, it is closed on Mondays, so then I went to the Guinness Storehouse which is the Museum for the Guinness Brewery, it's not too bad, but it's all just video and displays of how they make the brew, I actually wanted to see the real thing in action. They do have tastings plus they show you how to pour a Guinness and you get a free pint, I had a Guinness many years ago and I wasn't keen then on the taste then, but I thought freshly brewed in Ireland it must taste better, awful, to say I had 1/3 of the pint was generous, if you drink the stuff you will love the tour, if you keep going back to the tasting bar you could get your money's worth on top of the free one. After getting back to my lodge, I got a message from Kerry Boden, saying that her and Neil were in Dublin, I knew they were coming this way but after I had passed thru, they were only staying about a 10 minute walk away, we had dinner at their hotel and watched Everton beat Man United on TV, a great result. Today I am flying back to London from Dublin, I have a 2.20pm flight, I am staying in Ealing tonite, very close to where I lived here for 3-4 months in 1988.

Day trip to Wicklow

Yesterday I got onto one of the Day tours by Bus that goes out to County Wicklow from Dublin, we saw some beautiful countryside, we had lunch at the town Avoca whee the series Ballykissangel was filmed, it used real places in the town were used in the series, the pub, the shops, the church, which still retain the names now.

Arrived in Dublin

I caught a bus from Belfast to Dublin, it took about 2 hours, I arrived yesterday, it only took me about a 15 minute walk to find the B&B I am staying at, room is up on the 2nd floor, no lifts here, dragging the suitcase up the stairs makes it interesting. I then went and scouted my run for the morning, I can run along the river and about 3km from the city is a big prk, so I thought I would head there in the morning. I awndered around in the evening, there are plenty of places, I even found a bakery that does Cornish pasties, so I will be back there, I didnt get that much to eat, wasnt feeling that hungry, had eaten crap all day. In the morning I did my run up to the park, it doesnt open until 7.30am approx, I just did a couple of kms into the park & back to the hotel for about 10.5 all up. I am going to try and hook up for a day trip today.

Belfast - not a bomb in sight

Belfast is the oppisite of what I had in my own mind of what this place was, you hear all the stories about the violence and the bombings that occurred in Northern Ireland, the city centre is a very similar size to the civic area of canberra, no real tall buildings,it seems a very quite sort of place, it had one of the most famous ship building comapnies here - Harland & Wolff that built the Titanic, probably the most famous ship of all time. Yesterday I saw the Titanic memorial garden in the city that has listed all the people that died, then I went to the Titanic museum that opened up in March, but most of the tickets were already sold for the day, they let so many people in on the tour each hour, you can pre-book online up to 2 days in advance, So I was told to come back around 9ish next day to get one of the tickets that they just sell on the day. I cam back today, go there about 9.30 and got a ticket for 10.20, I thought it was tour, whereas it is a self guided trip thru the different displays, it is one of the best museums I have seen, they have about 8-8 fifferent areas setup, the earlier days ol Belfast, the setting up of Ship building area in Belfast, the actaul building of the Titanic, the fit out of the Titanic, the launch, the actual sailing, the sinking (which they did very tasteful without putting any blame on anybody, the rescue, the aftermarth, the inquiries, the search for it, I was in there nearly 3 hours. It is a very comprehensive display about the Titanic. Basicallly she was going too fast thru the area that was littered with Icebegs, there were not enough liferafts, thats basically it. After the museum I headed back to the hotel the waether was turning and ir started to pour and it was getting very windy, I ahd forgotten my umbrella, but I had my green plastic poncho that I had brought with me from Australia, which I used twice at the Olympics, when I was walking back thru the city, a lady asked where I had got it from I said that I had brought it with me, I am sure those sort of thing are sold in the UK. Tomorrow I am off to Dublin, I will probably catch a bus which leaves every hour from Belfast.

Last day London, First day Belfast

Today was strange, the Olympics was over, it had been a biig part of my life for just over 2 weeks, you watched, slept, heard, ran & eaten Olympics, it was all finished, Rio was now only 3 years, 11 months and 23 days to come. I check out of the room I had shared with the 2 hocket guys, Zorba and Badger, they had become good friends, I was really worried about getting on with them, but I did not have to worry, we are even thinking about teaming up again for Rio. I got a car service (included in my package) to Heathrow, go there about 1.30ish. I then caught a 3.15pm Aer Lingus flight to Belfast, we arrived at about 4.30pm, then I got a bus into the city bus station, I then walked to my B&B (CitiLodge) that I had booked on the Internet, a double room with breakfast was about 65 pound, WiFi was included, it took me about 15-20 minutes, some of the reports on the Internet hadnt been glowing, but the room is fine, toilet and shower a bit small, but big enough. I then went and scouted for a run in the morning, on the maps I could see a river to the west of me, I found it after wandering a couple of streets, there is a cycle and running path along the river, perfect, I marked with my Garmin so I can find it in the morning, there is forecast of rain, see what happens. I then when looking for food and had Fish & Chips at Bishops which was the best F&C for Belfast in 2011, they werent too bad, nice chips, good sixe piece of fish, I notice that a few places do pasties, so I will see if they come up to my Dads standard. Last week at the main shopping centre near the Olympics I had a Cornish pastie at a place as it had come hot out of the oven, it looked nice, I had walked away from the shop had my first bite, quite nice but the 2nd bite, the inside was coldish, they had obviously used frozen mixture in the pastie and then cooked them, but it hadnt thawed out properly, my Dad would have been very annoyed at them using pre-mixed filler, instead of fresh mixture like my Dads. I hope to do some wandering around Belfast if the rain holds out. vSomething th, y

London Olympic Mens Marathon and thoughts

This morning I went out to watch the Mens Olympic Marathon, as I did with the Womens Marathon I went out to the Turn around point of the 12.5km loop close to the Tower of London, in total the race consists on a 4.5km loop and then 3 loops of 12.5kms. The race was starting at 11am and they would get to the turnaround at about 32-34 minutes. I managed to find a concrete block that was holding up a side fence close to the turnaround point, so I had a view of the runners coming down to the turnaround and going away. On the first lap, there was already a runner from Brazil that had broken away about 200 metres from the leading pack of about 10-15unners, Jeff Hunt was the first Australian runner I saw, I think Michael Shelley had already snuck around, Marty Dent came around about 2-3 minutes from the leader, By the 2nd lap the pack had broken up and there was only small packs of 3-4 runners. Michael Shelley and Marty were running well, still well down from the leaders in about 50th and 60th place and Jeff Hunt looked like he was starting to struggle, By the 3rd lap there was a lead group of 3, a Ungandan and 2 from Kenya. I saw Michael and Marty come thru about 6 and 8 minutes from the leaders, but both looked strong, I then headed back to the Hotel which was only about a km away, I wanted to see the finish of the Marathon on TV, by that stage (1km to go) the guy from Uganda had broken away from the 2 Kenyans, there first Gold Medal since 1972, Michael finished in 16th in 2.14 and Marty 28th in 2.16 which were fantastic runs, Jeff Hunt finished in about 60-70th in 2.23, which was a great run considering how bad he looked half way thru. In the afternoon I watched some of the Mens Volleyball final, then watched the USA Mens Basketball team hold off a determined Spain 106 to 100, a really gutsy effort. At the moment I am watching the Closing Ceremony, which has never really been a big hit with me. The London Olympics had been very good in a lot of aspects, Venues, Transport, but it was very spoilt by the Ticket Fiasco, the biased coverage by BBC, plus it seemed like that the Olympics was put on for the Athletes and the British public, but the Foreign visitors were sort of forgotten about, speaking about Tickets, the Australian Olympic Committee has to look at its contract with Cosports who seems to horad all the good tickets and releases them with their hugely expensive hospitality packages and makes it hard to get Team sport tickets because you never know until the last minute which session they are playing in, but AOC wont do anything. Hopefully tickets will be better in RIO, I am sure of that.

Opals playing for Bronze

The opals fought hard against the USA but went down in the semi, they played well in the first half up by 4 points with Lizzie Cambage playing well with 19 points, but she was shut down in the 2nd half with no points, USA end up winning by about 12, the Opals played really well, there younger players looked good and there is hope for the future. On saturday I caught up with Neil and Kerry Boden from Canberra whos daughter Lauren ran in the 400 hurdles, we had lunch at Waterloo station. Today I am off to see the Opals play Russia for Womens Basketball Bronze medal.

Boomers fought to the end

Yesterday I didn't get to the Boomers match against the USA, it was a hard ticket to get, I did my usual run in the morning and then in the afternoon I met Tony Gordon who I went to Uni with and I havent seen him in over 13 years. He was flying thru London from the USA on the way to Africa where he works 8 weeks and then heads back to his home in Colorado where he has lived since 1996. We went to a Pub near Paddington, we were the only people in the Pub, we had a few drinks and a meal, the publican was very upset about the lack of people round, the Olympics has had athe opp. effect for pubs not really near the Olympic area. Last night the Boomers lost to the USA, a tough game they played as well as they could.

Opals thru to the Semis

I did a 16km run along the thames before breakfast, I rang my basketball contact to find out if I coul get a ticket to the Opals quarter final against China this afternoon, he was going to text me when I could pick one up from him. I got a text about 10.45am, I had to meet him at a pub close to the Shopping centre at Stratford in about an hour, I caught a bus there and eventually I found him after he was a bit late, he had got me an A ticket for the B price, which was good value. Opals had a mixed game against China, they came out the blocks and lead by as much as 9 points in the 2nd qtr and then China just started to wheel them in, and lead by 3 to 4 ponits, by lead the opals by 1 point at the half, it was a tight 3rd qtr and I think we lead by 3 with a quarter to play, Liz Cambage was getting a few points under the boards, the points were getting spread around. The young brigade of Cambage, Jarry, Ohea, Bishop and the elder Harrower got them out to a 7 point lead by the middle of the last qtr, then the experience of Jackson & Batovic help finish off China with a 75 to 60 victory, now they also meet the USA but in the semi on thursday night.

A great win by the Boomers.

Today because I had the early start of the Boomers game at 9am, I decided to have a rest day from running, I had probably covered about 100kms in the morning runs along the Thames, I had breakfast at about 7am, the hotel had put on a good spread each morning, Cereal, toast, juice, coffee, sausages, eggs etc, so I could fill up and not need to eat until the evening. The past few mornings I have been catching the 25 Bus up the main road from the Hotel, it changes from whitechapel high street to Mile End road, then Bow road and not sure what it is when it gets to Stratford Centre whih is right next to the Olympic area, I am about 6-7 ksm from the Olympic area. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to walk to the Basketball stadium after getting thru security. What a game today, the best game I have seen the Boomers play in years, a great 2 point win over Russia after Patty Mills hit a 3 on the siren, I managed to video the last 5 seconds of the game. The guys played so well, even after Russia took the lead with a few minutes to go, it was a team effort. Matt Delevedova has played so well for his first Olympics, Patty was quiet this game but Joe Ingels hit 20 with some nice 3's and even the 7 footer Dave Andersen hit 4 3's. Russia played well and didn't just hand us the game. Now for the USA on Wednesday in the quarters, a very hard task.

Too much sport is barely enough

Saturday was a big Olympic sporting day, I went to HydePark and watched the Womens Triathlon, it was very well setup, with about a reporting 200,000 crowd, the swim was in the Sepentine lake and then the cycle was 7 laps of 6.1kms circuit that went around and thru Hyde Park and down to Buckingham Palace, then 4 laps of 2.5kms around the edge of the lake. Erin Densham was fantastic in getting the bronze, she stayed with the leading cycle pack that included Australian Emma Jackson, into the run she pushed the pace that lead to a group of 4, she was out run at the end by the swiss girl and another to get the bronze, 21 year old Emma Jackson finished well in 8th spot, she will be a threat in Rio. Then last night I saw agame of two halves in the Boomers basketball game against GB, down 36 to 51 after 2 minutes of the 2nd hald the Boomers went on a 30 to 6 run for the rest of the quarter , GB hit a 3 on the Buzzer (3/4 qtr time) to get it back to 66-60 with the Boomers in front, Patty Mills was every where, he shoots on volume and last night he hit 38 points and was just unstoppable, I had a chat with his Dad after the game, (I use to play against Benny Mills). The last quarer started well with the Boomers going on a 17 to nothing run, GB went from bad to worse, every Boomer was starting to score, Joe Ingles, Andersen, Newley, Mills finished it off well, we won the qtr 40 to 15, in the last 18 minutes Australia out scored GB 70 to 25. We now have a must win big game against Russia monday to try and avoid USA in the quarters. This morning I went down to Tower of London where there was a turn around point for the Womens Marthon which consisted of a 4.5k loop and then 3 laps of 12.5, where I was watching from approx 6kms from the finish, I watched them come thru twice, Australia had 3 runners, Lisa flea Weighmen, Tress my brother plays for the Demons Trengove & Benita Willis, there was plenty of rain early, then it fined up and the sun came out in parts. I left early to head off to the Basketball, the Opals beat Canada, after a great start in the first quarter, I think the score was 25 to 10, they were very ordinary after that, the Canuks got within 2 in the last quarter, but Lauren Jacksons foul shooting in the last 3 minutes won us the game. The match after could be the Gold medal playoff, USA were beating china by 12 just before half time but early on we're matching them, the Chinese look a better team than the Opals.

Back in the game

I have had a couple of quiet days just wandering around London, I just couldnt get tickets to the past few basketball games, but now I am back in the race, I am off to the Basketball which starts in just under 3 hours, plus I have tickets for the next 3 games afterwards, the last pool games for the Boomers and the Opals. I hope to watch part of the Womens marathon tomorrow, I will get a spot near where the course goes close to the Tower of London.

A day off

As reported in the media, it is really hard getting tickets to events where it is either sold out or you can't get the tickets that haven't been sold, this has been the worst Olympics ever for getting tickets, the system they have set up is terrible, I am lucky that I have a source that can get me a few basketball tickets for Australia games. Yesterday (tuesday) I did a wander around the city area, just taking in a few sites, this was after I watched the Australian men play Spain, they looked awful, scoring only 25 to about 50odd in the middle 2 quarters, loosing by only 12 was very flattering. I hope to get to see the last 4 games the boomers & opals play of the pool games, friday to monday, Opals play Brazil today, it will be a tough match. Interesting the British are getting very nervous they have got to Day 5 without a Gold, Australia I think will struggle to get to 10 gold, I think 8-9 is good as it will get.