1470 15 Swimming and Cycling Golds 2008

It is Wednesday August 20th the second full day of my return from became an excellent mini trip to London despite not being able to fulfil original intentions, I am having difficulty in getting going again after an interrupted night.

Yesterday I enjoyed a good sleep with little interruption on Monday and arose early to watch the Olympics as I have been doing since the British sportsmen and women commenced their amazing series of winning achievements. I have delayed recording the experiences because of time constraints in a situation where I wanted to get out and about as much as I could. On return I had noted that it had rained heavily but it was only yesterday that I found out the extent of the raining while away and that it was necessary to cancel sporting events across the region from the 20 20 international at the Riverside today to the racing at York. The explanation for autumnal changeable wet and cold weather over the past two summers is the movement of the gulf stream south. Usually it sits above the British Isle and northern Europe so that we can enjoy the warmer and sunnier weather from the south. Alas this has not been the situation and there is no immediate prospect of change before the end of the month making August a washout.
My energy level had been good over the morning as I completed writing while giving full attention to the Olympics. And then I needed to shop and go to the bank to pay in the cheques from Inland Revenue and Premium Bonds. In the evening there was a an excitingly close Pro 40 cricket match at Nottingham involving Durham. This was also rain affected reducing the length of the Durham inning twice so that using the formula which applies in this competition Nottingham was asked to score 152 fro 25 overs almost a 20 20 game where such totals are possible and as with Durham had a good start but hen one of their key players injured himself and the rest collapsed to give Durham a surprising and unimportant win, only their second in four games, placing then in mid table and with the three teams above them with only two more points and played an additional game, so there is all still to play for. It was good to see the new flood lights in operation and which are the best in the UK.

And now to the Olympic story 2008.

Eight of the sixteen gold medals have been won through cycling with seven of these on the track and one on the road, the first by Nicole Cooke(1) the 25 year old from Wick in Glamorgan, achieving success after her disappointment at the age of 21 at the last Games in Athens. One of the treats of the latest Computer TV Technology is that in addition to having a constantly updated list of British Medal winners it is possible to watch full screen video's of the event, the medal ceremony and interviews including those with parents who in almost all instances will have committed themselves to supporting with help in travel, special diet, facilities and constant support. The medal was well earned with having to race up and down mountains as well as through the streets of the capital for over three and a half hours. The feature of the rest was managing to keep close to those who attempted to break away and that in the closing moments she momentarily lost touch before powering through to win.

Her victory is rightly celebrated and her parents appropriate honoured but it is worth reminding that after winning her first national tile at 16 years and being a world junior champion she turned professional and presently lives in in Lugano, rides for a Swiss based team and speak fluent Italian, She has women major races throughout Europe and was rated the world's number road cyclist. However being the Olympic Champion is the one which matters to most sporting athletes

It is also important to remember that throughout the history of the games which were re-established, some 100 years ago, only 200 British men and women have won the gold medal, and with a quarter of these (55) achieved at the 2008 London games when there were only some twenty nations competing and participation by genuine amateurs. In 1900 we won 14 in Paris and then a similar number in Antwerp in 1920. Theer were 11 in Sydney 2000 and 10 in Stockholm 1912, which means that sine 1920 only once were more than ten gold medals achieved. At the USA games in Alabama we only one won.

The second set of cycling Medals was won in the men's sprint team where three riders each ride a lap of the track against another team doing similar, similar to the relay on the athletics track except that they must also ride together for the first lap and then two for the second. The winning margin was only half a second on the final race which lasted just over 41 seconds. Such is the contrast between performers Two of the three were to win further medals but the man who got the team off into a their leading position was Jamie Staff (2). Also 25 years from Ashford Kent he started on a BMX bike when he was nine years of age and he took up the sport winning everything from World Championship downwards. Deciding that he wanted an Olympic medal, in 2001 when the BMX bicycle was not an Olympic Sport he switched to track cycling qualifying for the British Team at his first attempt. He has won gold with the British Team in the World Championships in two events 2002 and 2004.

The third member of the Gold Medal team Jason Kenny (3) who is one of the youngest members of the British team at the age of 22 from Bolton and who previous has only represented and the European Level under 23's so it is an extraordinary achievement to have one Gold Medal as part of the sprint team and then run Chris Hoy a close second to win the individual sprint silver. He is destined for great things in the future world championships and 2012 Olympics.

The third cycling medal was an individual medal by Bradley Wiggins(4) in the individual pursuit competition. Winner in Athens 2004 he repeated his success in 4000 metre pursuit race having achieved a Bronze at the Sydney Olympics in the team pursuit, He also won a silver and a bronze in Athens. He is now 28 years of age and was born in Belgium, his father a professional cyclists who then moved to London, He turned professional in 2001 with the British Road Racing team, moving to the French Teams and riding in the Tour De France 2006 and 2007. He received an OBE in 2004 for his contribution to British Sport he won three world championship medals in 2008. Bradley won a second gold medal in Beijing as part of the British team pursuit team

The next Gold Medallist to mention is Chris Hoy(5) one of Scotland's foremost athletes who rowed and came second in the British Championship in 1993 and Rugby at school. A university graduate in Sports science he had been awarded two honary doctorates, As with Wiggins he commenced on the BMX bicycle. Before Beijing he has achieved recognition on and of the track winning Gold in Athens in 2004 in 1km time trial and has nine world gold medals. Chris was part of the trio of riders who won the team Sprint. He won the individual Sprint against a fellow Team Member and also the Keirin, the Japanese originated race in which six to eighth riders jostle for position behind a motorcycle before breaking into a sprint when the motor cycle breaks off about a couple of laps before the end of the race. At the age of 32 Chris is expected to retire having been appointed an ambassador for the London Olympics and where a Scottish Velodome being built for the 1014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is being built for him. Given that he already has an MBE and is the British person to win three Olympic Medals at the same games and with four from four different events there is already expectation that he will receive knighthood for his contribution.

The sixth Cyclist Gold Medal winner Rebecca Romero was raised in Wallington, but long after my own childhood having a Spanish father and English mother and attending Wallington High School which I used to pass on my way to the John Fisher School and which was then the Girl's Grammar School. She also has University degrees in English and in Sport's science and a postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Communication. Aged now 28 she developed an interest in rowing and in the Athens Games won a silver medal in the four sculls. And then was part of the team which won the World sculls fours in 2005. Having a back injury she retired from rowing in 2006 and took up track cycling quickly making progress in endurance events. She then won silver medal in the 2006 World Cup track competition in the team pursuit losing to the same British opponent who she beat in Beijing, She obtained a silver in the World cycling event in 2007 and then Gold in the 2008 world championships and a second medal as part of the team pursuit team. She is the first British women two have competed at the Summer Olympic games in two sports and only the second woman to do so from any country.

In addition to Bradley Wiggins there were three others who won Gold Medals as part of the British team pursuit team. Paul Manning(7) aged 24 from Sutton Coldfield is a British professional cyclist who has represented in two previous Olympic games winning bronze and then silver and who has won two Golds at the Commonwealth games. Geraint Thomas (8) from Whitchurch area of Cardiff was born in Wales and at 22 is one of the younger member who can hope to compete in London and after. He became the youngest rider in the 2007 Tour de France, deciding not to race in the Tour in 2008 in order to prepare for the Olympics. The team broke the world record in the heats and again in the final. He has won gold medals in the World Championships 2007 and 2008. The fourth member of the team is Ed Clancy (9) born in Barnsley Yorkshire his home is now Newton Le Willows in Lancashire. A professional cyclist aged 23 he was part of the 2008 World Championship winning team and is another good prospect for London 2012.

The third female cycling Gold Medallist was the last success Victoria Pendleton (10 born Stotfold, Bedfordshire and now aged 28 years Although she showed early promise as a cyclist being spotted by a national coach at the age of nine she decided to first concentrate on her education, gaining a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle. Although she commenced cycling again at national level and went to the 2004 Olympic Games it was not until 2005 that she won her first Gold Medal in the World Championships and then two Gold Medals in 2008. She was much affected by not winning a medal at Athens and has been greatly helped by the team of specialist appointed to help the British team, especially the psychiatrist who was the first person she hugged after winning.

A second Road Racing medal was won by a British Athlete, this occasion a silver by Brenda Pooley (11) aged 26 from Wandsworth London and a Cambridge graduate, in the Road Race Time Trial and event which lasts just over half an hour of flat out cycling. She was originally a runner but took up cycling after an injury. She has become a professional cyclist living in Switzerland where continues her studies working for a Doctorate in soil Engineering.

Ross Edgar (12) was the runner up to Chris Hoy in the Keirin final. Aged 25 and born and lives at Newmarket Suffolk but has represented Scotland at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Runner up to Rebecca Romero, Wendy Houvenagel (nee McClean 13) aged 24 and born and brought up in Upperlands County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. A member of the successful Team Pursuit team at the world championship in 2008. She studied Dentistry at the University of Dundee she joined the RAF after graduation and reached the rank of squadron leader as a Dentist but is not a reservist. She only took up cycling in 2007 having not ridden a bike since leaving school which makes her rise to an Olympic Medal that much more extraordinary.

Chris Newton (14) 33 from Middlesbrough in the North East, was the oldest member of the team to win a medal, bronze in in the points race. He has had an outstanding career as a road and track racer, a university graduate and a graphic designer by trade. His career commence din 1992 when he was fourth in the World Junior team pursuit willing two British road races a year later. He represented GB a year later and won first prizes in competitions in Europe. In 2002 he won a Gold in the World Championship points race subsequently winning Golds in the World Championships and World Cup. He broke a collarbone early in 2008 which prevented participation in the World Championships and in his preparations for the Olympic. Steven Burke (15) also won an unexpected bronze medal at the age of 20 and improving upon his best performance by 11 seconds in the 4000 metre individual pursuit. Steven who comes from Burnley in Lancashire came to the fore as a Junior in 2005 and the Under 23's level in 2006 winning senior Gold Medals in the 2007 National Championships. He is therefore another bright prospect for 2012.

This not just proved to be the most successful British Cycling team at any championships ever, but the most successful team in the world ever. Therefore considerable credit must go to the management and technical support services from the designer of the wear, headgear and above all the bicycles tailored to individual competitors and competitions. Many have reach their peak age and it must be hoped that the majority will continue to 2012 unless of course better competitors emerge between now and then when the younger ones should be given their opportunity.

This is also not the end of British Cycling success at the 2008 Olympics as we have the world female BMX champion still performing. More of that in the final round up.

1462 Rebecca Adlingtonn Gold andf Spooks spin off

I have a great sense of rapidly vanishing time and find myself in a rushed mood which I will find difficult to break out of.

Up around 8.30 I write this around 2pm waiting for the lack of sleep overnight to hit me. I missed the Olympic event of the day from the British perspective. Rebecca Adlington is just 19 years of age and was not expected to win a medal in her second performing race the 400 medley with the 800 a medal possibility. The U.S.A swimmer Katie Hoff was expected to take the gold and led the whole race until the final seconds. Rebecca with team mate Jo Jackson were in fourth and fifth position as they started the last free style lap and giving no hint of the final burst which led her to touch the finishing line first and Jo pushing on with her third. At the last Games in Athens the British swimming team managed two medals in total and neither were gold. It is 48 years since the last women's gold medal and 20 years since a male won which gives perspective to the achievement. Needless to add, the two girls, their families and friends and the rest of the nation went bonkers.

However the News programme put the games into perspective with the news that Russia were not responding to Georgian calls for a cease fire, Russia claiming that Georgia were pretending and continuing aggressive acts. The situation appeared to deteriorate during the day which a message of concern expressed by the USA government to Russia who appears now set on taking over the country and establishing a pro Russia friendly regime. This has wider implications that for Georgia. I wonder what Americas role, behind the scenes has been in all this and how far the attention of the world on the Games has been used as a cover for the development. As an outsider there is now way of know what is really happening and why and who is involved and who is not.

This was the brilliance of Spooks a series on a special home land security task force in he UK after 9/11 and 7/7. What made the series a must see was the writing of the core stories and the quality of acting as well as the written interactions between the actors.

The new Spooks Code 9 is a poor relation. This is the story concept. There is a minor nuclear explosion set off in central London which kills about 100000 and with an unspecified number anticipated to die or become extremely sick as a consequence of tradition. It is signalled early on in the first episode which I saw together with the second on BBCi player yesterday evening that the event is being used to introduced an authoritarian government into the UK and that it is by no means certain that the event was externally inspired. The second core concept is that with amazing the bomb wiping out key homeland security people but apparently not the government and others amazing deciding to leave the service and go into private work the government decides on a new approach of recruiting very young and inexperienced new field operatives. The problem is that the actors appear as inexperienced and immature as this nonsense concept. The third concept idea is that after the team leader behaves in a naive and stupid fashion and get herself killed the new leader is a concept boy. He is not action man but a probability mathematician. Such ingredients take good writing and good acting to have any chance of working and impressing an intelligent audience which the programme is aimed at. I suspect the series is a government inspired recruiting vehicle or double bluff to convince that by creating such an awful programme the government would never do in practice what the programmes portrays. I enjoyed it nevertheless but will rely on the BBC player to watch at times convenient to me when I am in the mood and have nothing better to do.

Although I tried to go back to bed after putting the bin out I got up and attended to washing up as well as washing me after breakfast of French Toasts. There was an early lunch of stir fry chicken and more washing up. Later a real ham sandwich with cumber was sufficient for the rest of the day after a few peanuts and sup of wine all that was left. I had some grapes after lunch and two fresh peaches late into the evening. The level of exercise was poor with only a limited amount of being up and about the house although I did walk the short distance to the post box and back up the hill.

The main activity during the day was research and plan more about my London. I looked to see how long it would for me to get into central London from Croydon by bus and the standard journey involving a couple of bus changes takes one hour and a half. The train journey from East Croydon to Victoria takes 15-20 minutes involving one stop. I looked at the present Travel Card costs and although there is a cheaper three day card, it is cheaper for me to buy single journeys going through the cross link from Kings Cross on Thursday and then a train to Victoria for the coach station on Monday. I am going to the south coast by train on the Sunday direct from east Croydon so that only leaves the value for a travel card on Friday and Saturday depending on the extent to which I will be using buses on the underground. I have now established that there is one showing of the 3D version of Journey to the centre of earth at the O2 Vue Millennium Dome at 11 am on Friday and Saturday. It might be a tight time task on Friday going from East Croydon to Victoria and then changing at Westminster for the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich and safer to try on Saturday when I can use the travel card before 9.30 I am interested to see the difference in techno nearly half a decade since using hand held read and Green 3D glasses and it would be good to go back tot eh Dome now the O2 auditorium and also being used for the second visit in my lifetime of the Tutankhamen exhibition. However I have now discovered that it is showing at the Vue West End a more reasonable time 1.30 although the cost is £9.95 a ticket compared to £6 at Greenwich.

The plan is then to go a free concert by a female singer at the Royal Festival Hall at 6pm. There is also a free Burlesque show at 10 at the same venue but the getting back might be a problem as well as reality overwhelming! Much better to return and write up the experiences of the day until then as well as getting up early for the Olympic specials. On Saturday there is a choral concert at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the proms and I fancy going tot eh proms and before then possibly a visit to the Victoria and Albert fine arts museum which is also in the South Kensington area, perhaps finding a pub for lunch and including tour around the Hall.

An alternative option is to spend the afternoon in Portsmouth taking a cheap day return.

The rest of the evening was used by attending to technology issues and the challenges posed by problems with a lap top. I am determined not to be beaten by the problems in this instance although have to ensure I use the time available in a balanced way. I need to remove some information from the machine and then go into recovery mode which takes the machine back to factory standards but loses the data. A similar option is a solution recommended for the desk top as means of working out why the card reader is not reading although appear to be working. Additional technology devices are involved. A USB card reader which is Vista and XP friendly. A cable/wireless and software to transfer data between computers and a secondary data storage device. But I need to ensure I understand how these will work and any problems before purchasing. It all points to reducing cricket watching over the next two days and getting on with other things.

1461 Nicole Cooke Cycling Gold and Cricket

It is difficult to know where to begin on what became a long stretched day of constantly changing emotions commencing with the Olympics and the women's road race and ending the early hours with mixed fortunes in grappling with communications technology.

I have just watched again on my desk top monitor the end of the 126 Kilometre road race win by Nicole Cooke, whose parental home in a small village in Wales, reminding myself of the gruelling three hour thirty two minute twenty four second race which I watched throughout Sunday morning. The commentators were always confident that she was in touch with who ever was leading the race with various attempted breakaways and then when more than a ten second gap opened between the breakaway group and the others as the they completed the second circuit climbing high into the mountains where the great wall is located outside of Beijing.

The weather was atrocious throughout with torrential fain falling which amazed that there were not more falls and group crashes as a consequence. Then as they approached the finishing and the breakaway group turned a bend from the downhill part of the race Nicole lost a second's touch with the four other leaders and so far in the euphoria of what followed there has been no explanation of what happened at this point and for a few seconds the previous three and half hours work appeared to have been in vain and she appeared likely to be outside the medals. As she admitted afterwards it was then that all the punishing training in preparation for these Games had its effect and she burst through to take the lead and then to hold off attempts by others in the group to overtake her. The elation of her experiences was joy to behold and she was unable to say anything to commentators other than how wonderfully happy she was, overwhelming herself with her own feelings.

After all the concerns and questions about the Games and all the public expenditure and hype I remembered previous feelings of similar situations. There were then developments which nevertheless placed this achievement in perspective. Pro west Georgia who had use force to prevent a pro Russia province from breaking away were being hit by the full and prepared forces of Russia. It is no accident that all this has happened when the world's attention is focussed on the Games. It may be that Georgia felt it had no alternative but to resist the Russian inspired breakaway attempt but to have used force was a disastrous gamble which now threatens the integrity of the whole state as Russian continues to bomb and threaten to move over from the border of the disputed territory. Then late in the evening there was news that two Chinese students were murdered in their accommodation in central Newcastle.

I had prepared my chicken stir fry for the an early midday meal, then got myself up and then prepared two sandwiches and a container of grapes and strawberries, a flash of coffee and of orange juice ready for the cricket.

It was not until I was seated at the stadium that I checked to find that we were Sussex in the forty over first division competition where Durham had won the second division last year. Because of the meal, then getting myself washed and changed and giving attention to the cycle road race, I was late setting off and could not park in my preferred place directly at the riverside, although I did manage a good position in the next car park nearest the main roadway into the ground area. There had been an ominous cloud above the ground area as I approached and a few spots of rain on the windscreen but play was underway as I looked for somewhere to sit and tried to work out who was batting as both teams were dressed in black. I selected an aisle seat area on the far side of Member's Lounge entrance and close to the shop, box office and main reception area and was concerned to find that Durham was batting first and finding the conditions difficult, scoring only 3 runs an over. There were three short rain interruptions which could not have helped the concentration but gradually the weather improved which was ominous for Durham as they commenced scoring with greater ease as the weather improved. Mustard made 82 and with support from Chanderpaul, Smith, Blenkenstein and a late flurry from Plunkett the team reached 221 off the reduced 38 overs from forty, thus scoring at just under 6 runs an over after the shaky start.

The problem was Durham's bowling and a strong opening by Sussex who scored 106 before the second wicket and then Plunket had a miserable time hit for 37 off three overs, replaced by captain Blenkenstein who although took two wickets bowling his 8 overs for 50 runs although the others with one exception also gave away 6 runs an over. Davies was the only bowler giving his side hope with 1 wicket for 22 runs of his eight overs. They were not bowling badly and in other circumstances the game may have ended more tightly but the change in conditions altered the balance and although Sussex commenced to lose wickets the result never appeared to me in doubt. I therefore left the match with two overs to go to beat the traffic.

After seeing a food programme about the nature of processed ham with fat and other dodgy cuts, salt and water I decided to buy the more expensive thin slices of cured leg of ham, of the kind that Italians and the Spanish are so good at creating at a price for the market. I added a few slices of cucumber and enjoyed one sandwich at the match and the second when I returned home just after eight o'clock after a glass of wine and the last of the peanuts. I then finished off the grapes and strawberries not eaten at the game although I had given in to the temptation of a packet of crisps from the Member's lounge when I went to see if there was a travel club visit to the game ay Hampshire.

I did commence some photographing of completed work but this decided me to investigate again the problems arising in one of the lap tops and this in turn led to six hours of concentrated activity after finding that I appeared to have lost the wireless local network on the laptop and then encountered problems with the desk top, Did I have a time trying to work out what I was doing, what I had done, why things were not working and then why they were. I was too busy working to make notes of what I was doing.

The first positive outcome is that I am now wireless connected from desk top to router. There is no hard link between the router and the computer. This is amazing. The netgear USB add on did not work this morning when attached to the rear slots but does from the front two one of which I use for the printer. I do not think my printer is wireless prepared but I will check this out later on Monday.

The second bonus progress is that my VA10 notebook now appears to be working better than previously since the Belkin wireless card was added and is also working now with no problem through the router. I am yet to work out how to pass over files and hope to have a go at sorting this out also later on Monday.

I could return the Advent lap top to its original factory settings through recovery but my understanding is that I would lose the data including the photos which are important, having somehow managed to delete the copy move devices and stopped windows doing so as one did and does without the provided software. I have found a way to reinstall programmes and drivers from the hard drive but while this appeared to work for the first programme tried in the early hours it did not resolve the problem, I will have another try. I also failed to overcome the connectivity problem to AOL, through Router with connection and to establish wireless. There is something missing with I am determined to try and solve.

I therefore went to bed around 3am possibly later in mixture of success and failure and had to concentrate to relax mind and body to sleep. This was successful rising at around 5, 7 and then 8.45 to put the bin out. I have not had of these nights for several weeks when I forget sleep, the body, time such is the concentration on what I am doing and the determination to resolve problems. I also did some thinking about my trip to London in terms of minimising luggage but covering wet and warm, casual and formal wear and also how I would make use of the days given that there would be Olympics on the BBC TV or computer online if I wished. I would do this also later on Monday.

The bonus of the day was two Andrew Marr programmes in succession. The first is part of short series assessing the UK from the perspective of the air with the programme covering a 24 hour period showing the surge of activity as over half the population takes to the roads and transport services during the morning rush hour. A second focus was on the development of shopping and centres and the logistics required in ensuring that supplies were acquired and distributed as they were needed, The great change has been with the use of container vehicles, the special chips, ports and storage areas, the impact with half a million vehicles on the roads as well as the historical effects on ports. There were views of the shipping lanes with 400 vessels a day in the straights of Dover and half a million lorries and trucks on the roads. There was what we do with our waste and the reduction to scrap of white and other goods neat Hartlepool and then the selling of the stuff to China, no doubt through the Ports of the Tyne and the Tees. There was also the management of the energy grid, where we buy in extra from Frances as well as specialist hydro power stations to offset the sudden rise at the end of programmes such as East Enders Nowhere else are kettles switched on in such significant a number. There were countless other images no longer remembered. This programme was followed by one on London which interested me greatly as at the end of World War two the whole of bombed London was photographs and these photos have now been scanned into a one photograph of London 1945-1948. The programme examined the attempt to rebuild London and the insistence, understandably, on returning everything as to how it had been rather than looking t what was head. The consequence was the rebuilding of London dockland and dockland ways with the shock to the system when the container vessel arrived and it was realised that the Thames was too far in land and too difficulty to navigate and the first and continuing major container port at Felixstowe was created, London as a Dockland had its fate sealed, The programme looked at the changing face of London, designed by USA planners and architects and how with the latest technology it is possible to show how a new building will look and fit in with other buildings of the city. The Cheese Grater is the next expected with other in process of development. Perhaps I would take my camera with me after all!

1459 China's day

It was only last night that I grasped that the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Beijing commenced today. The event is being given round the clock treatment by the BBC, with over two thousand hours of coverage during the next sixteen days which is 125 hours a day, presumably covering two terrestrial channels, two radio channels and Sat TV channels. The coverage is not surprising given that the UK hosts the games in 2012. The talking up of medal prospects is to justify the expenditure and get everyone involved in the in the preparations for 2012. I ought to consider trying to get tickets for this once in a lifetime event.

There some10500 athletes from 204 countries; there should have been 2005 but one team failed to register. I thought this was Iraq who had been unable to create an acceptable Olympic committee but they had a boat in the rowing pairs so it must be another country.

The Chinese are said to have spent 42 Billion dollars and promised a truly mind blowing opening ceremony in the nineteen thousand seater stadium. It is evident that a large proportion of crowd in the stadium were Chinese, but how many represented ordinary workers or anyone else in the stadium represented ordinary folk from the rest of the world? The heads of the 204 countries participating were invited and Bush and Putin were in evidence, and saying hullo to each other. Were events in Georgia mentioned. Princess Anne represented the Queen. It was not clear how many tickets were also allocated to other state representatives in addition to the Olympic committee members and staff. Obviously the UK 2012 politicians and administrators and designers would have been out there in force, learning from the Chinese and working out how to impress everyone without bankrupting the nation.

The opening ceremony was long but impressive as fitting all the money spent with several wow factors. For a nation with invented gunpowder the fireworks lit up the city with plenty of bursts of red but were not as spectacular as the concentrated display of Sydney at the Millennium and London New Year's since.

There were fantastic display which involved years of practice involving tens of thousands akin to the great display of Hitler and Russia in times past. It my understanding that participants were given privileges and promises for their education, work and status, but there enthusiasm and pride was evident for everyone to see and the majority remain oblivious to how the capitalist and democratic worlds views their situation. From the state's viewpoint restricting couples to one child was a courageous decision to ensure everyone is fed and provide the foundation for the present economic take off and from the rest of the world restricting the population to less than two billion and less than 50% of the world's population ought to be considered a good thing. But from the viewpoint of individual Chinese couples the impact has been devastating and led to mass abortions.

Prior to the Opening ceremony the emphasis was on the position of Tibet and the position of Dali Lama. I have been fascinated with the situation in Tibet and enjoyed films such as Kundun but that has not blinded to the fact that under the Lama the majority of the population were regarded and treated as slaves. There is always conflict between ignorant and primitive people being allowed to retain their ways of life, regardless, for example, on the impact and treatment of children, women, minorities and those who want a different life. The recent Tribal wives programmes showed compulsory circumcisions and women doing all the hard work while men sat around giving the orders.

There was one surprise which was the number of beautiful young and graceful women on display and the great wow of the opening was the former gymnast who ran round the inner rim of the stadium as a screen unfolded showing the progress of the torch around the world. Until he reached the point when the large torch was lit. This was one of several great creative moments.
The arrival of the teams into the stadium took hours and the British showed great discourtesy to the hosts by less than a third of the team attending the ceremony. I understand it is left to individual competitors to decide with those who involved in the first events given and blanket exemption. This underlines the winning at all costs mentality and far from the original spirit of the games, I hope there will be a three line whip issued for the opening ceremony in London.
I have a great idea for the future that the host nation should either not compete or if they compete would not receive medals which would go to the highest placed performers outside the host nation.

The ceremony commenced on the eighth hour of the eight day of the eight month of the eight year of the Millennium.

Durham won the game against Kent after the eight wicket partnership commenced to score runs. Durham was also not criticised for the condition of the pitch which means that they had the Championship tonight with a game in hand but are yet to establish a lead of significance and hey have some major games away, including Kent.

The fortunes of Durham men continued to smile because Paul Collingwood again scored half a century at he test in support of Captain Petersen who scored 100 while Harmison scored 49 not out his highest test score by luck and some led.

As anticipated the disappointment of the night was America has got talent. No one in the last four really impressed although ventriloquist was perhaps the best and could win.

I left going for frozen food after defrosting the freezer until after the English Innings ended. I bought three medium size chicken for £10 and two pork with sage stuffing rather that pork with Crackling plus some chicken pieces Southern coasted. I also bought some pasta dishes and chilli sauce. I has dish with a mixture of last chips and last of packet of potatoes for roasting and then a salmon salad.

Having registered the desktop on line I enquired about the card reader. And will consider or buy an add on USB which works with Vista . If necessary, although there is merit in keeping the photos on a separate computer until copies are made.

Hearts is now at 28% with the next objective 33% but I keep doing well at second kevel chess with the highest run 60 out of the 101 target and then one second lack of concentration and back to zero.

I went to bed early after having slept watching TV and did not settle so returned and did some computer house keeping which involved the uploading and installing of Vista update pack one and this happened after updating pack was installed with the initial burst of updates when going on line for the first time. I suspect that there has been too much update over too short a time and that it will take time for everything to settle down and for problems to sort out. Not going on lime which seemed a good idea at the time was a mistake.