Tag: London

Proud Father

‘unbelievable’            ‘indescribable’          ‘look, he cries, just like me’

Click this picture for link to the BBC interview (1min 45sec)

We get all the coverage but of course not the BBC continuity nor interviews. JM brought this interview to my attention (thanks JM) it’s titled ‘The media moment of the games so far’ at only 1:45 it’s short, entertaining and well worth a look. (Link to BBC interview)

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Gold

Cameron van der Burgh

Forgive my indulgence, it is after all South Africa’s first gold medal since Athens, (we achieved a solitary silver in Beijing) it’s been a long wait.

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The green and gold

After much debate and heartache, Oscar’s off to the big London show
the question we ask ourselves now, how fast and far can he really go?

He’s running the four hundred and the four by four
Fate dealt a cruel cruel blow, not set back by that score
With a buffalo’s grit, the heart of ten lions
we’ll see him compete with fellow Olympians

There is of course, more to The Games, than just winning
respect, treatment as a fellow human being
I’m sure he’ll reminisce as he grows old
of that day, he pulled on the green and gold

Hostage crises

It was pure coincidence that shortly after reading The Daily Mail article on the hostage drama in London’s Tottenham Court road that the front page of my Weekend read had a report of a hostage drama at Durban’s Westville Hospital.

I had been intrigued not so much by the London hostage taker or his reasons for his actions but by the response of the British police and their uniforms. (You can click the picture to get a larger view and read the collection of high tech gadgets that this officer is carrying.)

The article tells us –

“Thousands were evacuated, Tube stations were closed and streets locked down over a wide area of London’s West End.

Snipers, bomb disposal squads, nuclear biological and chemical warfare specialists and dozens of armed police were scrambled to the building on Tottenham  Court Road, one of the city’s busiest shopping streets.”

I then had a closer look at our chaps (picture on next page) Continue reading “Hostage crises”

A grand day out

Today we took a trip in London for the London Surrey Cycle Classic part of the ‘London Prepares’ series that replicates the route scheduled for the London Olympics in 2012. Today’s ride of 140 km did follow the route planned for the big event, but only took a couple of turns rather than the nine that will take place on the day. We had ‘Silver Wristbands’ (thank you J) which meant gaining access to the finish sprint down The Mall.

We, that is just Cyclo and me, drove into London and parked in a side street, then took the tube in, followed by a short walk. We were nodded in to the cordoned off area, where there was a lovely atmosphere. At first we found a place to sit and read the papers with a cup of coffee, but soon it was necessary to take our place along the barriers. From where we stood we could see that there were quite big crowds outside, several deep at the barriers, but we were lucky enough to have  a section of barrier to ourselves!

Looking back towards Buckingham Palace

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