Day 172 The Olympic Flame

Today the Olympic flame came past our house. Now I know many people are sick of hearing about the Olympic Flame, My mothers own words when I told her I and the children were going to see was, 'I wish the bugger would go out'. Obviously for those who aren't into their sports it's something that causes disturbance to their routine and lives in one way or another. However for me, being a keen sportsman it's an important symbol. The Olympics, ideally is all that's best with sports, traditionally, should I add, that it was about amateurs representing their countries, something that should be the proudest moment of any ones life.

Now I'm not defending the moder day Olympics, each Olympics is dogged by Political agendas, Governments seeming to use the games as an excuse to showcase their ideals of cause controversy, look back at the history of the games and this is intertwined. Also couple that with the fact that the games are sponsored by some of the worst companies in the world and it's clear to see that the Modern Day Olympics has come a long way from the traditional modern day Olympics set up by Pierre de Coubertin all those years ago.

But the games do bring out a lot of good, and I for one am proud we're hosting them in this country and looking forward to watching them, so the symbol of the Olympic flames represents to me all that is good with sport, bringing communities closer together and showing passion and pride in you country.

Come On Team GB.....

An Epic Week Part 2

I sit here in my mothers garden, in the nice warm north eastern sun typing. Eldest daughter and my nephew playing freely in the garden and I can hear my mam singing nursery rhymes to youngest daughter. Today is going well at its only 9am!

Yesterday saw a few events take place. So where to start? Well first event of the day was the Olympic flame passed our house. We went to watch it and took the kids, we had a good vantage point and got to see it go right past use, it was good that alot of people also had the same idea and wanted to see, what, I am sure will be the only time I get to see it in my lifetime. We were at a change over point for the flame too, and I felt quite sad for the Guy who had to take on the flame, not because of anything to do with him etc but because he was being mobbed by everyone, getting people circling him until the police asked them to get away as the torch was coming. Ok it's great that he's getting attention and recognition but people were mobbing him just for a photo of him with a stranger, someone he never met and an as of yet unlit torch, no doubt people will be posting the pictures on facebook and fair does to them but surely that's not what the torch run is about is it? the chance for others to have a picture of them next to an unlit torch.

After this me and the daughters headed north to my mams house. We left mummy to have a day of relaxation to herself and have peace and quiet while we descended on Nana for 6 whole days, the girls mam is joining us all on Wednesday so she'll get a whole 24 hours to cherish by herself.

Last night I went to the first of three gigs this week. It was a great gig. Blink 182 were on form and looked to be at their best. I've had the joy of seeing them two times previously, each time better than the last, but last nights show saw the band act more comedic as ever before, they looked like they were enjoying it, and so because of their apparent enjoyment, this fed off onto the crowd, who in turn enjoyed the night. As the band seemed even more enjoying themselves their music playing and singing grew more bold, guitar and drum solos louder and harder than ever before. To say the gig was good is an understatement.

For an encore the band decided that restricting themselves to the main stage wasn't good enough, Mark and Tom (the guitarists) took to a pre arranged centre stage, something that was just bigger than the garden patio I'm currently sat on. The played with their acoustic guitars telling stories of the 2 songs they were about sing about how they were wrote when they were teenagers in California. Of course this probably had happened at all the other shows they've recently played, in fact I know they had as my good friend Disco Dave had been to them and told me about them, but you get a sense that all the comedy moments in the show was pre routine, but it just happens on the spot.

Blink also announced in the evening that England was winning the football, and 5 minutes later announced that England had won to a cheer from the crowd, this would also be something Tom would refer back to to get a cheer if one of his jokes fell flat on it's face, but he does so brilliantly the crowd laugh at him anyway. Theres not many American bands I can think of who would have had the courtesy to do such a thing, but with Blink you sense that these shows meant a lot to them, they meant a lot to the crowd, after all many had probably done as I had and bought the tickets 2 years ago expecting the show last year only to have it rearranged to this year.

I ended the evening waiting for 40 minutes to see the band and the back gates, there was nothing pre arranged it was purely that's where Dave wanted to go, he had managed to go backstage last week in their London shows, so I thought might as well join him, we didn't see anyone and after 40 minutes I decided that I'd had enough of waiting, I'm still waiting to hear if he saw them today, but I wouldn't mind if I missed them, seeing them on top form like I did tonight was enough. They managed to get a healthy mix of old and new songs playing classics like carousel with new songs like after midnight. They also played their comic songs like Blew Job and Country song, much to the crowds delight.

No matter however as it was worth the wait, Blink didn't disappoint with some drab, boring, lifeless show, they were on form and wanted the whole crowd to see that they were back to their best and that they were worth the wait, and you know what, they succeeded.

A Grand Weekend

This past weekend had seen a nice family orientated activity filled one. To start with we had to pick both girls up from great grandpa's as me and OH went out to celebrate one of her friends birthdays on Friday night. After picking up the girls and realising that I had had no breakfast which subsequently meant I needed to pull the car over so I could be sick we found a coffee shop in a small nearby village. There we sat and ate some breakfast/lunch before heading off to our days activities.

Every year Knaresborough have a bed race. This is an event where the streets get closed off to traffic and instead people push 'beds' through the streets in a time trial race.We only moved to the area last year and heard of the race but missed it. So this year I was quite excited to go and thought it would be quite fun. Each year there is a theme. This years theme was of course the Olympics, each team would represent a country and with close to 100 teams there would be a fair representation of the world. Unfortunately due to us typically running late we didn't manage to see any of the 'beds' decorated. We arrived as the race had started. All the beds were stripped off of their decorations and everyone was in the competitive spirit. The beds were racing down the hill which was our vantage point. The atmosphere was nice, everyone clapping each team of contestants spurring them on to the finish line...

Once the race had finished we popped for a bite to eat and a drink, We were told by an old woman about the story of why there was a statue of a cat on top of the local pub the Market Tavern, saying that the cat had a crooked tail and the cat spirit could often be seen at night. The weather started turning cold so eldest child borrowed my coat and anyone could have mistaken her for a mini grim reaper how it sat on her.....

The next day we popped into town, we had seen that in Valley Gardens there was a family fun day themed in the 1940's. We went along taking the children with us. Many people were dressed up as soldiers or wearing styles of the 40's. We saw some steam engines and children's rides from the 40's. Eldest has never been one for rides but today saw her change her mind and actually she wanted to go on the see saw swings, so we paid the £1 entry fee for her to decide 30 seconds later that shes in fact didn't want to be on it....

We sat in the park and took in the view of the surrounding area, as we sat and ate out very typically British lunch of ham and cheese toasties with a spot of tea a marching band went past playing music to entertain us, it was very loud but fun to see...

 After a spot of lunch we walked around.Valley gardens is a very pretty park in the middle of the town. It has a stream with ducks in it, which made eldest child happy as we had finally found some ducks after our failed attempt early this year on our duck hunt, unfortunately this time we forgot the bread...

 After the 40's themed day in the park we decided to walk home, we walked past the stray in Harrogate which over the last week has had a fun fair on it. We stopped by to walk around it, Eldest decided she was going to be daring again and wanted to go on the rides. So she was told that if she went on a ride she wouldn't be able to get off and would have to stay on until the ride ends. She agreed and was allowed on the rides, as she went on her first, she grew more and more daring enjoying more and more daring rides....

 And it wasn't just eldest who had fun, I saw a football game where you had the option to kick a football at either Rooney or Messi and try to knock them over. I thought this was a great opportunity for myself to smack Rooney square in the head....

 Which I successfully managed....

Meaning a prize for daughters....

After all this fun it was time to go home and rest. It's been a long weekend, but also a fun weekend. We have seen lots and it's been nice weather. Hopefully this is just the start of many more great events this summer