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Hoots Mon
Flew to Glasgow on Friday. My hotel was handy walking distance from Hampden Park and quite a pleasant place, and the staff were a cheerful bunch. There was a wedding on when I arrived, with bridesmaids sitting on the bench out front and guests in kilts standing on the steps to the main entrance.
Thanks to the wedding, and another private function on Saturday, the restaurant was closed in the evenings and food was restricted to the 'Lighter Bites' menu in the bar. Fortunately this included a tasty French Trimmed Chicken.
I watched the opening ceremony in my room, with a couple of bottles of Sprite bought from a nearby newsagent and my leaving gift box of Thorntons. It really was excellent, Danny Boyle did a great job there. I especially loved the inclusion of a selection of 50 years of British pop music - how fantastic to have a Sex Pistols tune included, as punk was an important part of our pop history. Hats off to the Queen for taking part in the James Bond clip. They really sold us all a dummy by having the seven young athletes light the cauldron - once Steve Redgrave appeared with the torch just outside the stadium, everyone must have been convinced it would be him lighting it - but it was brilliant to give the youngsters the honour.
And only we could have got away with including a farting Mr Bean.
This was my first time at Hampden Park, and very impressive it was. There were pockets of American, French and Colombian fans dotted around the stand, but no sign of any North Koreans. One fan of the USA, sitting near the front, held up a placard inviting their player Alex Morgan to give him her number...
The US team were magnificent, and comfortably beat Colombia 3-0, the amazing Megan Rapinoe scoring the first and creating the third. As we waited for France and Korea DPR to come out, I noticed with relief that the right flag for Korea DPR was on display by the touchline. They didn't put any flags up on the Titantron this time, just showing full lists of the teams before kick off and not bothering to display goalscorers and substitutions on screen.
That game was slow to get going; France's opening goal on the stroke of half time was the first true moment of excitement. At the break, a Japanese man who was making notes on the game and recording it on a camcorder (Japan were likely to play the winner of this game in the quarters) appeared to be ejected by stewards, who called a policeman in for backup. His jacket had 'Japanese Football Association' on the back, so I wondered if this was going to lead to an international football incident. Later someone said that the guy was still there, standing at the back watched by stewards, allowed to make notes but not use the camcorder.
On 70 minutes, France brought on sub Elodie Thomis and she set the game alight. Almost straight away she looped in a goal from the edge of the box, then moments later she went through the Korean defence like a knife through butter and neatly cut the ball back from the byline for Delie to roll home. The legend Sandrine Soubeyrand was having a quiet game but turned out not to be needed as les Bleues added two late headers to win 5-0.
At the final whistle, surfed onto the BBC football page on my phone. Hallelujah, the Shire started their season with a 3-1 win over Ayr in the Challenge Cup!
Joined a happy throng in the nearest chippy on my way out of the ground; I just had to have a deep fried Mars bar. Naughty but very tasty!
At the airport yesterday, I wandered fruitlessly around the departures area searching for a TV showing the women's cycling road race. The only telly around was in Wetherspoon's, and it was tuned in to the judo. I had to follow the cycling via text commentary on my phone, but had to switch off to board the plane before the race ended. I found out about Lizzie Armitstead's silver while standing at the baggage carousel.
Went round to Ann's in the evening to have a farewell bottle of wine with her as we watched the swimming finals. We toasted Rebecca Adlington's bronze. Ann and Steve had been at the opening ceremony on Friday by virtue of Steve working at the rowing; she said it was incredible to actually be there.
Drove up to Bedfordshire today with the rest of my stuff. Still can't get my Freeview box to pick up any channels, despite putting a coaxial cable lead in the RF in and out sockets. So either the box needs the original RF loop through lead that came with it (long lost), or the box has simply died and gone to Silicon Heaven, or my aerial cable's knackered. I do hope it isn't the latter, though fingers crossed my landlady will agree to its being replaced if it is. In the meantime I've ordered a new Freeview box that's compatible with TVs without a Scart lead, so fingers crossed...
Thanks to the wedding, and another private function on Saturday, the restaurant was closed in the evenings and food was restricted to the 'Lighter Bites' menu in the bar. Fortunately this included a tasty French Trimmed Chicken.
I watched the opening ceremony in my room, with a couple of bottles of Sprite bought from a nearby newsagent and my leaving gift box of Thorntons. It really was excellent, Danny Boyle did a great job there. I especially loved the inclusion of a selection of 50 years of British pop music - how fantastic to have a Sex Pistols tune included, as punk was an important part of our pop history. Hats off to the Queen for taking part in the James Bond clip. They really sold us all a dummy by having the seven young athletes light the cauldron - once Steve Redgrave appeared with the torch just outside the stadium, everyone must have been convinced it would be him lighting it - but it was brilliant to give the youngsters the honour.
And only we could have got away with including a farting Mr Bean.
This was my first time at Hampden Park, and very impressive it was. There were pockets of American, French and Colombian fans dotted around the stand, but no sign of any North Koreans. One fan of the USA, sitting near the front, held up a placard inviting their player Alex Morgan to give him her number...
The US team were magnificent, and comfortably beat Colombia 3-0, the amazing Megan Rapinoe scoring the first and creating the third. As we waited for France and Korea DPR to come out, I noticed with relief that the right flag for Korea DPR was on display by the touchline. They didn't put any flags up on the Titantron this time, just showing full lists of the teams before kick off and not bothering to display goalscorers and substitutions on screen.
That game was slow to get going; France's opening goal on the stroke of half time was the first true moment of excitement. At the break, a Japanese man who was making notes on the game and recording it on a camcorder (Japan were likely to play the winner of this game in the quarters) appeared to be ejected by stewards, who called a policeman in for backup. His jacket had 'Japanese Football Association' on the back, so I wondered if this was going to lead to an international football incident. Later someone said that the guy was still there, standing at the back watched by stewards, allowed to make notes but not use the camcorder.
On 70 minutes, France brought on sub Elodie Thomis and she set the game alight. Almost straight away she looped in a goal from the edge of the box, then moments later she went through the Korean defence like a knife through butter and neatly cut the ball back from the byline for Delie to roll home. The legend Sandrine Soubeyrand was having a quiet game but turned out not to be needed as les Bleues added two late headers to win 5-0.
At the final whistle, surfed onto the BBC football page on my phone. Hallelujah, the Shire started their season with a 3-1 win over Ayr in the Challenge Cup!
Joined a happy throng in the nearest chippy on my way out of the ground; I just had to have a deep fried Mars bar. Naughty but very tasty!
At the airport yesterday, I wandered fruitlessly around the departures area searching for a TV showing the women's cycling road race. The only telly around was in Wetherspoon's, and it was tuned in to the judo. I had to follow the cycling via text commentary on my phone, but had to switch off to board the plane before the race ended. I found out about Lizzie Armitstead's silver while standing at the baggage carousel.
Went round to Ann's in the evening to have a farewell bottle of wine with her as we watched the swimming finals. We toasted Rebecca Adlington's bronze. Ann and Steve had been at the opening ceremony on Friday by virtue of Steve working at the rowing; she said it was incredible to actually be there.
Drove up to Bedfordshire today with the rest of my stuff. Still can't get my Freeview box to pick up any channels, despite putting a coaxial cable lead in the RF in and out sockets. So either the box needs the original RF loop through lead that came with it (long lost), or the box has simply died and gone to Silicon Heaven, or my aerial cable's knackered. I do hope it isn't the latter, though fingers crossed my landlady will agree to its being replaced if it is. In the meantime I've ordered a new Freeview box that's compatible with TVs without a Scart lead, so fingers crossed...