Week 4: Manchester Olympics

We headed south for a week to catch up with the family down in Manchester. Our Sarah & Rob were about so we headed of to the local park with Thomas. I'd forgotten that 'the park' is a magnet for all walks of life and for that reason it is an interesting place to be. Stuart managed to get himself a game of footy with a load of lads & girls. It's important to note that Dunbar is almost entirely made up of white people. I think I'd be safe in saying there are less than 20 people of black origin in this town. It was great to see him part of city life, playing with kids of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds and a goalie wearing a burqa. Also funny to see all their dad's watching form the sidelines smoking something....well illegal. The afternoon got a little bit scary when Thomas was chased by a pitbull terrier belonging to a load of lads. It was friendly enough, as were they but it's not the sort of dog you really want to let loose amongst a load of kids. There were several screams from mothers telling their kids to freeze...followed by several screams of expletives directed at the shellsuited youths. Also entertained by the awful mural on the pavilion that has been painted over, probably by Community Service people who have adhered to the strict H&S rules. That means they only painted out the lower level, leaving behind a mysterious phallic looking image. See what you think!

We went out for a few drives here and there, like Marple's ROman Lakes. Nothing Roman about them but lots of savage ducks and geese terrorising kids eating sandwiches. News that the Olympic football was at Old Trafford was not new...but we hadn't realised it was actually on whilst we were there, before the official opening. So we booked tickets online and headed off to collect them the next day. There was a ridiculously long queueing area for tickets, but not a soul in it apart from some Senegal fan trying to tout tickets. It looked like it was going to be a total flop. Role on match day and we felt obliged to go over the top with Team GB support and did the whole face paint, wigs, tattoo thing. Partly to try and muster up some enthusiasm for it. It was a pleasant surprise to arrive on the bus to see thousands of fans all on good form. It being Team GB's first big event, TV crews from around the world gathered outside the Theatre of Dreams. A taste of what lay ahead of the nations Olympic fever was being savoured. As we'd made the effort, we were interviewed by The Sun, and Stuart managed to get filmed by several TV crews from around the world.

The football itself was poor, although I think most people were just there so they could be 'at the Olympics'. You got 2 games for your ticket so we enjoyed United Arab Emirate vs Uruguay and Team GB vs Senegal. UAE were the adopted team of the fans as Suarez was playing for Uruguay and got boo'ed every time he even looked at the ball. The problem with Team GB (apart from not being very good at footy) is you can't get a good chant going. 'Team GB! Team GB!' wears a bit thin after a bit. The only other downside to the evening was that they had sold out of pies before the game had even started. Now that is a disgrace.