Now, unless you’re a right miserable git (or live in London and are about to have your daily life turned upside down), you can’t fail to be at least a bit excited about the impending Olympics. We are here anyway. We applied for tickets months ago when they were first released but we weren’t successful, so we quickly resigned ourselves to watching it at home and getting into the spirit of things from a distance.
Our first real brush with the hoopla happened a few weeks ago when the torch relay came to town. We were lucky aas the weather was gorgeous and York was one of the places where the torch ‘rested’ overnight, so there was a huge free concert at the racecourse which culminated in the torch been carried in by Harvey Smith on horseback.We do things in style here in Yorkshire, you know.
M took this from her vantage point on G’s shoulders!
The following week I took K to her weekly gym club class. This is a fantastic community gymnastics centre in the heart of York. It’s a charity which was set up several years ago by a local man named Stan Wild. Now in his seventies I believe, Stan was selected to be one of the torch bearers here and was kind enough to bring the torch into the centre for children to have their photos taken with it. Result. K and I got in on the act.
You can rely on me to be pulling a silly face in a photo
Earlier this week, I was at work in the pre school when one of my neighbours turned up to do a mini Olympics session with the kids. She’s working as a steward at the games and came in decked out in her full official kit – quite impressive it was. She set up a little obstacle course (sadly this had to be indoors due to the inclement weather) and then dished out medals at the end. It was lovely.
On a more sedentary level, G and I have been enjoying the hilarious Twenty Twelve on the BBC. Way to Go!
Now, with the start of the school holidays just a few days away, my thoughts are turning to ways in which we can get involved and keep the kids busy at the same time. This is what I’ve come up with so far:
Medals wall chart to keep a tally of who’s winning what.
Make an Olympic torch and have your own torch relay or opening ceremony! This is the sort of thing M will luuurve.
Make cardboard medals then all you have to do is organise a backyard olympics and you’re away. You could also make medal biscuits.
Make olympic flags to wave when supporting your team or bunting to hang around the house and garden.
I suppose the main thing really is is to just be part of it and use it as an opportunity to make memories with your kids. What are your plans for the next few weeks?
