Super Saturday!

I was a very lucky girl this weekend and was able to go to the Olympics! Up early, (3am!!), we drove down to London in time to enter the park as it opened. I loved every second of being there! We had such a fantastic day, the atmosphere was incredible, and I can now say I was at the Olympics on the greatest day in British athletics history!

Although, we didn't go to see the athletics. We saw two women's hockey matches in the morning, and then had the afternoon exploring the park. The first match was Australia vs South Africa, and the second was Holland vs South Korea, (they had the flag right!).

Here are a few, (of the many), photos we took during the day to give you a flavour: 

 Mine and my sisters very patriotic nails with the bunting she made.

 The view of the Aquatics centre with the sun rising as we arrived.

 A very British marching band coming through as we were walking to the Riverbank stadium to watch the hockey.

 The view from our seats. As you can see, we not only had great seats to view the hockey, but we also had a view of the whole Olympic Park. From our seats you could see the Athletics Stadium, the Orbital, the big screen, (we heard the cheers when we won those two rowing golds!) the Olympic village and the velodrome. It was hard to concentrate on just the hockey!

 This was a coca cola building, whihc we went it. As you climbed up you built up the coco cola song by touching the panels you can see, and they fused 'sporting sounds' with the song. At the top we got to hold the torch, (third time for me!),

 then, as you walked down inside there were these beautiful lights!

 And then a free bottle of Coke!

 It was a fantastic day, I was so excited to be there. Below is a picture of my Dad in front the the Athletics Stadium.

Although we didn't get to go in this time, I'm very lucky to also have Paralympic tickets, and we're seeing some athletics then. But until then, GO TEAM GB!!!!

Book Worm

I'm a bit of a book worm. One thing I've not liked about my first year of teaching is the lack of books I've been able to read. I use to read a book about every two weeks, depending on it's size or difficulty of language, but now I think I average one a term!

Therefore, now nearly at the end of week two of my holiday, I have devoured the written word. Although started previous to the summer holidays, I finished 'Gone With The Wind' by Maragaret Mitchell. This has been on my to read list for years, and was a present from my Grandparents a few Christmas's ago. I absolutely loved it! I also bought the film off amazon, so have watched the film over the last few evenings as well, and now have three discs of extra features to keep me going a little longer!

I have literally just finished 'One Day' by David Nicholls:

 I had already seen the film at the cinema, but it was still a great read. I'll definitely have to keep my eye out for other books by him. I loved both of the main characters, and although I new what was going to happen, I still couldn't put it down. You know a good book when you're completely absorbed when reading it. The Olympics failed to get my attention at times because I was reading, even with my Dad shouting at the TV.

The next step was to pick out my next read. I collected all my books together that I hadn't read yet and was shocked to see how many I had. Certainly not by biggest pile ever, but more than I thought, especially as these don't include the books I want to read that are on my Mum's bookshelf. Therefore I've vowed that I'm not allowed to buy myself any more books until the pile has at least halved, (let's see how long that lasts!)

 In Lichfield, my local city, there are two cheap book stores and an Oxfam and St Giles stores, both dedicated to books. I very rarely manage to leave town without a new book to read!

After a little deliberation I've decided to try 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. I heard this was supposed to be violent, but with recommendations off a few friends, I bought the trilogy cheap online. I did start it in February, but decided it was too heavy to start during term time, so now seems like a good time.

We'll see how it goes, but with so many other books to read, I'm not going to force it. Perhaps I'll give it a few days to see how I get on.