Lindsey's Olympic Diary, Beijing 2008
28th July
Well, We're in the village! It's got to be the best village i've ever stayed in! The apartments are fairly spacious and B&Q have kitted them out, so we have sofas and lights etc from them! I have a single room and I'm sharing with Ady and Adam, two of the other coaches. The girl divers are in the next apartment and the other coaches and male divers are in the one opposite! Really hot and humid, but NO sun! The flight went well - I was very noble and swapped with Becky, one of the athletes who was supposed to be sitting on her own. As a result I was in with lots of Chinese people so suggested I should be upgraded and got moved to cattle class + one (World traveller +) Then I got to go to business class to sleep, so had a luxurious bed! It was fab except I seem to have left my NintendoDS on the plane! The wireless in our rooms is working at the moment- yeah!
29th July
Agood start to today when we phoned BA and they had found my nintendo! Yeah! Training went well, and the sun shone this afternoon after a night of rain - maybe cleared some of the smog away! Not much else to report - food ok, nice bbq prawns for lunch and some Peking duck rolls tonight! Off to bed shortly, hope I sleep better than last night.
30th July
Hi from a very rainy Beijing! Went shoping to the market today and got a rolex watch with smooth second hand - a whole £10! We trained twice today, about to pack because we leave for Xian tomorrow! Training really good! More teams have arrived here today - Canada, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico so we have been training on our own but it will get a little busier now - even queues in the food hall.
31st July
We left the village at 8am and travelled to Xian, arriving here about 2pm. The Shangri-La is such a fantastic hotel, and the food is magnificent. We trained this afternoon and then had supper and all the staff have been out to the driving range behind the hotel this evening! I wanted to buy a souvenir at the airport but it wouldn't accept my Abbey National card or my Visa card and I had the same problem when I tried to get cash out yesterday! In the end I had to phone England and, because I hadn't told them I was away (never had to do that before!) they had stopped my cards - all sorted now but really embarrasing! Pete arrived safely today!
1st August
Been in Xian a day now, and the food is as good as last time. Training good, some of the divers pretty tired today though! About to have supper then team meeting. Got my hair cut today (pretty risky I thought, but it looks fine!) Tried to get money out at 4 cashpoints unsuccessfully but then went into a bank and the lady there did it all for me in Chinese and it worked! Phew! Nothing else to report!
2nd August
A pretty busy day today - two sessions one from 10:45 till 12:30 then back to the hotel for a quick lunch, then back to the pool 1:45 till 4. Everyone trained really well and seem to have recovered from jet lag. We had a good meeting of all the Olympic team to set some ground rules (like mobile phones on silent from 10pm till 10am). This evening I went out to a 'get together' with some of the top Chinese coaches, the Canadians, Germans, Italians and 4 of us 'Brits' - we had fun with rice wine and beer ( I sneakily filled my glass with half sprite though!!)
3rd August
Wow - a well earned day off today! Thought I would get a lie in, but the maids rang the door bell at 9:30 - they haven't done my room before lunch, till today! So 11:30 off to an amazing restaurant for peking duck - chicken feet, sponges in their infancy also included - we arrived at 11:45 - [There were] hanging ducks and by the time we left at 1:30 they were all gone! They lift them high into the furnace so all the fat drips down and then the delicacy is the fat, very little meat - they only live for a few months while being force fed the equivalent of fois gras! We had an interesting beef dish which came on a skewer and then you had to cook it over a flame - it was delicious! Then back to the hotel, watched a couple of episodes of 'numbers' then went and had jaccuzi, sauna and steam room. Then a snooze, then a lovely supper, now i'm writing this!!
4th August
Two sessions today and a final lovely evening meal in this gorgeous hotel - beautiful ribs tonight! Had a 30 minute back massage - lovely! Travel back to Beijing tomoz, so packed etc today!
7th August
Two sessions today and Peter and Becky had arrived from Xian for the second one, so a full complement of 10 divers now! Training going well - Stacie did all her individual dives today so now she can focus just on synchro! This evening went and visited the BOA lodge - where friends and family can come - it's fab. Tomorrow is the opening ceremony which should be amazing!
9th August
Wow - the Opening Ceremony was amazing, what can I say! The only annoying thing was that we were waiting in the gymnastics hall, so we didn't get to see any of it before we marched!! We were team 116!
14th August
Well, we have finished the synchro and all feel the judges were not judging synchro very well - the girls tower and boys 3m should have been 4th but there you go! Morning off today, so up at 6 and off at 6:30 to the Great Wall - I walked 2 miles (up and down steps etc) what a nightmare but well worth it! Back to training this afternoon in torrential rain - about 3 cm deep for us to walk through!
17th August
Well, I had a well deserved day off today! We took a walk to Olympic park, about a mile away and were going to go to the Olympic superstore but the queues were horrendous! Went out for a lovely meal on Friday with Stacie, her family, Blake and his mum to celebrate Stacie's mum's birthday! We went to a place with restaurants all round a lake - very pretty. At the end we wandered around the little shops. Today the group of 2012 ambition athletes arrived so Chris Mears got to come into the village and visit, including eating in the dining hall! Pete arrived back from his couple of days in Macau for R+R a lot browner!! Team GB are currently 3rd in the medal table - amazing!
27th August
Wow! What a reception when we arrived back into London Heathrow - they wouldn't let us come through the actual airport for fear the press interest would close terminal 5 down! The nose of our plane had been painted gold and, on board, we were all offered champagne! Everyone was pretty knackered as the BOA had put on a party for us the night before and we left the village at 7:30am! We came into London through the royal entrance, every person working at the airport waving to us! We were received and thanked by Gordon Brown and then were bussed to a hotel where friends and family were waiting (they even needed a password to get in!) Here there was more champagne and BBC feed so we could see what was going on - I was even geting texts to say they had seen the plane land (others had also seen it take off!) and when we dis-embarked you could see me!! Signing off from my Olympic diairies,
Lindsey
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