London 2012 begins

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The bulk of our excitement this week occurred on Saturday, as ever. We rose early to watch the Olympic Games opening ceremony, and used the event as an excuse to have two breakfasts (well I did anyway). I only saw up to where the teams started to arrive as I had to zip off to Grey Lynn for another modelling session, but Nicky saw the whole event. We thought it was fantastic, very well done and imaginative. We particularly liked the Queen and James Bond parachuting out of the helicopter, and Rowan Atkinson's orchestral accompaniment. Nicky said the lighting of the flame was also very well done.

To celebrate the opening of the 30th Olympiad we joined a group of complete strangers in a bar, The Elephant Wrester, in Takapuna. The link between us was graduation from Loughborough University. It turns out there are about 200 known Loughborough graduates in New Zealand, and 15 of us were able to make it to Takapuna. There was quite a wide range of ages (we were not the oldest), and much to my surprise one was a fellow Ergonomist, who started his BSc just a year after me, so we possibly met as undergrads even though we couldn't remember doing so. Nicky enjoyed her pork belly and I my burger with bacon, egg and fries, and it was a very good evening. To top it off, just as were we leaving Aj the organiser drew the raffle which I won - a Loughborough University rugby shirt sent by the alumni office. Unfortunately, even though the label indicates that it is a large size, it doesn't fit either of us!

Yesterday was also the last of the sunny weather for this week. The sun was so warm on Friday that I only needed a T-shirt when going up to the shops. Not bad for mid-winter, and a change from the cold and damp beginning we had to the week.

In other news this week, Nicky has been at work all week even though she is still under the weather. She saw the Doctor on Friday and he prescribed some antibiotics because she has got a secondary infection, and some "Gee's Linctus" for her cough. We have both enjoyed listening to an audiobook of "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" this week.

Claire popped in on Wednesday after reporting that our phone's weren't working properly. They were only ringing once before cutting the caller off. I did some testing myself and couldn't find the cause of the problem so called Vodafone. About half an hour later a man and a van from Chorus called, fiddled with the wires outside and got us working again.

I have had a couple of Mac jobs, but managed to squeeze in some laundry and ironing all the same.

Today has been pretty wet and I seem to have caught Nicky's lurgy so we have had a quiet day at home, watching the Olympics and pottering about.

That's all for now, as we have to brace ourselves for the Olympic onslaught and World Domination by Team New Zealand.

Take care,
Rick

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