Another Expat Adventure: Catching Olympic Fever!

It has been a quiet week. We shipped Jacob off to Boy Scout camp on Saturday morning which might be the reason for the relative calm and peace in our house! Sunday Katie played in another "football" tournament and her team took second place. Not as exciting as first, but a well fought trophy nevertheless.

The weather in England is not the summer weather we are accustomed to in the U.S. so the rain and gray skies had me feeling blue rather than seeing blue, so we spent two days at home running errands. With June flying by and the expected appearance of the sun or at least a hold off on rain for Wednesday, we took the opportunity to head to Legoland in Windsor. We met up with friends and had fun on the rollercoasters for the morning. But we had to get home to get ready for a two day outing to Nottingham!

As a good Scout parent, I felt the need to help out with summer camp in some way and going camping for a few nights was not really what I was hoping to do. Consequently, when the request for drivers to and from camp came through, I jumped at that chance. On Friday morning, we need to pick up 4 scouts from camp and drive them back to Surrey. Unfortunately, the camp is 3 hours away from home and I did not fancy getting on the road by 6:30am for the drive up; so we found a hotel not far away in Nottigham that had a pool. Remember the comments about the weather here!

Katie, Cameron and I arrived into Nottingham at about 1pm after driving north through the rain and doing our best to avoid hydroplaning up the M1. Frazzled by the one way streets and the tight spots in the parking garage, I was not excited to hear that the room would not be ready until 3pm. They saw my panic and took me straight to the pool. I read and the kids swam for two hours. I felt bad for the guests trying to actually swim laps! But not that bad. I was happy to have a chair to just watch.

The excitement was that the Olympic Torch Relay was entering Nottingham that evening! I had no idea when I had volunteered to pick up the scouts or when we made the reservation. It appears that there was a bonus for doing a good turn! The powers that be continued to smile on our altruism by blowing away the clouds and bringing out the sun for the evening celebration. By the time the kids and I made our way to the Old Market Square there was a blue sky overhead. We found a spot along the railings just as the crowds were starting to fill in. We would have to wait two hours for the torch, but the entertainment on the stage and the milkshakes I got the kids for "dinner" would help us through.

We were rewarded by an amazing view of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (Ice Dancing Gold Medal winners 1984) as they ran into the square with the torch and lit the flame on stage. Even the kids were getting Olympic Fever!

Here are the photos!