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Published: December 6th 2007
Out Of The Blue One Day...
HAIL!! Crikey!
This pharmacy (our local in Clapham) appears on Michael Moore's "Sicko" documentary.1st day back at work for a while. Dined at a fine French Restaurant in Canary Wharf on the Isle of the Dogs for lunch. Actually it was overpriced and tasted like shit, but it sounded good didn't it?
Friday 6th July Got a new Nokia 6300 today. Now I can play better games! Actually the reason I bought it was that I gave my old one to Emma as she took hers in the bath with her. I advised a damp cloth next time she wants to clean it.
After work I scurried over to Trafalgar Square for the opening ceremony of the Tour de France, a little bike race starting in London this year. By the time I'd got there the place was packed, with estimates of about 25,000 in the little square alone, full of different nationalities - French (of course), Italians, Americans, you name it.
It started off with a brief history of the bicycle, where all sorts of different shaped and sized bikes were pedalled out and explained to the crowd. This was followed by a breakdancers vs trick bmx'ers battle which was kinda cool. The Mayor
Tour de France Opening Ceremony
Introducing one of the Discovery team of London, Ken Livingstone then welcomed the crowd and rallied them to have a great time and paid tribute to the people who died in the bombings that happened 2 years ago tomorrow. Suck shit terrorists, we're still here having a good time! I think that was the crux of the message.
The event, which was shown on giant screens in Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, featured the presentation of the Tour de France’s 21 teams and 189 competitors. Noticeably bigger cheers were given to the Aussie riders such as Stuart O'Grady, Cadel Evans, Aaron Wills and Robbie McEwen. The ceremony was presented by a news presenter, Katie Derham, who was a bit stuck for words after interviewing a few of the lads who proceeded to respond in French or Italian. After they'd all gone, hundreds of little coloured foam bicycles with Tour de France - London 2007 were blown out into the crowd (I managed to wrestle a few out of a little girls hands...cry baby she was...) and live music from an R&B artist Lemar commenced, who performed a special arrangement of Queen’s “Bicycle Race” for the crowds. That was enough for me, time to pedal
Michael Rasmussen...
before he got busted for drugs. home.
Saturday 7th July Today was going to be another big one. We had been lucky enough to score 2 tickets to the Live Earth concert being held at Wembley Stadium (again!). Only 80,000 people won the ballot out of the 250,000 who registered for tickets. On the bill were artists including - Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, Bloc Party, Duran Duran, Foo Fighters, Genesis, James Blunt, Kasabian, Keane, Madonna, Metallica, Pussycat Dolls, Razorlight, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, Spinal Tap and more!
First things first though, the Prologue of the Tour de France was also on today (I think this was the biggest weekend of the year for London with Wimbledon finals, Live Earth, the Tour, the Formula 1 GP all taking place at once) and although I wouldn't be able to see the actual sprint race through London, I wanted to go down to Hyde Park to catch some of the atmosphere and score a few souvenirs. We pedalled into town and it was great to see cyclists having free run of the streets with the roads blocked off to cars. Hyde Park was already busy, the course was setup and a few
off the Tour riders were having a (relatively) slow paced practice around it. We headed over to the merchandise tent and (after about 45min in line) purchased a few goodies for the jealous families back home.
Time was slipping by quick and we had a few miles to clock up, so on the treadlies again Wembley bound. We rode about 10kms on the paths alongside the Grand Union canal system which weaves its way around North London, where narrowboats putt lazily along the waters. It was quite surprising to find this hidden treasure in the heart of the big town. We arrived at Wembley about half an hour after it had started so unfortunately we missed Genesis, but hey you can't have your cake and eat it too. Every act that we saw was entertaining even if we weren't previously a big fan of their music. Snow Patrol's "Eyes Open" was a crowd favourite; Kasabian, another English rock band, got the crowd into it early on with "Empire"; the Black Eyed Peas came out full of energy and had everyone jumping with "Where Is The Love"; Duran Duran, introduced by Geri Halliwell, ressurected a few of their classic pop
There Go The Bikes
See the little foam bikes getting blasted out? tunes; the Chili Peppers owned the stage and rocked the crowd, Metallica were one of my highlights, the crowd went absolutely berserk for their opening song "Enter Sandman" (hard to believe it's about 16 years old now); Spinal Tap....hmmm...I'm still trying to work out what was going on their with the dwarves, the fake Stonehenge props and the 12 extra bass players; James Blunt had all the women spellbound; the Pussycat Dolls were a visual treat writhing around the stage like lapdancers singing "Don't Cha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me"; Foo Fighters no doubt were the act of the night, Dave Grohl was awesome, screaming out during one song "Isn't it a great day to be alive!" and "Best Of You" bought the whole crowd to their feet; and then last but not least there was Madonna, she's still got it for a nearly 50 year old, dancing around like a 20 year old with her ensemble, impressing the crowd by grabbing one leg and raising it straight over her head while singing La Isla Bonita.
The performances were intermixed with little video messages on how we can all do our bit in combating global warming, cameo's
More Bikes
Foam and carbon fibre. from actors, mexican waves and performances from other cities holding their own Live Earth (we saw Crowded House play in Sydney) broke it up nicely. It was another great day at Wembley, hopefully next time we come back will be just as good when Crowded House play in December (got front row seats!).
Sunday 8th July Wake up at 8.30am bleary eyed after getting home at 1.30am and get set to go and see Stage 1 of the Tour de France. I decided to head to Greenwich to see the real race rather than the ceremonial leg from Hyde Park to Tower Bridge. I did slightly underestimate the amount of time it would take to get there from Clapham though, so as I watched the time tick away I had to ride faster and faster until I felt like I was in the Tour myself! I remember thinking "Paul would never forgive me if I missed it!" I ended up getting there 5 minutes before the start and the place was packed about 5-6 deep lining the route. I jockeyed for position and got the video and still cameras ready. All of a sudden, the escort cars
came around the corner. Before I knew it, the peleton appeared and the crowd went wild, cameras appeared from everywhere, I even saw a newborn infant pull a Cybershot out of his stroller. In a blaze of glory they came....and 30 seconds later they were gone. If I had more time, it would have been a lot better to go out of the city a bit so they're a bit more spread out and with less people around. Never mind, was still an experience. The best views are definately on the TV though.
Once all the support vehicles (and there were hundreds of them, let me tell you) had all followed the group out of Greenwich, I jumped back on my bike and snuck in behind one of the late support vehicles. I got clear and then pretended I was a straggler, going flat out down the same course the riders had just been down. I think i actually fooled a couple of people too because i got a few waves and yells. After a few k's I doubled back and spent a few hours in Greenwich where they had a lot of Tour related activities going on. First
off, I had a go in a bike competition, where people could jump onto stationary bike and test how far they could travel in one minute. A lot of kids were having a go which was good to see. I ended up doing 0.76kms with the best guy that day doing 0.82kms, however, I only had a few hours sleep, no breaky and had already ridden about 20 kms that day...thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it...I cooda been a contender! Some operatic singers were entertaining the crowd, some were watching the Tour on giant screens and a band was setting up on a revolving merry go round type stage. I was knackered though by know, rode home and didn't leave the lounge for the rest of the day.
***** DON'T FORGET MORE PICS ON PAGE 2 *****
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Kylee
non-member comment
soft cock
come on princess only 0.76km in one minute, you need to toughen up....