Day 13 - Wednesday 8th August

Today we got up before Amelia woke and before John went to work. Amelia woke up as John left.

Nicky, Suzy and Amelia went shopping mid-morning. I went for a walk to explore the shops around East Finchley. I bought some groceries and picked up the dry cleaning I'd dropped off yesterday.

In the afternoon, Nicky took Amelia to her playgroup which is called Clowns.

A few months ago, Suzy and I had bought tickets for tonight's women's Olympic beach volleyball. We got the tickets from the official Australian ticket agent, CoSport and had them delivered to us at home before we left on our holiday.

The stadium for this event was built as a temporary structure for the Olympics in Horse Guards Parade in the centre of London. We got there by catching a train on the Northern Line to Charing Cross and then walked about 10 minutes to the site.

The route was well sign-posted and there were numerous volunteers along the way to assist. When he reached the event precinct, we had to pass through security - just like at an airport.

Inside the precinct, there was a park with stalls selling food, beer and wine. Most people had a picnic dinner sitting on the grass under the trees. For entertainment, there was a grenadier guards band in traditional uniforms including big black furry headgear.

Our seats in the stadium gave us an excellent view - about halfway up the stadium, almost end-on to the court and behind the flagpoles for the awards ceremony.

The first match was the play-off for the bronze medal between China and Brazil at 7pm. Brazil won by two sets to one in less than an hour. The second match was the gold medal at 9pm between two teams from the USA. This match lasted just over 30 minutes.

Although there were some empty seats earlier, the stadium was full for the gold medal match. As you would expect, there were plenty of supports from the USA. There some Brazil supporters but very few from China.

Steph and I had been to the women's Olympic beach volleyball in Sydney at Bondi Beach in 2000. Just like Bondi, the event in London was quite a spectacle. The announcer encouraged crowd participation and noise. Between points, there was music and at breaks, dancers in swimwear entertained the crowd.

We stayed for the medal ceremony and headed home on the train after an enjoyable and memorable evening.