They think it's all over, it is now

Well, that’s it for another four years.

The 2008 Olympic Games have now finished and all eyes turn to London .

It has been an incredibly successful Games for Great Britain and it is going to be tough to match the number of medals achieved in Beijing on home soil in 2012.

But what a great Olympics it has been for athletes from our region as well.

Heather Fell led the way with a brilliant silver medal in the modern pentathlon, but 21-year-old Cassie Patten was not far behind with a bronze in the 10km open water swim and a final appearance in the 800m.

Also reaching Olympic finals were teenage divers Tom Daley and Tonia Couch, who finish seven and eighth respectively in their individual platform competitions.

Plymouth-born Jon Bleby also helped Britain to fifth place in the hockey event, which far exceeded their world ranking. Jon played every minute of every match for the GB team.

And we cannot forget Michaela Breeze’s inspirational performance in the weightlifting, where she bravely battled against a back injury to take 15th spot and the admiration of the entire crowd.

I don’t think the Plymouth region as ever had as much success at an Olympic Games before. Normally we only one or two athletes even qualify. The most I can remember is three in 2000.

Now it is the turn of Torpoint table tennis player David Wetherill and Kelly College swimmers Louise Watkin, Lauren Steadman and Claire Cashmore to show the world what they can do in the Paralympics which start next month in Beijing .

I know tickets are selling well for that event and table tennis is very popular out here, so David should have a big crowd to watch him compete.

Unfortunately, I cannot stay out here for another month to watch them compete also.

My stay in Beijing ends tomorrow and I will soon be back in the nice moderate weathered climate of Plymouth.

I am quite impressed that I have managed nearly three weeks in China without getting run over at a zebra crossing, killed by a crazy taxi driver, starved to death or persuaded to buy a host of electrical or clothing goods that I didn’t really want.

That later proved very difficult yesterday when I visited the famous Silk Market.

These Chinese market stall and shop assistants really know how to getting you to part with you cash. It takes a strong will not to give in.

I managed it reasonably well. I didn’t buy a new digital camera, an Ipod phone, a watch, jewellery, a bag or a camcorder, which seemed the most popular items I was being offered.

It is incredible because even though you don’t want something you nearly end up buying it.

I only walked into one shop just to have a look to see if there was anything I could buy for my nieces and nephew.

Before I knew I was being offered a digital camera. When I said I didn’t want one as I already had one, I was then offered a digital camcorder.

This camcorder was extremely small, but I've never really wanted one and I certainly didn’t need it, yet I got the full works.

The price started off at 2,500 Yuan but I just kept telling the assistant that I wasn’t interest. However, the assistant kept offering more and more free things with it and reducing the price. Within five minutes it was down to 1500 Yuan and two rechargeable batteries, two sets of normal batteries and a SD card had been thrown in. At which point I am thinking maybe this is a good deal. Fortunately, my brain kicked it and I told myself that I would be parting with cash for something I didn’t want – even if it was a good deal. To try and get away I tried the ‘I have got enough money on me at the moment but maybe I’ll come back later’, but the reply was ‘you can pay with Visa’.

I eventually got away and I manage to resist similar offers for expensive goods, but I admit I failed to get away from some even tougher sales assistants and I ended up with some chopsticks and four pairs of Olympic socks, which came with a free hat – all items which I didn’t want or need, but fortunately were only a few quid.

The chopsticks ended up a 100 times cheaper than the first offer I was made – I kid you not! I just jokingly started to barter when she made the first offer. I never thought for a minute she would eventually agree to my low offer. Then when she did I was stuck with some posh chopsticks. I am now going to have to find a recipient for them who doesn’t read this paper.

However, I now realise why the socks were so cheap, and came with a free hat, as who ever had made them could not spell Beijing in English! I am sure the 'e' is an 'a'. I have to admit I didn’t look I just agreed to buy them to get away from her.

If you are in Beijing visiting the markets is an experience you must have, but don’t take much money unless you specifically want something.

Anyway, today is the day when I hopefully get to the Great Wall. I am just hoping it doesn’t rain, because I won’t get another chance to see it.

No time to haggle

What a few days it has been for this region at the Olympics with Heather Fell taking silver in the modern pentathlon yesterday, Cassie Patten collecting bronze in the 10km swim on Wednesday, Tonia Couch finishing an impressive eighth in the diving on Thursday and Tom Daley qualifying for today diving semi-finals.

I spent the whole day watching Heather in the modern pentathlon yesterday – now there is a tough sport to compete in and to watch.


The event started at 8.30am in the morning and finished at 8.15pm and took place at three different venues. The shooting and fencing were staged at one venue, the swimming at another, with show jumping and the running at a third.

There is an average of one-and-a-half hours between each one event, which does not leave a lot of time to get to different venues and eat.

But it was worth the effort to see Heather claim a medal in an exciting end to a thrilling competition.

Heather even managed to attract the support of HRH Princess Anne and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown turned up to see some of the fencing and his arrival caused a bit of a commotion in China ’s National Fencing Hall.

More eyes were on him at one point than on the fencing.

The Chinese certainly seemed exciting by his arrival, although he was not mobbed as much as Tonia had been the Aquatic Centre the day before, but, there again, he did have a large security force with him!

The run at the end of the pentathlon was thrilling to watch and I love the fact that athletes’ points after the previous four events are converted into time advantages on the run. So the athlete with the most points after four events starts first and then all the rest go off at varying times afterwards.

It means that unlike the heptathlon and decathlon you know exactly who has won the medals at the end.

The most entertaining event to watch of the pentathlon is the show jumping, which is the most unpredictable of the five disciplines.

This is because the athletes don’t know the horse they are going to get. They have a draw for the horses.

Now they are not suppose to be any nags in the Olympics, but most of the athletes were worried they might get one.

The horse Heather was drawn was described as being lazy, but she showed what a good horse women she is by riding an impressive round.

The next competitor to ride the same horse did not have quite as good a ride and there were some comical moments with athletes trying to handle unknown horses.

One horse refused three times to go over a jump, but the rider eventually got him to do it, but when they finished the race the horse got its own back by throwing the competitors off into a giant plant pot.

Today sees Tom Daley will bring to an end the involvement of our local athletes in the Olympic Games when he competes in the men’s platform diving event.

He was our first athlete to compete, when he took part in the synchro, and he will be the last.

Hopefully, tomorrow, after everything is out of the way, I will finally get to visit the Great Wall and maybe the markets.

I had a quick look in one of the main tourist markets the other day and it was quite frightening, but exciting at the same time.

It was probably as well I didn’t have much money on me or time to really look around.

You just have to walk near a stall and you have assistants saying ‘lady you want nice t-shirt?’, ‘lady, you want nice chopsticks?’, ‘lady you want designer watch?’ and so on - I am not making it up honest!

Nothing is priced up and they ask you what you want to pay, which is a start of a long, negotiating process, which involves the seller and prospective buyer passes a giant calculator between them until they can agree on a figure.

I just looked the other day but I might try my hand at bartering tomorrow.

Rain , rain, rain

The rain arrived in force again in Beijing yesterday.

I didn’t see it, but I was told even the running track in the main stadium was underwater at one point.

I got absolutely soaked on my way to watch Tonia Couch in yesterday morning’s semi-final – the rain even managed to penetrate my supposedly waterproof coat and bag.

I had to buy some new socks and spent quite while trying to dry the rest of my clothes under a hand dryer.

When I was in ‘The Cube’ watching Tonia in the morning you could hear the rain absolutely hammering on the roof of the building.

There does appear to be a cycle over here with the weather. You have about five days with the temperature getting hotter and hotter then a day of torrential rain.

Fortunately the diving event in Beijing is inside so I was spared getting another soaking later.

Tonia did brilliantly to not only make the final but then finish in the top eight.

She was so excited afterwards that she went in search of her parents, who were brimming with pride.

“That’s as good as winning a medal for us,” said dad Chris afterwards. “I was so emotional watching her hold it together like that in front of 15,000 Chinese peope. It was unbelievable.”

However, Tonia almost caused a riot in the arena by going to say hello to her proud parents, who were waiting in the lobby.

Diving is one of the most popular sports in China and soon people starting recognising her and everyone wanted a picture taken with her.

It started with the Chinese, but she later had Mexicans, with hats, and even Australians all wanting to be pictured with her.

It got so bad that eventually security staff appeared on the scene to try and move people on and they politely asked Tonia if she could return to the athletes section.

At least Tonia’s parents did have the chance to say congratulations to their daughter almost immediately afterwards.

The poor Patten family the day before wanted to join their daughter, Cassie, in her celebrations in winning a bronze medal in the open water swim, but they weren’t able to as their tickets only entitled them to access to one side of the rowing lake and not the side where the medal ceremony and all athletes were.

They made the long walk around to try and see her, but the security staff would not let them in, despite their pleading.

When I left the rowing lake two hours after Cassie had finished, her mum, dad and sister were still sat outside the main entrance hoping to meet up and congratulate their daughter.

The only problem here is that the people, although so polite and helpful, will not bend the rules for anything. Once a plan or rule has been made it cannot be changed.

Yesterday I went to get some breakfast in the media canteen and I noticed there were no small cups next to the coffee machine.

They normally do coffee in two sizes, small and large. The large is about a pint – far too much for me. Anyway, I ask if there are any small cups and I am told ‘no small cups’.

I’m thinking I don’t want to pay for a large coffee that I know I will end up throwing half of it away, so I say to the assistant ‘can I have a small coffee in a big cup?’ at which I get the same reply ‘no small cups’.

I try again to explain what I meant, at which point a New Zealander arrives and starts laughing. He says ‘You have no chance there. That will just confuse them totally’.

I eventually decided I would just have a small coffee in a big cup anyway, but when I went to press the machine they had removed the small coffee option from the day before – just because they had no small cups.

So I had to have a large coffee, which I did end up throwing half of it away, and it turned out that the other café upstairs had small cups.

I am still wondering why they couldn’t borrow some small cups from somewhere else. At least they only charged the same price for the large one as the small one.

I have to say, though, that the volunteers and staff are all very nice people – even if they won’t bend a rule or change a plan. At least they are polite about it.

It has, though, become a bit of a game with the foreigners in Beijing at the moment to try and get the staff to not following the book totally, although nobody is having much luck at the moment. People are having fun trying, though!

Success for Cassie

What a good day it was yesterday with Cassie Patten winning a bronze medal in the marathon swim and diver Tonia Couch qualifying for the semi-finals of the women’s platform competition.

It was great to see Cassie win her medal.

And that round bit of metal about three inches in diameter meant everything to her and she struggled to control her emotions afterwards.

She cried all through the medal ceremony and was still shedding tears when she entered a press conference nearly an hour after the race. Every time she looked at the medal around her neck her eyes just filled up.

Her family were just as bad as well, but you can’t blame them as it is not every day you see your daughter or sister win an Olympic medal.

Yesterday was the first time the 10km open water marathon swim has been included in the Olympics, but I think it could prove to be very popular.

What surprised me more than anything was how aggressive the swimmers can be. To try and cut down on the dirty tricks there is a yellow and red card scheme in place.

Swimmers who intentionally hamper or foul another competitor get one warning – a yellow card – and if they do it again they are chucked out of the race.

What was also quite interesting to watch was how the swimmers take on liquid. Like a normal running marathon there are drinks stations around the course. In this case it involves a team official holding out a long pole in the water with the country’s flag on it so that the swimmers know which drink to take. Then you can only watch in amazement as the swimmers quickly turn on their backs have a few sips and then get back to their normal stroke. It makes drinking while running seem easy..

But what totally blew me away is the distance these competitors are swimming.

You are talking over six miles, which is 400 lengths of you every day 25m pool and with no sides to touch.

Yet despite that distance nearly every major championship in recent years has come down to a sprint finish. It is incredible to think that an event that takes two hours to complete nearly always comes down to hundredths of a second.

HRH Princess Anne was at yesterday’s race and she seemed quite interested in the Olympics’ newest water event.

When London hosts the 2012 Games the open water swim is going to be stage in the Serpentine – I wonder how they are going to get all the ducks and geese to stay away.

It is funny I have not yet seen a live duck in Beijing , despite visiting a number of areas with water, but I have seen plenty of cooked ones.

Another thing I have not seen in Beijing is a bike with a light on.

Last night my taxi driving nearly took out three cyclists at different stages of my journey back to my hotel – mind you he also nearly took out two pedestrians on a zebra crossing by doing a you-turn and nearly hit two other cars. Yet I think that is just a normal day driving in Beijing .

The begining of the end

IT IS hard to believe that in a few days the Olympics will be over.

The last events are staged on Sunday, as is the closing ceremony.

However, for Plymouth the final five days are action packed..

Today, swimmer Cassie Patten and diver Tonia Couch are competing. Tonia could also be in action tomorrow if she qualifies for the semi-final stage in the women’s 10m platform.

Friday, sees modern pentathlete Heather Fell make her Olympic debut, while teenage diving sensation Tom Daley will also begin his individual campaign the same day.

Daley will also compete on Saturday, if he reaches the semi-finals, while hockey player Jon Bleby will be in action on the penultimate day in a fifth and sixth play-off game.

Speaking to the families of the local athletes who are out here they are all enjoying their experience of Beijing .

Most have been taking in the sights as well as the Olympics.

Prior to yesterday, the only place I had been was the Forbidden City, but I had a few hours spare in between interviews yesterday so I decided to visit the Summer Palace that Karen Graddon had been telling me about.

I didn’t quite know what to expect, but it totally surpassed my expectations. It is basically a host of picturesque Chinese palaces set around a giant lake.


There are boats that tour the lake or you can even take a pedalo out or a little motor cruiser.



It is actually somewhere where you really need to spend a full day rather than just a few hours, but I would definitely recommend it if visiting Beijing.



I was going to follow the directions in tourist book I had, which said to take the subway and then a cab, but a helpful guide near my hotel told me the best way was to take a bus.

She told me which bus number it was and I went and waited for it to come.

However, all the other buses I had been on were around the Olympic complex and they were free, but this was going to be a district one.

As soon as I got on the bus I realised I didn’t how much the fare was, what the procedure was for buying a ticket and whether I was going to know when to get off.

There was a ticket women sat half way up the bus, although most people where using some sort of electronic card to pay.

Anyway, I went up to the ticket women and showed her where I wanted to go on the map and held out some money, hoping she would understand – wrong.

Next thing I know she is making an announcement and suddenly an Olympic volunteer comes from the back of the bus to interpret. It appears the ticket women must have asked whole bus over the PA system if any spoke English – no wonder everyone started looking at me. It reminded me of aeroplane films where they ask if there is a doctor on board.

Anyway this young volunteer was really nice and she told me the ticket women would tell me when to get off. She then decided to practice her English on me.

The girl, who was a student of Chinese medicine and was working at the beach volleyball venue, wanted to know why I was going to the Summer Palace on a hot afternoon. She was telling me you should visit later when it is not so hot. I tried to explain the phrase ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’ to her. She claimed she understood, but I’m not sure she did!

Interestingly, she did tell me that trendy Chinese people try to avoid the sun – hence all the umbrellas – as they don’t want their skin to go dark. She said that people want to look more like westerners.

I just cannot get over how helpful everyone is over here – and the staff and volunteers are showing no signs of flagging, unlike all the journalists!

After my coffee stirring incident the previous day, yesterday I had two of the workers in the main media canteen almost fighting to put my bread through the toaster.

I wanted to do it myself, but you don’t get the chance. I only had to make a move towards the toaster and they were on me.

There was the two of them just starring into this toaster watching the bread go around. Three times the bread went in – it is not a very good toaster - and on all three occasions they are bent over watching it, ready to pounce when it dropped down.

The only way I could get them to stop watching it was to ask to take their picture, but within a few seconds they were back getting ready for the bread to drop so that they could put in on a plate. I hate to think what my happen at breakfast today.


Anyway, I have managed to track down another Plymouth link – this time to one of the Olympic venues.

The wrestling events are being staged at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium and it turns out that university has an exchange programme with Plymouth City College and the University of Plymouth .

Chinese students do a year at home before spending a year at City College and then a final year at the University of Plymouth .

City College are expecting 134 students from the China Agricultural University to join this year.

It's a small world

I went to watch Kelly College student Flora Duffy compete in the women’s triathlon yesterday.

The event was staged in the mountains, about an hour outside central Beijing.

It was held just up the road from the Ming Tombs, which is where 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty are buried.

I have to say the scenery was fantastic and I am sure it made good television viewing.

The problem was, though, that there was absolutely no cover or shade at the venue and unlike Beijing there was no haze, so there were quite a few people, myself include, looking a bit red after a few hours there. I think the altitude level made the sun stronger and even helped penetrate sun block.

It was the first time I had seen a major international triathlon live and I was quite shocked to find out that athletes get ejected if they get lapped at any stage during the event.

The triathlons I had previously seen involved just one lap for swimming, cycling and running.

However, yesterday’s Olympic triathlon involved six cycling laps and four running laps. By all counts having laps is to make it more appealing to television.

But a number of athletes, including Flora, were pulled out of the event after getting lapped.

Flora, representing Bermuda , had finished eighth at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and so she is an established athlete with a world ranking.

I think she had only fallen seven minutes behind the leaders, which in an event that last for two hours is not shockingly bad, but she was not allowed to complete the event.

I know the competitors know the rules before they start, but the policy does seem to go against everything the Olympics stand for.

Nobody said to Paula Radcliffe ‘you have fallen too far behind the leader you have to drop out’ or said the same to Jo Pavey, who was among nearly two-thirds of the field that got lapped in the 10,000m race.

Flora was not having the best of days in terms of performance, but she was proud to be representing her country – one of only six athletes to have qualified for the Olympics from Bermuda – and I believe her and the other slower competitors should have been allowed to finish. As it was she swam 1,500m and cycled 40km for nothing.

Going to watch Flora compete did prove to me what a small world it is as I found out the only journalist from Bermuda covering the Olympics has a son living in Devon, who was on Plymouth Argyle’s centre of excellence books until recently.

Rushing around Beijing carrying a heavy rucksack with a laptop and camera in for nearly two weeks has left me with stiff shoulders, so I thought I would take advantage of a free Chinese massage service on offer to foreign journalists during the Olympics.

I would like to point out straight away, before anyone gets the wrong idea, that the service is just a 15 minute shoulder and neck massage and is done fully clothed sat on a chair.

I thought it would be a relaxing experience – well, I was definitely wrong on that score.

The young girl who performed it assured me it was good to feel pain – I think that’s what she said anyway.

It was when she started her Hong Kong Phooey impression on my shoulders when I really started to wonder what on earth I was doing sat on that chair. Fortunately, the 15 minutes went quicker than I thought. I am still not sure it has helped. Maybe it takes a few days to work.

There is also a hairdressing saloon within the Olympic complex. The prices are very cheat, certainly compared to prices at home, but I am not brave enough to give it a go. My worry is what I might ask for might get mistranslated into something else - like everything else seems to do. Could you imagine what could happen?

They are thousands and thousands of volunteers, like my friendly masseur, working at the Olympics.

The volunteers are brilliant, but they can be just too helpful. They want to help you do everything – even throw your rubbish away. Yesterday I even had one volunteer insist on stirring my coffee after also deciding, without asking, to also help me put milk in – I didn’t dare tell her I wanted sugar as well!

It is over-bearing, but they get a bit offended if you say you don’t want their help.

It does appear to be the culture over here, like for example in the shops where they come up and see if they can help you straight away.

I have to say, though, that the shop assistants seem to know their stuff. I don’t understand the sizes over here but when I have bought two t-shirts in different stores the assistants have guessed my size perfectly.

What is funny is that I appear to be a large over here, whereas in England I more often than not have to buy from the petite range. It is quite nice being classed as ‘tall’ for once in my life.

A weekend to remember

WHAT a weekend for Great Britain out here in Beijing .

I was struggling to keep track of how many medals we won.

You will be pleased to know that Britain ’s success has upset the Aussies.

There was a bit of sledging going on yesterday between an Aussie journalist and a group of Brits.

The Aussie was asking for a steward’s inquiry, as he did not believe Great Britain could be up to third in the official medal table and ahead of Australia .

He resorted to crocking about Australia ’s cricketing success and some Mickey Mouse football friendly victory a few years ago.

I was lucky enough to see two of the gold medals Britain won over the weekend – Rebecca Adlington’s in the 800m freestyle swimming and Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter’s in the rowing.

Adlington’s performance was incredible. She smashed over two seconds of the longest standing world record in swimming to claim her second gold of the Olympics.

Cassie Patten was in that final, but her and the other six finalists were totally overshadowed by Adlington.

An interesting fact that I have found out about Adlington is that she’s scared of deep water. She will only swim in a pool and she prefers to be able to touch the bottom.

However, she cannot do that in this Olympic pool which deeper and wider than any other. It is three metres deep instead of two and has two extra lanes. It has been designed with the help of scientists to produce faster times. There is a big debate going on in Beijing about whether the pool and the new swim suits are responsible for so many world records, which has upset some of the swimmers.

Going to the swimming finals on Saturday was entertaining and I got to see Michael Michael Phelps win one of his record-breaking eight gold medals.

But as pre-final entertainment, ahead of the arrival of the now famous mascots, they had the ‘Water Warrior Drummers’.
I have never seen anything like it before. They were nine young glamorous women dressed in white boots and short while dresses banging drums that were covered in water.


Every time they whacked the drum they got covered head to toe in water. It was a bit like watching synchronized swimming where the women desperately try to smile despite almost chocking on water.



After watching that I then realized why the mascots at the pool are made of rubber rather than cloth, as there was a mad rush to try and mop up all the water left by the drummer before the mascots arrived.

I was hoping one of the mascots would slip, but they didn’t. However, made of rubber it would not be such a problem if they did.

The problem I am having at the moment is trying to forget about the annoying song the mascots come out to. It is your typical cheesy song that children love, but it is annoyingly catchy and you can see everyone humming it and tapping their feet to it.

I had a ticket for the athletics on Saturday evening after the swimming – yes I was in the stadium when Usain Bolt produced his incredible run yet he was so fast and so many people stood up in front of me that I hardly saw any of the race – but to kill a few hours beforehand I visited a shopping mall near the stadium.

In this department store was a fast food court. The only outlet I recognized was a Diary Queen, but I walked around the other food counters out of interest.

With it being near the Olympic complex all the food shops have written their menus in English as well I Chinese..

However, I don’t think this has helped one of the counters. It would probably be better if foreign visitors didn’t know exactly what they were offering.

On the menu – and this is in order and spelt as it was written – was tripe, black tripe, bork throat, duck intestine, chicken gizzard, chicken heart, chicken wings, chicken cartilage, large intestines, small intestines, beef tendon, fish ball, prawn ball, luncheon meet and pork belly. There was then a separate section with gold mushrooms, flat mushrooms, fresh mushrooms and shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoot, black fungus and vegetable ball.

Anyway, as you can imagine there were no western tourists queuing up at this counter and I am going to disappoint you all – well, maybe not the vegetarians – by telling you that I didn’t do a taste test of the top menu. I will leave that to the likes of Alan Wicker and Michael Palin.


I did buy a t-shirt in the mall and it is very confusing how Chinese shops operating.

After deciding I wanted to buy it – after more helpful persuading by another shop assistant, who I’m sure must get commission – I started getting money out only for the assistant to shake his head. He takes the t-shirt away and writes on a piece of paper which he gives me and then points to a women about 20 metres away sat in a box. I take the paper to her and she takes my money and then gives me two other bits of paper back and then sends me back to the shop assistant again. I had to take the paper back to him and he finally gave me the goods. Gosh it was confusing and time consuming, but it turns out this happens in all main shops. At least I will know for next time.