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!
No comments:
Post a Comment