My London 2012 Olympic diary: Day 8

Day 8: A birthday girl and a few high kicks

Our 8^th day at the Olympics would most famously be known as the 10^th August. Yes, this is Alexia’s birthday. Then it would be all (mostly) about her and not at all (almost) about sports.

First thing first, she needed a new pair of shoes and so did I. Then the first trip will be to our former living place, Camden Town. Now we are far away from any Gola shoes reseller, we strangely feel the need to have a pair on our feet while we did not look interested while living right next door to a dozen of their shops… The issue was rapidly fixed in Camden High street.

Then we wandered around the market as we used to a couple of years back. We stopped for her first present which would be the fishes feet spa. She always wanted to try it, this time she will be forced to. These tiny fishes are literally starving for dead skin and are wiping away everything they can from your skin. Passed the first giggles of amusement, she enjoyed the treat at full power while Andrew had fun just watching them swimming around.

Next, she wanted sushi for lunch. Her wish had to become true and we stopped at the nearest “Yo Sushi!” where our other Colombian friend Erika joined us. I told her that her man birthday present was delivered in France and was to large to be tucked in our suitcase for the Games. She will have to wait our return to unpack this one. Nonetheless, the girl needs a present on the day, so she found in a postcard 2 tickets for a West End musical happening the following afternoon. Erika will be the nanny during the show.

Then we decided to have a digestive walk we knew by heart, along the Regent canal westward and off its banks to go across Regent Park lazily. Squirrels, ducks, playground and even sunshine were here to rock our quiet afternoon.

With the evening approaching, it was time to finally talk about sports. We had tickets for the late tae-kwon-do session happening at the now very well known ExCeL Arena. We travelled east and stopped for dinner at the self named “best Caribbean restaurant in London” a few step away from our arrival point. The chicken was spicy as I love it and the rest of the food filling the plate was as delicious. It was just sad to be served in disposable plates and cutlery for a dish paid over £10…

Anyway, we were well stuffed when we entered the tae-kwon-do hall within the ExCeL. We found it hard to reach the buggy parking within the hall, but that was not enough to make us miss the beginning of the evening show. The semi finals and the medal encounters of the men and women heavyweight tae-kwon-do events were taking place.

If the men fights stood up to our expectation of impressive kicks, the women encounters disappointed us for their lack of acrobatics. The later ones were most of the time jumping around evaluating their opponent but not taking any action. On the other hand, males’ fighters did not hesitate much before rushing foot first towards their opponents. High kicks were flying from every Olympian. The Olympic rule states that a punch or a kick to the plastron earns you 1 point, a kick to the head is worth 3 while their returned equivalent are worth respectively 2 and 4 points. We managed to witness what seems to be as much rare as impressive, with an Italian contestant scoring a 3 pointer and having a fantastic returned kick to the head narrowly denied by the judges on his way to a bronze medal.

This evening full of kicks and punches did not alter Andrew’s habits as he spent most of the evening sound asleep tucked against me. On the contrary, this very late finishing session combined with an ever longer trip back home had some exhausting effect on us. We went to bed, knowing that our plan for the next day would have to be modified.